Browsing by Author "Kirsten, Beatrix Mari"

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    Reading the Paratext: Leib Kirschner's Cantorial Anthology of 1910
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-11-28) Kirsten, Beatrix Mari; Roos, Hilde; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 1910, Cantor Leib Kirschner compiled a collection of Synagogue music into an anthology. He recorded the composition titles in a table of contents, in Hebrew script. This book currently counts among the holdings of the South African Jewish Music Collection (SAJMC). In order to access the layers of meanings that are represented by this anthology, research and interpretation is necessary. However, there seems to exist a hiatus in historical research in South Africa, both of South African cantors, and of the genre of the cantorial anthology. This study is approached from the premise of paratext, i.e. textual elements that surround the body text. I apply this theory from three perspectives. The first perspective is historical. I compile a concise background of the cantorial anthology as a genre, and describe the paratexts of five published cantorial anthologies from the SAJMC. The second is a biographic perspective. I use paratextual elements of Kirschner’s book to retrace the cantor’s steps from the Gardens Synagogue in South Africa back to Poland and Moldova. Thirdly, I make a description of the paratext of Kirschner’s anthology itself. While certain paratextual elements are self-explanatory, others first need to be interpreted in order to access its substance. To this end, I conduct a palaeography where I decipher, transcribe, translate and contextualise Kirschner’s table of contents. This anthology represents the collection, notation and dissemination of a specific cantorate. Furthermore, it renders this music of Jewish communities that are isolated in terms of ideology, location and time, accessible to a broader audience today. More personally, Kirschner’s anthology represents the remnants of a life.