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JEWISH SACRED
CHORAL WORKS
in Classical Style
by MICHAEL REID WINIKOFF
Explore this catalog of beautiful, substantive Jewish choir works for Shabbat, High Holy Days, Chanukkah and the major festivals (Sh'losh Regalim). Add a new musical dimension to your services.
CLICK HERE for information on, and Digital Playback Videos of UPCOMING WORKS
THE VALUE OF CHORAL MUSIC IN THE SYNAGOGUE
The importance of congregational engagement and participation in the
synagogue service has come to receive increased emphasis in our Jewish
community in recent years. These days, a vibrant worship
experience, one that will draw more congregants to shul, is viewed to be
the one with lively communal singing and dancing during as much of the
service as possible.
But an equally vital part of this engagement comes in the aspect of
passive meditation – the opportunity for the congregant to sit quietly
for a few moments at various points in the service, and allow the
trappings of our ritual to affect us on their own terms, to transport
us to another time and place, to a (hopefully) higher spiritual plane,
where we are infused with moods and flavors of Yiddishkeit.
At their most powerful, these meditative moments can indeed be
transcendental.
Music is perhaps the most potent agent for inducement and enhancement of
that spiritual voyage. A traditional melody, a passage of liturgy
presented authentically by the hazzan, even a skillfully chanted
haftarah, can be the aural equivalent of the minei v’samim, the varied
spices, which add a subjective, sensory dimension to the proceedings and
enhance the sublime poetic imagery of our sacred texts.
If simple melody has this capacity, it of course follows that the added
harmonic dimension of 2- or 4-part choir settings will deepen the effect
exponentially. Well-crafted, well-executed choral music has this
added expressive, inflective power; and certainly in a more traditional setting where the
inclusion of musical instruments is often not permitted, such an added
dimension of harmony is all the more to be prized - indeed, it is the
one method available under sutch circumstances to add that harmonic
dimension.
My music is created expressly for the purpose of facilitating that voyage of spiritual contemplation, of revealing a new musical dimension all the more capable of expressing the heartfelt prayers and aspirations in our liturgy. In this music I strive to honor the dignity, respectfulness and grandeur of our synagogue rite.
PRACTICAL, ADAPTABLE
If your congregation is like most, your choral resources are not limitless. Many of your singers, for all their laudable dedication, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn and be challenged, are not professionally trained. Perhaps they don't read music. These choral works are created to be useful and applicable to the services and rituals of the synagogue, while serving the considerations of a congregation's practical limitations. About adaptabilities
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Lengthier works may be abridged or excerpted.
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Most accompaniments are optional.
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Several works are available in alternate arrangement for men's voices (TTBB).
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Some works may be sung by alternate voice types.
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Several works may be sung either in Hebrew or English.
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A few works feature optional solo passages.
Determine if a Work is Easy, Challenging or Inbetween - My
music
is designed for practicality, adaptability and achievability even by
groups of more limited resources and skill levels, with works ranging from
easy, tuneful, congregation-friendly settings in 2 and 4 parts, to
complex, challenging renditions for SSAATTBB. See
Ease/Challenge
ratings. If you're still not sure, you can ...
See and hear any work in score form via screen-capture
playback video. Examine a piece to decide if it fits your choir.
PLEASE NOTE: As of July 2016, all video playbacks on this
site are in MP4 format.
About playbacks.
Purchase sheet music for any work in
downloadable digital PDF files, ready to print in book or individual
sheet format. (DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY - Sorry, no sale or shipment
of hard-copies.) Price per download includes license permission to
produce up to 35 copies of the work
AUTHENTICALLY ROOTED IN TRADITION
Over the centuries, Jewish sacred music has evolved
as a body of chant and chant modes (on both
biblical and liturgical texts), known as nusach (plural
nuschaot), informed and supplemented by colorful folk tunes and
idioms, many which are indigenous to the non-Jewish culture of the
various Old-World regions that long fostered the great European Jewish
communities. This melodic legacy is the very essence of Jewish
sacred music. It is a treasure trove of musical source material for the Jewish
composer. From these
European traditions has sprung forth a richly expressive
body of cantorial and choral works through the pens of great composers,
and the voices and ingenious improvisational skills of great hazzanim
(cantors) -
producing many of the greatest artistic embodiments of that tradition.
The body of work offered on this site seeks to continue that
artistic legacy of compositional transformation from chant and folk
tunes into even more inspiring choral works. It endeavors to be at
once new and innovative, yet founded in that rich melodic heritage of
our Jewish worship.
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Non-Choral Synagogue Works - See Jewish Wedding Music.