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Tracing Jewish Music beyond the Synagogue: Charles Garland Verrinder's Hear my cry O God
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2019
Extract
On 1 September 1887, the Musical Times printed a list of pieces published during the previous month by Novello, Ewer and Co. As Novello's house journal, with a wide circulation across Britain, the Musical Times regularly listed new publications in the knowledge that such advertisements would reach a large and enthusiastic readership. In this particular issue, one of the pieces advertised was an anthem titled Hear my cry O God, composed by Dr C.G. Verrinder (see Fig. 1, highlighted). To anyone unfamiliar with Verrinder, his name blends in with the other composers on the list – one of the now largely forgotten majority of Victorian composers trying to make a living through writing sacred works or parlour music. The most renowned figure here is probably Ignaz Moscheles (listed here as ‘J. Moscheles’), whose work Domestic Life featured posthumously in one of Novello's collections of piano pieces; another name of note is that of Rosalind F. Ellicott, one of the era's more prominent female composers and particularly striking here among so many men.
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Footnotes
I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr Benjamin Walton, for reading several iterations of this article prior to submission. I am also grateful to the Jewish Historical Society of England for their continued support of my research, and for inviting me to present the material contained in this article in an illustrated lecture celebrating the inauguration of the Cambridge branch of the Society in October 2017, during which Hear my cry O God was, in all likelihood, performed for the first time since its premiere 130 years previously.
References
1 ‘During the last month, published by Novello, Ewer & Co.’, The Musical Times (1 September 1887): 555.
2 Cooper, Victoria, The House of Novello: Practice and Policy of a Victorian Music Publisher, 1829–1866 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), 146Google Scholar. While Cooper's account does not extend to the period in question in this article, she provides ample evidence of the Musical Times’s early success in promoting Novello's music to a wide audience through an ‘unparalleled intercommunication amongst musical people’ (Preface to Volume 4 of the Musical Times, May 1852). Given the continued popularity of Novello as publisher of the journal throughout the remainder of the century, however, we can assume that this success continued even once the business had transferred from Alfred Novello to Henry Littleton in 1866.
3 ‘Domestic Life’ is the English translation of Familienleben (op. 140), written by Moscheles in 1866 and republished here 17 years after the composer's death in 1870.
4 Sophie Fuller, ‘Ellicott, Rosalind Frances’, in Grove Music Online, www.oxfordmusic.com (accessed 1 November 2017).
5 Verrinder's significant contribution to Anglo-Jewish choral music is the subject of my forthcoming doctoral thesis, which uses Verrinder as a case study to examine interactions between Jewish and Christian musical and cultural spheres.
6 The Musical World, for example, placed a special announcement in its 31 August 1878 issue (p. 568) outlining the ‘Programmes of Organ Recitals by Dr C.G. Verrinder’ at the Royal Albert Hall on the afternoons of Sunday 25 and Monday 26 August. Another issue of the same newspaper (24 March 1860, p. 191) also described the programme of the second concert of the Musical Society of London, held at St James’ Hall, for which Verrinder provided the organ accompaniment.
7 The Illustrated Review (15 May 1873): 529.
8 Clark, Michael, Albion and Jerusalem: The Anglo-Jewish Community in the Post-Emancipation Era, 1858–1887 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 For more information regarding the comparison of British with other European Jewish reform, see Endelman, Todd M., Broadening Jewish History: Towards a Social History of Ordinary Jews (Oxford, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011)Google Scholar.
10 Frühauf, Tina, The Organ and its Music in German Jewish Culture (New York, Oxford University Press, 2009), 35–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Frühauf, The Organ and its Music in German Jewish Culture, 41.
12 Detailed accounts of synagogue reform in Britain during this period can be found in Kershen, Anne J. and Romain, Jonathan A., Tradition and Change: A History of Reform Judaism in Britain (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 1995)Google Scholar, and Marmur, Dow, Reform Judaism – Essays on Reform Judaism in Britain; dedicated to Rabbi Werner van Der Zyl (Oxford: Alden Press, 1973)Google Scholar. For a full history of the West London Synagogue, see Bernard, Philippa, A Beacon of Light: The History of the West London Synagogue (London: West London Synagogue, 2014)Google Scholar.
13 While little has been written to date regarding the debates surrounding the use of instrumental music in British synagogues, Tina Frühauf's The Organ and its Music in German Jewish Culture provides a detailed account of the various attitudes towards, in particular, the organ in Jewish worship in Germany, but in a way which outlines the key issues regarding instrumental music in Jewish worship more broadly.
14 A number of pieces in the Jewish Chronicle in the lead up to the installation of the organ at the West London Synagogue in 1859 debated both the merits and religious restrictions of having instrumental music in the synagogue, and whether such music should be performed by a Jewish or non-Jewish musician. A review of the Synagogue's re-opening in September of that year concludes: ‘The organist, Mr. Verrinder, is described as a gentleman of superior musical attainments. We have, however, not been able to learn if he is a co-religionist or not’. (‘Re-opening of the West London Synagogue’, the Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer (30 September 1859): 5).
