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Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Ha-Kodesh: A Synopsis and Detailed Program Note

Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Ha-Kodesh: cred Service includes a traditional chant and the familiar
Synopsis and Program Note formula Barukh Atta… “Blessed art Thou….”
Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch (1880- Bloch’s music, however, does reflect certain quali-
1959) composed his Avodath Ha-Kodesh: The Sacred Service ties of the traditional music of the synagogue, using
in 1930-33, for San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu- repeating motives, and establishing an effect similar to
El, whose Cantor, Reuben R. Rinder, arranged for the the non-metric traditional modes by frequent changes
commission by Gerald Warburg (1907-1971), son of in time signature. The Cantor-Choir responsive struc-
financier and Jewish leader Felix Warburg and a con- ture also reflects a prominent feature of the Synagogue,
cert cellist. It has been called “a high-water mark of as is the alternation between non-metric and highly
twentieth-century synagogue song.” The Sacred Service rhythmic responses, and between biblical verses and
premiered in Turin, Italy, in January 1933; it was first non-biblical liturgical passages.
presented in Temple Emanu-El in March 1938. Bloch studied the Service and its Hebrew text for a
The Sacred Service is based on the Sabbath Morning full year in preparation for this composition. He ana-
Service of the Union Prayer Book, Revised Edition (1924), lyzed every Hebrew word and set sections in Hebrew
the prayer book of the Reform movement within that were not found in Hebrew in the Union Prayer
American Judaism at the time. Bloch came to envision Book, such as Yihyu le-ratzon (Part III) and Bayom ha-hu
the Sacred Service to be performed as an integral whole, (Part V). He spoke and wrote passionately about the
without breaks for reading from Scripture, a sermon drama of the text, and gave a Hebrew name to his
and so forth, as would be the norm in a synagogue composition, Avodath Ha-Kodesh (taken, by the way, from
service. Nevertheless, the synagogue context was very the Hebrew of Numbers 7:9) usually found in Hebrew
much part of the conceptualization of the piece. characters on the scores. Bloch was also influenced by
The liturgy of the Union Prayer Book (and the Avo- the Union Prayer Book’s English translations, which
dath Ha-Kodesh) follows the broad outline and structure often re-framed the meaning of the Hebrew text. The
of traditional Jewish prayer, but there are numerous published scores of the Sacred Service do not use the
differences in text and details, placement of passages Union Prayer Book’s elegant English version; the Eng-
within the service, interpretive translations, and emen- lish in the score is somewhat more literal and is usually
dations or removal of passages where the Hebrew was credited to David Stevens.
considered out of step with modern beliefs. Duplica- Bloch departed from the prior practice of most
tions were largely eliminated and English readings composers of Synagogue music, who wrote settings of
added. A central component of Jewish prayer services, individual prayers or sections of the service. In con-
usually called Amida “standing” because it is recited trast, the Sacred Service is an entire service. (One of the
while standing, is traditionally recited first in silence by relatively few other settings of a full service is Darius
all in the congregation, then chanted by the Cantor; in Milhaud’s 1948 Service Sacré, like Bloch’s Sacred Service,
Reform Jewish custom, the sections are recited congre- commissioned by Congregation Emanu-El in San
gationally only, with a silent meditation afterwards. Francisco.) Bloch said the five parts “have to be played
The Jewish nature of Bloch’s Avodath Ha-Kodesh, while without interruption, as a unity…like the Mass of the
clearly represented in the liturgy, is not represented in Catholics.” Indeed, with the exception of the “Silent
most of the actual music. The traditional melodies of Meditation” and Yihyu le-ratzon at the beginning of Part
the synagogue are mostly non-metric modes assigned III, individual Parts or individual sections within each
to various subsections, with a few traditional melodies movement are rarely performed as stand-alone pieces.
for certain components. These are absent in the Sacred Nevertheless, when considered in the context of a wor-
Service except for the Tzur Yisrael “Rock of Israel” at the ship service, the five parts of the Sacred Service—like the
end of Part I (and partially repeated in Part V), which parts of most Concert Masses—are separated by ele-
is based on a musical notation of the passage which ments for which a musical setting was not written. The
Cantor Rinder had sent to him, the only place the Sa- texts of Bloch’s Sacred Service are in some sense unique

40 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2023 Volume 64 Number 3