Darius MILHAUD

THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC

Darius Milhaud (Aix en Provence 1892/Genève 1974) a, tout sa vie, invoqué son ascendance juive, du côté maternel, originaire de l’Empire Ottoman et d’Italie, et, du côté paternel, des Milhaud du Comtat Venaissin, venus préalablement du vil- lage de Milhaud, voisin de Nimes, qui s’étaient transportés, après la Révolution Française, à Aix en Provence. Joseph Milhaud, Président du Consistoire d’Aix, inaugurait en 1840 le nouveau Temple Israélite, cette fonction s’était transmise à son fils Gabriel, (père du compositeur) qui l’exerçait en 1940. Cette date a son importance, le compositeur atteignait la maturité, auteur déjà de très nombreuses œuvres, il était connu en France, certes, mais encore plus à l’étran- ger, entre autres, dans l’Allemagne préhitlerienne. A la débacle de l’Armistice (18 Juin 1940) cette célébrité avait conduit la Gestapo à son domicile dès que les troupes allemandes avaient occupé Paris. Le compositeur était alors à Aix. En Juillet 1940, Darius Milhaud accompagné de sa femme et de leur fils, purent quitter l’Europe pour les USA, où un poste de professeur lui était offert dans un Collège en Californie. Son séjour se prolongea bien au delà de la fin de la guerre, et c’est probablement à ce moment qu’il lui fut demandé un article ou une conférence dont nous remercions ici Madeleine Milhaud de nous avoir procuré le texte. La dâte exacte n’a pas pu être déterminée avec précision ce doit être 1945 (terminus ab quo) ou 1947 (terminus ad quem) car il y est fait allusion à la Palestine, alors que, après 1948, le nom d’Israël se serait trouvé tout naturellement sous la plume de l’auteur. Alors qu’il se définissait «Français de Provence et de religion israélite» ses nombreuses compositions ne présentent pas toutes un caractère se rattachant au judaïsme. Toutefois, la liste procurée par Madeleine Milhaud des compositions musciales «juives» de son mari, que nous avons reproduite in fine, montre qu’une telle inspiration occupe une place importante dans la vie du compositeur. S’il écrivait volontiers de telles pièces il a, toute sa vie, refusé de composer quelque musique liturgique chrétienne que ce soit.

On trouvera dans le texte anglais ci après, la référence à une pièce spécifique- ment «juive» remontant à Janvier 1940. Il rencontrait alors à Marseille, l’écrivain Armand Lunel, mobilisé et en fin de permission militaire lui parlant d’un projet de célébration du centenaire de la d’Aix en Provence. La cantate connue sous son titre définitif Couronne de Gloire est ainsi divisée: Keter Malhut texte hébreu du Rab. Salomon b. Gabirol (XVIIIe Siècle) Prière pour les Ames des Persécutés Prière pour le Pape au IXe juour de Succot (texte d’A. Lunel) Prière pour le jour de la Réclusion. (Lorsque Pessah coïncidait avec Paques, il était interdit aux Juifs de Carpentras de sortir de chez eux pour aller prier.)

Revue des Etudes juives, CLV (1-2), janvier-juin 1996, pp. 233-244 234 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC

Après Juin 1940, il n’était plus question de cérémonie au Temple. Et à la Libé- ration les fidèles étaient très peu nombreux (les parents Milhaud étaient morts) de sorte que le propriétaire de la synagogue centenaire décida de vendre l’immeuble. Il est consacré maintenant au culte Protestant. Darius Milhaud, alors aux Etats Unis reçut la nouvelle trop tard il aurait souhaité se substituer à l’acheteur. Mais il eut la consolation de donner le premier coup de pioche aux fondations de la synagogue actuelle, dont la construction a pu être réalisée grace à un vigoureux renfort de fidèles venus d’Afrique du Nord. Quelques années après la composition du texte que nous publions, pour com- mémorer le IIIe millénaire du roi David, en 1951, Darius Milhaud recevait la commande d’un grand opéra, auquel Armand Lunel devait fournir le livret, David. La gloire et les malheurs du fondateur de Jerusalem y sont évoqués. L’opéra a été joué en Israel, à Bruxelles, Milan, Nice et aux U.S.A. Georges JESSULA

