The Ancient Modernity of the Liturgical Music of the Portuguese Synagogue in AmsterdamBY EDWIN SEROUSSIThe Opening Ceremony of the VIIth EAJS Congress, on 21 July 2002, included a presentation of Jewish liturgical music composed roughly two and a half centuries ago and performed that day, to the best of my knowledge, for the first time since then. This music was originally conceived and executed by the cantors of the Portuguese Esnoga (synagogue) where the Opening Ceremony was held. The cantors and the members of the community who elected and supported them left us a musical legacy that reflects a unique juncture in modern Jewish history. On the verge of modernity they strove to integrate the ancient liturgical lore of their Sephardi ancestors with the musical tastes developed by them in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Amsterdam.Liturgical music played an important role in the consolidation of the distinct cultural identity of the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam and by extension of most of the Western Sephardi centres that sprung out from it. In this contribution I would like to explore a few key aspects of this liturgical tradidion.While the common sense is that Jewish prayer was always characterised by musical pomp, serious research, still a rare commodity in the discourse about Jewish music, shows us the opposite. The very concept of music as an autonomous mode of cultural expression started to spread into the synagogue only when specific social and intellectual processes allowed its development among Jews. Let us mention just two of these processes. The firstJewish Studies and the European Academic World, p. 21is the definitive canonisation of the liturgical text during the Geonic period, which laid down the background for the spiritual need to regenerate by musical means the primary social expression of Jewish religiosity, i.e. the repeated performance of the fixed order of prayers sanctioned by rabbinical authority. A second development is the measure of access allowed to Jews by the surrounding non-Jewish society to its most sophisticated musical resources. These resources include the acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge about music making, the participation in contexts of musical performance and even the know-how of making or purchasing musical instruments. These and other social and intellectual processes first matured in Eastern Jewish centres under Abbasid Islam (eighth century CE) while in the Christian territories we witness similar achievements only as late as the seventeenth century in northern Italy.The Amsterdam Sephardim, and in their footsteps the Western Sephardi Diaspora, were therefore among the first Jewish communities on European soil to acquire the means to express their Jewishness in the liturgical context by overtly using musical resources from the surrounding non-Jewish culture. At the height of the Baroque era, the sounds of the aristocratic salons as well as the taverns of Amsterdam started to penetrate the local Jewish sanctuary, intermingling with venerable forms of Sephardi liturgical music inherited by the Portuguese Jews from their mentors from the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. Thus, from the day of its opening in 1675 the magnificent Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam became not only the physical monument of the socio-economic prominence of the Portuguese Jews and the epicentre of their community’s social life; it also turned into their intimate concert hall.The musical practices and repertoire of the Portuguese Jewish liturgy in Amsterdam was constructed then in a slow process that reflects, as Yosef Kaplan has stressed, the dual cultural identity of the members of his community. On the one hand, there was a yearning for the sense of belonging to the mainstream of the Jewish people, for a return to the chain of musical tradition from which the conversos had become detached after they abandoned their ancestral faith. The Western Sephardim conceptualised traditional Jewish liturgical music, transmitted to them by rabbis and cantors who served in Amsterdam in the formative period of the early seventeenth century, as a normative text. This musical text was memorised, not unlike the religious texts that should be learnt and the precepts that should be observed, with utmost precision. On the other hand, the conversos carried with them a fine sensibility for Baroque music in both its artistic and more popular forms, especially for the Italian style prevalent in sixteenth-century Spain, and to a certain extent in the Low Countries too. This duality between traditional Jewish music and European music, between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western musical paradigms, is expressed in the peculiar musical developments of the Western Sephardi liturgy.The musical duality of the Portuguese Jewish