The Development and Disappearance of The Old Practice of East-Ashkenazi Prayer Chant

The melodic basis of of East-Ashkenazi prayer chant was first notated by prayer leaders active in the German lands in the late 18th century. Various sources suggest that the cultural influence may have moved in the opposite direction. Eastern European prayer chant and its melodic basis might have been created in Central-Eastern Europe and transmitted from Polish-Lithuanian territories to Germany. The absence of pre-18th-century documentation makes it impossible to determine the origins of the East-European Jewish prayer chant with certainty, but the suggestion that it may have been created in Central-Eastern Europe opens up a new direction in the study of this music.