American Society For Jewish Music Musica Judaica

American Society for Jewish Music
A GOLDEN AGE FOR JEWISH MUSICIANS IN PARIS: 1820—1865

Author(s): John H. Baron
Source: Musica Judaica, Vol. 12 (5754/1991-92), pp. 30-51
Published by: American Society for Jewish Music
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23687684
Accessed: 22-11-2019 19:50 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
American Society for Jewish Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Musica Judaica
This content downloaded from 150.250.177.199 on Fri, 22 Nov 2019 19:50:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
A GOLDEN AGE FOR JEWISH
MUSICIANS IN PARIS: 1820-1865
John H. Baron
When
of Samuel Naumbourg
synagogue (1815-1880)
music, Semiroth Israel published his compend
[Zemirot Yisra'el] (3 vols
Paris, 1847-1857), and Schire Kodesh (Paris, 1864), he included not o
his own compositions and many traditional Ashkenazi chants and
odies he knew from his youth in southern Germany, but also wo
by some of the leading composers in the French capital at the tim
Considerable confusion surrounds the publication dates of Semiroth Isr

(which bears the subtitle, Chants Religieux des Israelites, contenant Les Hymns
Psaumes et la Liturgie complète de la Synagogue, des temps les plus reculés juscju 'à nos
since the original editions are undated. The various secondary sources, as w
the most recent reprinted facsimile editions, Out of Print Classics Series of Synag
Music, vols. 14-16 (NY, Hebrew Union College-Sacred Music Press, 1954), all
erroneous and inconsistent information. We are indebted to Rabbi Geoffrey
berg, who has established convincingly the following bibliographical data for
first editions of Semiroth Israel: Volume I (Sabbath music), Paris, 1847; Volum
(music for the major holydays), Paris, 1852; Volume III (hymns and psalms), P
1857. In 1864 Naumbourg published (also in Paris) a completely revised versio
Volume I, under a different title, Schire Kodesch. Goldberg has dated the ori
three volumes by assigning them the dates ón which they were first review
the Jewish press of the time: Allgemeine Zeitung des fudenthums (18 October, 1
pp. 643-44; 17 May, 1852, p. 252; 23 February, 1857, p. 112; 12 July, 1864, p.
L'Univers Israélite (no. 8, April, 1852, pp. 334-35); and Archives Israélites (vol
1847, p. 292; XIII, 1852, pp. 221-22, 288). This supercedes the previous authori
who have not documented their bibliographic references to the Naumbour
umes: Aron Marko Rothmüller, The Music of the Jews, new and rev. ed. (South B
wick, NY, Thomas Yoseloff, 1967), p. 133; Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, Jewish Mus
its Historical Development (NY, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1929), p. 288;
Werner, A Voice Still Heard (University Park and London, Pennsylvania State
versity Press, 1976), p. 203; and Alfred Sendrey, Bibliography of Jewish Music
Columbia University Press, 1951), nos. 5944, 5944a and 6294. According to
berg's investigations, Naumbourg's Preface to the original Volume I was s
quently transferred to a later Leipzig (Kaufmann) edition of Volume II; since
Preface naturally contains the date of 1847, and since, insofar as we kn
Kaufmann did not reprint or re-issue the original Volume I itself (perhaps d
Naumbourg's own publication of Schire Kodesch in 1864 as a revised—albeit su
tively different—version of Volume I), this transfer may account for the omissi
and for the confusion of dates, titles and volumes in the 1954 Sacred Music Pre
30
BARON/A GOLDEN AGE FOR JEWISH MUSICIANS IN PARIS 31
This was not a novel idea, for Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890), the cele
brated Oberkantor in Vienna and the first to synthesize successfully
traditional Hebrew liturgical material and the forms and harmonic
structures of western art music, had done the same thing in his magnum
opus, Schir Zion (2 vols., 1839? and 1865). But there was a significant
difference between the musical establishments of Vienna and Paris
from 1825 to 1865. The most important composers in Vienna during
that period were Roman Catholics, so that when Sulzer invited others
to contribute to his first volume, they were—with one exception—non
Jewish colleagues. The most notable among them was Franz Schubert.
Naumbourg, on the other hand, lived in a different milieu. Many lead
ing composers in Paris in 1847 were Jews, a factor unique among Eu
ropean capitals at that time. Aside from Chopin and Berlioz, the most
prominent resident composers were Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864),
Jacques-François-Fromenthal-Élie Halévy (1799-1862), and Charles
Henri Valentin Alkan (1813-1888).2
facsimile series. Unfortunately, the Naumbourg volumes in that series were issued
without full title pages, without accurate information as to the exact sources of the
copied volumes, and without consideration of Schire Kodesch.
However, even if one accepts Goldberg's dates for the original three volumes
of Semiroth Israel, there still remain questions concerning references to a separate
Paris volume by Naumbourg with the untransliterated Hebrew title, LeShalosh Re
gal i m u-leYamim haNora'im ( = for the Three Festivals and the High Holydays) to
gether with the French subtitle, Chants Liturgiques des Grandes Fêtes (n.d.), whose
title page does not refer to Semiroth Israel. Werner gives its date as 1847, with the
implication of a separate, self-contained item (p. 203) that was then eventually in
corporated into Semiroth Israel (i.e., into Volume II). But it is not at all clear how
he arrived at that conclusion, or whether it is accurate. It is still less clear whether
Sendrey's reference to the same title (No. 6291) even concerns the same item; the
ambiguity is further compounded there by an apparent printer's error, directing
the reader to another, completely irrelevant item. In addition, there are unresolved
questions concerning subsequent Paris editions of all or part of Semiroth Israel, since
there we do have extant copies of an undated publication with that same title whose
cover/title page states: "l.re Partie (Volume I ?), 2.' Edition entièrement refondue et
augmentée." Obviously this edition, although also a revised version of the original
Volume I, is distinct from the one published in 1864 under the title Schire Kodesch.
All these questions and issues still require further investigation and review (The Ed
itor).
While the Hebrew title appears untransliterated in the original editions of all
three volumes, it appears as Semiroth Israel (the common German transliteration)
in the Preface and in Consistoire documents, including Halévy's Rapport au Consis
toire des Israelites de France sur un Ouvrage de S. Naumbourg, which is printed in the
introductory pages to the collection. Sendrey follows this transliteration in his ci
tation of the original Paris editions (No. 5944), which is also therefore the translit
eration followed herein (The Editor).
2Rossini was living in Paris then but was no longer composing operas. Although
he continued to write music, he was in retirement.
32 MUSICA JUDAICA
Not merely Jews by birth, Meyerbeer

in Jewish identity and were committ
their own personal lives. They partic
bourg's project and contributed in oth
cultural life. At no time previously in
ticipated alongside their non-Jewish
musical life, and nowhere during the fi
century as fully and visibly as in Pa
made Paris special in this respect at that
extraordinary composers, their invo
life, and their contribution to Jewish
The revolution in 1789 suddenly over

archy and the nobility but long-cher
that had been imbedded in law for centuries. In 1790-1791 came the
declaration of liberty, equality, and brotherhood for all citizens, and
for the first time since the fourteenth century Jews were recognized in
France. Then, in 1808, Napoleon gave the Jews "a precise legal status"
and "authorized the creation of appropriate institutions, the [Jewish]
consistoires."4 Each region of France had its own consistoire israélite, or
Jewish governing body. The consistoire for Paris covered the region of
the Seine River. At the time there were two small synagogues in Paris:
a Sephardi one, and another on rue Sainte Avoie that adhered to the
Ashkenazi rite. In 1822 the imposing Ashkenazi Temple on rue Notre
Dame de Nazareth was constructed and replaced the earlier one. It be
came the focal point of most Jewish religious life in Paris until the
1870s.5 Typical of French synagogue architecture of the nineteenth cen
Consideration of these matters has been facilitated by the pathbreaking Ph.D.

