Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

ICTM.

See International Council for Traditional Music.

Ictus

(Lat.).

A term which in prosody indicates the stress or accent schematically implied on a certain syllable of a foot or verse; hence, in music, it is a comparable stress or accent schematically implied on a certain beat of a bar, in a certain metre, whether or not this implication coincides with the stress or accent actually made. In the editions of Gregorian chant produced by the monks of Solesmes, the ictus is a sign which indicates rhythmic groupings of two and three notes. The term is also used in relation to conducting patterns, to describe the downbeat.

ROBERT DONINGTON

Idakka [itekka, edakkya].

A variable tension hourglass drum of Kerala, South-west India. The body, from 21 to 26 cm long and about 1 cm thick, is of acacia or red sandalwood; it is slightly waisted in the middle (see illustration). The shell-faces are about 11 cm wide, the drumheads about double that. The skins, made of the internal stomach-wall of a cow, are pasted to thick jakwood hoops (about 2 cm in diameter) with six holes drilled in each for the V-lacings which are tightened by a central cross-lacing. Four large decoratively turned wooden dowels hung with 64 multi-coloured tassels are inserted as tuning-sticks between the lacing. The heads are simply held over the faces by the lacing, usually off centre. Beneath them is a snare of two crossed palmyra fibres held on four copper nails. The drum is suspended from a strap on the left shoulder. The right hand beats the front face with a thin wooden or horn stick, slightly curved at the tip; the player varies the timbre and pitch over a range of up to two octaves by squeezing the lacing and pushing against the shoulder-strap with the left hand.

The idakka is a temple drum used by the hereditary temple musician caste, the Mārār, and by the Poduvāl in North Kerala; it is played in temple worship, processions, the ceremonial ensemble pañcuvādyam, the devotional music sopānā sangīta, performed on temple steps, and the Sanskrit drama kutiyattam. Its pitch range is so large that it is sometimes played melodically. There is a tradition that it must never be placed on the ground.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)

L.S. Rajagopalan: ‘Idakka’, Journal of the Music Academy Madras, xlviii (1977), 164–70

B.C. Deva: Musical Instruments of India (Calcutta, 1978, 2/1987)

ALASTAIR DICK/R

Idée fixe

(Fr.: ‘obsession’).

A term coined by Berlioz to denote a musical idea used obsessively. When in 1830 he applied it to the principal theme of his Symphonie fantastique, it was a new term in the French language. At about the same time Balzac used it in Gobseck to describe an obsessive idea, and it came into use as a clinical term for unreasonable or even criminal obsession. Berlioz used the theme to describe the artist’s obsession with his beloved. In December 1832 Fétis drew attention to the novelty of the idea (Revue musicale, xii, 365–7). The theme recurs in each of the five movements of the symphony and in the first supplies the main thematic material of the Allegro. Subsequently it is transformed to fit the context of the various movements, for example into waltz time for the ball and into the grotesque, distorted dance for the final ‘Ronde du Sabbat’. Berlioz recalled the theme in the sequel to the symphony, Lélio, and another recurrent theme occurs in his Harold en Italie (1834). Many later composers have taken up the idea of a recurrent, obsessive theme in symphonic works.

HUGH MACDONALD

Idelsohn, Abraham Zvi

(b Filzburg, nr Libau [now Liepāja, Latvia], 11 June 1882; d Johannesburg, 15 Aug 1938). Jewish cantor and musicologist of Russian birth. Raised in a traditional German Jewish environment, he trained as a cantor in Libau; he also studied briefly at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) where he met Eduard Birnbaum. Later he studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and at the conservatory and university in Leipzig; his claim to have studied at both institutions with Kretzschmar (history), Zöllner (composition) and Jadassohn (harmony) remains unsubstantiated. He served as cantor at the Adat Jeshurun congregation, Leipzig (1902). From 1903 to 1905 he was a cantor at Regensburg and then after a year in Johannesburg he was persuaded by the president of the Zionist movement, David Wolffsohn, to emigrate to Jerusalem, where he lived from 1906 to 1921. These were decisive years for Idelsohn's research into the diverse musical traditions of the Sephardi and ‘Oriental’ Jewish communities and Muslim and Christian sects. Although his plans in 1910 for an Institute for Jewish Music never materialized, he was invited in 1913 to present his early recordings to the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Vienna. He remained there for eight months and laid the groundwork for his monumental Hebräisch-orientalischer Melodienschatz (1914–33) with the help of the academy director. After serving in the Turkish army, he returned to teaching, research and composition in 1919: his five-act opera Jiftah was performed and published in Jerusalem in 1922, and he transcribed and composed much cantorial music (including the songs Havah negilah and Orah, orah). In 1921 he left Jerusalem and after an extended lecture tour he settled in Cincinnati (1922–30). He was appointed professor of Jewish music and liturgy at the Hebrew Union College in 1924. The college became a centre of research in Jewish music through his work, which was aided by the extensive Birnbaum collection. He wrote prolifically on the history and liturgy of Jewish music and his publications included two major books, the last five volumes of his Melodienschatz (on Ashkenazi music) and numerous essays. He also composed several complete synagogue services. He suffered a heart attack in 1930 and by 1934 he could no longer work; in 1937 he moved to be with his family in Johannesburg. Hebrew Union College conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 1933.

