Description
Growing up between her cantor grandfather and her father, an opera conductor, the author shares her struggle to find a place in her family's male-dominiated traditions of music and Jewish life
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In A Joyful Noise, Deborah Weisgall tells a moving story of growing up with two remarkable men who lived life as if they were characters in an opera. Music was their passion and faith, their history, and their destiny. Deborah's grandfather, Abba, served as the cantor in a synagogue in Baltimore; her father, Hugo, was a famous opera composer and conducted the synagogue choir. Abba had brought his family to America from Czechoslovakia in 1920. He was descended from generations of cantors, and in their local synagogue Abba and Hugo kept alive a fading musical tradition. From her seat on the edge of the choir loft, Deborah as a child longed to be entrusted with this precious music and to carry it on herself. But it was impossible: she was a girl.A Joyful Noise recounts Deborah's turbulent coming-of-age, her search for a place within the family tradition, and finally her triumphant discovery of a way to make the men who would exclude her - who were also the men she loved - listen to her voice.
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