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ADLER: Symphony No. 5 / Nuptial Scene / The Binding




Total playing time: 01:09:55

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About the Composer




In that he has always devoted his gifts to Judaically related and general musical expression with equal emphasis, SAMUEL ADLER (b. 1928) is a unique phenomenon among those established mainstream American composers whose Jewish identities have informed a part of their art. Adler has long been in the forefront of both worlds, not only artistically as a composer (his primary endeavor), but also intellectually and academically as a lecturer, educator, and author. Among 20th-century American Jewish composers, perhaps only the life of Hugo Weisgall (1912-97) offers some parallels. Both had fathers who were learned émigré cantors in the Central European mold; both devoted substantial creativity to Jewish subjects while never circumscribing themselves parochially; both have been generally perceived as prominent in each field; both served on faculties of major universities and conservatories; and both established lifelong official affiliations with major American institutions of higher Jewish learning: Adler with the Reform movement, through his ongoing association with the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College, and Weisgall with the Conservative movement and the Jewish Theological Seminary - as chairman of the faculty of its Cantors Institute and Seminary College of Jewish Music. But while Weisgall's oeuvre includes only one full-length synagogue service, Adler has written and continues to write prolifically for the Hebrew liturgy (in addition to his numerous nonliturgical Jewish works), and he has been a consistently active participant in the cantorial and Jewish musical infrastructure in America, especially - though not exclusively - within the Reform arena.






Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany, in the last years of the optimism and creative fervor of the Weimar Republic. His father, Chaim [Hugo Ch.] Adler, was a highly respected cantor at Mannheim's chief Liberale synagogue, where the orientation was the mainstream German-Jewish synthesis of tradition and modernity - most closely approximating the American Conservative movement's path in many respects. Chaim Adler was also an active liturgical composer. Within a year after the nationally orchestrated pogrom known as Reichskristallnacht, in 1938, and the realization of doom for German Jewry's future, the family immigrated to America, where the elder Adler obtained a position as a cantor in Worcester, Massachusetts. There the young Samuel Adler (originally Hans) displayed his musical talents at an early age. He became his father's choir director when he was only thirteen and remained at that post until he began his university studies. During that early period he began composing liturgical settings, at first under his father's influence and soon developing his own style. At the same time, he benefited from exposure to the full gamut of Ashkenazi synagogue repertoire - particularly the western and Central European schools of the 19th and 20th centuries.






Adler holds degrees from Boston University (BM.) and Harvard (M.A.). He studied composition with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, Hugo Norden, and Randall Thompson, and studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center, Following his discharge from the United States Army, he was appointed music director of Temple Emanu-EI in Dallas, a position he held from 1953 until 1966. He established an elaborate musical structure within that congregation, with five distinct choirs - four children's and youth choirs, and an adult volunteer chorus that reached a membership of ninety. Under his direction they performed the works of most of the important American, English, European, and Israeli synagogue composers. They also premiered works by Fromm, Freed, Schalit, Helfman, Saminsky, Binder, Jospe, Starer, Avni, Orgad, Haidu, Alexander, Ben Halm, and Hugo Adler. During this tenure Adler composed three complete Sabbath services (evening and morning) - B'sha'arei T'filla; Shir Hadash; and Shiru Ladonai - and companion pieces for the High Holy Days and the Three Festivals. He was also a professor of composition at the University of North Texas, and director of the Dallas Lyric Theater for four years.






After leaving Dallas to become professor of composition (later chairman of the department) at the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York, Adler maintained his associations with both Reform and Conservative congregations throughout the United States, and he continued to devote considerable attention to composing for the synagogue and for Jewish secular subjects and texts. In 1969 he edited and published a two-volume anthology of music for the High Holy Days, Yamim Noraim, subsequently revised and expanded to accommodate new prayerbooks published by the Reform movement. In Rochester he also formed a fruitful association with Samuel Rosenbaum, the resident cantor Cantor. Rosenbaum's talent for creating lyrics, libretti, and artfui Yiddish translations resulted in a number of collaborations with Adler on new cantatas: A Falling of Saints, Stars in the Dust, Ever Since Babylon, and Flames of Freedom, among others, in addition to many shorter works based on folk arrangements. Together with Rosenbaum, Adler also organized a series of monthly Havdala concerts (Saturday evening programs at the close of the Sabbath), presenting instrumental as well as vocal Jewish music, and he recorded ten albums of Jewish Holy Day music for Rochester's FM radio station WXXI that were later broadcast nationally for many years. During the early 1960s, concerned with cultivating taste among younger generations, Adler established - together with Rabbi Alexander Schindler (then executive vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform movement's lay organ) - a program of Jewish music study and performance at a Reform-affiliated summer camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.






Adler's catalogue comprises more than 400 works in nearly all media, including six symphonies, twelve concerti, eight string quartets, five operas, many shorter orchestral works, pieces for wind ensembles and concert bands, other chamber music, and dozens of choral settings and songs - all in addition to his liturgical music. Some of these works are related to biblical and other Jewish historical subjects, and some deal specifically with Jewish experience, such as his fifth symphony, or his first cantata, The Vision of Isaiah, which formed his dissertation at Harvard. Adler has written more than sixty liturgical and Psalm settings, for a cappella as well as organ and instrumentally accompanied chorus. In addition, he has produced several collections of arrangements of Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino songs. His works have been performed by such major symphony orchestras as Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles; by Europe's and Israel's major orchestras; by many of the most prestigious chamber groups in the United States and abroad; and by choruses throughout the world.