dissertation by Gérard Ganvert, La Musique Synagogale à l'Epoque du Premier Temple
Consistorial (1822-1874) (University of Paris-Sorbonne, 1984), Bibliothèque Natio
nale, Music Division, Vmb. 5376. This has been supplemented by Ganvert's "Al
kan, Musicien Français de Religion Juive," in Brigitte François-Sappey, éd., Charles
Valentin Alkan (Paris, Fayard, 1991), pp. 263-81.
4The history of Jewish emancipation in France is addressed in greater detail in
Ganvert, "Alkan" (op. cit.), pp. 265-67; idem., La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), pp.
13-40; Patrick Girard, Les Juifs de France de 1789 à 1860, de l'Emancipation à l'Egalité'
(Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1976); and David Feuerweker, L'Emancipation des Juifs en
France (Paris, Albin Michel, 1976), pp. 565-650.
5There was a synagogue building boom in Paris in the 1870s, which saw the con
struction of some of Paris' most famous temples: on the rue de la Victoire (1874,
the 'Rothschild' Synagogue); on rue des Tournelles (1876, built on the site of an ear
lier synagogue that had been destroyed during the war of 1870-1871); and rue de
Buffault (1877, Sephardi). Cf. Ganvert, "Alkan" (op. cit.), p. 267.
tury, the new building is in a neo-Gothic style that closely resembles

church architecture. Today it prospers as a strictly orthodox Ashkenazi
synagogue. A new Sephardi synagogue, to replace the older one, was
built eventually on rue Lamartine, and the single consistoire controlled
both synagogues. After the fall of Louis XVIII in 1830, Jewish integra
tion into French society accelerated; and, although some anti-semitism
persisted, Jews participated fully in French life.6 Some even rose to
high cultural and political positions. The return of a more blatant form
of anti-semitism following the Franco-Prussian War, the ugliness of the
Dreyfus Affair, and, in musical life, Vincent D'lndy's fascism, did not
obliterate the dominant, more liberal spirit of Paris that distinguished
it from other European cities.7
During the period from 1818 to 1880, the Paris Consistoire was blessed
with two extraordinary cantors. The first was Israel Lovy (Levy, Lowy;
1773-1832), whose early career had included oratorio and Lieder sing
ing.8 His great voice was appreciated by Haydn and Rossini, but he was
not prepared to forsake his religion for the glamor of opera. He stopped
in Paris in 1818 en route to London, where he was to assume a position
as cantor, and he established such a fine rapport with the French com
munity that he decided instead to remain there. He served as cantor
in Paris until his death in January, 1832—the first four years at the now
defunct Temple rue Saint Avoie and the last ten years at the new Tem
ple rue Notre Dame de Nazareth. Lovy worked to reorganize the mu
sical format of the synagogue and took some cognizance of the reform
efforts in Germany. He was not as radical as the Frenchman, Olry Ter
quem, who published a tract in 1821 calling for Sunday Sabbath ser
vices bereft of Hebrew, and for the elimination of circumcision.9 Lovy
was, nonetheless, caught in the midst of a melée between extreme
6Heinz and Gudrun Becker, eds., Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und Tagebucher,
III (Berlin, Alter de Gruyter, 1975), p. 695, fn. 185.1, points out the rare but none
theless existent antisemitism in the Parisian press in 1839.
7Cf. James H. Johnson, "Antisemitism and Music in Nineteenth-Century
France," in Música Judaica V (1982-1983), No. 1, pp. 79-96. For the details on
D'Indy's turn from liberalism to anti-semitism in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair,
cf. Jane Fulcher, "Vincent d'Indy's 'Drame Anti-Juif' and its Meaning in Paris,
1920," in Cambridge Opera Journal, II (1990), pp. 295-319.
8Cf. Ganvert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), pp. 119-138; and Naumbourg's
tribute to Lovy, Introduction to Agudath Schirim (Paris, 1874), English trans. Harvey
Spitzer, "Samuel Naumbourg's Introduction to his Agudath Schirim (Paris 1874)—
Translated from the French," in Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy XI (1988-1989),
p. 31.
'Terquem, Première Lettre d'un Israélite Français à ses Coreligionnaires sur l'Urgent
Nécessité de Célébrer l'Office en Français le Jour du Dimanche. Cf. Ganvert, "Alkan" (op.
cit.), p. 266.
34 MUSICA JUDAICA
reformists, such as Terquem, and uns

after Lovy's death gained the upper
himself published no music, but long
lished his father's music in Chants Relig
braïques, par Israël Lovy.10
From 1832 to 1845 the religious music

dered under men of modest talent such as Isaac David and Alfred
Picard. Each had sung previously in the choir at the Temple rue Notre
Dame de Nazareth. Following Lovy's death in 1832 each served for a
few years as Cantor. Without Lovy's beautiful voice and strong lead
ership in the institution of reforms, the reformers usually gave in to
the more traditional, orthodox faction. Nonetheless, the memory of
Lovy kept alive the idea of modernization, which received a major
boost in 1844 when both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi synagogues in
troduced organs. The Ashkenazi organ was a portative one until fi
nally, after much debate between reformers and orthodox, it was per
manently installed in 1852. It still sits to the rear of the upper of two
balconies, now (apparently) ignored—at least for prayer services. The
organ was used on Friday evenings, but not Saturday mornings (nor,
it may be presumed, on holydays or fast days), and continued to be
an object of debate at least during the rest of the nineteenth century.11
Meanwhile, in the new Sephardi synagogue on rue Lamartine, the or
gan was installed as part of the original construction.
10Paris, 1862. Naumbourg assisted Jules Lovy in this effort. Jules was an impor
tant musical personality in his own right. Together with the Heugel publishing firm
he founded the outstanding music journal, Le Meiiestrel, in 1832, and remained its
editor for many years.
nGanvert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), p. 80, fn. 8. The use of the organ for
'weekday' occasions such as weddings, concerts, pre-service performances, com
munal celebrations and commemorations—as opposed to the Sabbath, holy days
and fast days, when the playing of musical instruments per se is proscribed by hala
kha (Jewish law)—was certainly not unknown in western and central European or
thodox synagogues, even long before its introduction (for all services) by the
Emancipation-era reform and liberal movements. There are precedents at least as
far back as the seventeenth century. It is not clear from the documents and other
literature available to this writer for the present study whether or not the organ was
ever used at either of those two Paris synagogues (rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
or rue Lamartine) on the actual Sabbath (i.e., Friday evenings after the Sabbath had
begun, for the Sabbath eve service proper), Festivals or High Holydays. Further
research is necessary to establish this. The entire 'organ question' is a highly com
plex one, involving a number of halakha-based issues and arguments and rabbinical
views, and is beyond the scope of the present consideration. It should also be ob
served that the presence of organ accompaniments in a published volume of music
by the cantor or music director of a particular synagogue does not necessarily in
dicate the use of organ at that synagogue. During the nineteenth and early twen
tieth centuries cantorial composers frequently published music with organ parts so
as to facilitate its use in those synagogues where the organ was used.
In 1845, following the resignation of its Ashkenazi cantor, Picard, the