Musique «Juive» de Darius Milhaud

1916 Poèmes Juifs 1949 Les rêves de Jacob 1918 Psaume 136 (P. Claudel) 1951 Cantate des Proverbes 1919 Psaume 126 (P. Claudel) 1951 Les Miracles de la Foi 1925 Six Chants populaires 1951 Candélabre à sept branches hébraïques 1952 Samael (André Spire) 1925 Deux Hymnes (Alb. Cohen) 1952/3 David /Opéra (A. Lunel) 1925 Esther de Carpentras Opéra 1953 Hymne de Glorification Bouffe (A. Lunel) 1954 Saül (André Gide) 1927 Prières journalières à l’usage 1954 Trois psaumes de David des Juifs du Comtat Venaissin 1954 Service pour la veille du Sabbat 1928 Cantate pour louer le Seigneur 1960 Cantate de l’initition 1933 Liturgie comtadine 1962 Invocation à l’Ange Raphael 1934 Le Cycle de la Création (Paul Claudel) (Dom Sturzo) 1963 Pacem in Terris (extrait de 1935 La Sagesse (Paul Claudel) l’Encyclique de Jean XXIII 1937 Cantate de la Paix (P. Claudel) 11/IV/49 1937 Cantate nuptiale 1965 Cantate from Job 1937 Les deux Cités (P. Claudel) 1967 Cantate des Psaumes (p. Claudel) id Holem Tsaoudi (P. Claudel) id Gam Hayom 1971 Promesse de Dieu 1940 Couronne de Gloire 1972 Ode pour Jerusalem 1941 Borechou Schema 1973 Etudes sur des themes litur- 1944 Caïn et Abel giques du Comtat Venaissin

It is a difficult problem and we must look at it from different sides: historical, liturgical, and folkloric. The question often arises: is there really a Jewish music.? Unfortunately we don’t have any idea of how the music was and how it sounded in the Temple of Jerusalem. Of course it would probably have been similar to that of the neighbouring countries: Egypt, Assyria, Babilonia. THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC 235

The only remaining instrument actually used and witness of thousands years of faith and prayer is the Schofar, still used in the services of R.H. and K. Musically it is not very revealing of what music could have been as it can only give one pitch. Only the rythm is changed and it is used with alterations of long notes and staccato. Besides the schofar, some other ins- truments are mentioned the Chatzotzera, a kind of silver trompet probably imported from Egypt, the Uggav, a sort of pipe (mentioned in the first Temple), the Halil, or big pipe of greek origin, the Alamoth a double flute. In the second Temple, the Magrapha (pipe organ) is able to produce ten different notes. The Talmud says that no water organ (organum hydrolium) was used in the Temple because it was too sweet and too powerful, and could distract the attention from the traditional instruments. Cymbals and othrer percussion instruments were used in the time of David and Solomon. Finaly, the Pasmonium, little bells attached to the robe of the High Priest, about which we find in the Exodus the following explanation: “And the sound thereof shall be head when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord and when he cometh out, that he die not” Dance was part of the ceremonies. The chorus consisted of a minimum of 12 male singers Boys of the levites were added in order to add sweetness to the song. Women never par- ticipated. We have no description of the tunes or of the scales, or of the rythm; we have only oral tradition. The Mishna gives us a description of a service in the last century B.C. at the Temple: A benediction by the priests on duty. The 10 Commandemùents. The Shema. The benediction of the priest and three others. Then the act of the offerings After the arrangements of the sacrifices, the Magrapha sounded and the Levites enter the Temple to prostrate themselves. The Lévites began the music; they blew the trumpets, then the cymbal as a signal for the Levites to sing the daily psalm and parts of the Pentateuch, which are interrupted by the blowing of the trumpets. After the destruction of the Temple all this music disapeared, only the vocal singing remained, alternartely expressed by the leader of the congre- gation and the public. As for the secular music, it was associated with dance, happiness, joy, wine, with men and women participating, using their songs instruments and hand clapping. The music used in Arabic countries, Palestine, and the near East is similar. 236 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC

