Gestaltung, identity, integration. Cantor Abraham Baer (1834-1894) and the liturgy reform in the Gothenburg synagogue
The liturgy collection Baal T’fillah oder der practische Vorbeter, published in Gothenburg in 1877 by Cantor A. Baer, belongs to the classics of Jewish music literature and is an object of great international interest. Baer’s work also stands out as one of the most professional music documentations carried out in 19th century Sweden; nevertheless it has been neglected by Swedish musicology.
The aim of this project is to clarify the circumstances of its creation and its reception history. The Baal T’fillah can be described as an ethnomusicological documentation, but it also mirrors the aim at creating a “modern” liturgy in line with the contemporary ideas of assimilation and integration. Baer interacted with the nationally very influential liberal circles of Gothenburg.
“National liberalism” and Reform Judaism can be seen as interconnected aspects of the ideological transformation process of the modernising national state. Therefore, Baer’s life and work will not only be studied in its Jewish context. It is a central hypothesis that his documentational activities were made possible by the specific socio-cultural conditions of 19th century Gothenburg.
The project analyses the musical content of the publication, traces Baer’s social network and studies the interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish intellectuals.
Anders Hammarlund, musichistory
The project necessitated extensive archival research in Gothenburg. This was mainly carried out in 2009 and during the first six months of 2010, with supplementary visits in 2011 and 2012. In September 2009 I made a research trip to New York, where professor Mark Slobin introduced me to a couple of research institutions with special relevance for the project. In the fall of 2010 I conducted some archival research in Berlin (at the Jewish museum and the Leo Baeck institute) in order to clarify Abraham Baer's German connections. Parallel to this research on the primary sources, I focussed on extensive reading on the political, social and cultural conditions that formed the context of Baer's life and work. The main report of the project mainly was written in 2011.
The original research questions and hypothesises dealt with the importance of the specific Gothenburg setting for the creation of Baers epoch-making work "Baal t'fillah oder der practische Vorbeter" (1877). In the report, this aspect is studied from several different perspectives. Our picture of Baer's biography, as well as of his documentary accomplishments, have been consideraby clarified by the project.
The overarching theme of the main report, the monography "A Prayer for Modernity. Politics and culture in the World of Abraham Baer"(2013) is the interdisciplinary analysis of the interaction between the German-Jewish reform movement of the 19th century and the Swedish national- liberal movement. The author demonstrates that Abraham Baer's work must be seen against the background of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, the modern, scholarly form of Jewish studies that emerged in German academic circles. The importance of the Jewish reform movement for the general European process of modernization has been a cherished theme in international cultural studies for some time now. However, in Sweden, the subject has been dealt with only sporadically, which is somewhat surprising, considering the important role that the small Jewish community of the country played in the context of European liberal Judaism. Consequently, the report fills a gap in litterature on Sweden's 19th century. The cultural setting of Reform Judaism contributed considerably to the emergence of modern social sciences, and the theoretical sections of the report present its innovative thinking on cultural identity. This is an intellectual tradition that unfortunately is little known in contemporary Sweden, mainly due to the decline of knowledge of the German language. The author demonstrates that the emancipation and secularization processes, which made it possible for Jewish, Talmudic traditions of scholarship to interact with German Bildung ideals, resulted in a very fruitful intellectual synergy effect. This aspect is also discussed in detail in the article "Filehne - Berlin - Göteborg. Till musiketnologins rötter" in the conference publication "Mellan nation och tradition : idéströmningar i 1800-talets insamlingar av folklore: föredrag från ett symposium i Visby 27-28 september 2011", ed. Ulf Palmenfelt.
The relationship between the Jewish reform movement and the general process of secularization and modernization that characterizes Sweden during the period is an important theme in the report as well. Consequently, the presentation of the Swedish bildning movement and its most eloquent representative in Gothenburg, publicist and politician Sven Adolf Hedlund, is an important section of the book. Hedlund's support considerably facilitated the publication of Baer's liturgy handbook. The openminded and progressive Jewish theological and historical research of the period became an asset for Swedish liberals in their struggle for religious liberty. The bildning movement and Reform Judaism had a common aim - the formation of emancipated individuals, citizens of a modern society that would replace traditional feodal and paternalistic structures.
The research report has been published in a printed Swedish-language edition ("En bön för moderniteten. Kultur och politik I Abraham Baers värld", 2013). However, an English-language online edition is available in a PDF version at the internet site of Statens musikverk/Svenskt visarkiv.
As a direct effect of the project work, Svenskt visarkiv received two interesting donations of highly valuable Jewish music manuscripts, the music books of Cantor Jona Schain (1877-1959), and the private collections of Cantor Leo Rosenblüth (1904-2000). Inspired by the project, the 2009 edition of Svenskt visarkiv's yearbook Noterat was devoted to the theme "music and religion".
The project was carried out in close cooperation with the academic network Judarna i Sverige - en minoritets historia. The project leader took part in its conferences in Uppsala in 2009 and 2010. 10-13 December 2009 the project was presentad at the conference "Jewish Migration and Integration to the Metropolises of Europe 1848-1918", which was arranged by the University of Vienna. In October 2010 the project leader was invited to lecture at Hebrew Union College in New York. At the international conference of the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) in Shanghai 11-17 July 2013, the newly published report was presented by its author.
The project leader has given two ICTM lectures on the project at Svenskt visarkiv (28 April 2009; 7 March 2012). He also took part in Svenska historikermötet in Gothenburg 5-7 May 2011, and has lectured on the project at the institution of Musicology, Stockholm University and at Institutionen för Kulturvetenskaper, Gothenburg Univeresity.
Popularized talks on the project have been given at Föreningen för gamla mosaiska församlingens vänner in Gothenburg (7 March 2010), at the Jewish library in Stockholm, and at the Jewish cultural event Limmud in Stockholm 20-21 November 2010.
Publications
Hammarlund, Anders 2008: Gestaltning, identitet, integration. Kantor Abraham Baer (1834-1894) och liturgireformen i Göteborgs synagoga. In Dokumenterat. Bulletin från Statens musikbibliotek. Nr 40 (2008). Also published in Kyrkomusikernas Tidning nr 7 2010, pp 4-8.
Hammarlund, Anders 2009: Blå biljett till Kristianstad. Jona Schain, en judisk förebedjare i Skåne. In Noterat nr. 17, pp 45-65.
Hammarlund, Anders 2011: Inventing Galicia. The province that became a project. In Baltic Worlds 3 2011, p 4-8.
Hammarlund, Anders 2012: The Prussian provice of Posen. A reservoir for modernity. In Baltic Worlds 3-4 2012, pp 15-21.
Hammarlund, Anders 2013: A Prayer for Modernity. Politics and Culture in the World of Abraham Baer. (Main publication of the project, English edition.) Online publication at statensmusikverk.se/svensktvisarkiv/publikationer/onlinepublikationer/a-prayer-for-modernity/
Hammarlund, Anders 2013: En bön för moderniteten. Kultur och politik i Abraham Baers värld. Stockholm (Carlsson bokförlag) (Main publication of the project, Swedish edition)
Hammarlund, Anders 2013: Filehne – Berlin – Göteborg. Till musiketnologins rötter. In Mellan nation och tradition : idéströmningar i 1800-talets insamlingar av folklore : föredrag från ett symposium i Visby 27-28 september 2011 Ed. Ulf Palmenfelt. Pp. 77-88. Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi, 0065-0897; 124. Uppsala: Kungl. Gustav Adolfs akademien för svensk folkkultur.