Hashkiveinu is a work for solo cantor

Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

 (tenor), mixed chorus, and organ composed by Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

 in 1945. The work is six minutes in length and uses the prayer text from the Jewish Sabbath evening service. The work is in Hebrew, and the transliterated score uses Ashkenazic pronunciation.

Commissioning

Hashkiveinu (1945) is the result of a commissioning project from 1943 to 1976 by Cantor Dr. David Putterman for a series of contemporary music at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Putterman believed strongly that the synagogue music—particularly American synagogue music—would only endure through adaptation and creativity. In the preface to Synagogue Music by Contemporary Composers, Putterman wrote:

The Jewish prayer-book of today is the result of development through the ages and reflects the Jewish spirit of these ages; similarly, the music of the Synagogue is a veritable growing treasure from Biblical times to present. The music contained in this volume is not meant to replace the traditional fixed prayer modes, but is rather intended to enrich the music of our time.

At the time of the commissioning, the rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue was Milton Steinberg

Milton Steinberg

Milton Steinberg was an American rabbi, philosopher, theologian and author.-Life:Born in Rochester, New York, he was raised with the combination of his grandparents' traditional Jewish piety and his father's modernist socialism...

. Steinberg wrote, "The preservation and recapture of the past of Jewish music. The adaptation of it to the musical present. The stimulation of new Jewish musical creativity.”

Premiere

Bernstein’s Hashkiveinu was first performed on May 11, 1945 at the Park Avenue Synagogue with Cantor Putterman. Noel Straus reviewed, “Mr. Bernstein’s extensive “Hashkiveinu” (Prayer for Divine Protection) was remarkable for its dramatic forcefulness, its coloring and sharp contrasts of dynamics and mood.”

Structure

The outer sections are dominated by the cantorial soloist and imitative choral entrances in Phrygian mode

Phrygian mode

The Phrygian mode can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter...

. The canonic heterophony, however, maintains relative stasis and calm evoking the peaceful, nighttime elements of the prayer. The a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 middle section is composed polychorally with Stravinsky-like rhythmic intensity.