Prélude en Fa (Grave - Allegro moderato)

With Hanukkah coming, I was actively looking for some Jewish organ music. There is very little, except by 20th century composes like Adler, Berlinski, and so forth.

Finally I found some! The music of Théophile Stern (1803-1886), who was "Organiste au Temple Neuf de Strasbourg." I was so pleased...

Then I did more research... :-(

Stern was a Lutheran, the Temple Neuf de Strasbourg is a major Luterhan church there.

To be honest, I judged him to be Jewish because of his name, and because he played in a "temple," and was wrong on both accounts.

This proves that you should NOT stereotype doesn't it?

Still I decided to upload the 2 pieces that I did by him, and I hope that you like them. They both "feel" like music written by an organist, but in a lot of ways they don't. This was another thing that made think he was probably organist of a large synagogue, which have an active, but "different" role for the organ.

"Prélude en Fa (Grave - Allegro moderato)" begins quietly with a somber "Grave" in F minor, featuring dotted rhythms with a "slow march" feel to it.

A brief "recit" leads to directly to the "Allegro moderato," which is in the key of F major. It sounds like a cross between "classical" music and the Paris opera. It sounds nice, but it is not "deep" music.

All of this music is available free for download here: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Stern,_Théophile