Jewish prayer modes

Jewish liturgical music is characterized by a set of musical modes.

The prayer modes form part of what is known as the musical nusach (tradition) of a community, and serve both to identify different types of prayer and to link those prayers to the time of year or even time of day in which they are set. Various Jewish traditions developed their own modal systems, such as the maqamat of the Middle Eastern Jewish communities. The modes discussed in this article are specific to the traditions of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish Communities.

There are three main modes, as well as a number of combined or compound modes. The three main modes are called Ahavah Rabbah, Magein Avot and Adonai Malach. Traditionally, the cantor (hazzan) improvised sung prayers within the designated mode, while following a general structure of how each prayer should sound. Over time many of these chants have been written down and standardized, yet the practice of improvisation still exists to this day. Early studies in the history of Jewish Prayer Modes concluded that the musical scales used were based upon ancient Biblical cantillation, but modern scholarship has questioned the validity of these findings.

The Ahavah Rabbah mode – sometimes referred to as Freygish (Phrygian dominant) – is named after the blessing that immediately precedes the Sh'ma in the morning service. This blessing begins with the words Ahavah Rabbah (literally: great love), and describes how God's love for Israel is manifest through God's revelation of Torah. Musically, Ahavah Rabbah is considered to be the most Jewish-sounding of all the prayer modes, because of the interval of a flattened second, creating a minor third interval between the second and third scale degrees. This mode is used in the beginning of the weekday evening service through the Chatzi Kaddish, a large portion of the weekday morning service, parts of the Shabbat morning service, and occasionally on the High Holidays. The Ahavah Rabbah mode is also used in many Jewish folk songs, such as "Hava Nagila", and popular liturgical melodies, such as "Yismechu". It is similar to the Arabic maqam Hijaz, but whereas the dominant of Hijaz is on the fourth degree, Ahavah Rabbah strongly favors the third.

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