Achron: Violin Concerto No. 1 / The Golem / Two Tableaux

Description

Violin Concerto no.1, op. 60Violin Concerto no.1, op. 60 waswritten mostly in 1925 and completed and orchestrated the following year. It isthe first large-scale work following Achron's immigration to the United States,It is also the first known concerto, for any instrument, with a movement basedentirely upon the actual musical substance of authentic biblical cantillation(as opposed to programmatic or pictorial biblical depictions).The concerto is divided into twomovements: I. Allegro Moderato and II. Improvisations sur deux themesyemeniques (Improvisations on Two Yemenite Themes). The first movement isconstructed and derived directly from fifteen individual motives of traditionalbiblical cantillation systems--or trops--known as ta'amei hamikra(lit., the meaning or sense of the verse recitation), the musical punctuationpatterns indicated by signs or accents above or below words or syllables. Thesesymbols denote the established intonations and vocal accentuations for communalreading of specific sections of the Holy Scriptures. The formulaic systemscomprise series of specific motives of unmetered pitches whose rhythms merelycorrespond to the natural rhythm of the words and are repeated throughout abiblical passage or section in varying orders and combinations and sequences.Their original purpose pertained more to precision of grammatical punctuation,syntax, and accentuation than to musical rendition, although it is generallypresumed that some form of quasi- singing always accompanied public biblicalreading even in the first millennium, if not before. These accentuation patternsevolved into motives of a chant-like vocal rendition based on the natural riseand fall of the voice in accordance with the prescribed punctuation. Theaesthetic product is a logogenic chant somewhere between cadenced speech andnonmetrical singing.Together with ancient psalmody,biblical cantillation forms the oldest historical layer of all Hebrewliturgical music, possibly with some roots in Jewish antiquity. The versions ofthe Ashkenazi realm, which Achron has utilized in this concerto, probably dateat least to the Middle Ages, with subsequent evolution and variation, leadingto specific eastern and western European variants intact to this day. Many ofthe Gesellschaft composers were particularly intrigued by biblical cantillationas one of the chief potential sources of Judaic melos for a new modern nationalmusic, and Achron turned to its wellsprings for many of his instrumentalcompositions,The cantillation systems vary incontent among the principal established geographical traditions: Ashkenazi,Sephardi, Persian, Yemenite, Bokharan, etc. In each of those rites, with someexceptions, there is a distinct cantillation pattern of motives for each of thecommunally read biblical books: the Torah for Sabbaths, other holy days, roshhodesh (the new month), and certain weekday services; the Haftara (propheticportions of the Bible) for Sabbaths and other holy days; M'gillat enter (thescroll