liturgy is further reflected in the development of both an oral and a written body of liturgical music. This is a unique phenomenon in the Jewish world. Until the nineteenth century all Jewish liturgical music was, with a few exceptions in Germany and Italy, transmitted orally. To the present day, the Eastern Sephardi and Oriental Jewish communities continue to rely on orality for the preservation of their liturgical music lore. By contrast musical notation, the hallmark of the Western European music culture, was enrolled by the Western Sephardim as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and continued to be a tool for the survival of liturgical music pieces until the twentieth century. The purpose of musical notation was to record the new liturgical music composed by chazzanim (cantors) and by composers who were commissioned by the community to produce new works on its behalf.Another issue in the understanding of the particularities of the Western Sephardi liturgical music is the meaning of the concept of ‘tradition’ in the context of these communities. ‘Tradition’ among the Western Sephardi Jews means the lore of the musical chain of the individuals who held the prestigious post of chazzan. Few individuals, sometimes one in each generation, carried on their shoulders the musical memory of their entire community. This was a fragile situation, for a break in the chain of transmission could derail the entire tradition from its track. For this reason, all the Western Sephardi communities paid due attention to the selection, training and support of their cantors. The well- documented pageantry of the election of a new cantor is a testimony to the crucial importance attributed to the post of chazzan. Moreover, the reduced number of well-trained Portuguese chazzanim available hardly supplied the demand and caused a great degree of mobility of cantors from one community to another.Inherited LoreAs the general knowledge of conversos about Judaism and its practice was minimal, we can assume that any musical dimension of Jewish prayer was foreign to them. If until 1492 or 1497 the New Christians could still have a tangential access to synagogue chant in the Iberian Peninsula, the opportunities to keep some ties with Jewish musical practice certainly ceased after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal.The constitution of an authentic Jewish liturgical music practice led to a strategy similar to the one adopted by the conversos in other fields as part of the process of return to Judaism: the recruitment of trained personnel from the major North African and Eastern Mediterranean Sephardi centres. Among the important figures in the field of liturgical music in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century we can mention Rabbi Isaac Uziel from Fez and cantor Joseph Shalom Gallego from Saloniki (active in Amsterdam 1614–1628). They were both hired during the formative stages of the community and certainly had an impact in the construction of the local liturgical music canon.The traditional liturgical melodies transmitted to the conversos by the Eastern and North African cantors and rabbis acquired with time an aura of sacrality. They were to be performed with strictness and kept without changes or additions, especially those belonging to the repertoire of sacred occasions such as the High Holidays and Tish‘a be-Av. Another important musical form perpetuated in minute detail was the cantillation of the Bible. The curriculum of the Talmud Torah School in Amsterdam ensured that the correct performance of prayers and biblical cantillation was properly transmitted from generation to generation.Musical InnovationOne can assume that the simple style of the unaccompanied, traditional Sephardi liturgical tunes of Eastern origin and their erratic performance by the congregation were not easily digestible for the conversos, as were also other traditional Jewish practices. This aesthetic disconcertment is the root of the attempts to beautify the Portuguese synagogue services with decorous and updated European musical practices already apparent since the early days of the community. Slowly a compromise emerged between the eagerness to preserve the venerable Eastern Sephardi melodies and the determination to renovate the liturgical music repertoire. New music in the Baroque style was composed and performed, with or without instrumental accompaniment, pending on Halakhah for prayers, such as Kabbalat Shabbat or joyful events as Simchat Torah. By the mid-seventeenth century a local liturgical music tradition was under development in Amsterdam as local cantors, born or educated in the city, took over from the immigrant cantors from the East and North Africa.When the great synagogue opened its doors on Shabbat Nachamu 1675, the pageantry included an elaborate musical performance in the style of the period, including the pizmon Tzuri