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Milken Archive’s new wedding album

So you’re getting married and trying to decide what music to play on the big day.
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November 13, 2014

So you’re getting married and trying to decide what music to play on the big day. You could choose Pachelbel’s “Canon” for the processional and Bach’s “Air on the G String” for the recessional. And why not? Those pieces are perfectly functional. 

For the reception, the Internet offers song recommendations for Baroque weddings, country music weddings, even “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings.” Popular song choices today include John Legend’s “All of Me,” Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” Sade’s “Kiss of Life” and Jagged Edge’s “Let’s Get Married.”

But if you want to add some real Jewish flavor to your special day — especially for the ceremony — it’s worth exploring the latest release from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, a digital download-only product of traditional and modern wedding music, available on iTunes and Amazon. Released in March, Volume 4 of “Cycle of Life in Synagogue and Home: Album 3, Weddings” is the latest installment of the Archive’s “Prayers and Celebrations Throughout the Jewish Year” project.

The Santa Monica-based Milken Archive, founded in 1990 by philanthropist Lowell Milken, focuses on documenting, preserving and making available music pertaining to the American Jewish experience. The archive boasts one of the largest collections in the world, including hundreds of premiere recordings, along with oral histories, photographs and historical documents.

Neil W. Levin, artistic director of the Milken Archive, said the new wedding album gives listeners an idea of what’s available both for the ceremony and reception. More than 14 composers are represented, including Leonard Bernstein and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, as well as less-well-known names, such as Meir Finkelstein, Morris Barash and Samuel Adler.

The choices run the gamut of music composed for Jewish marriage services. Levin said he looked at hundreds of scores for the wedding album project, selecting pieces covering different traditions and eras. 

“Everybody’s written wedding music,” he said.

Another admired name in classical music circles represented on the disc is 20th-century composer Ernest Bloch, whose Wedding Marches for organ (Nos. 1, 2 and 4) may raise a few Jewish eyebrows. But Levin said using an organ for a Jewish wedding ceremony in Europe is nothing out of the ordinary.

“American Jews associate the organ with churches, but the most rigidly Orthodox  in England wouldn’t think of having a wedding without an organ,” he said. “If the wedding’s in a hotel, they rent one.”

After the wedding march, there’s the Sheva Brachot (seven blessings) to consider. Levin especially admires London-born Cantor Simon Spiro’s arrangements, which pay homage to the Eastern European choral-cantorial style. A range of moods are conveyed by Spiro’s backup singers, the all-male cantorial choir Coro Hebraeico (founded by Levin in 2000).

“In a traditional service, the cantorial art is accompanied by an a cappella choir,” Levin said. “It depends on how much energy, thought and money one wants to put into a ceremony, as opposed to the party.” 

Of all the work that goes into getting a wedding together, the music you select may be the most personal signature of the energy, time and thought put into the event.

“A wedding was a life-cycle event from the beginning, and from the start, music and weddings have gone together,” said Levin, a professor of music at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York since 1982.

Well, maybe not instrumental music. Levin said that after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, it was decreed by rabbinical authority that no instrumental music be played until the temple was rebuilt. (The ban did not apply to vocal music, since it was an extension of speech.) 

Rabbis eventually made their first exception for weddings. “That’s how important weddings were considered,” Levin said. “It’s also a commandment to help the bride and groom rejoice.”

Though some recordings on this volume appeared as single tracks on earlier CDs, most of the music is being released for the first time. The album took 13 years to release, according to Paul Schwendener, who produced it. 

“We’re a small organization producing many different volumes of music,” he said. 

Levin’s authoritative notes on the music and composers can be accessed through the archive and are full of historical, religious and sociological details.

Levin said he hopes couples exploring the world of Jewish wedding music might consider using a track or two from the album. 

“Even elaborate pieces can be simplified by an arranger to cost less,” he said. “How magnificent it can be if you put a little effort into the music.”

As for Levin, when asked what music he selected for his wedding, he replied: “Actually, I’m not married.”

Too purchase the music, visit i” target=”_blank”>Amazon

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