Sunday 5 December 2010

The Music of David Nowakowsky (1848-1921)

The Music of David Nowakowsky (1848-1921): A New Voice from Old Odessa

Emanuel Rubin, University of Massachusetts Amherst

«The great triumvirate of nineteenth-century Jewish synagogue composers, Salomon
Sulzer, Louis Lewandowski, and Samuel Naumbourg, are generally acknowledged as having
reinvigorated polyphonic music for the synagogue.»

My musical expert friend once remarked that "Lewandoski was the Jewish Mozart [meaning most prolific] and that Nowakowsky was the Jewish Beethoven" [meaning of the highest quality]

Two of his pieces are perhaps the most moving music I've ever heard
Viz.
1 his Lechah Dodi
and
2. his Hashem Z'charanu Yevareich

I was privileged to sing the latter for the CCA choir and the experience was overwhelming and surreal. Too good to be described

See
29-F2-Rubin.pdf

http://www.umass.edu/judaic/anniversaryvolume/articles/29-F2-Rubin.pdf

Shalom
RRW

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