|
|
 |
Global Hit
|
| Click Here to go back. |
The World, Global Hit >>
The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana began at sundown yesterday. It marks the start of the Jewish New Year. And today is also the first day of Ramadan. That's the Muslim holy month of fasting. The two holidays don't always coincide. But Judaism and Islam do have some cultural elements in common. Some of those elements are part of Christianity as well. One such religious intersection inspired the music featured in today's Global Hit. The World's Adeline Sire has the story.
The British a capella group "The King's Singers" teamed up with the Middle Eastern group "Sarband" a couple of years ago to make an album. They wanted to perform sacred music that would bridge western and eastern cultures. They settled on psalms set to music in the 16th and 17th centuries. The "Book of Psalms" is part of both the Jewish and Christian traditions. Muslims have a version of the book of psalms as well. It was the sort of unifying element the two groups were looking for. David Hurley is one of the six members of "the King's Singers."
Hurley: This idea of performing psalm settings from the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, seemed a wonderful idea. The link being the settings of the psalms of David and it had musical bridges between the religions.
There are musical settings of the psalms in the Jewish and Christian faiths. And -- as Hurley found out -- there are also Islamic Turkish versions. Some of those are the work of 17th century composer Ali Ufki.
Hurley: Ali Ufki was this fascinating man, he was a protestant born in Poland but captured by the Ottoman Turks and taken into exile to Turkey where he was converted to Islam and was given a Turkish Islamic education but still had this knowledge of Christian European life.
In his Christian, European life, Ufki learned well-known versions of the psalms sung in French. He incorporated a few of them in his own compositions. But Ufki also used those same French melodies to create his own versions... sung in Turkish.
Another composer who set the psalms of David to music was Salamone Rossi. He was a Jewish violinist, singer and composer, born in late 16th century Italy. Rossi was a court musician for the Duke of Mantua. As such he was expected to compose secular music on demand. But as a Jewish composer he would also write sacred music in Hebrew for the synagogue. Here's one of Rossi's compositions as sung by the King's Singers.
Singer David Hurley points out that Rossi worked at a very Catholic court. But like all Jews at the time, he was forced to live in the city's Jewish quarter or ghetto.
Hurley: Salamone Rossi really lived between those 2 places, he lived between the court and he was there viewing al the art of the Renaissance and hearing all the music of the Renaissance but yet going back to the Jewish ghetto where there was very little exposure to the art and music of the Renaissance.
Rossi was so steeped in all the different styles of music he heard at the court, that his own religious compositions began to show influences from those styles.
David Hurley says that's what made Salamone Rossi a great bridge between cultures. 10/04/05 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
