Abraham Zevi Idelsohn

Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (* July 14, 1882 in Felix Berg (municipality Jūrklane ), ( Ventspils ), Latvia; † August 14, 1938 in Johannesburg) was a Jewish musicologist.

Life and meaning

After training as a cantor in Russia and studying music in Königsberg, London, Berlin and Leipzig 1903, he served as cantor in Regensburg and 1905 in the same function in Johannesburg ( South Africa). In 1906 he emigrated to Jerusalem, where he specifically as a music teacher and cantor devoted to the study of oriental music, and in 1910 founded an institute for Jewish music. With the help of a grant from the Vienna Academy Idelsohn took from 1906 to 1921 songs of Middle Eastern Jews in Jerusalem on records, and transcribed them. These transcriptions fill five volumes of his ten-volume magnum opus Hebrew - Oriental Melodies treasure. The first volume appeared in 1914 and was the Yemenite Jewish tradition dedicated; the last volume was published in 1932. During the First World War Idelsohn was stationed as a military bandmaster of the Turkish army in Gaza. In 1919, he returned to Jerusalem, held in the summer of 1921 lectures in Berlin and Leipzig and from 1922 in the U.S., where in 1924 at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati was the first Professor of Jewish music. Since 1930, he suffered from health problems and could no longer work as of 1934 in the position. In 1937 he traveled with his family to Johannesburg, where he died the following year.

The outstanding performance of Idelsohn lies in his discovery of the Oriental Jewish communities with their traditional musical culture as well as in the expansion of general knowledge about Jewish music of the Ashkenazi to Sephardic and Middle Eastern traditions. Its over 1000 field recordings are invaluable, as the conditions of cultural isolation in which they arose, no longer exist today. He was one of the first ethnomusicologists who ate at the oral traditions for research purposes the same weight as the written traditions. In addition to his musical and liturgical studies, he studied oriental languages ​​and poetry and the Arabic maqam techniques. He made comparisons between the ancient Hebrew and early Christian liturgy, ie both Gregorian chant and Byzantine and Jacobite songs.

Idelsohn was also active as a composer and has processed a Hasidic melody Hava Nagila to the famous folk song and with words.

Works

• Hebrew - Oriental Melodies treasure, 10 volumes, Leipzig 1914-1932
• History of Jewish music (Hebrew ), 2 volumes, Jerusalem 1924-1928
• Jewish Music. Its Historical Development, New York, 1929, 2nd edition 1944
• Manual of Musical Illustrations of Lectures on Jewish Music and Liturgy, Cincinnati 1926