Consistoire received Naumbourg's request to be appointed his succes
sor.12 To judge Naumbourg's qualifications the Consistoire selected two
of Paris' most distinguished musicians whose own credentials in Jew
ish music were beyond question: Halévy and Alkan. There is no known
surviving document indicating Alkan's opinion. Halévy's favorable re
action to Naumbourg, however, is known to us from his letter of 19
June, 1845.13 Two years later, when Naumbourg had already become
the dynamic leader of Jewish music in Paris, he showed his appreci
ation to both Halévy and Alkan by including some of their music for
the synagogue in his important Semiroth Israel. He continued to print
their music in later volumes.
Naumbourg, who had been trained in Munich and was well acquainted
with traditional modes and tunes of the synagogues of southern Ger
many (minhag Ashkenaz), came to Paris less as the spectacular singer
(as had been Lovy's status) and more as the learned baal tefilla (lay pre
centor). With the virtually immediate publication of Semiroth Israel he
set out to demonstrate to Paris Jewry the proper and authentic modal
patterns, formulae, and tunes (sometimes known collectively, in later
Eastern European colloquial cantorial jargon, as nusah ha'tefilla) as he
understood them. In so doing he aimed at establishing an authoritative
model for the Paris synagogue. At the same time he included various
significant innovations, such as new solo compositions and choral set
tings. In some carefully chosen instances when liturgically appropri
ate, his music was influenced by the already famous operas of Halévy
and Meyerbeer.14 He was careful, however, to avoid organ accompa
niments, which, at that juncture, would have been impolitic even if he
had personally wanted them. Over the next few years Naumbourg con
tinued to add to his collection, and began to add ad libitum organ (or
piano) accompaniments for some of the settings. Later, in an effort to
evoke an historical precedent for his musical reforms, he collaborated
with the young Vincent D'lndy to edit and re-issue the synagogue mu
sic of Salomone Rossi (c.1570-c.1630). Rossi's artistic choral settings of
Hebrew liturgy in late-Renaissance style had broken new ground in
12Ganvert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), pp. 139-199.

13Halévy's letter is preserved in the archives of the Consistoire Israélite of Paris
and is reproduced (in typewritten form) in ibid., p. 235. Cf. also Werner (op. cit.),
p. 200.
l4Halévy's most famous grand opera, La Juive, was first produced in 1835, and
Meyerbeer had two enormous successes in Robert Diable (1831) and Les Huguenots
(1836). For a summary discussion of some of Naumbourg's accomplishments in re
vising the music of the Paris Synagogue, cf. Werner (op. cit.), p. 203, and Roth
müller (op. cit.) pp. 132-133.
36 MUSICA JUDAICA
Venice and Mantua in the early sev

for only a brief period—overcome
position.
With Naumbourg firmly in control of music in the Ashkenazi syna

gogue in Paris, the modernizations were generally accepted. The level
of musical performance there rose to high professional standards that
inspired the Jews of Paris and elsewhere and enabled the professional
Jewish musicians such as Halévy, Alkan, and Meyerbeer, to take pride
in it. Much of Naumbourg's music spread to synagogues throughout
Europe and, eventually, America, where certain of his settings entered
the standard repertoire of cantors and synagogue choirs.
Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, the pioneer of Jewish musicology, aptly in

cluded Naumbourg, along with Sulzer and Lewandowski, in the trio
of composers who, in his view, had molded most significantly syna
gogue music in the modern era.15 Just as Sulzer brought the elegant
classical style of Schubert and Beethoven into the synagogue, and
Lewandowski the learned romantic style of Mendelssohn and
Schumann—in each case synthesizing those influences with long
established traditional Jewish liturgical elements—so Naumbourg in
termingled the ingredients of liturgical tradition with some of the
sounds of contemporaneous French music, even occasionally echoing
the rousing choruses of Europe's most successful opera house: the
Paris Grand Opera. Unlike the situations in Vienna and Berlin, how
ever, in Paris practicing Jews had been instrumental in setting the local
style of secular music in the opera.
While Naumbourg's efforts clearly benefitted from the presence of his

co-religionists at the center of Parisian operatic life, and from Alkan's
initial fame as a composer of piano works, these three composers also
benefitted in turn from residing in a community where the musical
level and sophistication in the synagogue lent a general respectability
to Jewish music in the wider public perception.
II
Of the three famous Jewish secular composers, Halévy had the stron
gest ties to the Consistoire and made the greatest impact as a Jew upon
the general French public. His father, Elias Levy (d. 1826), came to Paris
from Furth, Germany, and changed the family name to Halévy (liter
I5Idelsohn, Jeivish Music (op. cit.), pp. 246-284.
ally 'the Levite') in 1807. He was a leader of the Jewish community in

Paris, where, in 1818, he founded a journal, L'Israelite français, with the
motto "Tiens au pays et conserve la foi."16 This motto aptly presaged
the principles for which the composers Halévy, Meyerbeer, Alkan, and
Naumbourg stood. As a child, Fromenthal had special reason to be
proud of his father, whose Hebrew poem celebrating the Peace of
Amiens was read regularly in the synagogue and was translated into
French by a Protestant clergyman. In a similar vein, Fromenthal Halévy
composed a milestone work for the Jewish community. In commem
oration of the death of the Duc de Berry, Halévy petitioned the Con
sistoire for permission—which he was granted—to write Marche Funèbre
et De Profundis en Hébreu, a setting of a part of the Hallel liturgy (Psalm
130) for three voices and orchestra.17 That commemoration followed
the custom of celebrating state events in the Christian churches of
Paris. It had its Jewish precedent in the above-mentioned reading of
his father's poem in the synagogue. In this case, however, the com
memoration involved a large musical tribute in the synagogue, per
formed not only by Cantor Lovy and his choir but also by that 'secular'
institution, a symphony orchestra, either all or nearly all of whose
members apparently were Jews who affiliated with the Temple.18 From
the available evidence it would seem that no such performance on that
scale had been produced previously in a Paris synagogue.19
Marche Funèbre contains no specifically Jewish musical elements. But

its use of the Hebrew language, together with Halévy's proud assertion
16Léon Halévy, F. Halévy: sa Vie et ses Ouevres: Récits et Impressions personelles—