shokhen be-rom ‘olam by Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (1605–1693). Although the music of this piece did not survive, there is a continuous flow of information regarding the growing influx of original music from the Baroque and early classic styles into the local Jewish liturgy. This new music did not supersede the traditional melodies but was added to it.Original pieces for cantor solo apparently were written for and performed by cantors of less formal musical training rather than by professional composers, and were intended for exclusive use within the context of the liturgy. These compositions can be found in several manuscripts dating mostly from the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. From the manuscripts, most of which belong to the Ets Haim Library, the most comprehensive is Ms. 8o Mus. 2 of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. It is the manual by cantor Joseph ben Isaac Sarphati, whose name is engraved on the original leather binding of the manuscript. He probably compiled this collection during his tenure as cantor in Amsterdam between 1743 and 1772.The manuscript contains 51 items (perhaps the last two are additions by a later hand), the majority of which are qaddishim. These qaddishim, however, do not stand on their own. The central piece, the setting of the first half of the qaddish, is usually connected to three other musical pieces: first, a fragment of the last verse of the Psalm preceeding the qaddish, such as le-betkha na'avah qodesh (Psalm 93 in the case of the Sabbath); second, a new melody for the public response in the qaddish, yehe shemeh rabba; and third the barekhu following the qaddish. Thus we see that the performance of the formal opening of the public prayer after the zemirot was one of the main tasks of the cantor in Amsterdam. They comprise 27 out of the 51 pieces in the manuscript, a proportion which reflects thecentrality of this set of texts in the duties of the Amsterdam cantor and its significance as a spot for musical innovation. Melodies for the qaddish settings were also adopted from the repertoire of art music commissioned by the Portuguese synagogue in the past, especially from the compositions by the two ‘house composers’ of the community in the eighteenth century, the renowned Jewish composer Abraham de Casseres and Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti.The elaborate musical performance of the qaddish before barekhu is a venerable Sephardi practice kept until the present. Thus, while the selection of the ‘musicalised’ liturgical text remained faithful to the old tradition, its musical content in Amsterdam changed dramatically. Moreover, in the oral tradition of the Eastern Sephardim the same melody is applied to the preceding Psalm verse, the qaddish and barekhu. In the Amsterdam tradition, on the other hand, new music was provided for each text, thus creating a mini- cantata within the liturgical continuum.Other liturgical texts represented in the Sarphati manuscript are the qedushah for shacharit of Shabbat (naqdishakh ve-na'aritzakh), bo'i be-shalom, i.e. the last stanza of the poem Lekha dodi for qabbalat shabbat, hodu l'adonay kir'u bi-shmo from the opening of the Shabbat morning liturgy and verses from the hallel such as Hallelu et adonay kol goyim (Psalm 117:1–2) and kol ha-neshamah tehallel yah (Psalm 150:6).Of special interest are compositions written for special occasions and subsequently introduced into the regular liturgical services. The composition Solu la-rokhev be-‘arvot el is mentioned by David Franco Mendes in his Qol tefillah ve-qol zimrah (Ets Haim Ms. 47 E 5). Franco Mendes attributed the text to Aharon de Costa Abendana. The piece was performed, perhaps premiered, during the 1740 competition for the position of cantor (proefdienst) at the Amsterdam synagogue by the candidate David Pimentel. We do not know who composed this apparently popular piece, which appears in three other manuscripts from Amsterdam and Den Haag. Solu la-rokhev consists of two contrasting sections in different modes (major/minor) and meter with repetitions of text and coloratura passages that allowed the cantorial candidate to display his vocal capabilities. Of similar form is another piece in the manuscript Esh'al me-el tzur Israel for chatan bereshit. The text is attributed by Franco Mendes to Yaacob Bashan.A special piece, appearing at the end of the Sarphati manuscript, includes the music of Nitzhal lekha el ve-sar shalom, a cantata in three movements for the visit of the Stadhouder William V and his wife Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina to the synagogue on June 3, 1768. The first movement of this cantata derives from the famous duo by Casseres Hameshiach illemim. The music of the second and third movements, on the other hand, derives from another cantata, Le-el ‘olam segule ram that is known to us from Ms. Den Haag 