Since retirement from Eastman (where he remains professor emeritus), Adler has taught on the faculties of Ithaca College, the University of Cincinnati, Bowling Green State University, the University of Missouri, and other such institutions, and he has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1977. He has received commissions and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Ford, Rockefeller, and Koussevitzky foundations; the city of Jerusalem; the Pro Arte Quartet; and numerous other symphony orchestras and institutions. He is the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the Charles Ives Award, the Lillian Fairchild Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship for five seasons, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University, and Eastman's Eisenhart Award for distinguished teaching. In 2001 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also conducted major orchestras across North America, Europe, the Far East, and Israel.






For more than fifteen years Adler served on the editorial board of Transcontinental Music Publishers (after it became a nonprofit affiliate of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations) and was its chairman for several years. He continues to be one of the most commissioned composers by American synagogues, and he has taught frequently over the past two decades at the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College, offering numerous residencies and master classes and enjoying a special relationship with the various musical divisions of the Reform movement. He has also conducted many instructional sessions and workshops at conventions of both the Cantors Assembly and the American Conference of Cantors, bringing choral groups from Eastman to perform for cantorial delegates from around the world - performances that often included world premieres of Judaic works. Adler lectures regularly on Jewish and general musical topics at universities and synagogues throughout America, and he is a frequent scholar-in-residence at various congregations.






He is the author of three books: Choral Conducting (1971); Sight Singing (1979, 1997); and The Study of Orchestration (1982, 1989), reissued in an expanded edition together with CD-ROM format in 2002. He has published many articles in music journals and entries in reference works and encyclopedias. His articles on Jewish music have appeared in the Central Conference of American Rabbis journal; Jewish Music; European Judaism; Musica Judaica; Diapason; The American Choral Review; and many others.






-Neil W. Levin









Program Notes





FIVE SEPHARDIC CHORUSES






In 1991 Adler and translator/lyricist Cantor Samuel Rosenbaum were commissioned by a consortium of more than twenty congregations to write a work commemorating both the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 and 1497 and the arrival of western Sephardi Jews in North America in 1654. The lengthy work that emerged was entitled Ever Since Babylon, and a number of choruses who performed it later asked Adler to extract portions from the oratorio that could be sung as a suite. There resulting work is Five Sephardic Choruses (utilizing the Greek form of the word, rather than the Hebrew Sephardi, although the latter has become more common in recent years). Not all five melodies, however, are strictly Sephardi – i.e., part of the heritage of Jews whose ancestry extends to pre-expulsion Spain - as the Sephardi categorization has sometimes been extended loosely and simply to embrace non-Ashkenazi traditions of other eastern Mediterranean, western and central Asian, and Arabic Jews.






Yom gila is a Sephardi tune (Yom gila yavo), sung on the holyday simhat torah, which joyfully celebrates the Torah, or divine teaching, immediately following the Festival of Sukkot. It is known in several variants throughout the Sephardi world, and scholars have transcribed some of those variants from communities such as Jerusalem and Salonika.






Ya ribbon olam is one of the Sabbath z'mirot - hymns traditionally sung at the table during or after the festive Sabbath meals. The text is by Israel Najara (c.1555-c.1628), but numerous tunes exist in Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and other traditions.






The melody of Ein keloheinu in this suite comes from the Amsterdam - or western - Sephardi tradition. In the form used by Adler here, it is typical of the dignity and solemnity of many of the hymn tunes of that aggregate community. ln Ashkenazi ritual, this text, which is attributed to mystical sources, occurs toward the end of the morning service on Sabbaths and other holy days. According to several liturgical sources and authorities. it was designated for that place in the services in order - by virtue of its acrostic - to bring the total number of b'rakhot (benedictions) in the just-completed amida (the core set of prayers and b'rakhot said standing) to the daily number of nineteen from their abbreviated number of seven on Sabbaths and Festivals. According to that line of reasoning. the acrostic functions as a reference to those missing b'rakhot, serving as a "substitute." In Yemenite and Sephardi rituals (in which the text contains some variations), ein keloheinu is also included on weekdays.






Adon olam is most widely known as a concluding hymn of Sabbath and other holy day morning services and can also be sung at the conclusion of those evening services - which some authorities suggest was its original function. (The same poem is also part of the preliminary morning liturgy in traditional contexts.) The poem, which gives evidence of Arabic meter that is frequently found in medieval Spanish-Hebrew poetry, is thought to date to the 11th or 12th century. It has been attributed to various poets of that period, including Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Although there is no universal agreement concerning Gabirol's authorship. those who lean toward that conclusion point to his philosophical poem Keter malkhut (Royal Crown), where God is addressed in terms similar to the overall theme of adon olam. The musical version upon which Adler's piece is based is from Sephardi tradition.






Zamm'ri li is apparently Yemenite in origin, or by tradition. Although it does not appear in any diwan (poetry compendium) of the Yemenite Jews, its text refers to "the joy of Yemen," and the tune is typically Yemenite in character. Its Yemenite provenance is further supported by the fact that its text is a paraphrase of another, similarly known Yemenite song, Sapperi li yona. The first known version appears in an obscure 1932 Palestinian Hebrew songster, Shirei ha'aretz, published by Menashe Ravina (Rabinovitz). The refrain, ya'alu na (or, ya'alu ya'alu in some variants) tziyon mizraha (onward to Zion), has obvious Zionist significance and is therefore assumed to have been added later to the original two lines. The song, which gained substantial popularity in Israel, was subsequently published in various songsters for Israeli schools. Its most recent setting is a choral arrangement by the Israeli composer Sergiu Shapira, published in Tel Aviv in 1997.