The musical tradition is only oral, transmitted by word of mouth. Already before the destruction of the sanctuary in Jerusalem, large Jewish settlements were established from Persia to Northwest Africa, from Arabia to Rome and the south of France. After the destruction of the national center, they were dispersed in the Iberic Peninsula, the Rhine, The Danube, as well as the Niemen, where the Jews lived practically in seclusion for 1.300 years, in Babylonia, Pzersia, Syria, North Africa, Italy, Spain, France, , and Eastern Europe. In contact with these countries, their faith remained and so did the musical tradition of the liturgical music, but three different geographic lines were established: The Sefardim, Mediter- anean Jews, the Askenazim (Germans and Eastern European Jews), and the Jews of The Comtat Venaissin a very small community in the South of France descendant of these men who established commercial settlements at the time of the foundation of Marseilles, by the Phoceans 600 years B.C., who, during the Middle Ages, remained under the juridiction of the Pope when established in Avignon, until the French Revolution. And musi- cally, this division is important because, even in the liturgy, the Orien- tal/Mediterranean charchter, and the German/Polish one, or the purely Provençal one penetrated the style of the singing of the religious cermonies. Of course, you can feel everywhere that the cantillation, the tradition in singing of the texte goes back as far as the first century (A.D.). Of course, the obligation to read parts of the Bible is even much older. Ezra, (fifth cen- tury B.C.) introduced the reading of the Pentateuch in public. Psalms were sung in the Temple in Jerusalem. Parts of the prophets as Haphtara were read during the time of the Second Temple, as we know that Jesus was asked to read the prophets in the synagogue service. The Book of Esther has been read since about the time of the Maccabbees, (and I remember a little temple for the Jews of Salonica in Paris, where the Meguilla, of Esther was sung in a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish of the XVth century, as the Salonica jews, as the Turkish and the Greek are most of them descendants of the Spanish ones, who were expelled from Spain in 1492). But secular music was for a long time considered bad for the people. They were urged to sing religious songs at festivities. The idea was: “If you have a sweet voice, glorify God and lead the people in prayer”. As a sign of mourning after the Destruction, all instrumental music even for religious purposes, was prohibited. “Rejoice not, O Israel, unto exultation, like the people”. This did not help to preserve the oral tradition of music. In the Third Century, didn’t Abba Areka say: “An ear which listens to musc shall be torn out”? Or “music in a house must bring, that house to destruction”?. THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC 237

Early Chistianity too fought music bitterly. Clement of Alexandria asks for the human body as the only instrument, and explains it symbolically: “Praise Him on the chords and organ. The body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices. Praise Him on the clashing cymbals. He calls the tongue the symbol of the mouth which resounds with the pulsation of the lips. Let every breath praise the Lord because He cares for every breathing which He haths made. For man is wholly a pacific instrument, while other instruments you will find to be warlike, inflaming to lusts, or kindling up amours or rousing wrath”. Later, Synagogue and Church decide to have music but with astonishing simplicity. Only the chants in Palestinian modes remained and remains for the present day. The organ was introduced only in 1810 in the first Reform Temple in Seesen, Germany. But more and more music for prayers was devellopped. Bardaisan of Edessa (Second century) wrote music for the psalms and it was welcomed as an innovation. During the VIth and the VIIth centuries, during those periods of persecutions, music poured out of troubled souls and aching hearts as a consolation or as supplicational songs. After the rise of Islam, when the Jews could breathe again, new artistic forms in poetry and music created by the Arabs had a certain influence on the Jewish songs. The custom was adopted of improvising prayers during the Talmudic period, and oral tradition preserved these improvisations. The music with the metrical poetry called pyyut was more intricate, rythmic, and modal, and required more musical talent. There can be found the origin of the professional qualities that are required of a musician to become a . This Arabic influence was strong in the Xth century, and the Jewish peo- ple; enjoying political freedom, used Arabic meter and melodies in their synagogal; services of the Sephardim. Rythmical music gained more and more ground in the Jewish song. The Hazzanim between the Xth and XIVth centuries, fascinated their congregations, within this new material. They travelled singing in , and going from town to town like Arabic singers, the French Troubadours, the German Minnensingers. It is the Italian Renassance which reneewed activity and creation amongst the Italian Jews, promptly followed by the strong group of Askenazim. But before studying theses new elements, we must trace the Askenazim tradition. Charlemagne settled an Italian family the Kalonymos in Mayence in the VIIIth century. There have been mutual influences on church and synagogue songs, each influencing the other. But warning came from both sides. The combination of Gregorian chant and folk song was the origin of 238 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC

