Exploring Jewish Music Sound Recording Collections in the United States

Judith S. Pinnolis and Mark Kligman

This talk examines several significant Jewish music sound recording collections in the United States, most of which originated as private collections, but are now housed at academic institutions. Their origins provide insight into different understandings of Jewish music, and the impacts that will have for future research. This presentation will focus on the complexities of using such collections for scholarly purposes, from a library science perspective. Touched on will be issues such as conservation and preservation as well as bibliographic control, authenticity, comprehensiveness, and other constructions, including the urgency of the formation of new Jewish music ‘genre’ designations and terminologies. We will discuss both how the overall difficulties and pitfalls of using these collections, as well as its potentialities. In particular, we will take a brief look at the UCLA/Milken Archive Jewish music sound recording database project, which is creating an aggregated database for exploration of Jewish music using Digital Humanities protocols.

Judith S. Pinnolis is Associate Director at The Library, Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and is also producer and host of the series “Books at Berklee.” She is also Faculty at the School of Jewish Music of Hebrew College. Pinnolis is currently book editor for the journal Western States Jewish History. Previously, she worked as a research librarian at Brandeis University for over two decades. Among other positions, she served as Chair of the Jewish Music Roundtable of the Music Library Association; Chair of the Chapters Council of ACRL(Association of College and Research Libraries); President of ACRL New England Chapter; and on the ACRL National Leadership Council. She has contributed to volumes such as the (forthcoming) Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music, and major reference works, such as the Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (2021), the Encyclopedia Judaica (2006), and Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia (2002), The Reader’s Guide to Judaism (2000), and written many book and music reviews. She’s published on topics of Jewish music history, including  “‘Cantor Soprano’ Julie Rosewald: The Musical Career of a Jewish American ‘New Woman’,” in the American Jewish Archives Journal (2010). Pinnolis is creator and editor of The Jewish Music WebCenter (www.jmwc.org). Pinnolis received the M.M. at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, and M.S. in Library Science at Simmons College.

Mark Kligman (Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music; Director, The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience) specializes in the liturgical traditions of Middle Eastern Jewish communities and various areas of popular Jewish music. He has published on the liturgical music of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn in journals as well as his book, Maqām and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn (Wayne State University, 2009), which shows the interconnection between the music of Syrian Jews and their cultural way of life. His other publications focus on the intersection of contemporary Jewish life and various liturgical and paraliturgical musical contexts. He is the academic chair of the Jewish Music Forum and co-editor of the journal Musica Judaica. He is also on the board of the Association for Jewish Studies.