Jasmin Kutzner is presenting a working paper on 'The Influence of Synagogal Liturgy and Ritual Practices of Judaism in the Works of the Neue Jüdische Schule'

Hélène Clément & Jascha Nemtsov play Alexander Weprik - "Chant rigoureux"  

The project is dedicated to the appearance of national Jewish art music in the first decades of the 20th century. With the changes of the social position of the Jewish population in Europe and their participation in political, economic, and cultural life, a new self-confidence arose in regard to religious and cultural traditions and ethical principles, especially in Eastern Europe. Russia not only became the nutrient medium of a national Jewish renaissance, what led to the creation of a national school of Jewish music in the early 20th century - initially also the most important centre of Jewish artmusic - which later on inspired many composers of different countries to artistic disputes about the independent Jewish language of music. In the centre of the research interest are compositions of the Neue Jüdische Schule, which was an association of composers characterised by Zionist ideas and institutionally organized with the Gesellschaft für jüdische Volksmusik in St. Petersburg (1908-1920), the Gesellschaft für jüdische Musik in Moskow (1923-1931) and with the Verein zur Förderung jüdischer Musik in Vienna (1928-1938). Within the project selected musical works of Jewish composers will be analyzed regarding the question of the influence of liturgical elements and ritual practices of Judaism to them. In a second step, they will be put into the context of (music-)historical and cultural processing and identity-founding strategies. The scientific discussion about both synagogal and folkloristic music and about ritual practices of the Judaism, with respect to their historical development, functionality and social influence, are the starting point and basic concept of the project. The research project is strongly linked to the Potsdamer Archiv der Neuen Jüdischen Schule initiated and built up by Jascha Nemtsov. The goal of the research project is the discursive interpreting examination of the musical collections of the archive paying special attention to the interconnections of liturgical, traditional, and ritual practices of Judaism with art-musical forms of expression. The scholarly interest also follows the questions of underlying musical and sociological ideals of the Neue Jüdische Schule, the tense relationship within the association of composers and to the social reality. Furthermore, the topic music as a political symbol and medium for dissemination of a national consciousness will be addressed. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary oriented research project wants to give birth to analytical results regarding structural elements of the Jewish music-language and also of the positioning of the Neue Jüdische Schule in the musical field of tension between tradition and innovation.