I am a tenor soloist, tenor-to-soprano chorister, amateur chazan, and have begun to do some arrangement and composition. Most of these activities began (in any formal sense) in 2006, with my compositions first performed in 2009, although I have been singing all my life, at the dinner table, adding improvised harmonies in synagogue, or just wandering the streets with a tune on my lips. Since June 2009, I have been training my voice with Sue Falk.
My interest is primarily in traditional musics (east, west, and between), but my influences are many and impossible to list.
Compositions and arrangements
I have only tried my hand at composition very recently. Barefoot has been both a reason for writing and a fantastic group of musicians to try the music out on.
Note that my arrangements of other’s melodies may not be publicly performable without permission for copyright reasons.
Hashiveinu with Reb Shlomo — December 2006 — November 2009
The first significant piece I attempted to arrange was this medley of Carlebach tunes, contrasted with more traditional European synagogue music. I always intended it for a medium-large community choir, like the Sydney Jewish Choral Society. Although I offered it to McGill’s New Earth Voices at the time, I then had little understanding of arrangement in terms of harmony and progression. It therefore spent three years shelved, and I have finally made a number of changes and brought it up to scratch.
Abie Rotenberg’s Mi Adir for 5 — 2008 — November 2009
I was asked by Joseph Toltz to extend my earlier arrangement of this wedding tune for another two voices. My recent composition and arrangement experience shows through, leaving the new version distinctively textured.
Shema Koleinu — October 2009
- SATB + Baritone soloist [PDF-en, PDF-he, PDF-sci, MIDI, Lilypond ZIP]
- SATB + Baritone and Tenor soloists [PDF-en, PDF-he, PDF-sci, MIDI, Lilypond ZIP]
I got out of bed one Monday morning with a chant in my head. Having transcribed it on the ferry to work — wondering all along if I had borrowed it from somewhere — I knew quite quickly which words it was to set. Soon I had a cantorial melody and a four-part choir accompaniment for the Shema Koleinu prayer from the Yom Kippur liturgy.
Vanitas — October 2009
Mezzo-soprano solo [PDF, MIDI, Lilypond]
I was asked late one night to compose a mezzo-soprano solo. After selecting this verse by Rupert Brooke, I had it written in about an hour:
Laugh now and live! The gods are with us. Death and tears
Are dreams we know not. Life, mysterious, divine,
Lifts to our scarlet mouths her young immortal wine
And wreaths with roses all our passionate laughing years.
Hit’oreri — 2008–Sept 2009
This is a tune I’d partially composed in early 2008, as a setting of Mi Adir, which is sung on the bridal couple’s entry to the Chuppah in a Jewish wedding. I unearthed it in 2009, and completed the duet. Since the wedding words wouldn’t be appropriate for a concert, I selected an appropriate verse from Lekha Dodi instead.
Esheth Chayil — July 2009
The Book of Proverbs concludes with an alphabetic acrostic poem describing the woman of valour; originally brought to the Sabbath dinner table by 16th-century kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria and his students, who stressed the Zohar’s description of both the Divine Presence (shekhina) and the Sabbath (malkat shabbat) in feminine terms. More popularly, it is adopted as a praise for the mother of the house, sung at the Sabbath dinner table over which she has laboured! This popular melody by Ben Zion Shenker (1941-) derives from the Modzhitz chasidic tradition.
What has become a traditional melody, arranged for SATB in July 2009 for Barefoot’s Songs of Ascents concerts. A 10/8 section was inspired by a YouTube video, under Jenny’s insistance.
Rossi 22½ (Ana Adonai) — July 2009
In performing a concert of Salamone Rossi’s, Barefoot needed a setting of Psalms 118 verse 25 to fit snugly amid Rossi’s setting of the rest of the psalm (nos 22 and 23 in Hashirim Asher Lishlomo). This was my attempt at a link.
Abie Rotenberg’s Mi Adir — 2008
I arranged this with the help of my sister-in-law’s brother and my younger brother for us to sing as a trio while my she walked down the aisle to marry my older brother. Abie Rotenberg is certainly one of my favourite contemporary composers of Jewish music.
Ensembles
Some ensembles I am or have been a member of:
- Barefoot Musica Antigua (2008–)
- Sydney University Madrigal Society (2006–)
- Sydney Jewish Choral Society (2006–)
- New Earth Voices at McGill University (2006–7)
Chazanut
I have been a hired chazan on the following occasions:
- High holidays 2007, Surfers Central Synagogue, Surfers Paradise; ba’al shacharit
- High holidays 2006, Bagg St Shul (Beit Shloime), Montreal; ba’al shacharit, mussaf, ma’ariv, ne’ila, tokea
- Pesach 2006, Surfers Central Synagogue, Surfers Paradise
Other projects
I am becoming involved in a number of other music-related projects, including:
- 150 Songs — Jenny Green’s project to produce new and varied settings of all 150 Psalms.
Recordings
See the respective ensembles, above.
In addition, I have uploaded some low-quality recordings to Zemirot Database.