German and Gallic music. The standard of this music was still low prior to the Xth century, and the Jews exterted an influence upon their Gentile neighbours. Archbishop Odo issued in 1.197 a prohibition for the Christian Clergy to study Jewish litterature and Hebrew. The Jews opposed the exchange of synagogue … and church hymns. But later, the German musi- cal scale and style penetrated the synagogue. A kind of Judeo/German song was created and the break with the oriental Sefardim became, musically, deeper and deeper. In the XVIth century, the synagogue music of the Aske- nazim became germanised. During the same period, the Jews in Pöland, Ukrainia and Lithuania had to concentrate their musical life around the synagogue and the Hazzan had to satisfy their longing for music, which developped in the so called Polish/Jew music. There is a lot of improvisation on traditional motives and variations with one or several singers sustained by string instruments. Certain pieces were influenced by gypsy music, although they belong to an opposed word. Franz Lizst in his book on the gypsies outlines his differ- ence, but the gypsy tune had an influence, nevertheless, as well as Ruman- ian an Ukrainian folks songs on Jewish music in those countries. One of the caracteristics of the eastern european Hazzan Hirsh of Ziviotov though his emotional chanting of prayer moved the Tartars to save 3.000 Jews from the hands of the raging Cossaks. Singing in Poland, impressed the Jewish community more than preaching. Harmony and polyphony were introduced in the synagogue under the influence of the Renaissance in Italy. Jewish musicians were employed at the court of the Duke of Mantua. David da Civita Ebreo wrote three voice madrigals for Duke Ferdinando and Allegro Porto Ebreo, a collection of madrigali a cinque voci dedicated to Emperor Ferdinando II of Austria. But the most gifted and famous Jewish musician at the court of Mantua was Solomon Rossi. His family was descendent from the captives of Jerusalem brought to Rome by Titus. His music has the caracter of Italian Renaissance music. He wrote munerous books of sinfonie or gagliarde, Sonate, Can- zonette per tre voci, Madrigaletti etc. He was highly regarded by his con- temporaries, and in 1606 was privileged to dispense with the Yellow Badge, that Jews had to wear at that time. He also devoted his talents to the Syna- gogue. In different cities there was a tendency to introduce modernisation in the service. The greatiest protagonist of this idea was the Jewish scholar Leo da Modena. He organised in Ferarra a synagogal choir singing accord- ing to the harmony principles. This innovation brought strong oposition as “joy and song have been prohibited since the destruction of the Temple”. Finally the rabbinical assembly in Venice decided in favor of his enterprise. THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC 239

