| Because
of the text, it is referred to as the mode of supplication. Ahava
Rabboh is often compared with the Hijaz makam
of Middle Eastern music. It is frequently, but not exclusively found in
Hassidic Klezmer pieces. Idelsohn points out the absence of the augmented
2nd in the biblical prayer modes and doubts, therefore, that the Ahava
Rabboh mode is of Jewish origin. Because the communities that
were living in areas which were predominantly Tartaric-Altaic showed use
of this mode, Idelsohn concludes that the mode is Tartaric. He speculates
that, with the expansion of the Tartars in Southern Russia into Hungary
beginning with the 13th Century, the Jews found favor with the mode and
eventually adopted it into the Shabbat morning ritual. He mentions that
it was the same mode with which Olympus incited strong opposition when he
introduced it into Greece around 800 B.C.E. on the Aulos, and points out
that Ahava Rabboh was not used in the beginning
period of the creation of Piyyutim from 800-1000
C.E. The Jewish composer Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959) harshly criticized
the mode. |