Abraham Zevi Idelsohn ( ''Avrohom Tzvi Idelsohn'' in

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Hebrew; middle name also rendered ''Tzvi'', ''Zvi'', ''Zwi'', or ''Zebi''; June 11, 1882 – August 14, 1938) was a prominent

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

ethnomusicologist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, 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 in domestic prayers, and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may origina ...

around the world.

Early life

Idelsohn was born on 11 June 1882 to

parents in Feliksberg, a fisher hamlet in present-day

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

, Latvia (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

). His father was a Shochet and '' Baal-t’filloth'' (Master of Prayer) in their district. When Idelsohn was less than six months old, the family moved to Libau (now

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

). There, due to the efforts of Philip Klein, Idelsohn's father was appointed overseer of

kosher meat In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; ; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is ritual slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to ''kashrut''. One who practices this, a kosher b ...

in a non-Jewish butchery. The young Idelsohn used to go with his father to a nearby choir school led by Abraham Mordecai Rabinovitz, who later became teacher to Idelsohn. Idelsohn learnt the synagogal modes and “Zemiroth” as well as Jewish folk-songs from his father. At home, he received an orthodox education and "appreciation for everything Jewish". At the age of 12, he was sent to Lithuanian jeshivas, where he remained five years. Upon hsi return home, he decided to take an examination at the Gymnasium and prepare for "an intelligent profession". He secured a tutor and started studying.

Career

He began his study of

in Libau, and was trained to be a ''

Hazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' (, plural ; ; ) is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term al ...

'' (cantor). He worked briefly in

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

and the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...

. In 1905, he emigrated to the

Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (, ; , , ), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was a district in Ottoman Syria with special administrative status established in 1872.Büssow (2011), p5Abu-Manneh (1999), p39Jankowski & Gershoni (1997), p174 T ...

(part of historic Palestine under the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

). In 1919, during the OETA era, he established a school of Jewish music there. In 1922 he moved to

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, USA to take a position as professor of Jewish music at

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

. In September 1929, he visited his family in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

(then in the Union of South Africa) for his parents’ golden wedding anniversary. During his time there, he gave talks on Jewish music as well as the nature, principles and procedures of Progressive Judaism. He urged his brother, Jerry, to establish a group to initiate Progressive Judaism in Johannesburg. In June 1931, the South African Jewish Religious Union for Liberal Judaism was established with Jerry as honorary secretary, and a wide media campaign was launched. Eventually, the South African Progressive Judaism.A history of Reform Judaism in SA
SAUPJ. Accessed on 6 December 2019 came into being. He is also famous for being the first researcher to document the folk music of

Syrian Jews Syrian Jews ( ''Yehudey Surya'', ''al-Yahūd as-Sūriyyūn'', colloquially called SYs in the United States) are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin ...

. 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 Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, 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 CE. 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. 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 Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

" Hava Nagila." Joel Joffe mentioned his grandfather and his grandfather's role in writing Hava Nagila in an appearance o
BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs on 28 October 2007
/ref>

Works

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''.

Death

Idelsohn died in Johannesburg on 14 August 1938, at the age of 56.

Descendents

Idelsohn's maternal grandson was Joel Goodman Joffe (Baron Joffe) (1932-2017).More evidence of the relationship between Idelsohn and Joffe is provided i
this family tree
/ref>

References

Sources

*
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 Latvian folklorists People from Ventspils Municipality People from Courland Governorate Jews from the Russian Empire Latvian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Jewish musicologists Latvian musicologists Latvian ethnomusicologists Russian folklorists Russian ethnomusicologists American people of Latvian-Jewish descent Hazzans Jewish folklorists 20th-century Russian male singers 20th-century musicologists Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion faculty