-Neil w. Levin









NUPTIAL SCENE


(Note by Samuel Adler)


Nuptial Scene was commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with the city of Jerusalem for the celebration of the fourth "Testimonium," a festival to preserve Jewish heritage. The work was written in September 1975 and premiered in Jerusalem in February 1976 with the Jerusalem Symphony, Juan Pablo Izquierdo conducting and Adi Etzion as soloist. It is dedicated to Recha Freier, the originator and prime mover of the festival.






Nuptial Scene is based on a simple medieval poem of prenuptial instruction. Part of it is in Catalan and part in Hebrew. The poem originated in Catalonia, where a highly developed Jewish community existed until the expulsion of 1492. A mother is instructing her daughter in the ways and strategies of marriage and rejoicing with a "new song" for a "new bride." When I initially planned the setting of this lovely poem, I realized that the age of the daughter would be about twelve, for girls in that historical period were married at puberty. This set in motion a scheme for the composition, since my oldest daughter was thirteen at that time, and I used her psyche to give me direction. When a girl of twelve or thirteen thinks of a wedding, she is completely captivated by its frills - the dress, the party, the dancing. In her imagination, the reality of a husband or any kind of domestic responsibility would be nonexistent. Therefore, during the mother's ardent pleas, instructions, admonitions, and even innuendos, the daughter's mind wanders and dreams of dancing. Musically, the rather straight, somber rhythm and melody of the song are interrupted by an independent, faster dance speed of the bongos and by scattered fragments of an actual medieval Spanish-Jewish dance. At the point where the mother speaks of sensuous marital problems, she herself becomes excited, and in a nostalgic, dreamlike spirit - with the use of improvised melodic lines for which only the gestural outlines are given - she goes into a kind of rapturous trance. The daughter, however, seems unmoved, and she falls asleep. The mother calms down, puts her head on the daughter's shoulder, and quietly muses, then also closes her eyes.









THE BINDING (excerpt)


An Oratorio in Three Parts


For soli, chorus, and orchestra






[Editor's Note: The term akeda (binding), or akedat yitzhak (the binding of Isaac [for sacrifice]) refers to the biblical incident (Genesis 22:1-19) wherein God tests Abraham's faith by instructing him to prepare his son, Isaac, for ritual sacrifice. This story constitutes one of the central narratives in Judaism, both because it demonstrates Abraham's worthiness to be the founder of the Israelite people - through his unquestioning faith in God and His wisdom - and because its conclusion serves as an unequivocal admonishment against the practice, under any circumstances, of human sacrifice. At the same time, the narrative also illustrates Isaac's faith and devotion as the second Jewish patriarch. The akedat yitzhak is therefore frequently cited in the Hebrew liturgy. On Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, when this biblical portion is read, the sounding of the shofar - the ram's horn - is also, among other things, a reminder of the ram that appeared out of the thicket for sacrifice in place of Isaac. Many commentaries and interpretations of this story throughout the centuries, including the Talmud, suggest that the divine request was only "to prepare Isaac for sacrifice" as a test - hence the binding - but not necessarily to go through with the deed. -NWL]






(Note by Samuel Adler)


In early 1937, my father, the cantor at Mannheim's Liberale synagogue and a highly regarded Judaic and liturgical composer in Germany, wrote an oratorio entitled Akedah. It was to have its premiere in Stuttgart in the spring of 1938. Its text was based on both the biblical story of the binding of Isaac and on postbiblical literature related to the subject. In the oratorio's libretto, there was an emphasis on Isaac as a symbol or metaphor for the entire people of Israel being persecuted as an "innocent sacrifice." Everyone involved in the performance was concerned lest the Nazi party officials read the libretto too carefully and realize its contemporary significance. Indeed, the day before the dress rehearsal, a group of storm troopers entered the hall and confiscated all the scores and parts. We saved one piano score and one full score and brought these with us to the United States when we emigrated as a family. My father eventually rewrote nearly all the oratorios he had composed in Germany, but he died before he had a chance to revise this one.






When I was about to leave my professional positions in Dallas, in 1966, Temple Emanu-EI, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society commissioned me to write a work for performance in May 1967. I chose to use most of my father's Akedah text and to base my own work on that seminal story. But I asked my friend Rabbi Albert Freelander - then in residence in London - to write an English libretto that would also be based on both biblical and postbiblical sources. It emerged in three parts. The first is devoted to the Call to Abraham and Abraham's answer. It also includes the drama of Abraham and Isaac's journey to Mount Moriah, leaving their servants at the base camp and ascending to the top by themselves. The second part (featured in this recording) is based on Talmudic and Midrashic sources. Satan appears to both Abraham and Isaac to challenge the validity of Abraham's commitment. To differentiate Satan from Abraham and Isaac in musical terms, I have written his part strictly according to twelve-tone serial technique. This greatly contrasts the music associated with Satan with that of the other two characters, giving it a jagged and angular contour. Isaac may be sung by a boy soprano or a young woman. Throughout this second part, the orchestra, with brass and percussion juxtaposed against the more mellow sounds of strings and woodwinds, mirrors the angular parameter as well as the calmer moments. The final part addressed the fact that though Isaac was spared, our own human proclivity to understand the word of God only conventionally, according to our own interpretations, will always lead to the sacrifice of our sons and daughters - until we try humbly to read God's word in a broader context. This work nonetheless concludes on a very optimistic note.









