The Lord's Song in a Strange Land

Music and the choice of musical settings function as one of the most basic forms of affiliation and identity in American Jewish congregations. This book examines how choice of melody helps Jews present and maintain their cultural identity. An audio CD packaged with the book includes field recordings of the most important tunes discussed.

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Across the United States, Jews come together every week to sing and pray in a wide variety of worship communities. Through this music, made by and for ordinary folk, these worshippers define and re-define their relationship to the continuity of Jewish tradition and the realities of American life.

Combining oral history with an analysis of recordings, The Lord's Song in a Strange Land examines this tradition incontemporary Jewish worship and explores the diverse links between the music and both spiritual and cultural identities. Alive with detail, the book focuses on metropolitan Boston and covers the full range of Jewish communities there, from Hasidim to Jewish college students in a transdenominational setting. It documents a remarkably fluid musical tradition, where melodies are often shared, where sources can be as as diverse as Sufi chant, Christmas carols, rock and roll, and Israeli popular music, and where the meaning of a song can change from one block to the next.

The Lord's Song in a Strange Land is the first volume in Oxford's new American Musicspheres series. Featuring a CD of field recordings for many of the songs discussed, the book will prove an invaluable guide for a wide range of scholars and students of ethnomusicology and religion.