Simples Souvenirs, 2nd ed. (Paris, Heugel, 1863), p. 16. Much of the information on
Halévy's parentage and early life comes from this account by the composer's
younger brother.
17Marche Funèbre et De Profundis en Hébreu, a 3 voix et à grand orchestre (avec une
traduction italienne et accompagnement de piano.) Composés pour le consistoire Israélite du
département de la Seine, a l'occasion de la mort de s.a.r.Monseigneur le duc de Berry; et
éxécutés dans le Temple de la Rue Ste Avoye, le 24 mars 1820. Dédiés à monsieur le chevalier
Cherubini, surintendant de la musique du roi. . . Par son élève F. Halévy, membre de Vécoles
royale de musique, et pensionnaire de s.m. le roi de France à l'académie de Rome . . . l'air
et les solos de basse taille ont été chantés par Mr Loevy premier chantre du Temple Israélite.
A Paris en dépôt chez Ignance Pleyel et fils aine, Boulevard Montmartre. Copy in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Music Division, D.5819.
18The Consistoire, in approving Halévy's request to write the piece, also dictated
to him the engagement of some of the orchestral players who were Jewish. Cf. Gan
vert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), p. 63. The choir had thirty-six children's and
twenty men's voices (p. 66). The orchestration calls for flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets,
2 bassoons, 2 horns, trombone, tuba, timpani and strings.
19Harps had been used in the Sephardi synagogue in Paris as early as 1809 by
its cantor, Dacosta, who was immediately thereafter named 'maître de musique' there
by the newly founded Consistoire. Cf. Ganvert, "Alkan" (op. cit.), p. 269.
38 MUSICA JUDAICA
on the title page of the reprinted edi

Consistoire Israelite, accord it a place
ture, or march, is followed by a larg
large chorus.
Apparently Halévy was active in the

asmuch as his name occurs regularly
during this period. In addition to his
commission charged with reviewing
appointment in 1845, he also chaired
liturgy which considered the organ
ganist of the Temple rue Notre Dame
of Sephardi and Ashkenazi liturgical
so active and preoccupied with his ow
of his time to work with the Consistoir
of the degree of his Jewish commitm
composer of operas as well as other w
at the conservatory as well as both se
taneously) of the Institute of France.
music, musicians, and art—were so
retary for life.
Halévy's most famous work, of cours

era, whose story, written by Eugene
fectly. In an era of religious toleranc
that it was time for non-Jews to be
Jews previously had faced for centur
perhaps too sensitive an issue for som
moved to Constance, Switzerland, but
zar's tormentors were nonetheless di
Reinforced by Scribe's collaboration, the
to the French as well as to the world th
history, and liturgy can legitimately
art—no less so than Christian concerns.
Except for the prayer during the Seder scene at the opening of Act II,
there is little specifically 'Jewish' about the music of La Juive in terms
of actual modal or melodic elements. But that one bit of explicit Jewish
content in the Seder scene was itself a novel, important, path-breaking
achievement—one that contributed to a wider public awareness of, and
respect for, Jewish music.
Halévy's other operas have little or no specifically Jewish content. Only

Le Juif Errant—also an opera in five acts with a libretto by Scribe—
concerns a Jew, Ashverus, who, even though he has ignored Jesus'

pleas for aid and has therefore been condemned to eternal wandering,
eventually shows that he has both wisdom and generosity enough to
stand the test of the Day of Judgment. Here, too, as in La Juive, Halévy
takes the side of the Jew in a Christian drama. But unlike La Juive, Le
Juif Errant lacks any Jewish musical content, and since the opera as a
whole is artistically inferior to La Juive, it does not have the same im
portance for the history of Jewish music in Paris.
It could not have been easy for Halévy, a Jew, to present Jewish subjects
before a discerning but still somewhat prejudiced public. Meyerbeer
attributed to anti-semitism Halévy's initial failure to win election to
membership in the French Institute; yet, he did gain membership to
it shortly thereafter. Halévy was able to gain respect gradually by his
patient approach to a public unaccustomed to serious or truly egalitar
ian Jewish participation in secular musical activities. He relied not upon
the uniqueness or novelty of his position as a Jew in the musical com
munity, but, rather, upon his objectively solid musical credentials and
accomplishments; he was prepared to 'come up through the ranks.'
By passing all the accepted examinations as a conservatory student,
by earning the respect and friendship of his teacher, Luigi Cherubini,
the most powerful musician in France in 1835, and by working his
way from apprentice to professional composer and conductor at the
Opéra Comique, he came to be regarded as a musician fully in the
mainstream—both before and after La Juive. As a result, the way was
paved for Alkan and Meyerbeer to succeed as well. Later, on request,
Halévy wrote respectable Church music.20 He moved as freely in non
Jewish as in Jewish circles, and his general acceptance signified the dis
solution of the traditional barriers to Jewish musicians.
HI
Meyerbeer's circumstances in Paris differed significantly from those of

Halévy and Alkan. He was born to a wealthy, pious Jewish family in
Berlin in 1791, and until his death in 1864 he remained loyal to his Berlin
Jewish roots.21 Yet, he lived in Paris much of the time from 1830 to 1864
and was associated more with French music than with that of any other
country. Although he had no known relationship with the Paris
20These include Ave Verum (1850), two movements of Messe de l'Orphéon (1851),
the Kyrie à 4 voix (1844), and the Grande Messe à 4 voix with orchestra (date unknown).
21For more details on Meyerbeer's Berlin Jewish background, cf. Joan L. Thom
son, "Giacomo Meyerbeer: The Jew and his Relationship with Richard Wagner,"
in Música Judaica I, No. 1 (1975-1976), pp. 55-63.
40 MUSICA JUDAICA
Consistoire, he was generally regarded

musician in Paris.
Except for his contribution to Naumbourg's collection, Meyerbeer's

Jewish music was written before he became famous—most of it while
he still lived in Germany. During his childhood Meyerbeer received a
solid Jewish education from a private tutor and was equipped to set
Hebrew texts to music. His earliest Jewish work, "Qâl Zimrah," was
written for his grandfather's fifty-fourth birthday in 1799 when he was
just eight years old.22 Upon his revered grandfather's death in 1812,
Meyerbeer pledged to his mother that to keep his grandfather's mem
ory sacred he would "always live in the religion in which [the grand
father] died"—a promise that he kept.23
As a conservatory student Meyerbeer wrote a series of psalms for four

voice choir and orchestra, all utilizing Moses Mendelssohn's German
translation of the Bible. The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris possesses
three of these in autograph: Wenn der Herr nicht bei uns ware, Edngst, and
Lehre ewige lehre mich Deinen Wejr. Three others are mentioned by
Becker: Des eivigen ist der Erde, Erhebet ihr Toren, and Psalm 130, which
was performed in Mannheim in 1810.24 (It is possible that there were
six more.25) These pieces were written in a secular style that gives no
hint of their composer's Jewish identity or origin. Perhaps Meyerbeer
felt that this was appropriate for translations by the leader of those who
would integrate Judaism into modern German and European society.
During his youth Meyerbeer became involved directly with the devel
opment of music for the nascent German reform movement.26 His fa
ther, Juda Hertz Beer (1769-1825), established a short-lived 'temple' in
his home in Berlin, where the services were conducted in German.27
Not only Meyerbeer but also his friends Zelter and Karl Maria von
22G¡acomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Exposition organisée avec le concours de la Bi

