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Super flumina Babylonis
Charles-Valentin Alkan
1859
Charles-Valentin Alkan composed this setting of Psalm 137 (“By the rivers of Babylon”) in 1859, the same year that his friend Franz Liszt composed a setting for the same biblical verses. Unlike Liszt’s setting, Alkan’s was a piano solo that did not include singing of the text of the psalm.
Charles-Valentin Alkan composed this setting of Psalm 137 (“By the rivers of Babylon”) in 1859, the same year that his friend Franz Liszt composed a setting for the same biblical verses. Unlike Liszt’s setting, Alkan’s was a piano solo that did not include singing of the text of the psalm.
Credits
Paris: Richault, n.d. [1859]. Plate 13296 R. Reprint—Paris: Billaudot, ca. 1971.
Published in:The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.
Literature cannot survive, cannot develop freely and expansively, if it depends on an underdeveloped reader, if it satisfies the spiritual-aesthetic needs only of those who have no access to the…
A systematic collection of the traditional songs of Oriental Jews is of great importance, both for the elucidation of the vocal music used in synagogues and for the study of the origins of…
Charles-Valentin Alkan (born Charles-Henri-Valentin Morhange) was raised in Paris, receiving instruction in music from an early age. Alkan entered the Conservatoire de Paris as a child and by early adulthood was a well-respected pianist. Known almost entirely for his piano compositions, Alkan wrote technically difficult music that largely defied conventions of the day. He associated with influential figures of the romantic movement such as Frédéric Chopin and Victor Hugo, though his music generally avoids the more bucolic themes of romanticism in favor of the grotesque. Alkan retired relatively young, spending much of his life studying Talmud and other literature, withdrawn from urban life.
One of the most striking changes in European Jewish culture toward the later eighteenth century was marked by the entry of Jews into art music, opera houses, and the stage.
Literature cannot survive, cannot develop freely and expansively, if it depends on an underdeveloped reader, if it satisfies the spiritual-aesthetic needs only of those who have no access to the…
A systematic collection of the traditional songs of Oriental Jews is of great importance, both for the elucidation of the vocal music used in synagogues and for the study of the origins of…