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February 12, 1999/26 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 20
Temple changes its tune
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Baruch Koritan, cantorial soloist at Temple Beth Shalom in Sun City, composes liturgical music for Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale.
Photo by Ewa Pilichowska
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Temple Beth Israel has never sounded like this before.
For the first time, its congregants will experience Shabbat services that are filled from beginning to end with liturgical music. "My Rock and My Redeemer" is the title for a service setting that will premiere at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 12, and 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, at the temple, 10460 N. 56th St. - marking the first time ever that the Reform synagogue has incorporated music throughout an entire liturgical service.
Beth Israel's cantor, Hazzan Howard Tabaknek, commissioned Baruch Koritan, an Arizona native and the cantorial soloist at Temple Beth Shalom and Jewish Community Center of the Northwest Valley, to write the work. Tabaknek said he was inspired by the composer's work at the Sun City temple.
Musical interpretation of the prayers is reflective of a change in philosophy among Reform synagogues, according to Jewish musicians. More and more Reform congregations are turning to music as a way to engage their congregants in the service - especially those who might not otherwise understand or appreciate the words of the Torah, they say.
"This is not a way of saying, 'Forget prayer; look at this music,' " Koritan explains. "It's really just a way to enhance (the congregants') spiritual experiences. If a woman puts on make-up, she's doing it for enhancement, and not to be somebody else. Music is a way of drawing attention to the beauty that's inherent (in) the service and the liturgy."
Koritan, whose self-produced debut CD, "Baruch," is scheduled to be released this summer, cites Ravel and Gershwin among his favorite composers and says he also has been influenced by his former teacher, the late Sholom Secunda, composer of Jewish secular and liturgical music.
When he was just 3 years old, Koritan began singing Russian and Yiddish folk songs with his father and grandfather. By age 5, he played the piano and wrote his own "little melodies," he recalls.
At 16, he published his first song. And in 1965, he wrote an a cappella choir number for the groundbreaking ceremony for Har Zion Congregation's facility in Scottsdale. He will conduct a composer's workshop at the American Conference of Cantors in Cape Cod this summer.
"I respect his talent a lot," Taba-knek says.
For this new setting, Koritan used musical prayer modes from Ashkenasic tradition, at Tabaknek's request. He incorporated traditional Hebrew texts and added Israeli and Sephardic flavor. He draws also on his background as an American Jew, he says, which includes musical theater, Yiddish and American folk songs, and popular music.
"I've never been as excited musically in my life as I am at this time," Koritan says. "There are so many wonderful things to write about in Jewish life."
Koritan has opted not to conduct his music at Beth Israel. "I'm not interested in conducting the music I write," he says. "I like (my music) to stand on its own. I hope anyone can interpret it. To me, the excitement is that it's on paper, and anyone with a (Jewish) background can interpret it without me."
"My Rock and My Redeemer" was written with Tabaknek's baritone vocal range in mind. Each song is intended for either the choir, Tabaknek or the congregation to sing. Some pieces involve all three, comprising a service that may take many by surprise.
"It's great stuff," Koritan says. "It's here to stay."
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