bliothèque nationale de Paris (Jerusalem, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire,
1964), p. 8, item 10.
23Becker (op. cit.), I, p. 207.
24Ibid., p. 592, fn. 67, and p. 76. In October, 1810, Meyerbeer referred to [his]
twelve psalms.
25Meyerbeer's setting of Psalm 91 for eight-part chorus a cappella (Paris, G.
Bandus and S. Dufour [1888]) was for a non-Jewish occasion at the cathedral in Ber
lin and has no relation to the twelve early psalms. It is in Latin, with a French trans
lation.
26Cf. Becker (op. cit.) I, pp. 31-32.

27Becker differs here from Thomson as to dates and conditions of the Temple
in which Beer was involved.
Weber are thought to have written music for those services. Of partic
ular interest are the activities of Eduard Israel Kley (1789-1867), who
lived in the Beer home from 1809 to 1817 as tutor to Meyerbeer's
younger brother, Michael Beer. Kley played a decisive role in establish
ing the liturgy and ritual of the Beer Temple and published his accom
plishments in Katechismus der mosdischen Religionslehre (1814) and Die
deutsche Synagogue (1817). Meyerbeer, who was then living for a brief
time in Paris, sent a composition with organ accompaniment for Kley's
service. In 1817 Kley moved to Hamburg, which had become the center
of the new Reform movement, but he kept in touch with Meyerbeer.
In 1825, when Meyerbeer returned to Paris, he wrote a Halleluja setting
to a Kley text. In acknowledgment Kley wrote to the composer about
a treatise on Jewish music that he had just found by John Braham (1774—
1856), an important English tenor, and a collection of Hebrew melodies
by Braham—both of which he was certain would be of interest to Mey
erbeer. Kley apparently assumed that, notwithstanding Meyerbeer's
growing fame as an opera composer, his concern with Jewish music
remained solid.
However, once Meyerbeer had 'conquered' Paris in 1831 with his opera
Robert le Diable and made Paris the center of his artistic activities, there
was no further sign of this interest in Jewish music until Naumbourg
invited him to contribute to Semiroth Israel in 1847. Aside from his first
opera (Jephtas Geliibde, 1812), written long before he settled in Paris, and
another, incomplete one (Judith, begun in 1854, on which Scribe collab
orated as a librettist), none of his other operas are based on Jewish
themes. To the contrary, two of his most important operas for Paris—Le
Prophet (1849) and Les Huguenots (1836)—are concerned with major
Christian subjects. His 'romance biblique' Rachel à Nephtali has a biblical
source, but the text is a translation by Emile Deschamp, a Christian;
the music is purely operatic in style with no trace of a Jewish melos.
Meyerbeer was the most popular musician in Paris from the 1830s to
the 1860s. Because he was also by then a man of great wealth and be
cause he was known for his personal concern for his fellowmen, he nat
urally became a magnet for a great many artists. Halévy and Berlioz
frequented his home and often consulted with him. On several occa
sions he heard Alkan play, whom he referred to as the "highly original
piano-forte composer."28 Visiting singers considered it essential to
their careers to sing for Meyerbeer. Such was the case of the cantor from
28Meyerbeer's diary, entry for 13 February, 1848, cited in idem. IV (Berlin, Walter
de Gruyter, 1985), p. 363.
42 MUSICA JUDAICA
the Perle Synagogue in Prague, who

beer in 1846 and was judged to have
most famous Germans whom M
Heine, the erstwhile Jew, and Rich
treatise was aimed at Meyerbeer. A
and Wagner subsequently turned on
behind Meyerbeer's back, and He
newspaper criticism. While Wagner
ally, his public diatribe shocked Me
ter within the context of the 'traditional' anti-semitism to which he had
been accustomed in the more intolerant Prussia of his youth.30 With
Heine, however, the matter was more complex. As a Jew Meyerbeer
empathized with Heine's struggles to gain recognition as a German
poet and, at the same time, to confront his Jewish identity. He regarded
Heine as a poetic genius to whom he had lent money for survival, but
who never regarded repayment as a condition for a loan. Despite
Heine's adverse criticisms and his ire at the composer when he refused
to empty his bank holdings for him, Meyerbeer continued to visit him
and to exhibit concern for his welfare. He also was concerned with the
poet's attempts to desert his religion. It was with great satisfaction that
Meyerbeer informed his mother that "Heine confessed to me that he
regretted his conversion away from Judaism and that he hoped he
would reach his final days a strictly pious Jew who eats only kosher
food."31
Unlike Halévy, Meyerbeer found no time for involvement with Pari

sian Jewish organizations, although he must have maintained contacts
with individual Jews. Nevertheless, Grand Rabbi Ulmann took an im
portant part in the Paris funeral rites for the composer in 1864, so that
one may reasonably presume at least some contact between Meyerbeer
and the rabbi during the former's lifetime.32 In any event, Meyerbeer's
Jewish identity was no secret in Paris throughout his career there. Not
withstanding the efforts of a few die-hard anti-semites, that identify
in no way precluded his full acceptance as his generation's hero of the
Parisian opera world.
IV
Alkan, the least known today of the three major Jewish composers who
contributed to Naumbourg's collection, was born Charles-Valentin
29Ibid., p. 130.
30Thomson (op. cit.), pp. 63-86, details the Wagner-Meyerbeer relationship.
31Becker (op. cit.) IV, p. 448.
32For a description of Meyerbeer's funeral, which was a state occasion both in
Paris and in Berlin, see below.
Morhange, son of the Ashkenazi Jew Elkanan Morhange (d.1855) and

