Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

234 Jens Hesselager
Excursus II: What does “Jewishness” sound like?
To answer the question of what does “Jewishness” sound like, I need to
return yet again to Richard Wagner, Meïr Aron Goldschmidt and Hans
Christian Andersen. Richard Wagner’s critique of the Jewish in music is
formulated along two lines. The one which should no doubt be considered
the most important – the critique directed primarily against Mendelssohn
and Meyerbeer, the main targets of the whole polemic of Wagner’s essay
– will not concern me here. The other has to do with the sound of the Jewish
singing voice. This voice, according to Wagner, is incapable of artistic
expression, first of all because the Jewish language is packed with incomprehensible,
ridiculous sounds (“ein zischender, schrillender, summsender
und murksender Lautausdruck” (Wagner 1850/1869, 15)) and because
Jews are generally unable to pronounce any European language without
a strong accent. Secondly, the Jewish singing voice is unable to convince
us emotionally; if a Jewish voice becomes passionate, the effect is ridiculous;
it never awakens sympathy in the listener. This general argument is
quite unconvincing (and unsympathetic), of course, and also quite below the
usual intellectual standards of Wagner’s prose. What nevertheless makes
it interesting here, to my mind, has little to do with the substance of his
argument and rather more to do with the rhetorical function of the negative
stereotype that he conjures up. The strange (and to the outsider ridiculoussounding
and provocative) Jewish voice is made to represent that which is
fundamentally incompatible with national (German) culture and something
which defies comprehension across cultures.
In chapter 9 of Goldschmidt’s En Jøde, the time arrives for Jacob’s Bar
Mitzvah. At a certain point the narrator appears compelled to observe the
ceremonies from the outside:
Now it was time for the Tora to be read. Singing out loud, the person from
the congregation who had bought this privilege approached the Aron
Kodesh, drew the curtain aside and took out the Tora, while the congregation
prayed audibly. Whoever might have heard the shouts of the congregation
at this moment and not understood the ceremony would have
believed that the precentor was about to commit a burglary and that the
others through their warnings were trying to prevent it. 22
Rung collaborated throughout his career with Jewish artists; in 1869, for instance,
he composed the music for Meïr Aron Goldschmidt’s drama, Rabbi’en og Ridderen,
incorporating “old Jewish” melodies into the score.
22 ”Nu kom Tiden da Thora skulle oplæses. Høit syngende nærmede den af Menigheden,
der havde kjøbt denne Betjening, sig Oraun hakaudesch, slog Forhænget til side og