The mystical strain in Jewish liturgical music

Drawing on evidence from the Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite traditions, and generally relying on 19th and 20th-c. notation, the author considers the identifiable contributions of mystics and elements that actually grew out of mystical theory. Both the logogenic style (the Rabbinic, intellectual, and didactic strain) and the pathogenic style (the mystical strain) are present in the music of the Jewish liturgy. Cited texts include those by a 7th-c. poet, Eleazar Kallir; the Hasidic Hymn of Unity; the Hymn of Glory; the hymns of the Hekhalot Rabbati; and a text description of Philo in the practice of the Therapeutae.


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