🎧 Jewish Music for Brothels
Can sacred music survive outside of its context?
With Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur coming up, the season of sacred Jewish music is upon us.
These days, people can have two entirely different relationships to this music. One relationship takes place in the synagogue, the place where the cantor (and maybe the choir) chants and the congregation hums along.
The other relationship can happen anywhere, as long as you have a recording of that very same music. Cantors have been making those recordings of sacred music for more than a century, but they’ve remained controversial the entire time. What does it mean that cantorial music can exist without its congregation—and what happens to the music in the process?
To answer those questions, I want to invite you to listen to something I’m really proud of: the first musical episode of Belief in the Future. I hope you enjoy the story, and I hope you enjoy how we told it. (And, as they say, subscribe to make sure you hear the thrilling conclusion later this month!)
If you like the episode, rate the show and tell a friend! Podcasting is an unbelievably crowded space right now and the best way for upstart shows to get discovered is a solid recommendation.
That’s all for now. Shanah tovah.
In an interesting historical note, there was reticence to transcribe niggunim as well - the very thought of putting the notes on paper seemed profane.
I wrote about it:
https://open.substack.com/pub/mytechtribe/p/-transcribing-the-ephemeral-on-song
This was very interesting. My father had all of these albums. As a child who had who never had an interest in attending synagogue, I had the added challenge of being forced to attend one steeped in chazzanish. I could appreciate the talent of the cantor’s voice, (a close family friend who also recorded, although by that time, on cassette) but it really lengthens the time of a service.