Sanctus & orthodox Jewish liturgy
  • tdunbar
    Posts: 120
    Which settings of the Sanctus have the most musical resonance with Jewish liturgical tradition?
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Are you asking about "modern" (that is, after 1400 for my purposes) composed versions, or do you mean among the versions in the Liber?

    In the Jewish liturgical tradition (at least the part that I know), the equivalent to the Sanctus is the Kedusha, which is sung before the open Ark in the Sabbath morning service. The Kedusha (part of the larger section called the Amidah) is divided into three verses and responses; the part that directly corresponds (kadosh, kadosh, kadosh Adoshem tz'vaot! M'lo chol ha aretz kevodo!) is a response to the first part.

    That said, I don't know what to tell you about the chant corresponding to it. There are many settings of the Kedusha, some of which use recycled responses.
  • tdunbar
    Posts: 120
    In The Sacred Bridge (chapter 5), Eric Werner argues that sanctus XVIII has connections back to 2nd century Jewish liturgy..all very speculative, however.
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Based solely on my limited professional experience with Jewish liturgical music, I would say that there might be some echo of it in that piece, but with the differences in language and rhythmic style, it's too remote to call it mishpucha. If anything, my suspicion is that the cantillation of the Torah and Haftorah texts is similar in some ways to the Psalm tones, but again, also too remote to prove the relationship with any degree of certainty.
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