From the Librarian's Desk – Hanukkah

In this Librarian’s Desk, we’ll be looking at the The Hanukkah issue from Mazin & Co’s Popular Jewish Music Series. From 1899 to 1970 Raphael Mazin’s legendary bookshop had a presence in the East End.

To celebrate Hanukkah, Cassy Sachar, LBC’s Senior Librarian, has selected two extraordinary items from our Library’s collection in a series of blog posts titled ‘From the librarian’s desk’.

The ink is still a deep navy blue on this large pamphlet. English and Hebrew letters jostle amongst half a dozen typefaces.

A frame of intertwined vines and flowers welcomes us to space of beauty, candles light the way. At the top a lyre harp is enclosed in a star of David and if we didn’t realise the bold capitals clearly state this is an issue from Mazin & Co’s Popular Jewish Music Series. From 1899 to 1970 Raphael Mazin’s legendary bookshop had a presence in the East End. Jewish music was one of their specialities selling both sheet music and records.

This is a seasonal example of their own music publishing, printing an arrangement of the Chanukah liturgy by Harris Philip Rosenberg, longtime choirmaster of the New Synagogue in Stamford Hill, London. Published in 1931 the arrangement for piano, violin and voice enabled budding musicians to enhance their home Chanukah celebrations with a straightforward, professional arrangement and echo the sound of the synagogue. The Hebrew words accompanying the music are transliterated into English with an Ashkenazi pronunciation – which may have more to do with the difficulties of printing Hebrew characters running right to left, alongside musical notation running left to right, than a lack Hebrew literacy.

The melody printed for Maoz Tzur is one familiar today. Rosenberg’s arrangement is preserved in the Victor Tunkel Jewish Music Collection and as many the hymn around their Chanukah Menorahs this year, we share across time the distinct sound of an Anglo-Jewish Chanukah.