Idelsohn was the first to apply the methods of comparative musicology to the study of Jewish music, and was also first to record music on wax cylinders in Palestine. His articles on the maqām system in Arab music and the practice of singing Hebrew poems in ‘Oriental’ Jewish diwans (anthologies of poetry) according to a prescribed order of maqāmāt remain fundamental studies. He discovered relationships between ancient Hebrew (mainly Yemenite) and early Christian (Byzantine, Jacobite and Gregorian) chant that had hitherto remained undetected. His magnum opus, the Hebräisch-orientalischer Melodienschatz, summarizes his work in Palestine (vols.i–v) and Cincinnati (vols.vi–x). Although he was largely self-taught as a musicologist, his writings represent an impressive contribution to the study of Jewish music.

WRITINGS

‘Die Makamen in der hebräischen Poesie der orientalischen Juden’, Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, lvii (1913), 314–25

‘Die Maqamen der arabischen Musik’, SIMG, xv (1913–14), 1–63

Hebräisch-orientalischer Melodienschatz (Leipzig, 1914–33/R; Heb. edn of vols.i–v as Otzar neginoth Yisrael, 1922–8; Eng. edn of vols.i–iii, vi–x as Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies, 1923–33/R)

Phonographierte Gesänge and Aussprachsproben des Hebräischen der jemenitischen, persischen und syrischen Juden (Vienna, 1917)

‘Die Vortragszeichen der Samaritaner’, Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, lxi (1917), 117–26

‘Hebrew Music with Special Reference to the Musical Intonations in the Recital of the Pentateuch’, Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, i/2–3 (1921), 80–94

‘Parallelen zwischen gregorianischen und hebräisch-orientalischen Gesangsweisen’, ZMw, iv (1921–2), 515–24

‘Der Kirchengesang der Jakobiten’, AMw, iv (1922), 364–89

‘Der synagogale Gesang im Lichte der orientalischer Musik’, Der Andenken Eduard Birnbaums: Sammlung kantoral-wissenschaftlicher Aufsätze, ed. A. Friedman (Berlin, 1922), 62–9

Tôledôt han-megînah ha- ‘ivrît [History of Jewish music] (Tel-Aviv and Berlin, 1924)

‘Song and Singers of the Synagogue in the 18th Century with Special Reference to the Birnbaum Collection’, Hebrew Union College Jubilee Volume 1875–1925, ed. D. Philipson and others (1925), 397–424

Manual of Musical Illustrations … on Jewish Music and Jewish Liturgy (Cincinnati, 1926)

‘Der Missinai-Gesang der deutschen Synagogue’, ZMw, viii (1926–7), 449–72

The Ceremonies of Judaism (Cincinnati, 1929, 2/1930/R)

Jewish Music in its Historical Development (New York, 1929/R)

‘The Kol-nidre Tune’, Hebrew Union College Annual, viii–ix (1931–2), 493–509

Jewish Liturgy and its Development (New York, 1932/R)

‘Musical Characteristics of East-European Folksong’, MQ, xviii (1932), 634–45

‘Deutsche Elemente im alten Synagogengesang Deutschlands’, ZMw, xv (1932–3), 385–93

‘Parallels between the Old-French and the Jewish Song’, AcM, v (1933), 162–8; vi (1934), 15–22

‘Traditional Songs of the German (Tedesco) Jews in Italy’, Hebrew Union College Annual, xi (1936), 569–91

EDITIONS

Shire Zion [Songs of Zion] (Jerusalem, 1908)

Liederbuch: Sammlung deutschen Lieder für Volks- und höhere Schulen (Berlin, 1912)

Sefer ha-Shirim [Collection of Hebrew songs] (Berlin, 1922)

Tzelilé Aviv [Songs of spring] (Berlin, 1922)

Tzelilé ha-Aretz [Love- and folksongs] (Berlin, 1922)

Jewish Song Book for Synagogue, School and Home (Cincinnati, 1928, 3/1951)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M.C. Weiler and T.S.Ross: ‘Abraham Zvi Idelsohn’, Hebrew Union College Monthly, xx/1 (1932), 9–11

J. Reider: ‘Idelsohn's History and Other Works on Jewish Music’, Jewish Quarterly Review, xix (1929), 313–19

A. Idelsohn: ‘My Life (a Sketch)’, Jewish Music Journal, ii/2 (1935), 8–11; repr. in The Abraham Zvi Idelsohn Memorial Volume, ed. I. Adler and others (Jerusalem, 1986), 15–23

E. Werner: ‘A.Z. Idelsohn in Memoriam’, Reconstructionist [New York], xxix/2 (1963–4), 14–18

J. Idelsohn: ‘Akhi Abraham Zvi Idelsohn zal’ [My brother, the late Abraham Zvi Idelsohn], Barkai, xxxviii (1969), 86–8

I.J. Katz: ‘Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882–1938): a Bibliography of his Collected Writings’, Musica judaica, i (1975–6), 1–32

I. Adler and J.Cohen: A.Z. Idelsohn Archives at the Jewish National and University Library (Jerusalem, 1976) [catalogue]

I. Adler and others, eds.: The Abraham Zvi Idelsohn Memorial Volume (Jerusalem, 1986) [incl. E. Gerson-Kiwi: ‘A.Z. Idelsohn: a Pioneer in Jewish Ethnomusicology’, 46–52; complete list of writings with annotations, 53–180; list of pubd compositions and song books, 31–50]

EDITH GERSON-KIWI/ISRAEL J. KATZ