Nigun (Baal Shem)

‘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 intensitybefore dying away to a gentle close.