Composed By: Louis Lewandowski

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Purchase sheet music at Broude Brothers

Buy CD at Zamir Chorale of Boston

Voicing: SATB

Keyword

Event/Holiday:

Language: Hebrew

Difficulty: easy/moderate

Country: Germany

Solos: tenor

Instruments: organ

Lyrics: liturgy

Publisher: Broude Brothers

Year Composed/Published: 1882

Timing: 2:45

Tempo: moderate

First Line: Mah tovu oholecho

description: Louis Lewandowski was the first musician to serve the Jewish synagogue as a choirmaster serves a church. In 1864 the building in Berlin of the Oranienburgerstrasse Temple, which was equipped with an organ, offered Lewandowski the opportunity of creating an entire new service with organ accompaniment — a task never before undertaken. The culmination of his career came in 1882 with the publication of his magnum opus, Todah W’Simrah (Thanks and Song), a setting of the entire liturgical cycle for four-part choir, cantor and organ. “Mah Tovu” is the prayer recited upon first entering a synagogue. Its homophonic style, somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn, evokes the pomp and formality of worship in nineteenth-century Berlin. An orchestration is available.