Julie Abraham Morhange (c.1784 or 1785-C.1865). Elkanan apparently
had some musical talent since he taught basic solfège (in addition to
French grammar) to boys at a boarding school that he operated in the
Jewish Quartier not far from the new Temple rue Notre Dame de Naza
reth. Marmontel, one of the pupils who later became a professor of
piano at the conservatory, described the classes more than fifty years
later and noted that most of the boys were Jewish.33 In addition to
Charles-Valentin, Elkanan also had a daughter and three other sons,
all of whom he trained as professional musicians. For some unknown
reason Charles-Valentin decided early in his life to drop his family
name. Somewhat in biblical tradition, he took his patronymic Alkan
( = Elkanan); his brothers did likewise.
Initially Alkan's career took off brilliantly, and he was regarded as one
of the great prodigies of his time on the piano. By the 1830s his intimate
circle included Chopin and Liszt, and he appeared destined for a career
equal to theirs. However, in 1848 he was passed over for a position
as professor of piano at the conservatory (in favor of Marmontel) so
that his lifelong ambition to succeed his teacher Zimmermann was
quashed. The following year his closest spiritual friend, Chopin, died.
Alkan withdrew gradually from public view, giving no concerts at all
in the 1860s. He composed and published a great deal during that time
but did not perform in public again until the 1870s, when he made a
sudden and stunning return to the concert stage.
Alkan was not one to compromise artistically, and he was not the be
dazzling showman that Liszt was; in temperament he was much closer
to Chopin. Despite Liszt's high regard for Alkan, and notwithstanding
the fact that Liszt drew his pupils' attention to the music of his Jewish
friend, Alkan's name and compositions virtually disappeared from
public awareness by the 1880s. His natural son and pupil, Elie Miriam
Delaborde (1839-1913)—an accomplished pianist—was the only one to
perpetuate his works through continued performances.
From time to time and especially during the past few years, however,
there has been renewed interest in Alkan and his music. Thanks to the
recent research of Ganvert and others, we can now assess his relation
ship to the Consistoire Israelite of Paris.34
33A. Marmontel, Les Pianistes Célèbres (Paris, 1887; 2nd ed. Paris, Heugel, 1888),
p. 126.
34Ganvert, "Alkan" (op. cit.). There are other important essays and reprinted
documents on Alkan as well in François-Sappey's book (op. cit.).
44 MUSICA JUDAICA
In addition to serving on the spe

bourg's application for appointmen
lévy, had other charges by the Cons
a permanent organ in the Temple r
Consistoire decided to engage a perm
nominated for the post, but declined
know why, but we can imagine that
very heavy restrictions on the use
in the Paris synagogues—which wou
ity. This would have happened at a
an easy outlet for his artistic fant
rarily following the disappointmen
at the Conservatory. Perhaps he in
frustration that would have result
serious organ music that might th
ship that had different perspective
he was again approached for the sa
terialize. During December, 1858, a
a committee—chaired by Halévy—th
with trying to unify the tunes and ch
synagogues in France. The effort
results.
As Alkan withdrew more and more from concerts and social contacts
in general, he grew increasingly interested in Jewish letters and Judaica
and began to translate the Hebrew Bible into French. His preoccupa
tion with this long-term project caused him to remark that he would
rather work with the Bible than with music and that he would like to
set the entire Bible to music.35 In 1877 Marmontel described Alkan's de
meanor as that ". . . d'un ministre anglican ou d'un rabbin—dont il a
la science."36 In his voluminous letters to Stephen Heller, Alkan fre
quently mentions his biblical translations (he started on the Christian
New Testament after he completed the Hebrew Bible) and religion in
general. When Liszt became a monk, Alkan wrote to Heller:37
What do you think of the new development of our old friend

Liszt? As for me, if I would ever make myself a rabbi, I would not
accept the control of the synagogue, but I would take the frock
35Ronald Smith, Alkan: Volume One: The Enigma (New York, Crescendo, 1977),
pp. 54-58. Unfortunately, Smith does not cite specific sources.
36Marmontel (op. cit.), p. 134.
37Jacques Arnould, "Un bâtisseur du Temps," in François-Sappey (op. cit.), p.
260.
in a totally disinterested way; for if Paris regarded a mass highly,

perhaps the power of St. Peter's also values highly a cassock.38
While there is no question as to Alkan's conscious Jewish identity and

his involvement in biblical and Hebrew intellectual matters, there re
mains to ascertain to what extent these factors affected his music. Ba
sically, Alkan's piano music is typical virtuoso piano music of the mid
dle nineteenth century; it is better than most, and it demonstrates
several characteristics of his special personality: the comic, the bizarre,
the colorful, the classical, and the religious. This last applies to some
works that have no explicit Jewish connotation and even, in a few
cases, evoke specifically Christian concepts and sentiments.39 A num
ber of works contain biblical references with the Hebrew Bible given
as the source. Usually, however, there is nothing particularly 'Jewish'
about the music itself. For example, the third movement (adagio) of his
Sonate de Concert, Opus 47, for cello and piano, bears the inscription
"... comme une rosée venant d'el Éternal; comme une douce pluie
sur l'herbe, qui n'espérait d'aucun mortel. . . (Michél V:6)." Yet there
is no apparent connection between that inscription and any so-called
'Jewish character' or musical material in the score. In his 25 Préludes dans
tous les tons majeurs et mineurs, opus 31, no. 13 bears an inscription from
Song of Songs, Chapter 5, verse 2. Here there is indeed a very specific
relationship between the music and that biblical text, but it is based ex
clusively upon numerical features rather than upon any theological as
pects. The unusual rhythm of the piece consists throughout of two
groups of five quavers in each measure, which is a specific musical re
flection of the second verse of chapter 5. Aside from that device, how
ever, there is once again no recognizable Jewish musical source for the
content.
In several cases, however, Alkan does appear to have consciously al

luded to Jewish musical substance in his piano music. The sixth piece
of the 25 Préludes dans tous les tons, opus 31, is subtitled "Ancienne
Mélodie de la Synagogue." It consists of rhythmically free passages
which suggest the non-metrical nature of much synagogue chant, and
it includes several augmented second intervals—suggestive of the
38Que pense-tu de la nouvelle évolution de notre vieil ami Liztz [sic]? Pour moi,
se je me fais jamais rabbin, je n'accepterai point de maître de la synagogue, mais
prenrai le froc d'une façon toute désintéressée; car si Paris valait bien une messe,
peut-être aussi la maître de Saint-Pierre vaut-elle bien une soutane." Ail translations
from French and German are by this writer, except where otherwise indicated.
39François Sabatier, "L'oeuvre d'orgue et de piano-pédalier," in François
Sappey (op. cit.), p. 252, fn. 24, suggests that the Petits Préludes sur les 8 gammes
du plain-chant, which would seem to be Christian pieces, were best played on an
organ the dimensions of that at the Temple rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, "which
Alkan knew well."
46 MUSICA JUDAICA
so-called ahai'a rabba synagogue mo

as characteristic of eastern Ashkenazi melos. Those intervals are other
wise rare in Alkan's music. The "Prière du Soir" (no. 4) of the same
collection has no Jewish rubric, but its excessive repetition of a single
pitch suggests synagogue cantillation or psalmody. The last of the 12
Études dans tous les tons Mineurs pour piano, opus 39, is a set of twenty
five variations on a theme that Ganvert suspects may have Jewish ori
gins.40 Finally, it is interesting in this connection to cite Alkan's indi
cation, "Alia giudesca—con divozione," for the theme that appears as
No. 7 in his 11 Grandes Preludes et 1 Transcription du Messie de Hen
del pour Piano à Clavier de Pédale ou piano à trois mains, opus 66.41
Whether this refers to the source of the melody, however, or—more
subjectively —to an intended manner of expression or rendition, is un
certain. (See Examples 1 and 2 below.)
It is interesting that, when Alkan borrowed from Benedetto Marcello's

