Song Settings for the Poet Lord Byron’s Hebrew Melodies

Isaac Nathan

1815

Sheet music.

Hebrew Melodies was a collaboration between the English poet Lord Byron (1788–1824) and his friend, the Jewish composer Isaac Nathan. It is a collection of thirty poems by the poet, set to music by Nathan. The tunes Nathan composed were based on a variety of forms, including synagogue music, martial music, German lieder, and an oratorio. Byron is said to have been sympathetic to the Jews because of their precarious civic and social status in England and Europe at the time.

Credits

London: J. Fentum for the Proprietor, n.d., plates 102–5.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Isaac Nathan

1790–1864

Born in Canterbury, England, Isaac Nathan studied Italian musical traditions and was a friend of Lord Byron, for whom Nathan set poetry to music, including Byron’s Hebrew Melodies. Nathan moved in 1841 to Australia, where he is credited with having composed the continent’s first opera.

Related Guide

Music and Opera in Jewish Culture, 1750–1880

One of the most striking changes in European Jewish culture toward the later eighteenth century was marked by the entry of Jews into art music, opera houses, and the stage.

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