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An Italian Tune in the Synagogue: an Unexplored Contrafactum by Leon Modena∗

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An Italian Tune in the Synagogue: an Unexplored Contrafactum by Leon Modena∗ Kedem G OLDEN AN ITALIAN TUNE IN THE SYNAGOGUE: AN UNEXPLORED CONTRAFACTUM BY LEON MODENA∗ ABSTRACT Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is known for his extensive, life-long involvement with music in its various theoretical and practical aspects. The article presents additional evidence that has gone unnoticed in previous studies of Modena’s musical endeavors: his adaption of a polyphonic, secular Italian melody, for the singing of a liturgical hymn. After identifying the melody and suggesting a possible date for the compo- sition of the Hebrew text, the article proceeds to discuss it in a broader context of the Jewish musical culture at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular contemporary Jewish views to the use of “foreign” melodies in the syna- gogue. The article concludes with an attempt to situate it as part of Modena’s thought of art music. RÉSUMÉ Léon Modène, une des personnalités célèbres du judaïsme italien du début de la période moderne, est connu pour s’être impliqué de près dans le monde de la musique et ses divers aspects, aussi bien théoriques que pratiques. Le présent article présente un exemple supplémentaire de cette implication, passé inaperçu dans les études antérieures: l’adaptation par Modène d’une mélodie polyphonique profane italienne en un hymne liturgique. Après avoir identifié la mélodie et suggéré la date éventuelle de la composition du texte hébreu, l’article analyse cet hymne dans le contexte plus large de la culture musicale juive au tournant des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, notamment en tenant compte des opinions juives contemporaines sur l’usage de chants «étrangers «dans la synagogue. L’article tente enfin de le situer dans le cadre de la pensée de Léon Modène sur la musique savante. ∗ In writing this article, I have benefited from the kind advice and encouragement of sev- eral people, including, among others, Peter Sh. Lehnardt, Sara Offenberg, Elam Rotem and Ron Lasri. Gabriel Wasserman had helped with the English translation of Modena’s work, and Yehonatan Vardi with its interpretation. To all these my sincere gratitude. Any faults, however, are of course my own. Revue des études juives, 177 (3-4), juillet-décembre 2018, pp. 391-420. doi: 10.2143/REJ.177.3.3285578 392 AN ITALIAN TUNE IN THE SYNAGOGUE Leon Modena, Venetian Rabbi and Musician In the summer of 1608, the English traveler Thomas Coryate visited the “Most glorious, Peerlesse and Mayden Citie”, Venice. Among the many sights of Venice he would go on to record in his travelogue Coryat’s Crudi- ties (1611), was also the city’s famous ghetto, the Jewish quarter then walled for almost a century. During his visit, Coryate had the chance to observe a religious service in one of the synagogues in the ghetto — a rare opportunity for a man coming from a country with no native Jewish population, as they had been expelled from England in 1290. What he saw there — and, more precisely what he heard — unsettled him to his core:1 The Levite that readeth the law to them […] pronounce before the congregation not by a sober, distinct, and orderly reading, but by an exceeding loud yaling, undecent roaring, and as it were a beastly bellowing of it forth. And that after such a confused and hudling manner, that I thinke the hearers can very hardly understand him: sometimes he cries out alone, and sometimes againe some others […] do roare with him, but so that his voyce (which he straineth so high as if he sung for a wager) drowneth all the rest. As a devout Protestant, Coryate was not without prejudice in writing of the Jews; but his depictions also show how, after coming in direct contact with them, he was sometimes capable of perceiving some Jewish customs favorably.2 Yet the cacophony of the Jewish prayer depicted above, which so unsettled the Englishman, cannot be mistaken. This impression does not derive merely from the objective depiction of the reading in the synagogue, but rather partially from an implicit comparison of the ceremony to Christian rites, familiar to both the author and his readers. Those rites where certain physical and verbal gestures signify order, harmony, and solemnity, as well as a sonic aspect which serves as one of the major focal points of Christian ceremonies — the uplifting music played to the congregation.3 1. T. CORYATE, Coryat’s Crudities, Glasgow, 1905, p. 371 (I retained the original spelling). 2. On Coryate’s impressions of the Jews he met in the course of his continental travels, see M. YARDENI, “Descriptions of Voyages and Changed Attitudes towards the Jews: The Case of Thomas Coryate”, in id., Anti-Jewish Mentalities in Early Modern Europe, Lanham, 1991, p. 71-91. 