אני כינור: Prayer Leader Summer Institute

 A 3-day course:

Wednesday, June 5, 9:30 am — 3:00 pm (with a one-hour break for lunch from 12-1)

Thursday, June 6, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm

Friday, June 21 (notice the break before this concluding class), 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

This course can be taken as a follow-up to Pedagogy of Music: Teaching Tefillah or can stand on its own. We’ll focus on our relationship with prayer, study texts about tefillah, and explore our role as a shaliach tsibur. We’ll experiment with leading various modalities of prayer and with teaching about tefillah within the context of a service.

A 4-week course:

Week 1
Wednesday, June 5 – 3:30 – 5:00 pm, Thursday, June 6 — 1:00 – 5:00 pm, and Friday, June 7 – 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Week 2
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday June 11, 12, 13 — 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Week 3
Monday and Wednesday, June 17 and 19 – 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Week 4
Monday and Wednesday, June 24 and 26 – 1:00 – 5:00 pm, and Friday June 28 — 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Prerequisite: Nusach for Rosh Hashanah and Hebrew 4, or permission from instructor

Students learn musical modes for Ashkenazic prayer chant and analyze their structural elements. Students then learn the specific motivic content for leading Festival services within the Ashkenazic tradition. In practicum sessions, emphasis is on modal and motivic improvisation within the established framework of Nusach Ashkenaz. Students also learn appropriate congregational melodies for the Festival services.

A 3-week course:

Week 1
Tues June 11 – Friday June 14, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm

Weeks 2 and 3
Mondays through Thursdays June 17 – 27 — 9:30 – 12:00

Prerequisite: Hebrew 4 or permission from instructor

This course is devoted to some of the liturgies unique to the Three Festivals, such as the fourth b’rakhah of the festival Amidah and certain piyyutim. We will also study some other units of the festival liturgy that are not unique to it, such as Torah reading, Hallel and Yizkor. For each unit, we will use three approaches. The first is historical, looking at chronological development. Secondly, we will observe literary features, such as structure, theme and use of language. Finally, we will consider the theological message. Each of these approaches (or a combination of them) can be further explored in the student’s written work.

A 2-week course:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 18, 20, 25 and 27 — 1:00 – 5:00

This courses is for students interested in delving deeply into the meaning and grammar of

Hebrew liturgy. The course will focus on selected festival prayers, concentrating on parsing the text to determine the core meaning of each work.

Prerequisite: Hebrew 5 or above

A 1-week course:

July 15 – 19, Monday through Friday, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm

In this course, we will study and practice common Ashkenazi melodies for the ta’amei hamikra (trope signs) used in chanting from the Haftarah. We will also discuss the history, performance practice, and texts of the Haftarot. Each student will prepare to chant one Haftarah reading as their final assignment. Students will prepare and share a short drash (sermonette or discussion) on each of their assigned texts. Emphasis of the class will be on achieving fluency with the melodies, chanting accurately and with good pronunciation, and demonstrating textual understanding when chanting.

Prerequisites:

Proficiency in reading Biblical Hebrew.
Ability to learn melodies quickly – students will be asked to learn the trope melodies at home, before each class, and we will spend our class time practicing and applying them to texts. Recordings of the trope melodies that we’ll use are available at https://www.chantingthehebrewbible.com/listen, for those who wish to study them before the start of the course (highly recommended).
Fluency in sight-reading trope from punctuated texts of Torah. Students do not need to already have the Jacobson melodies for the trope systems we study memorized, but they must be comfortable naming and identifying the different te’amim by sight.

Cantillation for High Holidays

A 1-week course:

July 23 – 27, Monday through Friday, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm

In this course, we will study and practice common Ashkenazi melodies for the ta’amei hamikra (trope signs) used in chanting from the Torah on the High Holy Days. We will also discuss the history, performance practice, and texts of the High Holidays. Each student will prepare to chant one High Holiday aliyah from the Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, from punctuated text, as their final assignment. Students will prepare and share a short drash (sermonette or discussion) on each of their assigned texts. Emphasis of the class will be on achieving fluency with the melodies, chanting accurately and with good pronunciation, and demonstrating textual understanding when chanting.

Prerequisites:

Proficiency in reading Biblical Hebrew.
Ability to learn melodies quickly – students will be asked to learn the trope melodies at home, before each class, and we will spend our class time practicing and applying them to texts. Recordings of the trope melodies that we’ll use are available at https://www.chantingthehebrewbible.com/listen, for those who wish to study them before the start of the course (highly recommended).
Fluency in sight-reading trope from punctuated texts of Torah. Students do not need to already have the Jacobson melodies for the trope systems we study memorized, but they must be comfortable naming and identifying the different te’amim by sight.