Abraham Zwi Idelsohn and Robert Lachmann: The Intellectual and the Practical Founders of the Israeli National Sound Archive

The field of Jewish Music research originated at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Abraham Zwi Idelsohn came to Jerusalem and began to document oral traditions of Jewish oriental communities in music transcriptions and sound recordings. Idelsohn's pioneering work set the ground for further research and recording of Jewish music. In 1935 a German-Jewish musicologist, Robert Lachmann, continued Idelsohn's work, and recorded the traditions of Jews, Arabs, and other communities living in Jerusalem and Palestine at the time. The emphasis of both of their work was on liturgical, traditional music transmitted orally and reflected ancient Jewish music. In 1965, the National Sound Archives was established in the National Library of Israel, and researchers continue to record traditional music along with popular music and other genres of music. In this paper, I claim that, despite the developments in technology and the production of popular music, the center of the National Sound Archives’ work remained loyal to its intellectual and practical founders.