23 D 24. Le-el ‘olam segule ram is an imitation of the renowned cantata Le-el elim by Moshe Hayyim Luzzato, set to music by Casseres.The Sarphati manuscript also mentions popular songs whose melodies were set by the cantors to various liturgical texts. This phenomenon of musical quotations, deeply embedded in traditional Sephardi music, provides us with a glimpse into the musical taste of the Amsterdam Sephardim in the eighteenth century. One frequently quoted melody belongs to an as yet unidentified song in Spanish titled ‘Muy benigno y noble Aron’, applied to the text ‘Mamtzi hakol’. Another interesting example is the melody of the Italian canzonetta ‘Se tu m’ami’, composed by the renowned eighteenth-century Dutch composer Willem de Fesch. This light tune was apparently a favorite of cantor Sarphati, for it appears several times in his manuscript, adapted to the qaddish for the eve of Sukkoth.Other musical manuscripts of the Amsterdam Portuguese community from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries show phenomena connected to the main goal of new liturgical music tradition of Amsterdam: the introduction of decorum into the performance of the synagogue liturgy. One can detect, for example, the possible influence of the Protestant Church in the settings of some Psalms to melodies in the style of the Protestant choral (one of these Psalms is even set to a Dutch translation).ConclusionIt appears that the eighteenth-century liturgical music repertoire reflected in the Sarphati manuscript represents a peak in the history of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam. Liturgical music creativity declined by the nineteenth century. Chazzanim composed fewer new pieces. Music by the eighteenth century cantors apparently fell into disuse, with the exception of a few melodies that became traditionalised and thus part of the fixed canon. Simultaneously the feeling of decline in liturgical music led to attempts to give new impetus to it. A permanent male choir, Santo Servicio, was established around the centennial of the synagogue in 1875. Until 1908 the choir sung together with the congregation and after that year it was allowed to sing alone. During its heyday (1910–1939) the choir included 60 to 80 singers.The introduction of choral services shows signs of Ashkenazi influence, for they coincide with the golden age of choral music in Ashkenazi synagogues, including that of Amsterdam. However, one cannot rule out also the inspiration of the choral services instituted in the Spanish-Portuguese synagogues of London and Hamburg, where the renovations of liturgical music (which emerged in the 1870s) were partly an attempt to counteract the attraction of the temples of the liberal Jewish movements.Despite the deep social and cultural upheavals that affected the Western Sephardi communities, their liturgical music tradition survived well into the twentieth century. The interest of both practitioners and scholars in the fortune of this musical tradition led to its documentation since the early 1950s. Recordings by the late Hakham Salomon Rodrigues Pereira and by cantor Abraham Lopes Cardozo, as well as written documentation, e.g. by David Ricardo orHans Krieg, show the extent of care with which this music tradition was transmitted from generation to generation. Indeed the liturgical music lore can be considered the last living asset of authentic Western Sephardi culture. The reconstructed performance of the pieces from the Sarphati manuscript during the Opening Ceremony of the VIIth EAJS Congress is a testimony of this unique European Jewish culture, whose ‘ancient modernity’ arises from sounds that celebrated the glory of the Almighty in this sanctuary 250 years ago.Appendix: Concert ProgrammeLiturgical Music from the Portuguese Synagogue in AmsterdamFrom the manuscript ofChazzan Iossef de Ishac Sarphati (fl. 1743–1772)Jewish National and University Library, Music Department Ms. 8o Mus. 2Especially recreated for the Opening Ceremony of the VIIth Congress of theEuropean Association for Jewish StudiesAmsterdam, July 21, 2002Qedushah for chazzan soloOpening section of the liturgy (eve of Sukkoth)[a] Mi chakham and Qaddish (lachan ‘Se tu m’ami’ by Willem de Fesch)[b] Yehe sheme rabba[c] BarekhuCantata for the last reader of the Torah [a] Solu la-rokhev[b] Kol ha-qahal eda ve-yisraelEsh’al me-el tzur and QaddishCantata for the last reader of the Torah[a] Mamtzi ha-kol (lahan ‘Muy benigno y noble Aron’) [b] Lebetekha na’avah qodeshCantata for the visit of the Stadtholder Willem V and his wife Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina to the synagogue on June 3, 1768[a] Nitzhal lakh el (lachan ‘Hameshiach ilemim’ by Abraham Caceres)[b] Gam bat melekh[c] Im kol sare medina zotAll pieces arranged for violini and basso continuo by David Shemer Edited by Edwin Seroussi© The Jewish Music Research Center, The Hebrew University, 2002