Yehudi WYNER (b. 1929)
1. Shir Hashirim (SA Version) (2001) [2.38]
2. The Torah Service (1966) [15.03]
3. Shir Hashirim (SATB) (2001) [2.42]
4. Friday Evening Service (1963) [33.51]
Joshua Breitzer (cantor) (2, 4)
Thomas McCargar (baritone) (2)
Wellesley College Choir (1)
New York Virtuoso Singers (2-4)
unnamed instrumental ensemble (2)
Unnamed orchestra (4)
Susan Davenny Wyner (conductor) (1)
Yehudi Wyner (conductor) (2-4)
rec. 12 April 1996, Houghton Chapel Wellesley College (1); 9-10 September
2009, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2-4)
BRIDGE 9333 [54.49]
This is volume 3 of Bridge’s series Music of Yehudi Wyner and this
volume is dedicated to his sacred music. I must confess that Wyner was a name
new to me. His Piano Concerto was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. He has
taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell and Harvard and is now Professor Emeritus
at Brandeis University. Wyner was born in Canada and his father, Lazar Weiner,
was a composer of Yiddish art song and much liturgical music. He studied with
Hindemith and Walter Piston, and in 1953 won the Rome Prize in Composition.
The two major services on this disc were written for liturgical use. In his
booklet note, Wyner says that he had never envisioned the services being performed
in a concert situation, and that he had had no intention of orchestrating
the works’ organ accompaniment. But that the changes and decline in classical
Jewish sacred music had caused him to change his mind and seek a home for
the works outside the synagogue. With this change, came the decision to orchestrate
these scores.
The Torah Service was written to private commission and first performed
by a group of Yale students at a synagogue in Woodbridge, Connecticut in 1966.
The Friday Evening Service was commissioned by the Park Avenue Synagogue
of New York and first performed there on 3 May 1963.
Both services, as presented here, take the form of a series of prayers in
which the cantor alternates with the choir. One rather distinctive feature
is that the cantor mixes speaking and singing, rather than singing all his
responses. Also, though the services are sung in Hebrew, the cantor’s spoken
sections tend to be in Hebrew followed by the English version. I am unclear
how much of this reflects standard liturgical practice and how much was adopted
for the recording.
The result is a series of short items forming a complete whole; there are
no large-scale movements. The writing is vigorous and not afraid of noise
and dissonance, though Wyner’s style remains strictly tonal. The orchestral
accompaniments and interjections have a strong feeling of the writing of Stravinsky
and Hindemith, though the vocal writing is more lyrical than would have been
expected from these sources. The results have strong personality and must
have created a very distinctive atmosphere when performed in liturgical context.
This is not shy and retiring music. Wyner is not frightened of making sacred
music which is noisy and lively; he is not content with being well mannered
and staying in the background.
The performances from the New York Virtuoso Singers are creditable without
being stunning. There are moments of uncertainty of ensemble but they give
full value to the vigorous nature of the music. Cantor Joshua Breitzer has
a large role to play, one that he does admirably and with confidence. At the
time of recording Breitzer was a student cantor of Temple Beth Shalom in Arnold,
Maryland. Baritone Thomas McCargar contributes some nice solo moments in The
Torah Service.
Wyner was introduced to the melody Shir Hashirim, by his father. It
was originally sung by the Jews of Georgia (Russia). Wyner has made a number
of arrangements of the piece and this disc includes one for women’s voices
(conducted by his wife), and for mixed voice choir. The pieces make for nice
punctuation points in the disc.
The CD booklet contains a long article by Wyner on the music and concludes
with some illuminating paragraphs on the state of Jewish liturgical music
and his reasons for recording the services. Full English texts are given,
but unfortunately the Hebrew is not. Nor do the texts indicate the divisions
between choir and cantor, which I think might have been useful. The CD cover
and booklet use very evocative pictures by Isaiah Wyner.
Generally, in the CD catalogue the term sacred music is taken to mean music
writing for the Christian liturgy. This disc presents some significant sacred
music derived from the 20th century Jewish tradition. The performances
are not perfect, but under the composer’s own direction they have a significant
authority and illuminate the different pathways of Jewish sacred music.
Robert Hugill
The performances are not perfect, but under the composer’s own direction they
have a significant authority and illuminate the different pathways of Jewish
sacred music.