SELECTIONS FROM SAMUEL ADLER'S


SYNAGOGUE MUSIC






El melekh yoshev is one of the principal supplications of the s'lihot, or penitential, liturgy, which is recited throughout Yom Kippur and daily during the s'lihot period preceding Rosh Hashana and leading up to Yom Kippur. The text belongs to the oldest portion of s'lihot liturgy, thought to date to the Babylonian and Talmudic period (and perhaps known then in Palestine as well). It imagines God as the omnipotent King who sits on a "throne fashioned out of mercy" - and who thus, by His very nature and essence, pardons His people according to the "thirteen attributes of God's mercy." Those are contained within the text as well. Adler wrote this setting as part of a suite of High Holy Day liturgical pieces, entitled Hinei Yom Hadin (Behold, the Day of Judgment!). In this one, his aim was to mirror the typical undertone of communal prayer recitation in orthodox and traditional synagogues. "I have always been fascinated by the sound of a praying congregation," noted the composer, "when everyone prays and recites at his own pace, typically in a murmuring 'singsong' that can appear to be mumbling. I have tried to simulate that effect at the beginning of this piece, with the chorus intoning the opening words at various speeds before the cantor's entrance. This is a very dramatic text, drawing an awesome picture of God as He judges each individual, yet always with mercy; therefore, I have tried to create a tension in the music, which is only partially resolved at the end in the prayer."






The setting here for cantor and organ of the evening prayer Ahavat olam, which refers to God's everlasting love for the House of Israel and His gift of laws by which to live, is taken from Adler's complete Sabbath eve service, Shiru Ladonai, which was written during the 1960s while he was music director at Temple Emanu-EI in Dallas. The Reform movement was then beginning to envision the inclusion of women as officially invested cantors (the first female cantor was invested by the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College in 1975). But Adler, along with many other composers and choirmasters, was quick to realize that most cantorial settings - even those without extended virtuoso tenor cantorial idioms - were more suitable for male voices. In this service, therefore, Adler paid special attention to writing settings that would be at least equally appropriate for female and male solo voices.






While ahavat olam is recited at every evening service including weekdays, this setting is specifically for Sabbath eve. It is therefore based on the particular Ashkenazi prayer mode for that service, with its formulaic cadence at the conclusion and the b'rakha (benediction).






The setting here of Sim shalom, the prayer for peace toward the end of traditional morning and afternoon services, is also from Adler's complete Sabbath eve service, Shiru Ladonai. Like his Ahavat olam in that service, this setting was written for either female or male cantor. Adler did not intend the piece exclusively for Jewish worship services, however. "This text has a more universal connotation for me," he has written. "it is intended to be a meditation on peace and on the ecstasy of the vision of all people living together in harmony."






The liturgical settings Bar'khu, Sh'ma yisra'el, V'ahavta, and Mi khamokha were commissioned by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to celebrate the U.S.A. Bicentennial in 1976 and were premiered at the UAHC convention that same year.






-Neil W. Levin









SYMPHONY NO.5


(Note by Michael Winesanker)






Symphony No.5, subtitled We Are the Echoes, was begun in Rochester in October 1974 and completed in Vienna in February 1975. In five movements, the symphony calls for a large orchestra and soprano soloist. It is based on Jewish poetry that reflects aspects of Jewish experience throughout history. The first movement is centered around a German poem, "We Go," by Karl Wolfskehl, translated by Valhope and Morwitz. It tells of the hunted, hounded, wandering Jew through the ages. The voice relates the dreadful tale of endless persecution, with the orchestra lending dramatic urgency by its driving pace in a relentless perpetual motion. The feared "knock at the door," which has so often signified death, begins the movement, and reminders of it pervade the entire symphony.






"Even During War," by the American poet Muriel Rukeyser, serves as text and inspiration for the music of the second movement. It speaks of hope and peace in the face of hardship and gloom. In ternary form, the two outer segments are lyrical and reflective in mood, while the middle portion is in a contrasting fast tempo.






The source of the third movement is a short poem by James Oppenheimer titled "The Future." It mirrors the Jews' "mission" in a conversation between a man and a stranger (the Future) knocking at the door. The demand for complete dedication is acknowledged by the man's eventual resolve "to follow unquestioningly the unknown." There are special orchestral effects in winds and strings, including glissandi, all calculated to capture the weird sense of mystery as backdrop to the dialogue. The "hard knocks at the door which constantly summon man" are heard throughout the movement.






The symphony takes its subtitle from the poem on which the fourth movement is based. "We Are the Echoes" was written by Carol Adler, former wife of the composer. She writes of the burdens the Jew must bear, of the memory of his unfortunate past and the dream of a better future. But the problems persist; the echoes remain; the questions are unresolved. In the music we hear motives of Hebraic chant introduced in turn by various instruments. At one point there is a free improvisatory (aleatoric) passage for orchestra, culminating in the soloist's plea, "Take away your echoes." Yet the traditional echoes endure.






The text of the finale is an English translation of a Yiddish poem by philosopher and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972). "God Follows Me Everywhere" (Got geyt mir nokh umetum) reflects man's personal involvement with God. Musically, it resembles the second movement - slow and singing at first, then fast and fiery, at the close calm and quiet, with the words "Now and then, high above me, I catch a glimpse of the faceless face of God."






