Overview

"Songs of Sonderling is the story of Jacob Sonderling's unique contributions to Jewish liturgical music. Rabbi Sonderling was many things: a descendant of Chassidic rebbes, a rationalist, a Reform rabbi, a Zionist, an army chaplain, a celebrated orator, an artistic soul. From his early career at the Hamburg Temple and German Army service in World War I, to his wandering years in the Eastern United States and founding of the Society for Jewish Culture–Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles, Sonderling cultivated a unique aesthetic vision of Judaism, a ""five-sense appeal."" Jonathan L. Friedmann and John F. Guest document and analyze Sonderling's experience and expression of Judaism through music. Rabbi Sonderling's vision yielded liturgical commissions from exiled Viennese Jewish composers who arrived in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 1940s. Through these musical settings, activities at the Fairfax Temple, and involvement with the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Sonderling made an indelible mark on the city's Jewish community and the wider musical world. Songs of Sonderling focuses on the commissions Sonderling made from 1938 to 1945: Ernst Toch's Cantata of the Bitter Herbs, Arnold Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's A Passover Psalm and Prayer, and Eric Zeisl's Requiem Ebraico. Through musical analyses and an examination of Sonderling's career in Los Angeles, Friedmann and Guest contribute to the study of Jewish liturgical music, to Jewish history in the American West, to Jewish identity in the twentieth century, and to Jewish diaspora writ large."

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9781682830796

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Reviews

Songs of Sonderling is a welcome addition to work on music in Los Angeles, shedding new light on the work of prominent émigré composers Ernst Toch, Arnold Schoenberg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Eric Zeisl. The book also introduces Rabbi Jacob Sonderling, an unknown figure to many as well as an émigré himself. As a Jewish community leader in Los Angeles, Sonderling wisely took advantage of the many outstanding composers living in Los Angeles at the time, commissioning them to write music with a Jewish focus. Authors Jonathan L. Friedmann and John F. Guest offer an accessible and well-organized exploration of this activity. . . . I am confident this book will find a home in the study of music in Los Angeles, Jewish music, and émigré art. --Lily Hirsch, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 22:4

Author Information

Jonathan L. Friedmann is Professor of Jewish Music History and Associate Dean of the Master of Jewish Studies Program at the Academy for Jewish Religion California, President of the Western States Jewish History Association, Director of the Jewish Museum of the American West, and the author or editor of twenty-five books on Judaism, music, and religion. After almost thirty years as a labor lawyer, John F. Guest returned to his first love, music, and was ordained a cantor. He now works as a substitute cantor and tutors b'nei mitzvah students in the Los Angeles area, and he serves as Vice President of the Western States Jewish History Association.

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