One of the harmonic modes frequently used in Eastern European Jewish
music is the "ahava rabba mode" which takes its name from one of the prayers
of the morning liturgy. Although I couldn't quote you its intervallic
structure it is this scale that makes much of this music "sound Jewish."
It is close to CM's minor scale, but they are not identical. One of the
problems that I faced tutoring bar-mitzvah students was trying to get them
to articulate what we would call a flatted seventh--they always wanted to
raise them and turn them into leading tones. Since I was in the second
grade when I first started to learn this type of chanting it doesn't sound
exotic to me at all.
Aaron J. Rabushka
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