Rossi composed psalms and prayers. His aim was to “glorify and beautify the songs of King David according to the rules of music”. His music was printed, the part and the score, with the Hebrew text running from right to left while the music runs frome left to right. It is only in 1877 that Samuel Hambourg, cantor in Paris, republished Rossi’s works in modern transcrip- tion. Furthermore, Vincent d’Indy published some secular madrigals of Rossi. His synagogue music has not the slightest sound of Jewishness. It is renaissance style, and here we feel for the first time the problem: what is Jewish music? The more the Jews become assimilated, the more this music will have the caracteristics of their country and not of their religion, except in certain works of religious character. But works of those kind treated by non Jewish composers might as well, in expressing their subjects, sound in the tradition of Jewish liturgical music. But Rossi never utilized any traditional melody even as a Cantus Firmus. Then Mantua was captured by Emperor Ferdinando II and wiped out, 1.800 Jew were expelled from the city. The glorious era of the Northern Italy Jews ceased with the Austrian regime, and Rossi’s works were forgotten. In the XVIIIth century Benedetto Marcello used some Jewish tunes in his 50 Psalms published in 1724. He was influenced in his work by the fine music cultivated around the Levantine synagogue in Venice. Although Rossi’s music vanished from the Italian Synagogues, his influence remained and was felt in Germany and Central Europe where the choral singing and instrumental music was stabilised in XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries with the Italian Style of Rossi. The same struggle took place in Prague while in Italy, Leon da Modena fought for the introduction of music in the services. In 1594, Prague built a new synagogue with an organ and used an orchestra. Special musical services started on Friday evenings in order to “receive the Sabbath with music because the divine Shekhina dwells amongst us only when we are joyous”. The custom became established at the beginning of the XVIIth century. At the same time in the Protestant church, choral singing and instrument all selections where performed before the service, and the idea of a religious concert has continued for a long time. These cantatas appeared also in the church and were very near to the opera style. Singers tried to entertain the public and forget the difference between sacred and profane. If to the church, it meant a secularisation of its sacred spirit, for the synagogue a secularisation of the Jewish sentiments. No more remnants of orientalism were present. A pure European expression appeared in religious music. The usual form of minuetto, aria, rondo, polonaise, siciliano, became 240 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC currant, and composers worked for the synagogue using Jewish material only exceptionally. Aaron Beer for example published in 1791, four hun- dred and forty seven numbers arranged for the entire cycle of the year. Other Hazzan composers provided their religious centers with music and when using traditional tunes, they treat them with their own harmonisation; Israel Levy, born 1773 near Dantzig became famous in the town of Furth. He helped the celebrations of Hanuka and Purim. He was a concert singer. He was the first person in the history of Germany to receive permission to, give public concerts in Nurenberg, a place where a Jew was not allowed to stay overnight and was permitted to enter only when accompanied by a Christian woman. In 1818 he became cantor of the Paris Synagogue of our Lady of Nazareth where he organized a choir on four parts and composed a service for the entire year. In the XIXth century the reform movement appeared on Jewry, influ- enced by the idea of the French Revolution and the philosophe school in Germany. A great movement of free thinking, irreligiousness, enthusiastic belief of Humanity, made certain Jews believe that accounted for their trouble. Did not Henri Heine consider Judaïsm as a “calamity?” Some Jews deserted their faith to join the Christian church to feel more completely human beings, full blooded citizens of their country. Some others on the contrary remained faithful to their religion, a fact that did not prevent them from being good citizens of the European countries in which they lived. Some attemps were made in Germany to introduce German isntead of Hebrew. ’s program (1768/1828) with the aid of the French government in Westhalia made it his aim to reform the ritual and reorganze religious education in Germany, introducing tunes of the Protestants chorales. In his Temple in Seesen, Hirsh Goldberg was Hazzan and wrote new music typically German. Jacobson’s programm was accepted in where Christian musicians wrote for the Temple. Purcell and Bach’s music had a great influence on these composers. In Central Europe, a strong opposition was felt, but the progressive elements grew more and more, and the Jewish spirit was pratically forced out. Among the Christian composers who were asked for the Synagogue, Mendelsohn (of Jewish origin, but of baptised parents) was asked to write for the 25th anniversary of the Hamburg Temple, in 1844. He declined the invitation after having first accepted. But that does not mean that he was not interested in music based in religious character. His oratories are too well known to insist on this point. In Vienna, Beethoven was asked by the Community to compose a cantata for the dedication of the New Temple in 1826. I do not know why it was finally Drechsel who wrote this work but THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC 241 it is possible that Beethoven, interested by this commission, studied Jewish tune, for there is a similarity between the Kol Nidrei and the beginning of the C Sharp minor quartet opus 131 written in 1826. Schubert contributed to Synagogue music whith his composition based on Psalm 92. In Paris, Naumbourg was asked by the Ministère des Cultes to reorgan- ise the service. He published in two volumes a service for the entire year. It uses works by Jewish musicians only. Halevy wrote a psalm, strangely enough he adopted for a Uv}nucho Yomer a christmas carrol composed by the Jewish Meyerbeer, who, as a matter of fact, never wrote for the Synagogue. At the time of the dedication of the Temple, in Vienna he was asked to write some music, but he took an ultra conservative attitude, going so far as to say no organ should be installed in the synagogue, being a pure christian instrument. He had arranged in Berlin an a capella choir only, saying that the praying man should approach his God whithout any intermediary. I must of course, mention Max Bruch Kol nidrei which was composed at the request of Lichtenstein, Hazzan in Berlin. In the U.S.A., in the middle of the XVIIth Century, the first settlers were Portuguese. In the XIXth century Central European Jews came, attracted by the Land of Freedom. They began to organize their Jewish religious institutions the Portuguese on the model of Amsterdam and London, the Germans on the model of their homeland services in their contry. There followed a period of adaptation necessitated by the changed conditions of life of these emigrants in a nation which accepted them as free citizens. It was a similar situation in France after the French Revolution of 1789. In the middle of the XIXth century, reform congregations were instituted. Music in the temple was influenced by the protestant church. A collection of music for the services was written and published. Occidental elements seemed to be stronger than the Oriental ones. During those centuries their remained one place where a small minority of the so called minhag Carpentras Jews continued their musical liturgical tradition without individual additions. It is the South of France where the Four Holy Communities (Avignon Carpentras Cavaillon Isle sur la Sorgue) remained until the French Revolution under Pontifical juridiction, because the protection of the Pope in Avignon saved them of the expulsion of 1394. They did not mingle with Spanish refugees of 1492, nor with German Jews. They even strongly opposed them. The musical liturgy differs from all oth- ers. The original Jewish modes are intermingled with French chants of the Middle Ages. They are fortunately preserved in the book Zemirot Israel, Chants Hébraïques published in Marseilles in 1885. They were transcribed 242 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC by Hananel Cremieux. The Hazzan sang unaccompanied in those small Temples, of which two are little masterpieces of XVIIIth century, with foundations of the Gothic period. There was no organ just a modest harmo- nium rarely played. At festivals when someone was capable to improvise, they had harmonisations to the liturgy. Little by little these communities were more or less extinguished. Jews of Comtat Venaissin are rare because of dispersion. They have names of southern french towns, Valabregue, Bedarrides, Monteux Lunel, Milhaud, etc. Some North African elements came at the beginning of this century to live in this part of France, but the liturgical chants were preserved as long as possible. They are no longer sung now. The four Temples of the Holy Communities are closed. In Aix en Provence, my birthplace, this liturgy was maintained until the last Hazzan who knew it died. Throughout my youth I was impressed by these beautiful tunes that I heard at all festivals. The Temple of Aix was dedicated by my grandfather Joseph Milhaud in 1840. He was President of the Consistoire. In 1940, I wrote a cantata for the Centenary of the Temple, my father, Gabriel Milhaud being then President.

