Music and Antisemitism

Oxford's ecclesiastical roots are well known and well manifest. Gowns, spires aplenty, regular bells, Latin graces: all are largely secularised symbols of a past Christian exclusivity. In its musical life, however, the continuation of chapel choir culture is still blatantly oppressive. Here are a few reasons why. Firstly, the matter of organ and choral scholarships. Most colleges at Oxford offer these. Organ and choral scholarships reward talent at - you guessed it - singing and playing the organ with money, sometimes hundreds of pounds a year, and other perks, such as free lunches. As well as the face value of the scholarships, colleges pour in thousands of pounds into these scholars' development, hiring part- and full-time directors of music to oversee training and services. With an immense amount of resources thrown their way, Oxford's organ and choral scholars are primed for leaving university as some of the best-connected young performers in the country. Of course, eac...

The first of a few books that deal with anti-Semitism in music - Michael Marissen's Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion  - arrived last week. It was an exciting read, quite unlike anything I have seen before, but did not completely satisfy. The field is obviously Marissen's specialism: not only is there a vast background knowledge of the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach, but there is also a well-informed spine of key texts on anti-Semitism (some of these, such as those by Gavin Langmuir, I need to read myself). These two fields are integrated well and with obvious experience, but with this comes an over-conciseness which spoils both the argument and the reading experience of the book. Despite Marissen's claim that the text is for academics and hobbyists alike, there is a clear expectation of Christianity - or at least familiarity with Christian terminology. The word 'passion', for example (quite a key one in this book!) is never explain...

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 co...