Description
We will probably never know how the earliest Christian chants were related to Jewish chants, due to the lack of ancient sources. Nevertheless, some later notations of Gregorian and synagogue chants suggest a relationship. This paper discusses one such case: the melodies of the Jewish hymn Aleinu (“We Must Praise”) and a nearly identical Sanctus. Aleinu, like the more famous Kol nidrei, belongs to a small group of chants that are revered as if they were part of the Sinaitic revelation. Although no “melodies from Sinai” are notated before 1740, they are commonly considered medieval. Among these melodies, Aleinu stands out for two reasons: it closely resembles a fourteenth-century Sanctus, and a twelfth-century Hebrew chronicle claims that thirty Jewish martyrs sang Aleinu while being burned at the stake in 1171. Two questions arise: did the martyrs sing the traditional chant, and was the Sanctus derived from it?
Abraham Idelsohn mentioned the “conspicuous similarity” of Aleinu and Sanctus without discussing the details (1926). Eric Werner implied, but did not show, a relationship (1959). Hanoch Avenary sought to establish musical parameters for the “melodies from Sinai” as a genre (1972). Geoffrey Goldberg summarized, but didn’t investigate, the relevant historical issues (2019). Jonathan Friedmann discussed the history of the term “melodies from Sinai” without evaluating the music (2019).
Despite the centrality of Aleinu and Sanctus in their respective traditions, nobody has yet compared them systematically. This paper fills the gap, showing that a close reading of the chronicle casts doubt on the historicity of the martyrs’ singing of Aleinu, while a musical
analysis reveals that the chants are not so closely related as had been thought. Offering a new appraisal of an old interreligious puzzle, this comparative study enhances our understanding of the history of both Jewish and Gregorian chant.
| IMPORTANT | YES, I confirm I have read it. |
|---|
