My name is Katie Hainbach, I am the Head of Music and Arts at Alyth Synagogue, also known as Northwestern Reform Synagogue in North-west London. Before working at Alyth I worked as a freelance opera singer and teacher, having completed my Masters in Vocal Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. I grew up in a very liberal Jewish home in Dublin, being a member of the small Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation. My first real memory of actively partaking in Jewish music was singing the Barechu (call to prayer) at my brother’s bar mitzvah and singing with the three-to-four-member High Holy Day choir for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
I began working at Alyth in September 2015, taking over from their previous Director of Music who had been there since the 1980s. Alyth is a Reform Synagogue and one of the largest in the UK with over 3000 members. It has just celebrated its 90th birthday, the congregation being formed in Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1933. Working as a musician and being part of a progressive congregation allows for great variety in the music we use in services. Reform and Liberal Judaism are both progressive forms of Judaism: egalitarian movements where women have the same rights and opportunities as men. I am allowed to read Torah, to sing in services and we have female cantors and rabbis. As a woman I feel very lucky to have grown up and now work in a community where I do have these opportunities.
However there are many different denominations in Judaism, many of which have different rules regarding music in Synagogue. For example, in a modern orthodox or ultra-orthodox congregation, women are not allowed to sing as part of services. All clergy must be male, and instruments are not permitted in services (something that is a big part of prayer at Alyth). When the reform movement began in the mid 1800’s, the organ was a large feature of the synagogue service, accompanying four-part choirs and in many ways sounding like music heard in churches at the same time.
Currently at Alyth we have many different styles of music as part of our prayer life. Reform Judaism began in mid-19th Century Germany and the first Reform Jewish music we have reflects the style of music that was popular at that time. Therefore, the music that was used in these early Reform services sounds very like some of the music one would have heard in Christian Church Choirs in the same period, the words however being in Hebrew. Solomon Sulzer and Louis Lewendowski were among the first to adopt this new approach to Jewish liturgical music. These composers’ style amalgamated the traditional Jewish melodies of the Ashkenazim (Yiddish speaking Jews) with modern harmonies, often calling for instrumental accompaniment. The solos in these compositions remained the more traditional cantorial idiom, but the choral sections reflected the influence of the contemporary composers of the day, such as Felix Mendelssohn. This choral sound was also influenced by the most prolific religious music in Germany at the time, which was Lutheranism.
The organ became a feature of Synagogue music in German-speaking lands in the late 1800’s but reached its peak by the turn of the century. Its use in synagogue was fully legitimized in the second half of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century this music continued to evolve into Western classical music, liturgical and folk melodies and started to develop into a form that could be performed in concert settings as well as in the synagogue service. Up until recently we used an organ at Alyth synagogue, however we are now using the piano as the upkeep of the organ unfortunately became too much.
As Reform Judaism is constantly changing and evolving, so is Reform Jewish music. As we have moved through the decades since the formation of Reform Judaism, we can hear how music popular at the time has influenced composers of Jewish liturgical music. This mixing of styles and influences is still something that permeates Reform Jewish music to this day.
I am going to focus on the Shabbat morning service and liturgy as Shabbat always takes priority above all other festivals. As Jews we are told to ‘remember the Shabbat day and keep it holy’. Music permeates all parts of the service, helping congregants connect to G-d, to each other, to themselves and to guide us through the service.
Music of majesty aims to create a sense of awe and grandeur to our service; music of majesty would often include the four-part choir with organ or piano. Music of meditation gives the congregant the opportunity to be inward and reflective through music, often the Shema (one of the most important prayers in Judaism), where eyes are often shut or covered, is composed in this style. Music of meeting involves music in which we become aware of the larger community and meet each other through prayer. There are several meeting moments in our liturgy where the community come together. Some music serves as the music of connection in a service, this is our music of momentum carrying the worship from one section to the next.
Music of momentum can also be used for music when movement is happening as part of the service, such as when the Torah scroll is being processed around the congregation before or after the Torah reading. Here we traditionally sing Psalms.
Music of memory may be associated with any of these moods but is very much connected to the individual. Many of us grow up with familiar memories that take us back to our childhood. Music has the ability to bring us back to a time and place, therefore memory is often a strong connector for many individuals to their personal connection to Judaism.
As I mentioned earlier, we now have liturgical music composed in a variety of styles and inspired by a variety of cultures. Each piece of liturgical text that can be set to music usually has multiple compositions and arrangements and the way these pieces are arranged and performed can affect our experience of the text and our prayer experience.
It is important to remember this is all the same part of the liturgy, just one small section of text can be musically interpreted in so many ways. This is the same core text we have heard every time (though there can be slight denominational differences).
An important part of our service planning is having an idea of the type of congregation we may be leading in prayer and making sure to try and include different tastes in the musical choices we make. This can often be very difficult when you know there are some people who like the ‘poppy’ more modern pieces compared to some people who prefer the more traditional Reform four-part harmony. Finding balance in a service, catering to different needs of individuals in the congregation and putting together a cohesive service is a large part of the preparation work I do with a Rabbi or service leader before Shabbat.
One of the aspects I love best about working in a progressive community is the opportunity to experience so many different styles of liturgical music; as someone with eclectic taste this is a real joy for me. One of the more traditional types of singing one will hear is cantillation, also known as leyning. Leyning is the Yiddish word for the traditional cantillation of the Hebrew Bible which takes place when it is publicly read from a Torah scroll. This is often done by a trained Cantor or Rabbi, but can also be done by members of the congregation, such as a thirteen-year-old becoming bar or bat mitzvah. This leyning tradition dates back to biblical times and is still an important feature of the sound of the synagogue today.
