January 26, 2005

Charles Davidson music released from Milken

Including a Jazz and Blues Sabbath Service
[8.559436] This new Milken Archive CD of music by Charles Davidson-one of the most frequently commissioned composers by synagogues, cantors and Jewish institutions, as well as by secular choruses across the country-illustrates the influence and vitality of three enduring aspects of the Jewish experience: the timeless Sabbath liturgy, the literary legacy of the "Golden Age" of Spanish Jewry, and the vibrant folklore tradition of Eastern European Yiddish culture.

The disc, released by Naxos American Classics, also demonstrates how Jewish composers have embraced indigenous American idioms, expanding the expressive boundaries of traditional synagogue music by infusing the ancient texts with contemporary musical language.
In A Singing of Angels, Davidson vibrantly evokes the lost world of eastern European Jewry in English-language settings of Yiddish folksongs for children's choir that are both charming and sophisticated. Baroque Suite, also scored for children's voices, celebrates the works of Yehuda Halevi, the best-known medieval Spanish-Hebrew poet, with musical settings inspired by 17th-century stylized dance forms. Also included is Cantor Davidson's trailblazing 1966 choral work, ...And David Danced Before the Lord, a Sabbath evening service sung in English and Hebrew-the first artistically unified, full-length Jewish service to be composed in the jazz idiom. Davidson is is perhaps best known for his celebrated composition, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a setting of children's poetry from the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia that has been performed throughout the world more than 2,500 times, has frequently been recorded, and was the subject of two award-winning PBS documentaries. Participating artists on this disc include Amy Goldstein, soprano; Douglas Webster, baritone; the Ramon Ricker Quintet; the Finchley Children's Music Group; the Jewish Heritage Youth Chorus (London); the Buffalo Vocal Ensemble; and conductors Nicholas Wilks and Brad Lubman. For details about this CD, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=31 To read an article about ...And David Danced Before the Lord, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/articles.taf?function=detail&ID=83 Posted by jmwc at January 26, 2005 09:00 PM