The author introduces and studies an unknown manuscript of Mikhail Gnesin (1883–1957) dated from May 1929 and discovered in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (fund 2954, inventory 1, no. 124, pp. 35–63). Gnesin proposed an original approach of constructing a strictly organized and a somewhat symmetrical modal system of Jewish music from the Ashkenazi tradition, taken in its entirety from Biblical cantillation to folklore, in the unity of all sacral and secular genres. The choice of the proposed six-mode system (which the author calls Jewish hexaechos [from Greek ἑξάηχος — six modes]) is substantiated on the basis of an assumed three-octave Phrygian scale. For the first time, the symmetrical modal system discovered by Gnesin boldly takes into account non-tempered tuning and various (descending and ascending) melodic movements, as well as potentialities of modulation inherent to the system. The article is dedicated to the memory of Alexander Gorkovenko (1939–1972), a dear friend and colleague who wrote both on a modal system and on the Jewish music.
Abstract