3. Such a comparison could be drawn from the ecstatic depiction Coryate gives, later on in his travelogue of Venice, of the performances in the Feast of St. Roch: “This feast consisted principally of Musicke, which was both vocall and instrumental, so good, so delectable, so rare, so admirable, so superexcellent, that it did even ravish and stupifie all those strangers that never heard the like. But how others were affected with it I know not; for mine owne part I can say this, that I was for the time even rapt up with Saint Paul into the third heaven” (Coryat’s Crudities, p. 391). AN ITALIAN TUNE IN THE SYNAGOGUE 393 Coryate’s depiction is not unusual in this regard. In fact, it faithfully represents a typical categorization in Christian discourse, recently studied by Ruth HaCohen, which constructed the Christian universe as harmonious, and the Jew in it, contrastingly, as a discordant maker of noise.4 Rooted in early Christianity, as we shall see this perception also reverberated in late Renaissance Italy.5 As Coryate’s lexical choices suggest, against the rich Christian musical backdrop, even the refined and acculturated Venetian Jews, their women bejeweled and dressed in fineries,6 are still markedly makers of noise. To Coryate, precisely during their most hallowed occasion — reading from the holy Torah — the Jews’ uncouth sounds remove them from the recognizable cultural sphere of civilized people. This, however, is a distorting Christian perspective. While Coryate does not mentioned which of the synagogues in the ghetto he visited (he notes there were “at least seven”), wandering the streets of the Jewish quarter he could have easily encountered a man who was bent on bringing musical harmony to the synagogue, and sing different tunes there — Leon (Judah Aryeh) Modena (1571-1648).7 Modena, one of the most central and prolific characters of early modern Italian Jewry, was preoccupied with music in its various theoretical and practical aspects all throughout his life, as was meticulously and thoroughly shown by the late Don Harrán.8 Thanks to the wealth of writings he left us, 4. R. HACOHEN, The Music Libel against the Jews, New Haven, 2011. 5. Ibid., p. 58-70. A similar critical depiction of the prayer service in an Italian synagogue was made a century before Coryate, by the French humanist François Tissard; see the quote in D. B. RUDERMAN, The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol, Cincinnati, 1981, p. 101. 6. “I saw many Jewish women, whereof some were as beautiful as ever I saw, and so gorgeous in their apparel, jewels, chains of gold, and rings adorned with precious stones, that some of our English Countesses do scarce exceed them…” (Coryat’s Crudities, p. 372). 7. The literature on the life and work of Leon Modena is exhaustive. The main studies on his poetry and thought on music will be listed below. For a thorough survey of his life, see H. E. ADELMAN, Success and Failure in the Seventeenth Century Ghetto of Venice: The Life and Thought of Leon Modena, 1571-1648, Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1985 (I thank the author for producing his work at my request). For articles treating various aspects of this unique figure, see D. MALKIEL (ed.), The Lion Shall Roar: Leon Modena and His World, Jerusalem, 2003. 8. Harrán’s many articles to be mentioned below were invaluable in introducing me to the fascinating subject of Jewish music in the early modern period. For his main works on Mod- ena, see D. HARRÁN, “ʻDum Recordaremur Sionʼ: Music in the Life and Thought of the Venetian Rabbi Leon Modena (1571-1648)”, AJS Review, 23 (1998), p. 17-61; id., “Was Rabbi Leon Modena a Composer?”, in The Lion Shall Roar: Leon Modena and His World, p. 195-248; id., “Nomina Numina: Final Thoughts of Rabbi Leon Modena on the Essence of Sacred Music”, Italia, 17 (2006), p. 7-63. Also relevant to the following is Adler’s concise discussion; I. ADLER, “La pénétration de la musique savante dans les synagogues italiennes 394 AN ITALIAN TUNE IN THE SYNAGOGUE we know more of Modena’s musical biography than perhaps any other Jew of his time. A man known to have possessed “a fine tenor voice” as an adult,9 Modena records in his autobiography, The Life of Judah, that he received his first musical education at the age of ten.10 Modena’s close rela- tives — uncle, brother-in-law, and later on his son-in-law, and his son Zebu- lun — all had musical training, and some even worked for a living as profes- sional musicians.11 As part of his rabbinical duties in the Jewish ghetto, he served in the traditional post of cantor in the Italian Synagogue, from 1610 until his death in 1648.12 Additionally, beginning from around 1628 he also served as the maestro de cappella, the director of a musical academy founded in the ghetto and comprised of professional musicians — a clear sign of his extensive musical proficiency.13 Modena stands out among his Jewish peers not just as a performer of music, but also in his capacity as rabbi and ruler on religious law (halakha).
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