Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Op. 47

In the coming week, Jews will mark the holiest day of their liturgical year: Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. In Old Testament times, it was the one day when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was housed.

In more recent times, perhaps from about the 9th century on, the cantor begins the Yom Kippur Eve service with the chant Kol Nidre. Kol Nidre is Aramaic meaning “all vows.” The origin of the chant melody is not known. One tradition holds that it is unchanged from the time Moses descended from Mount Sinai.

The German composer Max Bruch (1838-1920) was not Jewish (he was Protestant), but he became interested in Jewish folk music and composed this rhapsody on the Kol Nidre theme in 1880. The piece is very much in the German Romantic style rather than anything authentically Jewish. The popularity of this work, however, prompted the Nazi’s later to ban all of Bruch’s music on the suspicion that he might have had Jewish origins.

Originally scored for cello and orchestra, the video below features the viola instead.