Composed By: Ernest Bloch

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Purchase sheet music at Broude Brothers

Voicing: SATB divisi

Keyword quasi-oratorio

Event/Holiday: Shabbat

Language: Hebrew

Difficulty: moderate/difficult

Country: America/Swiss

Solos: baritone

Instruments: orchestra

Lyrics: liturgy

Publisher: Broude Brothers

Year Composed/Published: 1933

Timing: 55:00

Tempo: various

First Line: mah tovu

description: It took Bloch four years to complete his Sacred Service (Avodat Ha-kodesh). Although it was commissioned to be based on the Sabbath morning liturgy, this grand work, with its universal themes, its post-romantic organic conception, scored for large orchestra, chorus, and baritone soloist, is more appropriate for the concert stage than for the synagogue bimah. Bloch himself considered it more a sacred Hebrew oratorio than a Jewish liturgical service.