Choral Composition Condescension

Last year, being a budding composer, I was excited to see an advert for a competition to set a psalm (or an excerpt/collection) for choir and organ. What persuaded me most to enter was the option to use original Hebrew text. I chose Psalm 118 ('Hodu l'adonai ki tov, ki l'olam khasdo', which forms the end part of Hallel) due to its regular rhyme scheme, call-and-response like lines, clear sections, and broadly cyclical structure. The music was composed sympathetically, I believe, and ended up sounding quite post-minimalist, with outbursts of Gustav Mahler-inspired expression and some lovely quartal harmonies. All finished, the piece was sent off to be judged; the results email that returned exposed a deep problem and misunderstanding of Jewish music within the English choral tradition. Three things stood out. 

Firstly, the gist was that the composition would have won, but that due to the complexity of the Hebrew, the choir would not be able to learn it in time for the concert. Of course, the choir's amateur status gives this point credit, but would it not also have been difficult if the words were in Greek (which, alongside Latin and English, was listed as acceptable for setting)? Hebrew is a phonetic language, anyway, and the repetitious nature of the word-setting would have been greatly conducive to memorisation.

Secondly, the judges all noted its similarity to Steve Reich's 'Tehilim'. Whilst that piece is one of my favourites, it is very far removed from my own. Reich's compositional approach is influenced by the natural rhythm of words, his structure by cantillation, his timbre and instrumentation by biblical descriptions of instruments, and his melodies guided by virtuosity; my music was conceived as a contemporary setting, with harmonies lead by my own taste and the supposed capabilities of an amateur choir. The only thing tying together the two pieces is that they are both settings of psalms in Hebrew; the judges did not even know that I was Jewish.

Thirdly, a passing comment at the end noted that the judges liked the klezmer style of the instrumental section. The instrumental section, despite its Mixolydian modality, was an extremely far cry from klezmer, comprising a stately triple-metred organ solo. It was clear at that point that from the Hebrew text - and perhaps my name? - the judges had deemed the composition 'Jewish', instantly pigeon-holing it with Steve Reich, and designating all instrumental refrains as traditional Jewish music.

The three above comments were hurtful - mostly due to the loss of the competition to a generic English-set psalmic fantasy - and openly display anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. The English choral tradition is a hotbed for both of these sentiments, and plenty more can (and should, and will) be written about the issue. Most infuriating, however, is the condescending tone the comments take through Othering, and explaining to a Jew Hebrew (the original language of the psalms!), Jewish composers, and Jewish musical culture.