Rewriting the Grand Narrative of Jewish Music: Abraham Z. Idelsohn in the United States

In 1929, musicologist and composer Abraham Zvi Idelsohn published his major study Jewish Music in its Historical Development. Viewed today as a foundational work in its field, Idelsohn's book attempted for the first time to bring together many fragments of Jewish musical knowledge into a single, grand English language narrative. At the same time, Idelsohn's publication reflected both his time and circumstances: having moved from Jerusalem to a prominent position in Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College. Upon its publication, Jewish Music in its Historical Development received wide coverage, succeeding at least metaphorically in recasting Jewish sound to create a continuous, usable past for musical practice and thought, particularly among Euro-American populations. In this essay, I analyze the history of this work and its author as Idelsohn shifted from his earlier 1924 treatise Toldot ha-neginah ha-ivrit, with particular attention to Idelsohn's arrival in the United States, his dealings with mainline publisher Henry Holt and Company, the book's reception in lay and scholarly Jewish music circles, and finally its subsequent republications and canonization as a comprehensive history of Jewish music. In doing so, I argue that while Jewish Music in its Historical Development helped redefine the borders, and perhaps geographical center, of Jewish music scholarship, the work can also be interpreted as an attempt to codify an agenda of musical activism from within the center of American Reform Jewish life.