15 Evidence that the installation of an organ and the subsequent re-opening of the West London Synagogue was of interest to wider British society can be seen in the number of articles about the event in the national press, including the Morning Chronicle, the Musical World, the Church, and the Morning Post. Advertisements for the role of Organist at the Synagogue were also printed in the Times and the Musical World, as well as the Jewish Chronicle.
16 ‘1859 November Report of the Organ Committee’, West London Synagogue Archives, Southampton University, MS 140 AJ 175 131/5. According to the report, the applications from Jewish candidates were not accompanied by ‘satisfactory testimonials’.
17 Correspondence from Verrinder to the Synagogue regarding the employment of female singers can be found at the West London Synagogue Archives. See in particular MS 140 AJ 175 131/15 and MS 140 AJ 59 1/2.
18 Herring, George, ‘Heavenly Voices’, in The Oxford Movement in Practice: The Tractarian Parochial Worlds from the 1830s to the 1870s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Elizabeth Blackmore ‘The “Angelic Quire”: Rethinking Female Voices in Anglican Sacred Music, c. 1889’ (MA Thesis, Department of History, Durham University, 2015), outlines how the contribution of the female voice in Anglican worship has been underestimated in existing scholarship, particularly with regards to parish ministry outside of key towns and cities.
20 There is currently no evidence that Verrinder was more acquainted with Lewandowski's work (some of which was contemporary with Verrinder's own) than with Sulzer's; indeed, only pieces by the latter feature in later volumes of Verrinder's music for the Synagogue. Furthermore, with the exception of one melody (to the Yigdal text), all examples of so-called ‘Ancient melodies’ contained in Verrinder's volumes are of Sephardi origin, rather than Ashkenazi, indicating that his repertoire of historic Jewish tunes did not overlap significantly with those used by the German and Austrian composers. See Danielle Padley and Susan Wollenberg, ‘Charles Garland Verrinder: London's first synagogue organist’, forthcoming in Ad Parnassum Studies 11, ed. Luca Lévi Sala (Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni), for further details regarding Verrinder's organ writing for the West London Synagogue.
21 Marks, David Woolf, ‘The Synagogue and the Organ. Preached on the re-consecration of the West London Synagogue of British Jews, Margaret Street, and on the inauguration of the Organ. September 26, 1859’., in Sermons preached on various occasions, at the West London Synagogue of British Jews, by the Rev. Professor Marks, Minister of the Congregation. Series 2 (London: Trübner & Co., 1885), 178Google Scholar.
22 Marks, ‘The Synagogue and the Organ’, 177.
23 Kadish, Sharman, ‘Constructing Identity: Anglo-Jewry and Synagogue Architecture’, Architectural History 45 (2002): 393–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Lipman, V.D., Social History of the Jews in England 1850–1950 (London: Watts & Co., 1954), 7Google Scholar; Endelman, Broadening Jewish History, 76.
25 Kershen and Romain, Tradition and Change, 28.
26 Kadish's article provides a broad overview of the manner in which British synagogues have been designed and built to reflect the place of the Jewish community in Britain since the eighteenth century.
27 Cohen, Francis L. and Davis, David M., The Voice of Prayer and Praise: A Handbook of Synagogue Music for Congregational Singing. Arranged and Edited for the United Synagogue with the sanction of the Chief Rabbi. (London: Greenberg and Co., 1899)Google Scholar.
28 Cohen, Francis L. and Moseley, B.L., A Handbook of Synagogue Music for Congregational Singing (London: Spottiswoode and Co, 1889)Google Scholar; ‘The New Hymnal’, Jewish Chronicle (11 October 1889): 10.
29 Cohen and Davis, ‘Preface’, in The Voice of Prayer and Praise, vii.
30 Aguilar, E. and Sola, D.A. De, The Ancient Melodies of the Liturgy of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Harmonized by Emanuel Aguilar. Preceded by an historical essay on the poets, poetry and melodies of the Sephardic liturgy, by the Rev. D. A. De Sola, Minister of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of Jews, Bevis Marks, London. (London: Wertheimer and Co., 1857)Google Scholar.
31 Aguilar and De Sola, The Ancient Melodies, n.p. (two after 23).
32 Aguilar and De Sola, The Ancient Melodies, 1.
33 ‘New Publications: The Ancient Melodies of the Liturgy of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’, the Athenaeum (9 January 1858): 55–6.
34 ‘New Publications, Service Music: The Music Used in the Services of the West London Synagogue of British Jews’, the Athenaeum (3 August 1861): 159.
35 Cooper, The House of Novello, 70. Again, Cooper refers to the period before Novello began to publish Verrinder's works mentioned here; however, it appears that the principles at stake remained constant throughout the nineteenth century, with the publisher's remit only widening with the increased demand for, and availability of, printed works.
36 Cooper, The House of Novello, 86.
37 Cooper, The House of Novello, 86.
38 Only Volumes 1 and 2 exist as previously published editions.
39 Verrinder, C.G., Hear my cry O God. Anthem, composed for 21st June 1887 (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1887)Google Scholar.
