Christian Music in Jerusalem

This book brings together several decades of research on the topic, including the last two decades of the author's own research. Each specific point of view was either formed beforehand or emerged in the  process of ethnography and its analysis. The book explores various aspects of autochthonous Christian music in Jerusalem and other localities in Israel. It covers aspects such as the music of iconic Christian places in Jerusalem; fieldwork, documentation, and research of the local Christian tradition and its music; and longitudinal perspectives and cross-cultural environment. Other topics include historical connections (albeit hypothetical and not based on direct evidence of any kind or source) between Christian music heard and performed in the churches of Jerusalem and its predecessors in Second Temple practices, the earliest Christian music in the area, and other sources with varying historical depth. The book presents a wide range of topics related to the history and modernity of Christian music through the eyes of a scholar from Jerusalem, a city that encompasses the musical traditions of 10 officially represented churches, not to mention their subdivisions, as well as several other, officially unrepresented denominations.

Alexander Rosenblatt is a harpsichordist and musicologist and currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Literature, Art, and Music at Zefat Academic College, Israel. He holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2013). He has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (2013-2014); visiting researcher at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria, BC, Canada (2021); and visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (2023). Dr Rosenblatt is a member of ICTMD (International Council for Traditional Music and Dance) since 2012; is an active member of the Israel Musicological Society and was its chairman from 2017 to 2019; and is a board member of FoMRFI (Fellowship of Makers and Researchers of Historical Instruments, Oxford, UK). His research areas include music and sociocultural issues, music of Christian worship, and the anthropology of art and music. He has authored several books and published scientific articles in peer-reviewed international journals.

Introduction PART I. OBSERVATIONS AND FIELD STUDIES 1. Music of Places and Music of Communities. 2. Christian Music in Israel: Documentation and Preservation. 3. Studies on Local Christian Music and Related Topics. PART II. INSIGHTS AND REFLECTIONS 4. Music of Local Churches: Frameworks, Sounds, Identities. 5. Discoveries from Longitudinal Studies. 6. Intra-Cultural and Cross-Cultural Perspective. Concluding Thoughts.