The Composer as Intellectual: Biblical Interpretation and Jewish Martyrdom in Alexandre Tansmanâs IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te

Nicolette van den Bogerd

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Chapter 4 The Composer as Intellectual: Biblical Interpretation and Jewish Martyrdom in Alexandre Tansmanâs IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te

In: Grief, Identity, and the Arts

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Nicolette van den Bogerd

Nicolette van den Bogerd
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 61â77

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004158719_006

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Abstract

In 1949, three years after returning to France from exile in the United States, where he escaped Nazi persecution, the Polish-born French-Jewish composer Alexandre Tansman began composing the oratorio IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te. Tansman, who had cultivated a strong attachment to France since leaving his native Poland, returned to a country he barely recognized. He developed a spiritual self-identification with ancient Israel, and he turned to a biblical subject to commemorate Jewish Holocaust victims and celebrate the new state of Israel in his oratorio. Drawing on materials from Tansmanâs archive and published writings, this chapter reveals an intimate picture of identity construction in the wake of the Holocaust. Religious studies scholars have begun to analyze the work of French Jewish intellectuals to understand how they interpreted biblical narratives to construct a Jewish identity in relation to Israel and the Holocaust. My goal is to place IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te within the broader context of this intellectual milieu. I probe the intersections of Tansmanâs musical, political, and philosophical observations about Judaism and French universalism and suggest that Tansman explores similar discourses in IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te as postwar French Jewish intellectuals do in their work. By reading the oratorio as a musical contribution to these intellectual debates, I argue that Tansmanâs oratorio illuminates musicâs participation in postwar French Jewish intellectual discourse

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Grief, Identity, and the Arts

A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Expressions of Grief

Series:Â Death in History, Culture, and Society, Volume: 1

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004158719

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Nov 2022

Subjects

Front Matter

Part 1 Collective Religious Identities

Part 2 Personal Religious Identities

Part 3 National Identities

Part 4 Family Identities/The Inner Circle

Part 5 Social/Societal Identities

Part 6 Identities of a Genre/Artistic Identity

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 4 The Composer as Intellectual: Biblical Interpretation and Jewish Martyrdom in Alexandre Tansmanâs IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te

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Grief, Identity, and the Arts

A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Expressions of Grief

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Chapter 4 The Composer as Intellectual: Biblical Interpretation and Jewish Martyrdom in Alexandre Tansmanâs IsaÃ¯e le prophÃ¨te