For generations this was a completely orally transmitted tradition, but between the 7th and 10th centuries the ‘Masoretes’ systematically notated the sounds to prevent the ancient tradition being lost as the Jewish population became dispersed. As the Torah scroll is written without vowels or punctuation it can be extremely difficult to establish the exact pronunciation and meaning of the text, the Masoretes’ system of notation helps us to do so. In Hebrew, this system of notation is called ‘Ta’amei Hamikra’ and consists of 28 signs, which are placed around the Hebrew word itself. Unlike Western musical notation, the cantillation symbols do not represent a single musical note. It is more of a musical phrase made up of two, three or more notes — some use up to 15 notes! As Chani Smith explains in her book Learn to Layn the word ta’am means a number of things: flavour, sense, meaning, accent, experience.
Over the centuries the musical interpretation of the t’amim diversified between communities. For example, if you attend a progressive synagogue in North America, the leyning melodies you hear will sound very different from what we have in the UK, even though the musical symbols are the same. In the UK we use the Western Ashkenazi (German) tradition. Not only are there different melody sequences amongst different communities around the world, there are also different cantillation systems (commonly known as trop) for different festivals. The one we most commonly hear is the Torah trop, which we hear every weekend but others include the High Holy Day trop, the Haftorah trop, Megillat Esther trop used for reading the Book of Esther scroll at Purim, the Megillat Eicha trop, used for reading the book of Lamentations from a scroll on Tischa Ba’Av, and Megillah trop, used for the remaining three scrolls that are read on the major pilgrimage festivals; Pesach (also known as Passover), Shavuot and Sukkot.
As you can imagine, learning to leyn proficiently in multiple trops and styles can take many years, something that professional Cantors study at great depth. It is a great honour to be asked to leyn in front of your community and a moment for those doing so to musically connect to generations from many centuries before them. One of the privileges of my work is being able to work with different groups throughout the community. Alyth is a multi-generational community with active involvement from our youngest members in groups such as Baby Den all the way up to social club, which is for more elderly congregants. We have musical groups for teenagers, primary school children and those with special needs. I have worked singing for those with dementia as part of my work at Alyth and with a charity I used to work for called Lost Chord. I find this work incredibly rewarding, yet at times challenging.
Many of us can hear a piece of music and remember where we were in our life when we first heard it and many of us have songs that remind us of a person or place (such as the first dance at a wedding). There is a saying in Judaism that something is ‘Mi Sinai’ – meaning coming from Mount Sinai. The idea that the music is so old and engrained in our psyche that it has been around as long as Judaism itself. Obviously, we know this is not the case as although it’s true that we don’t know the composers for all of our older melodies, these tunes were composed by someone at some time. Many congregants feel that compositions such as Hirch’s Oseh Shalom or Rothblum’s V’Shamru are ‘Mi Sinai’, even though they were composed in the latter half of the 20th century.
In my experience singing these melodies to those with dementia often tap into formative memories of being in synagogue or at important life-cycle events, which can help them access other memories. I have been in situations in Jewish care homes and in our groups at Alyth where I will start singing a familiar Jewish melody and the entire room starts singing and clapping. I have also found that when a piece of music taps into the memory of a person with dementia, it can help unlock other memories. I have had cohesive conversations with individuals who are most often non-verbal in care homes who after hearing a familiar tune will go on to tell me about their partner, or children or about their childhood. Music as an access to our memory is truly fascinating.
Judaism puts a huge emphasis on teaching the next generation, L’dor va dor, from generation to generation. It is part of the ethos of the religion and in fact a commandment to educate your children and music is no exception to this. Music in Judaism is an important way of teaching children about Jewish values, engaging them in services and festivals and connecting them to older generations. At Alyth, our Friday night Erev Shabbat service is usually full of children and teenagers who come with their family to engage in prayer and be together with their community.
As part of my work at Alyth I have led the children’s choir and the youth choir, taking them to perform at events at Jewish care homes, Jewish cultural centres such as JW3 in Northwest London and for services such as the Barnet Holocaust Memorial Day service.
One of the important ways we have been using music with young people at Alyth has been through interfaith work with children and young adults from other faith communities. Before Covid during a youth choir trip to Israel we met with a very special choir with teenagers from Jewish and Arab backgrounds, the teenagers from Alyth attended a rehearsal with this group and learned a song in Arabic. I have taken the youth choir to sing at Interfaith events, such as the annual Nisa-Nashim conference, a charity that connects Jewish and Muslim women. In more recent years we have worked with a local Church of England community and the London Ismaili centre to compose a song to perform and create a music video together. We recently joined together again to sing this special song in a concert celebrating choral music at Alyth. This work is incredibly valuable as having a shared goal of creating music together bonds these young people and creates friendships and links between people who may never ordinarily have met.
I am happy to say that Jewish music continues to develop and thrive. There has recently been a large resurgence of people studying and playing Yiddish music and klezmer music, supported by organisations such as the UK Jewish Music Institute. Wonderful liturgical music continues to be composed and performed around the world. Jewish choral music continues to thrive, with composers such as Stephen Glass, Meir Finklestein and Craig Taubman (to name but a few) writing beautiful choral arrangements for communities around the world. Before the pandemic I attended the North American Jewish Choral Festival, which featured presentations from composers, cantors, musicologists and ethnomusicologists and performances for many different types of choirs. Attending this festival highlighted how Jewish music is thriving internationally and the vast range of people who engage in their Judaism through the music they hear and sing.
In the UK organisations such as the Jewish Music Institute, Shirei Chaggigah, the Jewish Music Fair and the multitude of Jewish Choirs continue to teach and perform Jewish music both old and new. I believe that music keeps many people, both old and young, engaged with their Judaism, whether it is a religious or cultural connection and will continue to do so well into the future.
Katie Hainbach is a professional singer based in London. She is Director of Music at Alyth Reform Synagogue.