This special collection of studies is dedicated to Prof. Israel Adler, the founder of the Jewish Music Research Centre of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It includes a variety of articles on diverse issues related to different Jewish musical cultures. General topics such as the problematic and the development of the concept of Jewish music are discussed in this volume amid specific articles on Ashkenazi and Sephardi liturgical music, kabbalistic writings on music, Jewish composers and performers, the presence of non-Jewish music genres in Jewish musical cultures and more.

For four years between 1982 and 1986 the Jewish Music Research Centre hosted research seminars devoted to the Jewish oral traditions. Researchers in different fields (linguistics, musicology, literature and folklore) met and worked together and dealt with shared material that they approached with their own tools and research habits in the attempt to achieve results of an interdisciplinary type. Several topics were chosen – biblical and post-biblical cantillation; aspects of the Judeo-Spanish folk song; specific rituals of the Hassidic communities and the majority of studies are to be found in the present volume.

For contents and article abstracts press on Sample pages which is located on the right of the cover photo.

The ANTHOLOGY OF HASSIDIC MUSIC is a special collection of a wide variety of music whose origin is Hassidic. The ANTHOLOGY contains a complete musical transcription of the Sabbath eve service in Hassidic nusach (melodic style), table songs for Sabbath and festivals, Hassidic Niggunim (melodies) on Hebrew and Yiddish texts, textless Niggunim, traditional chanting formulas and cantorial pieces of Hassidic origin. The ANTHOLOGY also contains choral arrangements of Hassidic songs and compositions which are based on Hassidic musical motives. Many of these Niggunim and compositions see here the light of print for the first time. The ANTHOLOGY is a continuation of Chemjo Vinaver's famous Anthology of Jewish Music . It is the fruit of many years of labour in collecting and notating Hassidic music; the result of the tireless efforts of Chemjo Vonaver who was on the one hand a great connoisseur of this music which he knew from early childhood and on the other hand a meticulous selector and critic, who would not compromise good taste and originality for the sake of popularity. In spite of his wide activities as choral conductor (he won great acclaim for his outstanding choirs in Berlin and New York) he devoted much time and effort to this collection, but he died before he could edit the material for print. Dr. Eliyahu Schleifer, lecturer of Musicology in Tel Aviv University and researcher at the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, re-edited Vinaver's musical transcriptions. Dr. Schleifer also wrote explanatory notes to each of the 104 compositions of the ANTHOLOGY and an extensive introduction to each section of the book. In these notes and introductions he explained the liturgical or social significance of the texts and commented on the music basing his observations on the most recent research in Hassidic Music. The introductions and annotations are in English and Hebrew. Special effort was made to explain Hassidic matters to the non-initiated. Many hints are given for the sake of performers who would wish to sing this music in a manner which would suit the special musical aesthetics of the Hassidim.