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Ein Keloheinu
"I still wonder about the Ein Keloheynu, Sam. Surely Freudenthal is
credited with writing it, but I have always heard that it is a reworking
of a Germanic Drinking song." (Jonathan Gordon on the Shamash Jewish
music e-mail list)
By Cantor Sam Weiss
The innocent ur-text on which the rumor is based (and the only useful
information I've seen on the tune or the composer) is this passage from
p. 238 of Idelsohn's "Jewish Music in its Historical Development," in
which I've emphasized the most relevant sentence:
<< The Chazzan Hirsch Goldberg (1807-1893) served [in Seesen from
1833] until 1842 and was then appointed Chazzan in Brunswick. Together
with Julius Freudenthal (Brunswick 1805-1874), Dukal musician, he
modernized the Synagogue song and published in 1843 a collection of
songs for solo and small choir in two parts [footnote: 'The title of the
collection is Gesaenge fuer Synagogen. It became very popular and
experienced several enlarged editions.']. To this songster Freudenthal
contributed several tunes, and especially his famous tune for En
Kelohenu, which he had composed in 1841. This tune has the typical
German melodic line, and in its first part resembles a German melody of
1774 (No.1) (see table XXIX), which was reworked in 1819 and in 1844
(No.3) and published in 1844. >>
Note that Idelsohn says "its first part" (i.e. the first 4 measures, out
of a total 16), and he says "resembles." He does not say "derives from,"
"comes from," or "is based on." The German melody which he reproduces
in his table XXIX is not a drinking song, but the Lutheran hymn "Grosser
Gott wir loben Dich." The table contains the three similar versions of
the hymn referred to in the above passage, plus Eyn Keyloheynu. A
careless reading of the highlighted sentence, combined with a quick
glance at the table, creates the illusion that the table illustrates
some sort of progression from an early hymn to the Freudenthal Eyn
Keyloheynu, but this is plainly not what Idelsohn wrote. (It also makes
it seem as if other measures beside the first four merit comparison.
You can decide for yourself by listening to the hymn at <
http://www.lutheranhymnal.com/online/tlh-250.mid >) It is indeed
puzzling why Idelsohn would bother reproducing the hymn variants, other
than to document its publishing history; i.e. that it appeared
in print one year AFTER the Goldberg-Freudenthal collection, and thus
was probably NOT the basis for Freudenthal's composition.
Nevertheless, in his "Studies in Jewish Music" A.W. Binder writes
(p.258) that Freudenthal's tune << is derived from German Christian
hymnody of the eighteenth century, >> and he gives the above page
in Idelsohn as his source (!). Macy Nulman, in his "Encyclopedia of
Jewish Music" (p.76) has an even more preposterous reading of Idelsohn:
<< This [Eyn Keyloheynu] tune, derived from a German melody,
"Grosser Gott wir loben Dich," has been revised several times until its
present form. >> Again, page 238 of "Jewish Music in its
Historical Development" is the citation, as if Idelsohn's table
illustrates variants of Eyn Keyloheynu, rather than variants of Grosser
Gott!
If a serious author like Binder is attracted to "demonizing" Eyn
Keyloheynu, it should be no wonder that lesser lights take the ball and
run with it. What is the impulse that drives such "rumors"? I don't
think that it's so much a case of "disparagers who want to weaken the
importance of traditional music." I think an important factor is the
urge to sensationalize and titillate, but there's an additional point to
consider. It is a commonly known fact that nineteenth century German
Jewish reform recast synagogue choral and congregational music in the
Lutheran mold, as well as appropriated Lutheran melodies and texts for
synagogue use. Fortunately, the results of that activity have for the
most part withered away. It is thus very tempting to grasp at whatever
German sounding synagogue music that has endured and stereotype it as an
illustration of that sordid activity, regardless of its actual history.
Where did the drinking song enter the picture? This is an obvious
confusion with the stereotyping of Ma'oz Tzur, which contains a snatch
that resembles a Lutheran hymn as well as one that resembles a German
battle song. (Cf. Idelsohn pp. 171- 173.) As with all ethnic
stereotyping, the juicier and the more colorful the better, so "German
battle song" becomes "German drinking song," and the "Eyn Keyloheynu -
German hymn" connection is transformed by folk savants into the "Eyn
Keyloheynu - German drinking song" connection. As a matter of fact,
since the most recent iteration of this discussion on this list started
with the question of Sh'ma Yisrael being a drinking song, I think it
won't take long before the same question is asked about the High
Holiday Aleynu ("Yikes, a major triad!") and the High Holiday Barkhu
(you know... the one derived from a Gregorian drinking song).
The use of secondary dominant harmony in Eyn Keyloheynu merely shows the
origin of this congregational melody in a German choral composition,
intended to be sung with organ support. The commonly sung "Hodo Al Eretz
V'shamayim," based on a Sulzer choral piece, has an even trickier lick
(though somewhat homogenized from the original composition) also showing
its arty heritage. These examples illustrate how the "nusakh-less" areas
of the liturgy, like hymns and the Torah service, attracted
"traditional" congregational responses based on congregants' singing
along with the professional choral pieces.
© Copyright 2002 Cantor S. Weiss.
Sam Weiss is Cantor of the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ.
This article appeared originally on the Shamash Jewish music e-mail list.
Keywords: Ein Keloheinu.
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