40 ‘The Jubilee; Berkeley Street’, the Jewish Chronicle (24 June 1887): 13. The article misrepresents Verrinder's composition, claiming it to be a ‘setting of the 16th Psalm’, rather than the 61st; however, the details which follow corroborate that it is indeed Hear my cry O God to which the article refers. Furthermore, the article also refers to David Woolf Marks's sermon, in which he ‘preached from Psalm lxi’, presumably in response to the text used in Verrinder's composition.
41 ‘The Jubilee’, 13.
42 ‘The Jubilee’, 13. These details support the information printed in Verrinder's published arrangement of the National Anthem, which prescribes a ‘Soprano Solo or semi-chorus’ for the first verse, with the second verse to be sung ‘in harmony’ and the third ‘in unison’; see Verrinder, C.G., National Anthem – God Save the Queen (London: Novello, Ewer, & Co., 1887)Google Scholar.
43 Held in the Westminster City Archives.
44 ‘The Jubilee’, 12. The ‘disabilities’ refer to the limitations previously placed on Jews (as well as some other non-Anglican communities), such as entrance to certain universities and professions, which were gradually lifted over the course of Queen Victoria's early reign. The Anglo-Jewish community were fully emancipated in 1858.
45 ‘The Jubilee’, 12.
46 Friedlander's piece in its Novello form is titled: ‘Hear, O God, Hear my Cry (Psalm LXI). To be sung on the occasion of Her Majesty's Jubilee, 1887’, in Novello's Collection of Anthems, Vol. 15 (London & New York: Novello, Ewer and Co., 1887)Google Scholar.
47 ‘The Jubilee’, 12.
48 A second copy of the work is also held at the British Library with a publication date of 1876; given that Friedlander would have been eight at this time, however, this is likely to be incorrect.
49 ‘The Jubilee’, 12.
50 ‘The Jubilee’, 12.
51 Text as used in Verrinder's setting.
52 Another difference between Friedlander's arrangement and Verrinder's is the transliteration of the Hebrew text; the former is written following Ashkenazi pronunciation, the latter using Sephardi pronunciation (for example, Friedlander uses an ‘s’ at the end of the word neginas rather than a ‘t’, and an ‘o’ in ledovid, rather than ledavid with an ‘ah’ vowel). Such differences in pronunciation reflect the common practice found in the respective synagogue communities. Generally speaking, the United Synagogue adopted Ashkenazi pronunciation to accommodate the largely central and Eastern European background of its congregants; indeed, the ‘Blue Book’ is written entirely with Ashkenazi pronunciation. All of Verrinder's Hebrew works are written in Sephardi pronunciation, following the custom at the West London Synagogue which had a large number of congregants (including founder members) who had originated from the Sephardi denomination.
53 It is generally acknowledged that ‘A psalm of David’ does not, as is frequently assumed, refer to the fact that the text was composed by King David; rather, it is more likely to be a dedication to the King by another Psalmist. Given the text of Psalm 61, this theory appears to be more appropriate. See Boadt, Lawrence, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction, second edition (New York: Paulist Press, 2012)Google Scholar.
54 A further complication with performing the piece at the Orthodox synagogue, as we shall see later, was that performance would have had to be restricted to occasions which did not coincide with the Sabbath or High Holydays, during which instrumental music was forbidden by Talmudic law. Unlike other pieces by Verrinder, Hear my cry O God cannot be performed without the organ due to the number of important interludes between vocal phrases.
55 ‘Sacred Music’, Musical Times (1 December 1878): 655–7.
56 Nathan, I., A Selection of Hebrew Melodies: Ancient and modern newly arranged harmonized corrected and revised with appropriate symphonies and accompaniments by I. Nathan, the Poetry written expressly for the work by Lord Byron (London: J. Fentum, for the Proprietor, 1825)Google Scholar; Salaman, C., How Lovely are Thy Habitations (London, 1872/3)Google Scholar; ‘“How Lovely Are Thy Habitations” (84th Psalm) by Charles Salaman’, the Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, 16/381 (1 November, 1874): 688CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Salaman's composition first appeared, in Hebrew, in Volume 2 of The Music Used, published by Lamborn Cock in 1870, arranged with organ accompaniment by Verrinder. The work was the subject of a heated debate between Salaman and Verrinder in the Jewish Chronicle (24 October to 14 November 1873) regarding the ownership of the piece in its published arrangement.
57 ‘The Jubilee’, 15–16.
58 ‘The Jubilee’, 14.
59 ‘The Temple Service and Synagogue Music’, Musical Standard (17 February 1877): 101–2; ‘The Gresham Chair of Music. Probationary Lectures’, Supplement to the Musical Standard (10 May 1890): 447–9; ‘The Rise and Development of Synagogue Music: Rev. Francis L. Cohen’, Papers read at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, Royal Albert Hall, London. 1887 (London: Office of the “Jewish Chronicle”, 2 Finsbury Square, E.C., 1888.)Google Scholar.
60 ‘Dr. Verrinder's “Kol Nidrei”’,Jewish Chronicle (18 December 1891):13.