Psalm 18, I Cieli Immensi, he chose the opening stanza of the original,
which has no Jewish connection but is well known in Bach's transcrip
tion. Yet, he ignored the Jewish-related aspects of Marcello's work.
Stanzas 6 and following of the Italian musician's setting are based on
a specific melody used by Venetian Sephardi Jews in the early eigh
teenth century for their recitation of this psalm. Marcello, who visited
the synagogue and copied the melody, quotes the tune at length before
stanza 6, and the ensuing polyphonic section is based squarely on it.
It seems, however, that the dynamic opening theme appealed more to
Alkan than the more subtle Jewish one.
Had Alkan taken the position as Naumbourg's organist, our repertory

of great Parisian synagogue music might have been enlarged consid
erably. Instead, he composed extraordinarily imaginative piano music
during the 1850s and 1860s. Yet, this does not necessarily bespeak any
lessening of his own ties to his religion and his fellow Jews. Rather,
it indicates merely that he did not want to place his creativity and his
Jewish identity in a confrontation that might have required or led to
the diminution of both.
4"Ganvert, "Alkan" (op. cit.), p. 277, claims to recognize the theme as a tradi
tional (French?) Jewish melody, but does not identify it.
41Alkan had a fascination with the pedal piano, a nineteenth-century variety of
the piano with a pedal similar to the pedal on the organ in that it could function
as a 'third hand.' Cf. François Sabatier (op. cit.), pp. 227-252.
Example 1: Theme for the 25 variations in Etude No. 12, in Alkan's 22

Études dans tous les tons Mineurs pour piano, op. 39 (Paris,
Richault [1857]).
Example 2: Grand Prelude No. 7 from Alkan's 11 Grandes Preludes

1 Transcription du Messie de Hendel, pour Piano à Clavier de
Pédale ou piano à trois mains, op. 66 (Paris, Richault, 1866)
pp. 36-37, mm. 1-29 (for the left hand only).
Andante.
Andante. Allu giitdexai
Alla gtudesca
r> ir 'f pT" ^|T r f

legato
Con divo/ione
f tr v^|f"er"ff|,#f=rirrfrir7r'
jrrrr |frrrrV=
Espress.
By the mid-1860s the greatest period of activity of French Jewish com

posers had passed. The two most famous musicians were dead; both
Halévy and Meyerbeer had received grand funerals attended by public
officials, including even royalty, and prominent musical and operatic
personalities, with rabbis officiating. Halévy's funeral is described in
a Paris journal:
48 MUSICA JUDAICA
The funeral for Halévy will take pl

24th, precisely at noon, at the Insti
Arts where the illustrious deceased
there the funeral will proceed to th
M. le général Mellinet, Musical Insp
vide a large military band for the f
sion of the Grand Rabbi, a Psalm of
sung in French. This translation co
of which has been set to music expr
a pupil of Halévy: MM. Charles Gou
Bazin, and Jules Cohen. The music
it will be performed by all the gent
aters of Paris and of the Paris Conse
of M. Tilmont.42
Meyerbeer's funeral in Paris, two years later, is described in that same

journal:
Thus Paris will have seen for the second time in two years the fu
neral of a great artist commemorated with enormous ceremony
and in the midst of a popular gathering of people so large that
it would have seemed as if one were honoring the end of the
earth.43
Words were uttered by Rabbi Ullmann, and the procession went along
Champs Elysée, rue Royale, rue Drouot, rue Lafayette, to Gare de
Nord, which was especially decorated for the occasion under the su
pervision of M. Rothschild. Meyerbeer's corpse was then sent to Berlin,
accompanied by the director of the French Grand Opera, and in Berlin
Rabbi Joel from Breslau conducted the Jewish funeral in the presence
of Prussian Prince Georg, with burial in the Jewish cemetery in the
Schônhauser Allee.44
Only Alkan remained by the middle of the decade, and, although he

continued to write music with some Jewish content, his social with
drawl during that period seems to have led to a concurrent withdrawl
from active Jewish affairs. His translation of the Christian New Testa
ment and his occasional composition of Christian music might be cited
42Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris XXIX (1862), pp. 93-94.

«Idem. XXXI (1864), pp. 146-147.
«For the German funeral cf. Signale fur die musikalische Welt (1864) No. 24, p. 394,
as cited in Heinz Becker, Giacomo Meyerbeer in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten
(Rembek/Hamburg, Rowohlt Taschenbuch, 1980), pp. 131-132.
as possible reflections of ambivalence in his attitude. Such suggestions,

however, are dispelled by the unequivocally Jewish nature of his last
will and testament, drawn in 1886 and 1888.45 In any case, any such
conflicts that might have existed would certainly appear to have been
resolved by that time.
The situation in Paris for Jews had changed, however, by the time Al
kan drew his last will and testament. By then Naumbourg was also
gone. The emerging antisemitism that was an outgrowth of anti
German sentiment following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871
and the resulting French nationalist movement—manifested in musi
cal circles by the ars gallica of the National Society organized by Saint
Saëns and others—made Paris no longer so hospitable to Jewish com
posers.
By 1865 there was only one truly famous composer of Jewish birth in
Paris: Jacques Offenbach. He had converted to Roman Catholicism in
1844, however, to marry a Christian woman. During his early years he
had appeared to be following in Halévy's, Meyerbeer's, and Alkan's
footsteps. His father had brought him to Paris in 1833 to study music,
at the age of fourteen, and had placed him in a synagogue choir 'for
safekeeping.' While still in his teen-age years Offenbach composed
"Rebecca," a waltz "based on Jewish melodies of the 15th century."46
But the commitment to Judaism that so galvanized the other three in
liberal Paris of 1820 to 1865 appears not to have been of consequence
to the composer of Tales of Hoffmann, La Belle Hélène, and a host of pop
ular operettas that achieved enormous public success in Paris, Vienna,
London, and New York.
The remaining Jewish composers, many of whom belonged to a

younger generation, simply did not have the talent of Meyerbeer,
Halévy, Alkan, and Naumbourg.47 Some, such as Jules Cohen (1835
45François-Sappey (op. cit.), pp. 309-320, especially pp. 312 and 317. There is
no truth to the legend that Alkan was killed by a volume of the Talmud falling on
him; cf. Hugh Macdonald, "The Death of Alkan," in The Musical Times CXIV (1973),
p. 25. The funeral is described by Alexandre de Bertha, "Ch. Valentin Alkan âiné:
étude psycho-musicale," in Société Internationale de Musique [Section de Paris] V (Feb
ruary, 1909), p. 141.
46Andrew Lamb, "Offenbach," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musi
cians, XIII (1980), p. 509 and Siegfried Kracauer, Jacques Offenbach ou le Secret du Second
Empire, French trans, from German by Lucienne Astruc (Paris, Edition Bernard
Grasset, 1937), pp. 53-62.
47For a brief discussion of some of these composers cf. Jonathan I. Helfand,
"Jews and Music in Nineteenth Century France," in Journal of Jewish Music and Lit
urgy VIII (1985), pp. 48-52.
50 MUSICA JUDAICA
1901), a pupil of Marmontel and Halév

ensemble at the Conservatory, were d
wrote numerous synagogue composit
lished by Naumbourg.48
Others in this category of Jewish