(Note by Samuel Adler)


The special Jewish experience - through its centuries of struggle both intellectually and physically, with its many vicissitudes as well as victories - is reflected in the thoughts of the chosen poems: the Jewish idea of a personal relationship between man and his God; the burning conviction or even command that the Jews' mission on earth is to be "a light unto the nations"; the "nagging conscience" that never Jets him rest but calls him to continuous service to all mankind; as well as the ever-present hope and faith that basically man is good and "will overcome," so that in the end of days all men will be brothers. With these ideas the text was gathered and the symphony fashioned.






Texts and Translations









FIVE SEPHARDIC CHORUSES


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






YOM GlLA






A day of joy will yet come in our days; blessing and salvation will come in our time.






YA RIBBON OLAM






God, You are the Master of the world - this and all worlds;


You are the King who reigns over all kings.


You perform powerful and wondrous acts,


and it is beautiful for us to sing and declare Your praise.






I shall organize the singing of praises to You morning and evening,


holy God, who created all life - holy angels as well as mankind,


beasts of the field as well as birds in the sky.






REFRAIN:


God, You are the Master ...






EIN KELOHEINU





There is none like our God;


There is none like our Lord;


There is none like our King;


There is none like our Saviour.






Who is like our God?


Who is like our Lord?


Who is like our King?


Who is like our Saviour?






We will give thanks to our God;


We will give thanks to our Lord;


We will give thanks to our King;


We will give thanks to our Saviour.






Worshiped be our God;


Worshiped be our Lord;


Worshiped be our King;


Worshiped be our Saviour.



You are our God;


You are our Lord;


You are our King;


You are our Saviour.






ADON OLAM






Lord of the world, who reigned even before form was created,


At the time when His will brought everything into existence,


Then His name was proclaimed King.


And even should existence itself come to an end,


He, the Awesome One, would still reign alone


He was, He is, He shall always remain in splendor throughout eternity.


He is "One" - there is no second or other to be compared with Him.


He is without beginning and without end;


All power and dominion are His.


He is my God and my ever living redeemer,


And the rock upon whom I rely in time of distress and sorrow.


He is my banner and my refuge,


The "portion in my cup" - my cup of life


Whenever I call to Him.


I entrust my spirit unto His hand


As I go to sleep and as I awake;


And my body will remain with my spirit.


The Lord is with me: I fear not.






ZAMM'RI LI






Sing to me, innocent and pure dove,


sing to me with the joy of Yemen: Onward to Zion.









NUPTIAL SCENE


Sung in Hebrew and Catalonian


Text: based on a 15th-century Catalan-Hebrew wedding text






A NEW SONG FOR THE BRIDE






Lady, see your husband often,


Serve him well; best of all,


Be he great, or young, or like a child:


"Beloved, sleep between my breasts."


A new song.






If he wishes to choose another wife also,


Clothe yourself seductively and say to him,


"Lord come in here, come in here.


I have made up my bed with finery."


A new song.






Translation: the composer









THE BINDING (excerpt)


A Biblical Oratorio


Sung in English


Texts compiled by Hugo Chaim Adler, based on Genesis 22 and traditional teachings of the Midrash and Haggada.


English adaptation by Albert Friedlander.






PART II






Dramatis Personae


Narrator: Freda Herseth


Satan: Joseph Evans


Abraham. Raphael Frieder


Isaac: Freda Herseth






NARRATOR


But it was for Satan a source of distress


That the two walked off together in peace.


And he garbed himself in a wanderer's dress


And stood at a byway along which their path lay!


And his whispers reached Abraham through the dark trees.






SATAN


Whence, whence, whence your way, you two?


And why do you press on?






ABRAHAM


We journey onward so we may pray.


Why do you ask, and what is your concern?






SATAN


To pray? How strange. With knife and firestone?


And why this heavy load? Why all that wood?






ABRAHAM


It is a far-off place to which we turn,


where we will raise our hands in prayer.


We may well need it to prepare our food.






SATAN


Ha! Ha! ...Old man, you mock me there.


Look at me, look at me now.


Look and recall: was I not present when you thought


you heard out of God's own mouth that shattering word?


Take now your only son and offer him unto me.


Abraham! Abraham! Almost a hundred years have come and gone


in which you flourished like a cedar, proud and tall.


And now you would destroy a young and tender soul?


For a dream of the night in the ban of dark night


reduced to a murderer's role.






ABRAHAM


Be silent! Be silent! I know you, I know your word.


Away from my side. The Holy One, Blessed be He,


who was and who is, and who will be,


in Him I confide!






NARRATOR


Now Satan rushed over to the side of the lad


in the form of a boy of the same age and said:






SATAN


Whither so early along this way?






ISAAC


I go to study great teaching today.


'Tis sweeter than honey, more precious than gold!






SATAN


It is lovely to learn,


but I have been told that death ends a lesson.


Will you learn when you're dead?






ISAAC


Can one learn when you're dead?


I don't understand.






SATAN


Listen my boy! You are holding the hand of that old man there.


He would lead you astray! A fantastic dream has become his way.


An imagined God's word has designed you his prey,


And you are doomed to be slaughtered in the course of this day!






ISAAC


Did you hear, O father?


How heavy a burden for your soul to bear,


How deep a grief for your whitened hair.



