Setting Mishna to music..

Andre Hajdu is fascinating composer who has thought deeply and musically about Judaism. He studied at Liszt Music Academy in Budapest and with Szervanszky and Szabo (composition) Szegedi (piano) and Kodaly (ethnomusicology). He was involved in research about Gypsy’s musical culture and published several articles on this subject. In 1955 he won the first prize with his Gypsy Cantata at the competition of World Festival of youth in Warsaw. In 1956 he emigrated to Paris and continued his studies at the Conservatoire with Darius Milhaud (composition) and Olivier Messiaen (philosophy of music) and obtained the 1st prize in the discipline.

Since 1966 he lives in Jerusalem where he has drawn close to Judaism. He taught at the Tel-Aviv Music Academy 66-91 and at Bar-Ilan University, (since 1970). He served as chairman in the Music Department there and founded a composition department. As a composer he was and is deeply involved in Jewish topics, not only on the usual folkloristic or liturgical levels, but also confronted more abstract subjects of Jewish thought (Oral Law, philosophical books of the Bible) as well as Jewish History. One of his most "scandalous" works, an opera, was " A Passover Game," which tells the story of Christian children who play out a Passover libel story pretending that one of them is a Jewish child and murder him in the end - with Israeli children playing the parts.

This composer's life work is integrating basic Jewish sensibilities and texs with the Western Musical Traditions. The results are uneven, sometimes forced and at other time sublime. Allways, it is a fascinating record of a spiritual quest of a complex and talented man.

For some of his music , see http://www.biu.ac.il/hu/mu/icl/hajdu.html

For almost two years Hajdu indulged in a very intense but private study period of the Mishna (Jewish oral law codified in 200 ce), not in the traditional study hall, but at his piano at home. The result was the cycle, "The Floating Tower," 56 settings of mishnaic texts for voice with piano, chamber music combinations and orchestra, as well as choral settings. The stylistic versatility ranges between Renaissance and 20th century music.

More recently he has been merging Mishnaic texts with modern music, see this article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/864488.html

Examples of his work- http://www.zamir.org/composers/HajduAndre.html

Andre Hajdu