{"id":1564,"date":"2011-03-25T10:20:26","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T10:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faujsa.fau.edu\/blog\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:54:45","slug":"the-music-of-devotion-chassidic-nigunim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsa.fau.edu\/blog\/collections\/judaic-collection\/the-music-of-devotion-chassidic-nigunim\/","title":{"rendered":"The Music of Devotion: Chassidic Nigunim"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Photo<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Separated from other Ashkenazic Jews in 18th<\/sup> and 19th century Eastern Europe, the Chassids developed their own distinctive music traditions, which included chazzanuth, folk songs and nigunim<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigunim<\/em> are unique musical expressions of Chassidic religious thought and grew out of the belief that the experience of exuberant joy was a religious duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since it was felt that words interrupted the pure stream of emotion, most early nigunim<\/em> were wordless. Instead they employed special syllables to carry the tune (like \u2018bim bam\u2019, or \u2018yadi-da-di\u2019). Often these syllables became distinctive signatures which allowed musicologists to specify the region that a particular nigun <\/em>had come from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nigun<\/em> has inspired secular Israeli music, klezmer and even Chassidic jazz. Please explore the world of Chassidic music with the Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to listen to this special JSA collection of Chassidic music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/span> <\/strong><\/a>to browse JSA\u2019s online collection of Chassidic music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/strong><\/a><\/span> to listen to this special JSA collection of Chassidic music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Separated from other Ashkenazic Jews in 18th and 19th century Eastern Europe, the Chassids developed their own distinctive music traditions, which included chazzanuth, folk songs and nigunim. Nigunim are unique musical expressions of Chassidic religious thought and grew out of the belief that the experience of exuberant joy was a religious duty. Since it was felt that words interrupted the pure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[737,413],"tags":[116,138,423,278],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collections","category-judaic-collection","tag-chassidic-music","tag-dance","tag-jewish-religious-holiday-music","tag-nigunim"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Music of Devotion: Chassidic Nigunim - Recorded Sound Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore the music of devotion with Chassidic nigunim \u2014 historic Judaic recordings from the Recorded Sound Archives\u2019 rich and soulful collection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rsa.fau.edu\/blog\/collections\/judaic-collection\/the-music-of-devotion-chassidic-nigunim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Music of Devotion: Chassidic Nigunim - 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