The Cantors Assembly in the USA has a wonderful monthly online gathering called SongSwap, showcasing liturgical songs and songwriters, and the methods and songs of cantors working with congregations around the country. The theme for January 2023 was ‘Songs for Social Justice in Honour of Martin Luther King (MLK) Day’. Looking through my own catalogue, …
Music & Audio © 4 Nov 2022 Alexander Massey – All Rights Reserved The original text on which this song is based appeared during the Second World War, on the wall of a cellar in Cologne, and is believed to have been written by one or more Jews hiding from the Nazis: Ich glaube an …
Contemplative version, with guitar Version with piano, tango style Music, English translation and audio © 18 July 2022 Alexander Massey Dedicated to my dear uncle, Paul Massey (z’l), who died on 12 July 2022. BUY the sheet music – $4.95 (voice & piano/guitar) The poem that has become known as Dudeleh (also as A dudele) …
Arrangement & Audio © 2022 Alexander Massey The events unfolding in Ukraine since February 2022 have been horrifying. I am so sad to see the disregard for the lives and human rights of Ukrainian people, and the destruction of the country and its natural environment. It can be hard, sitting in another country, to find …
Music and audio © 2021 Alexander Massey (You can download the sheet music for free.) Galut – ‘exile’ – has been a recurring theme through Jewish history. We have been expelled from many countries over the centuries. I don’t ascribe to the idea that Jerusalem belongs exclusively to Jews any more than it does to …
YouTube version. Better recording coming soon. In the meantime, here is the sheet music (free). Music and audio © Alexander Massey 24 August 2021
Music and audio © Alexander Massey 13 June 2022
Jewish texts offer rich opportunities for interfaith thinking, dialogue and encounters. Many Jewish prayer texts and Biblical verses, including the psalms, speak to universal human experience and spiritual yearning. Some are part of our regular liturgy; it is interesting to note how many could fit an interfaith context. Some Jewish texts specifically affirm inclusivity and …
Composition & recording © Alexander Massey 6 Feb 2021 – All Rights Reserved BUY the sheet music (voice & piano) – $4.95 בּמָקוֹם שֶּׁאֵין אֳנָשִׁום, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ B’makom she’ein anashim, hishtadeil lih’yot ish. Pirkei Avot / Ethics of the Fathers 2:5 As with so much Hebrew, a literal translation of this verse fails to …
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 15 March 2021 Genesis lists 70 descendants of Noah after the crisis of the Great Flood, and from this, Jewish tradition has it that there are 70 nations of the world, and that we all come from one family. This nigun has 70 notes. We, the Jewish people, are one …