Fred Blumenthal

Chazzanut Online is honoured to be able to present some fine Jewish Liturgical Music that was created by the contemporary composer Fred Blumenthal.

Compositions

Composition	Formats
Yevanim (Maoz Tzur)	pdf midi
Shnei Zeitim	pdf

Both compositions were based on traditional Chanukah tunes.

About the composer

Fred Blumenthal is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. He attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York in the middle 1960s, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winner Karel Husa and choral music with Gregg Smith. Returning to St. Louis, he studied composition, music education and choral conducting at Washington University before completing a Ph.D. in musicology, writing a dissertation concerning the history of music in St. Louis.

Dr. Blumenthal's eclectic career has included teaching - particularly public school music in inner-city schools - writing music reviews for the Post-Dispatch and other publications, radio announcing, synagogue and church choir directing, piano repair and computer work. He is a member of the St. Louis Circle of Jewish Music and a past vice-president of the Guild of Temple Musicians. He was for seven years the choir director for Yaamim Noraim at Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel in St. Louis.

Mr. Blumenthal describes his compositional approach as "accumulative," picking up aspects of different styles in the course of his studies and research.