The Denver Jewish news., 1922-09-20
Serve the Lord With
Song!"
WHAT TIE ALLIANCE OF He
BREW CHORAL SOCIETIES HAS
DONE FOR JUDAISM.
BY Elbert Aidline-Trommer.

My heart is firm, o God will sing
and give praise. even with my spirit.
Awake, psaltery and harp: will wake
up the morning dawn. / will give Thee
thanks among the people, O Lord; and
/ will sing praise unto Thee among the
nations"-thus did David, the Poet
King of Israel sing to the God of his
people centuries ago.
And ever since then Israel has served
the Lord with Song. There is melody
in the Jews three daily prayers in the
chants that welcome and in those that
bid goodbye to the Sabbath; there is a
divine, sad strain in the cantor's sup
plications, for there is Song in the
heart of the people-unpremed
and simple, II melody that emanates
from their beings as freely and uncon-
sciously as the dawn that tints the
morning sky with scarlet and gold, as
the moon that silvers the grass and the
leaves and the rippling streams. until
into u vision of amber and trembling.
bluish-green light.
In the turmoil and din of the New
World in the struggle for existence
Song had almost gone out of our
peoples heart. The heartfelt, simple
melodies of the old home would only
,p,w and then be heard mt the theatre !;
tI., so crad s,nnys of unrshif, had becomp
confined to the synagogue and the
temple. But this could not last in
definitely The Jews better soul-the
NeshOmOh YOseirOli-awoke from slum-
Der and about n year ago the first
alliance of Hebrew Choral Societies
was formed. The response was imme-
diate. and an Alliance. consisting of
twelve affiliated Societies, with an ever
increasing membership, came into be-
ing 4 year later. last June. the sec
ond Annual Conventino was held, and
it became evident that without much
ado. without fireworks, the Organiza-
tion had come to stay. To those who
were scepticar about Jewish music, it
will prove, has proven already that Is
rael's soul still Graves music, that the
divine melody is not yet dead in his
heart.
At the June Convention, practically
the entire program was made up of
vocal and instrumental compositions
by modern Jewish composers ana, what
is most remarkable and unusual. the
majority of these composers were pre-
sent at the concert. They We're: Jacob
Beimel, Mattoo BonZman, A. w. Binder.
Platon Brounoff. Jacob Davidson, Solo
mon Golub, WIadimiNHoifetz, Leo Low,
j. Shaftcr, Max Spicker, Lazar Weiner
and =. Yassinofsky.
The Hebrew Choral Societies Alliance
has II very broad program, including
folk songs, poems of modern Jewish
poets set to music, songs of Labor, chill
drens music in Hebrew, Yiddish and
English but there is no doubt that all
this will be realized before long. The
Alliance is planning to establish II Re
gional or Territorial Organization, to
sldIlttdIRllIt anu ''hlApl Allt SUNS Nl'''
toirc of the Jewish Folks Schools: to
issue periodically literature on music
as well as textbooks for the national
and religious schools; and to publish
an Alliance Magazine in Niddish, con
taining news regarding the activities
of the Choral Societies all over the
country and Canada. as well as musical
items of Jewish and general interest
not TO mention critical and theoretical
discuurscs on music. Nor is this all
/ The Alliance will send out lecturers tc
awaken the interest of the Jewish peo
pie in Jewish music. and, last but moi
least. Jewish Academic Music Center
will be organized to hold discussions