But the tragic events of the war prevented this performance it is interest- ing to notice that between the XIVth and the end of the XVIIIth century, a prayer for the Pope as chief of State, was part of this liturgy. The folksong of these French Jews was also a mixture of Hebrew and Provençal, because the Hebrew always blended with the language of the population of the country where the Jews lived. In Germany, the folksongs were a mixture of Hebrew and Yidish. I have studied very deaply the liturgy of the Provençal Jews and used it in some works of Jewish or religious character. But all the caracteristics of my music are French or Mediterranean or even more accurately, Latin. South America where I lived two years in Brazil, had a strong influence on my work, but it is a lati influence because my Southern French soul feals at ease in any Latin athmosphere. I Think that most of the Jewish composers have lost their Jewish charac- teristics, except of course in the case of works written on Jewish subject. Paul Dukas was a Jew, I see only Gallic tradition in this works. Schonberg is a Jew I see only Austrian tradition and the atonality that he uses has the terminal point of the Wagnerian chromaticism. Aron Copland is a Jew. I see only the heart of America, the mood of the country soil the sadness of the shadow of cowboy songs, the carlity of American horizons. Ernest Bloch has written numerous works of Jewish inspiration, but in his opera Macbeth, which is perhaps his masterpiece and in his quartets, you feel a human heart belonging to the world. Vittorio Rieti is a Jew. How could you THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC 243 know it, listening to his work so much in the Italian tradition of Scarlatti or even Rossini? Alexander Tansmann is a Jew. But his music is in the French tradition with Polish feelings (like his mazurkas) but with more of Chopin’s characteristics than the moods of the Polish . Honneger is a Protestant of Swiss origin, but in his oratorios, King David and Judith you can find a sort of oriental flavour which no doubt wold be attributed to Jewishness if he was the Jew. Stravinski is a Russian Orthodox. He wrote his symphony of The Psaumes for choir and orchestra in which you feel a strong sentiment of the Old Testament. Recently, he agreed to collaborate in making acollection of records on Genesis with Schilkret, Tanzman, Toch, Castenuovo, Tedesco, Schonberg, and myself, all Jews except Stravinsky. His contribution, The Tower of Babel, is a cantata and the best piece of the album. When Jewish folksongs are used, the problem is different. Folklore can be treated only in two ways: Either you collect it and do not touch it and bury it in libraries waiting to the dust of the future to make the work of forgiveness, or you use it an then you must use it as if it was an original tune written by yourself. It is bad to try a sort of accompagnment that could suggest a kind of reconstruction. It must be a part of the composer’s mind and heart. In the Kaddish harmonised by Ravel we hear its beautiful melodies but in a Ravelian world. The ouvertures on Jewish themes by Prokofieff, outline the Jewish character of the tune used but do not prevent the Russian feeling of Prokofieff personality from coming through. I wrote several works of Jewish inspiration (all Milhaud works of this kind are listed apart).