ABRAHAM


O son, death is so very close to you and me,


Ready to take us both. But it will be that God


Whose comfort has been my shield


Will comfort us both until we enter death's field.






NARRATOR


But the devil now screamed in the father's face


What he glimpsed through the veil of mystery.






SATAN


Do you think your actions God's call will embrace?


A dirty sheep, a dirty sheep will your sacrifice be.






ABRAHAM


My son, one who has spent his days sowing lies,


May speak the truth once, but though he tries,


No one will hear his cries.






ISAAC


Father.



ABRAHAM


Here I am, my son






ISAAC


Here is the firestone and the wood,


but where is the sleep for the offering?






ABRAHAM


God will provide the sheep for the offering, my son.






CHORUS


Thus did the two week off together.









EL MELEKH YOSHEV


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman



God, King, You occupy a throne built on mercy.


Your, deeds, reflect Your loving-kindness.


You forgive Your people' s iniquities -


Putting each aside, one by one.


You expand forgiveness for the sinner, and pardon


for the transgressor.


Your righteousness extends to all creatures of flesh and spirit;


You do not assign a full measure of punishment to those who err.


God, You taught us that when in need of atonement, we are to


recite Your thirteen attributes of mercy.


Thus, today we ask You to remember us for our well-being.


Remember: take note of You covenant with us, which enumerates


those thirteen attributes.


You revealed all this to You humble servant Moses centuries ago,


as is recorded in Scripture:


"And the Lord had descended in a cloud; He stood with Moses there


and proclaimed the Lord’s name. The Lord passed before Moses and said":






ADONAIADONAI






The Lord, the Lord, God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, trusting in loving-kindness and truth; preserving His grace for thousands, forgivinginiquity and transgression, and cleaning from sin.






Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Yow own.






AHAVAT OLAM


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






You have loved the House of Israel, Your people, with an abiding Iove – teaching us Your Torah and commandments, Your statutes and Judgments. Therefore, upon our retiring fm the night and upon our arising, we will contemplate Your teachings and rejoice for all time in the words of Your Torah and its commandments. For they are the essence of our Iife and the length of our days. We will meditate on them day and night. May Your love never leave us. You are worshiped, O Lord, who Ioves His people Israel.









SIM SHALOM


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






Grant peace, goodness, blessing, grace, loving-kindness, and compassion to us and to all Israel Your people. Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light of Your presence. For with that light, You gave us a life-giving Torah, an appreciation of loving-kindness, righteousness, blessing, mercy, life, and peace. May it be good in Your sight to bless Your people Israel at all times, at every hour with Your peace. You are worshiped, O Lord, who creates peace.









BAR'KHU


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






Worship the Lord, to whom all worship is due.


Worshiped be the Lord, who is to be worshiped for all eternity.


Amen.









SH'MA YISRA'EL


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






Listen, Israel! The Lord is our God.


The Lord is the only God - His unity is His essence.


Worshiped and honored be the very name of His kingdom forever and ever.









V'AHAVTA and MI KHAMOKHA


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






V'AHAVTA


You shall love the Lord, Your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these words with which I command and charge you this day. Teach them to your children. Recite them at home and when away, when you lie down [to sleep at night] and when you arise. Bind them as a sign on your hand and to serve as a symbol between your eyes [on your forehead]; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.






In order that you shall remember and observe all my commandments and be holy before your God. I am the lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt to be your Lord. I, the Lord, am Your God.






MI KHAMOKHA


Who, among all the mighty, can be compared with You, O Lord? Who is like You, glorious in Your holiness, awesome beyond praise, performing wonders? When You rescued the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds, splitting the sea in the presence of Moses, Your children beheld Your majestic power and said: "This is our God: The Lord will reign for all eternity." It is also said: " Just as You delivered the people Israel from military power, so also may You redeem all humanity from oppression." You are worshiped, O Lord, who redeemed Israel. Amen.












HASHKJVENU


Sung in Hebrew


Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman






Cause us, O Lord, our God, to retire for the evening in peace


and then again to arise unto life, O our King.


and spread Your canopy of peace over us.


Direct us with Your counsel and save us


for the sake of Your name. Be a shield around us.


Remove from our midst all enemies, plague, sword,


violence, Famine, Hunger, and sorrow.


And also remove evil temptation from all around us.


sheltering us in the shadow of Your protecting wings.


For indeed You are a gracious and compassionate King.


Guard our going and coming for life and in peace,


from now on and always. Spread over us


the sheltering canopy of Your peace.


You are worshiped, O Lord (He is worshiped, and His name is worshiped),


who spreads the canopy of peace over us


and over all Your people Israel, and over all Jerusalem. Amen.









SYMPHONY NO.5 We Are the Echoes


Sung in English






I. WE GO


Poem: Karl Wolfskehl (1869-1948)


Translation from the German by Carol North Valhope and|


Earnest Morwitz






Do not ask: where?


We go.


We have been told to go


From the days of our fathers, fathers.


Abram went, Jacob went,


They all had to go,


Go to a land, go from a land,


All of them bent


Over the path of the farer,


Of those who never spared themselves.


All of them went, staff in the road-hard hand,


Promise in their hearts, eyes filled with Him,


Our God who bade us go on and on,


Turned to the one and only goal.


A hounded rest when He called a halt,


Strange farings from Nile to Rhine.