(1828-1893), a pupil of Adolphe Adam
Temple rue Notre Dame de Nazareth f
therefore Naumbourg's organist; and
of Cantor Isaac David, who won the Prix de Rome in 1858 and was
named first Music Director of the Consistoire in 1870.49 Léonce Cohen
(1829-1884) began as an active member of the Jewish community, per
forming his own organ music at the Temple in 1851 where, after Al
kan's withdrawl, he was the preferred choice as first permanent organ
ist. However, he won the Prix de Rome in 1852 and, like Alkan, had
to withdraw his name from consideration as well. He seems not to have
had further involvement in French Jewish life.
All these composers wrote theater music.50 David wrote two Jewish
'operas,' with Italian libretti: Absolon and I Maccabei, neither of which
were published or performed.51 Jules Cohen composed one, Esther, on
a text by Racine, which was performed at the Théâtre Français in 1864.52
But none of these composers achieved during his lifetime any of the
public successes of Meyerbeer and Halévy. Indeed, they are remem
bered today only for their Hebrew liturgical compositions that were
published by Naumbourg in Semiroth Israel.
Maurice Ravel, a non-Jew, displayed an interest in Jewish music with

his publications of "Kaddisch" and "L'enigme éternelle" in Deux melo
dies hébraïque (1914) and the "chanson Hébraïque" of Chants Populaires
(1910, originally for voice and piano, later orchestrated). However, the
only Jew of prominence who was ever able again to command French
esteem in general for his compositions—and in particular for his Jewish
48Ganvert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), pp. 87, 202-203, 278-282 bis. He
wrote Psaumes (four psalms, three printed in 1854; BN Mus. Ms. 11-104); Cantique
hébraïque, morceau d'introduction pour l'office ordinaire (BN Mus. Ms. 11-110); Prose
suivi de Adonai, Adonai (1854; Ms. 11-116); and Invocation cantique composé pour l'in
auguration du Nouveau Temple de la rue de la Victoire à Paris (the 'Rothschild Syna
gogue,' 1874; Ms. 11-063).
49Ibid., pp. 203-204.
50Franz Stieger, Opemlexikon, Teil II: Componisten (Tutzing, Hans Schneider,
1977), pp. 160, 217.
51Ibid., p. 251.
52Ibid., p. 217.
works—was Darius Milhaud, who did not come onto the scene until
a half century after Naumbourg's death. Between the 1860s and the
1920s there was no Jewish composer so much in the limelight before
the general Parisian public. By then Paris had changed greatly and the
Paris of the earlier period was but a recollection of a bygone era in terms
of Jewish involvement in music. In 1865, in commemoration of the
death of his friend Meyerbeer, Henri Castel de Blaze de Bury tried to
explain why Paris had been so hospitable to Jewish composers:
A very curious thing: the history of music in the 18th century does
not know the name of a single great master of Jewish origin, while
in the 19th century a whole group of illustrious Jews suddenly
arises: Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Halévy, Moscheles. What for
these artists a hundred years ago was the reason for their ostra
cism has worked nevertheless to their advantage. They found a
vigor growing day by day from the influence of Israel, and the
liberal tendencies of the past fifty years that favored the new role
played by a number of them in letters and in music were every
where celebrated as a victory of the modern spirit. Let us add that
the importance of this role was abetted by special financial con
ditions. In this regard it is necessary to recognize that Meyerbeer
and Mendelssohn have had an uncontested advantage over the
great masters of the past and those of the present in a career that
was opened up to them from the beginning only by overcoming
great difficulties. They have travelled to the limits as independent
artists, without any care of tomorrow other than that of the suc
cess of their works.53
53Castel Blaze de Bury, Meyerbeer et son Temps (Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, 1865),
p. 190.

American Society For Jewish Music Musica Judaica

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

American Society For Jewish Music Musica Judaica

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

American Society For Jewish Music Musica Judaica

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

American Society for Jewish Music

A GOLDEN AGE FOR JEWISH MUSICIANS IN PARIS: 1820—1865

Considerable confusion surrounds the publication dates of Semiroth Isr

Not merely Jews by birth, Meyerbeer

The revolution in 1789 suddenly over

Consideration of these matters has been facilitated by the pathbreaking Ph.D.

tury, the new building is in a neo-Gothic style that closely resembles

reformists, such as Terquem, and uns

From 1832 to 1845 the religious music

In 1845, following the resignation of its Ashkenazi cantor, Picard, the

12Ganvert, La Musique Synagogale (op. cit.), pp. 139-199.

Venice and Mantua in the early sev

With Naumbourg firmly in control of music in the Ashkenazi syna

Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, the pioneer of Jewish musicology, aptly in

While Naumbourg's efforts clearly benefitted from the presence of his

I5Idelsohn, Jeivish Music (op. cit.), pp. 246-284.

ally 'the Levite') in 1807. He was a leader of the Jewish community in

Marche Funèbre contains no specifically Jewish musical elements. But

16Léon Halévy, F. Halévy: sa Vie et ses Ouevres: Récits et Impressions personelles—

on the title page of the reprinted edi

Apparently Halévy was active in the

Halévy's most famous work, of cours

Halévy's other operas have little or no specifically Jewish content. Only

concerns a Jew, Ashverus, who, even though he has ignored Jesus'

Meyerbeer's circumstances in Paris differed significantly from those of

Consistoire, he was generally regarded

Except for his contribution to Naumbourg's collection, Meyerbeer's

As a conservatory student Meyerbeer wrote a series of psalms for four

22G¡acomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Exposition organisée avec le concours de la Bi

26Cf. Becker (op. cit.) I, pp. 31-32.

the Perle Synagogue in Prague, who

Unlike Halévy, Meyerbeer found no time for involvement with Pari

Morhange, son of the Ashkenazi Jew Elkanan Morhange (d.1855) and

In addition to serving on the spe

What do you think of the new development of our old friend

in a totally disinterested way; for if Paris regarded a mass highly,

While there is no question as to Alkan's conscious Jewish identity and

In several cases, however, Alkan does appear to have consciously al

so-called ahai'a rabba synagogue mo

It is interesting that, when Alkan borrowed from Benedetto Marcello's

Had Alkan taken the position as Naumbourg's organist, our repertory

Example 1: Theme for the 25 variations in Etude No. 12, in Alkan's 22

Example 2: Grand Prelude No. 7 from Alkan's 11 Grandes Preludes

r> ir 'f pT" ^|T r f

By the mid-1860s the greatest period of activity of French Jewish com

The funeral for Halévy will take pl

Meyerbeer's funeral in Paris, two years later, is described in that same

Only Alkan remained by the middle of the decade, and, although he

42Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris XXIX (1862), pp. 93-94.

as possible reflections of ambivalence in his attitude. Such suggestions,

The remaining Jewish composers, many of whom belonged to a

1901), a pupil of Marmontel and Halév

Others in this category of Jewish

Maurice Ravel, a non-Jew, displayed an interest in Jewish music with

You might also like