In work of religious character if I use actual Jewish tunes, I know Jewish feeling is added to the music of a Franco/Latin heart, French Citizen of Jewish faith. But in the Palestine of to day music is produced with the same intensity that the oranges and grapefruits plantations grow and transform the country. Until now, the folk elements come more from the Askenazim, due to the great number of Germans or Eastern European who emigrated. I heard the music of the Habimah Theater of Russian influence and that of the Hohel Theater. This later company is purely Palestinian, an indication for the artistic future of this country. Although the pronounciation is Sefardic, the tunes are more of the Askenazim. But Palestinian music will affirm itself. It wil be quite different from the music of the European or American Jewish composers expressing their faith. It will probably be more, Palestin- ian than, Jewish, as my music is more French an Aaron Copland’s more American. 244 THE PROBLEM OF JEWISH MUSIC

RÉSUMÉ

Le compositeur Darius Milhaud (1892/1974) a été amené à parler ou à écrire sur Le problème de la musique juive alors qu'il était en exil aux USA pendant la IIe guerre mondiale, ce qui, explique qu'il se soit exprimé en anglais. Dans ce texte il étudie les aspects de la musique utilisée dans la liturgie juive en remontant dans l'Histoire depuis ce que l'on peut savoir des instruments de musique utilisés dans le Temple de Jerusalem. L'A. se réfère ensuite aux usages du Moyen Age et aux grandes innovations introduites au XVIe siècle par les juifs italiens, alors que certains fidèles étaient opposés à une expression trop profane de la musique sacrée. A partir du XIXe siècle, ces chants religieux prennent leur expression connue de nos jours, mais le conclusion de l'A. est qu'il existe des compositeurs juifs plutôt qu'une musique spécifiquement juive.