A Christian priest wo, in the Norman period in Apulia, southern Italy, as a consequence of a spiritual crisis caused by the massacres of Jews carried out by the Crusaders in Mainz and Worms, in 1102 converted to Judaism, following the example of the Bishop of Bari. His name is Obadia ha-Ger mi-Oppido Lucano. Having learned the Gregorian music during his theological studies, he after the conversion used the gregorian system of musical notation to write some synagogal hymns and music he composed. These authograph manuscripts of Obadia, discovered in the Cairo Genizah, are the oldest document of musical Gregorian notation (written as Hebrew leftwards) in our possession. Together with A. De Rosa, I edited on Obadia ha-ger the following volume: M. Perani - A. De Rosa (eds), Giovanni-Ovadiah il proselito da Oppido, viaggiatore e musicista dell’età normanna, Atti del convegno internazionale, Oppido Lucano (PZ), 28-30 marzo 2004, AISG “Testi e Studi” n. 16, Firenze, Giuntina 2005, ISBN 88-8057-236-9. Part of the Cairo Genizah Collection. Musical notation of the piyyuṭim ברוך הגבר and ועדה מה in the hand of Obadiah the Proselyte (Johannes of Oppido, an Italian priest, who converted to Judaism in 1102 CE). The Cairo Genizah contains several of his transcriptions, the best known are his Lombardic neumatic notations to piyyuṭim, with formulas characteristic of the Gregorian chant. The stave is ruled with a hard point on one side, and rubricated on the other. Each line of the stave is marked with Hebrew letters, alef to he, from top to bottom. Obadiah has provided us with the first written musical settings to Jewish liturgical poetry, but scholars are at odds about the degree to which he was responsible for their composition.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 08:46:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015