Long farings in dread


Until wells brim,


Meager wells


For wavering. restless rest -


My roots reached down before those rotted


Who hunt me now, but I was a guest


In the land of others - always a guest.


Unthinkably long I rested there.


But never knew a rest that gives repose.


Our rest was drowned in tears and sweat and blood.


A sudden lightning and it cracked


In a cry:


Gone by, gone by!


In the full flare of sun -


We go.


Again He drives us,


Again He dooms us


To His eternal law:


To go on,


To go on!






II. EVEN DURING WAR


Poem: Muriel Rukeyser


Source: Rukeyser 1944






Even during war, moments of delicate peace


Arrive; ceaseless the water ripples, love


Speaks through the river in its human voices.


Through every power to affirm and heal


The unknown world suggests the air and golden


Familiar flowers, and the brief glitter of waves,


And dreams, and leads me always to the real.


Even among these calendars of fire.


Sings: There is so much to fear, but not our power.


The stars turn over us, let us not fear the many.


All mortal intricacies tremble upon this flower.


Let us not fear the hidden. Or each other.


We are aiive in an hour whose burning face


Looks into our death, death of our dear wish.


And time that will be eating away our flesh


Gives us a moment when blue settles on rose


And evening suddenly seems limitless silver.


The cold wind streaming over the cold hill-grasses


Remembers and remembers.





Mountains lift into night.






And I am remembering the face of peace.






I have seen a ship lying upon the water


Rise like a great bird, like a lifted promise.






III. THE FUTURE


Poem: James Oppenheimer


Source: Ausubel 1957






I arose swiftly that night, for I heard a knock at my door.


"Who's that?" I asked.


And there answered one on the outside,


"The Future."


"What do you want?" I asked.


"Your life, your service, your agonies


of toiling ...


I demand all."


" And what is the pay?" I asked.


"Death ..."


We two were silent: the snow fell in the streets:


The night was still,


"And is that all?" l asked.


"Yes, that is all… "


"And who shall gain by my travail?"


He did not answer: I started out.





IV. WE ARE THE ECHOES


Poem: Carol Adle


Source: Adler, 1975






We are the echoes


the refugees of echoes


gingerly we pick among the shards


pretending to search


searching for what


for we are fooling no one


there is no one to fool


even the ghetto is a hideous dream


and the nation so long


we have longed for


is finally a young heifer


growing into its own


yet where have we gone


and what is our promise


we who sit here praying not for prayers


but for miracles


we who call to the Unknown


only to mock It when It comes


or is the mockery only despair


the shawl we wrap around us


because we must


take away you, echoes


we say


talking to you as if you were listening


find another place for them


another time


put them back in their boxes


bury them


or carry them so high we will never hear them


even when they fall


they fall from us


stillborn


they rise before us


standing on the mountains


like statues


standing on the mountains


and calling






V. GOD FOLLOWS ME EVERYWHERE


Poem: Abraham Joshua Heschel


Translation from Yiddish by Samuel Rosenbaum






God follows me everywhere


Weaving a web of visions around me


Blinding my sightless spine like a sun.


God follows me like an enveloping forest


And continuously astonishes my lips into


awesome silence


Like a child lost in an ancient sanctuary.


God follows within me like a tremor.


I want to rest; He demands, Come -


See how visions are scattered aimlessly in the streets.


I wander deep in my own fantasies, like a secret,


Down a long corridor through the world.


Now and then, high above me, I catch a glimpse


of the faceless face of God.








About the Performers






CANTOR ROSLYN JHUNEVER BARAK has served Congregation Emanu-EI in San Francisco since 1987, a year after her graduation and investiture from the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. She received her vocal training at the Manhattan School of Music in her native New York City and has been the recipient of a number of awards. Before entering the cantorate, she was a concert and opera soprano, performing in the United States and in Israel, where she lived for three years and sang with the Israel National Opera.






CANTOR RICHARD BOTTON was born to Sephardi parents in the Bronx, New York. His mother had come to America from Istanbul and his father from Salonica, Greece. As a child, he was immersed in the music and language of Ladino folksong, and he later pursued cantorial studies at the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. He served Temple Emanu-EI of Long Beach, New York, from 1955 through 1974. After that, until his retirement in 1998, he was cantor and music director of Central Synagogue in New York City. Cantor Botton has also appeared in concert with the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Bach Aria Group, the Brooklyn Philharmonia under Lukas Foss, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra on Arthur Godfrey's television show, the Fort Worth Symphony, and on numerous opera stages.


He sang in the premiere of Bernstein's Dybbuk.






Soprano PHYLLIS BRYN-JULSON was born in Bowdon, North Dakota, and trained as a pianist at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Encouraged by Gunther Schuller, she undertook vocal study at Tanglewood, later studying at Syracuse University. In 1966 she made an acclaimed debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Berg's Lulu Suite. This success was followed by engagements with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Although she has sung a wide repertoire, the purity of her voice, a three-octave range, and perfect pitch have made her internationally renowned as an interpreter of 20th-century music. She has sung the premieres of works - many written for her - by such composers as Leonard Bernstein, David Del Tredici, Ned Rorem, Phillip Rhodes, Charles Wuorinen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Heinz Holliger, and Boulez. In 1976 she made her stage debut under Sarah Caldwell in Boston as Malinche in the American premiere of Roger Sessions's opera Montezuma. She made a critically acclaimed debut at the Proms in London the following year and has also appeared in opera at Covent Garden. She has toured throughout the world with the Ensemble Intercontemporain under Boulez and given recitals at the Salzburg and Warsaw festivals, as well as elsewhere in Europe, Israel, and North America. Bryn-Julson has also taught in many venues, including the Britten-Pears School and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and she is professor of voice at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 she became the first American ever to give a master class at the Moscow Conservatory.






