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For ticket information call 914-931-6575This fall Charis Chamber Voices will perform a concert commemorating the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. The concert will feature Avodath Hakodesh - Sacred Service by Ernest Bloch, one of the neo-Romantic masterpieces of the 20th century, written for chorus, organ and baritone cantor as well as three commissioned pieces specially written for this occasion by Westchester residents and accomplished musicians Julie Dolphin and Susanne Peck and by James Bassi of Manhattan. Bloch Sacred Service:The Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh), dates from 1930-33. The six-note motif G-A-C-B-A-G, heard at the very outset, and which permeates the entire work, has been found in one of Bloch's early manuscript books, with a comment "for a possible Jewish service" written above it. However, it was not until 1927, while a Director of the San Francisco Conservatory that he began to make specific plans with the help of Reuben Rinder, Cantor of Temple Emmanuel in that city. As a result of his influence Bloch two years later received a handsome commission from Gerald Warburg (to whom the work was dedicated) to write a Sabbath Morning Service for that Reform congregation, based upon the text of the American Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship. In addition Bloch received an annual grant from the Stern family - prominent patrons of the Arts in San Francisco - to last ten years from 1930, on condition that he devote himself to composition exclusively. He received guidance from Cantor Rinder (who also suggested traditional chants such as that for Tzur Yisroel in the Jewish Ahavah Rabbah mode), and it is fascinating to see in his copious correspondence with Rinder and others how the work germinated and developed, once he had settled in the Swiss village of Roveredo-Capriasca, high above Lake Lugano:
(Description from eroica.com, where you can purchase a recording of this piece.) Watch this space for more details! |
