Bloch, Nigun for Violin and Piano (Fischer)

“What interests me,” wrote Bloch, “is the Jewish soul, the enigmatic, ardent, turbulent soul that I feel vibrating throughout the Bible…it is all this that I endeavor to hear in myself and to transcribe into my music; the venerable emotion of the race that slumbers way down in our souls.” Bloch’s Baal Shem is made up of I. “Vidui” (Contrition) — Un poco lento; II. “Nigun” (Improvisation) — Adagio non troppo; III. “Simchas Torah” (Rejoicing) — Allegro giocoso. Nigun is the most extrovert composition. Bloch attempts to recreate the feeling of ecstatic religious chanting through a highly charged and ornate melodic line that rises to a fever pitch of spiritual intensity before dying away to a gentle close.

Nigun (Improvisation) No. 2 from ‘Baal Shem’. (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life). By Ernest Bloch (1880-1959). For violin and piano. 20th Century. Set of performance parts. Bowings and fingerings. 14 pages. Published by Carl Fischer.