Soprano MARY ELLEN CALLAHAN was born in California and studied at California State University, Hayward, and at the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned her M.M. degree in 1992. As a concert soloist, her repertoire ranges from Renaissance to contemporary, including many works by Bach and Handel. She has performed with such organizations as the San Antonio Symphony, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Washington Bach Consort (with which she toured Germany), the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Hartford and Kansas City symphony orchestras, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Dessoff Choirs, AmorArtis, and Musica Sacra, and she is familiar to New York audiences as a soloist with the Collegiate Chorale, the Riverside Choral Society, and the Central City Chorus.






Baritone TED CHRISTOPHER studied at the Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Marlena Malas, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, and Beverly Rinaldi. He was first introduced to Jewish music as a chorister and soloist in the professional male chorus Schola Hebraeica, with whom he sang and toured the United States and England during his student years and at the beginning of his solo career. With companies including the San Francisco Opera Center, the Vancouver Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Skylight Opera, Milwaukee, he has appeared as Mozart's Figaro, Guglielmo, and Don Giovanni, as well as Rossini's Figaro, Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Marcello in La Bohème. His concert engagements have taken him to Carnegie Hal, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. In a special celebration of Ned Rorem's seventieth birthday, in 1993, Christopher sang War Scenes with the composer at the piano.






Originally from Mississippi, JOSEPH EVANS studied music at the University of North Texas. He has sung leading tenor roles at the New York City Opera, as well as in guest appearances with companies including those of Houston, Seattle, Boston, and Cleveland. In 2000 he created the role of Camp in Carlisle Floyd's Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera, and he sang the role of Captain Vere in Britten's Billy Budd in Seattle and Tel Aviv.






RAPHAEL FRIEDER was born in Israel and studied singing and choral conducting at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He has performed with the New Israeli Opera as well as with all of Israel's major orchestras, under such prominent conductors as Zubin Mehta, Gary Bertini, and Roger Norrington. Leonard Bernstein invited him to sing in the world premiere of his Arias and Barcarolles (version for two voices and piano) in 1989 in Tel Aviv. In Europe, Frieder has appeared at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and t

Disc 1


    Five Sephardic Choruses (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Patrick Gardner
    Helen Kruszewski, soprano
    Mary Ellen Callahan, soprano
    Gideon Dabi, baritone
    Heather Johnson, mezzo-soprano
    Pen Ying Fang, piano
    Matthew Kirchner, tenor
    Ted Christopher, baritone
    Recording date: May and November 2001
    Produced by: Frost, David

  1. I. Yom Gila - 01:43
  2. II. Ya Ribbon Olam - 01:11
  3. III. Ein Keloheinu - 02:15
  4. IV. Adon Olam - 02:08
  5. V. Zamm'ri Li - 01:14


    6. Nuptial Scene (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Margaret Bishop Kohler,
    Recording date: Jan-1998
    Produced by: Frost, David

  6. Nuptial Scene - 08:59


    7. The Binding (excerpt) (more info)
    Performed by: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Raphael Frieder,
    Joseph Evans, tenor
    Freda Herseth, soprano
    Recording date: May-1998
    Produced by: McKinley, Elliott

  7. The Binding (excerpt) - 08:57


    8. El Melekh Yoshev (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Alberto Martini,
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  8. El Melekh Yoshev - 02:59


    9. Ahavat Olam (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  9. Ahavat Olam - 01:56


    10. Sim Shalom (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  10. Sim Shalom - 02:01


    11. Bar'khu (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  11. Bar'khu - 01:12


    12. Sh'ma Yisra'el (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  12. Sh'ma Yisra'el - 01:34


    13. V'ahavta and Mi Khamokha (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  13. V'ahavta and Mi Khamokha - 03:36


    14. Hashkivenu (more info)
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor
    Barbara Harbach, organ
    Recording date: Apr-1992
    Produced by: Isaacson, Michael

  14. Hashkivenu - 04:45


    15. Symphony No. 5, "We are the Echoes" (more info)
    Performed by: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
    Composed by: Samuel Adler
    Conducted by: Samuel Adler
    Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano
    Recording date: Jun-1998
    Produced by: Nehls, Wolfram

  15. I. We Go - 03:40
  16. II. Even During War - 04:52
  17. III. The Future - 04:57
  18. IV. We Are the Echoes - 06:38
  19. V. God Follows Me Everywhere - 05:10

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Product Details
 
Composer(s)/ Author(s):
Adler, Samuel

Conductor(s):
Adler, Samuel; Gardner, Patrick

Orchestra(s):
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Artist(s):
Barak, Roslyn Jhunever; Bryn-Julson, Phyllis; Callahan, Mary Ellen; Christopher, Ted; Dabi, Gideon; Evans, Joseph; Fang, Pen Ying; Frieder, Raphael; Harbach, Barbara; Herseth, Freda; Johnson, Heather; Kirchner, Matthew; Kohler, Margaret Bishop; Kruszewski, Helen; Martini, Alberto

Label: Naxos Milken Archives/American
UPC: 636943941522
Item Number: 8559415
Release Date: Feb 18, 2005

 
 
 
 
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