Abraham Zevi Idelsohn ( he, אַבְרָהָם צְבִי אידלסון ''Avrohom Tzvi Idelsohn'' in Ashkenazi Hebrew; middle name also rendered ''Tzvi'', ''Zvi'', ''Zwi'', or ''Zebi''; June 11, 1882 – August 14, 1938) was a prominent

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

ethnomusicologist and composer, who conducted several comprehensive studies of

Jewish music Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish people. There exist both traditions of religious music, as sung at the synagogue and domestic prayers, and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may originate ...

around the world. Abraham and Tzilla Idelsohn

Idelsohn was born in Feliksberg, Latvia, then part of

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and trained as a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

. He worked briefly in both Europe and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

before emigrating to Palestine in 1905 and establishing a school of Jewish music there in 1919. In 1922 he moved to

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

to take a position as professor of Jewish music at Hebrew Union College. He died in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, where he also supported the establishment of South African Progressive Judaism.A history of Reform Judaism in SA
SAUPJ. Accessed on 6 December 2019 Idelsohn is generally acknowledged as the “father” of modern Jewish musicology, despite his publishing starting after that of Angie Irma Cohon. During his time in Jerusalem, he noted a great diversity of musical traditions among the Jews living in the region. Idelsohn examined these traditional melodies and found recurring motifs and progressions that were not found in any other national music. This suggested a common origin for musical phrases that went back to Israel/Palestine in the first century C.E. He found that these motifs fell into three distinct tonal centers, which corresponded to the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian modes of the ancient Greeks. Each of these modes elicited a distinct psycho-emotional response. The Dorian Mode was used for texts of an elevated and inspired nature; the Phrygian for sentimental texts, with their very human outbreaks of feeling, both of joy and grief; and the Lydian was used in composing music for the texts of lamenting and confessions of sins. Idelsohn further categorized and defined these motives as ones that either prepared a musical phrase, began it, or concluded it. His works include the monumental ''Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies'' (10 volumes, 1914–1932), ''Jewish Music'' (1929), and a collaboration with Cohon on ''Harvest Festivals, A Children’s Succoth Celebration''. He was also the music teacher to Moshe Nathanson, a well-known Jewish composer who is known to be the author of the lyrics to the famous Jewish folk song "

Hava Nagila Hava Nagila ( he, הָבָה נָגִילָה, ''Hāvā Nāgīlā'', "Let us rejoice") is a Jewish folk song. It is traditionally sung at celebrations, such as weddings. Written in 1918, it quickly spread through the Jewish diaspora. History ...

Joel Joffe Joel Goodman Joffe, Baron Joffe, (12 May 1932 – 18 June 2017) was a South African-born British lawyer and Labour peer in the House of Lords. Life and career Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to the Joffe family. His mother was born in Man ...

mentioned his grandfather and his grandfather's role in writing

in an appearance o
BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs on 28 October 2007
/ref> He is the maternal grandfather of Joel Goodman Joffe (Baron Joffe).More evidence of the relationship between Idelsohn and Joffe is provided i
this family tree
/ref>

Notes and references

*
Works by and about Abraham Zevi Idelsohn in University Library JCS Frankfurt am Main: Digital Collections Judaica

Idelsohn at the Encyclopædia Britannica

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090411230544/http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001174870.html Hebrew edition, vols 1–5 only

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Idelsohn, Abraham Zevi 1882 births 1938 deaths People from Ventspils Municipality People from Courland Governorate Latvian Jews Jews from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine American people of Latvian-Jewish descent Latvian musicologists Hazzans Jewish folklorists 20th-century Russian male singers 20th-century Russian singers 20th-century musicologists Jewish musicologists Hebrew Union College faculty