Publications
Monographs
- Purifying the Soul… The Medieval Mikveh in Erfurt (Erfurt: Sutton, 2015) [English version]
- Von der Reinheit der Seele... Die mittelalterliche Mikwe in Erfurt (Erfurt: Bussert & Stadeler, 2015) [German version]
- Dichtung und Musik im frühneuzeitlichen Aschkenas [Poetry and Music in Early Modern Ashkenaz], 2 vols.: Edition and Commentary (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2011), vol. 1, i-xvii, 529pp and vol. 2, 461pp, http://www.brill.com/dichtung-und-musik-im-fruehneuzeitlichen-aschkenas-2-vols, Reviews:
- AJS [Association for Jewish Studies] Review 36(1) (2012): 168-70 (Don Harrán)
- JJS [Journal of Jewish Studies] LXV (1) (2014): 209-12 (Claudia Rosenzweig)
- JFR [Journal of Folklore Research. An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology] (2012) (David Elton Gay)
- Pardes. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien 18 (2012): 207-12 (Janina Wurbs)
- AJL [Association of Jewish Libraries] Review 2(4) (Nov/Dez 2012): 29-30 (David B. Levy)
Editorial Positions
- 2018- : Editor of the Series Jews, Judaism and the Arts (Leiden, Boston: Brill), together with Nathan Abrams, Steven Fine, Edna Nashon and Ilia Rodov, https://brill.com/view/serial/JJA
- 2006-2018: European Journal of Jewish Studies. The Journal of the European Association for Jewish Studies (Leiden, Boston: Brill), 2 double-blind peer-reviewed issues per year, http://www.brill.com/european-journal-jewish-studies
- 2008-2014: Editorial Board, Studies in Jewish History and Culture (Boston, Leiden: Brill), http://www.brill.com/publications/studies-jewish-history-and-culture
Edited Volumes
- Diana Matut and Simon Neuberg, eds.: Worlds of Old Yiddish Literature (Cambridge: Legenda, 2023)
- Daniel Cyranka, Diana Matut and Christian Soboth, eds.: Finden und Erfinden: Die Romantik und ihre Religionen, 1790–1820. [To Find and to Invent. The Romantic Period and her Religions, 1790-1820] Stiftung für Romantikforschung (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2020)
- Diana Matut, ed., Jewish Music ¬- Song Culture and Performance Practice, Special Issue EJJS 8.1 (Boston, Leiden: Brill, 2014)
- Diana Matut, ed., Christian Hebraism and Yiddishism, Special Issue EJJS 6.1 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012)
- Diana Matut, ed., Yiddish: Past and Present Perspectives, Special Issue EJJS 4.1 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010)
Articles (select.)
- “Early Modern Yiddish Wedding Songs. Synchronic and Diachronic Functions,” in Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music Studies, ed. Tina Frühauf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 512-530
- “With Kind Words Lean Towards Her… Singing for the Bride and Groom in Early Modern Ashkenaz,” in Worlds of Old Yiddish Literature, eds. Simon Neuberg and Diana Matut (Cambridge: Legenda, 2023), 192-252
- “Songs for Hanukkah and Purim from Venice,” in The Museum of Renaissance Music, eds. Vincenzo Borghetti and Tim Shephard (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 314-317
- “Interferenzen im frühneuzeitlichen Purimlied – Impulse im nachbarschaftlichen Raum der Fastnacht- und Purimkulturen,” in Purimspiel und Fastnachtspiel. Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zur Gattungsinterferenzen, ed. Klaus Wolf. Studia Augustana 19 (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2021), 27-62
- “On the History of Editing Pre-Modern Yiddish Manuscripts and the status quaestionis,” in Jewish Manuscript Cultures, ed. Irina Wandrey (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2017) https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/489035
- “Der einstimmige jiddische Gesang im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert,” in Creatio ex unisono. Einstimmige Musik im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, troja. Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik 13 (2017); https://miami.uni-muenster.de/Record/95de9cff-2d6a-4f51-a7d9-62ec0f98b164
- “Was zu Hamburg geschehen ist… Ein westjiddisches Lied über polnische Juden im Hamburg des 17. Jahrhunderts,” in Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte. Online-Quellenedition (2015); http://www.igdj-hh.de/online-quellenedition.html
- “Jewish Music–Song Culture and Performance Practice,” in EJJS 8.1 (2014): 3-7.
- “Mir Wermeiser… Das altjiddische Liedgut und sein Bezug zur Stadt Worms,” in Jüdische Kultur in den SchUM-Städten. Literatur – Musik – Theater, ed. Karl E. Grözinger (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014), 275-314.
- “What Happened in Hamburg... A Yiddish Document about Polish Jews in Germany during the Early Modern Period,” in Leket. Yiddish: Editions & Research 1, eds. Marion Aptroot et al. (Düsseldorf: dup, 2012), 321-56.
- “Yiddish Song in Early Modern Ashkenaz,” in Report of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (2011-12): 94-104.
- “Steinschneider and Yiddish,” in Studies on Steinschneider. Moritz Steinschneider and the Emergence the Science of Judaism in Nineteenth-Century Germany, eds. Reimund Leicht and Gad Freudenthal (with the collaboration of Rachel Heuberger) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 383-410.
Jewish Music Projects
Glikl-oratorye. A Musical Herstory (2022)
Oratorio by Alan Bern and Diana Matut about the life of Glikl von Hameln
In 1689, Glikl von Hameln (1647-1724), a Jewish woman from Hamburg, began writing her memoirs in Western Yiddish. After the death of her husband, she wrote „to expel the melancholy thoughts“ and thus left us a unique testimony of Jewish life in Germany. We know her today as a successful businesswoman, a mother of 14 children, and one of the first non-noble women ever to leave very personal memoirs.
Librettist Diana Matut lets Glikl speak in her own words and adds three other Jewish women of different eras whose lives are interwoven in one way or another with Glikl’s. Through them, Glikl’s experiences are given a voice for our times.
Composer Alan Bern (USA/Berlin) gives each of the four women their own musical language through various instrumental ensembles inspired by Baroque, urban music of the Weimar period, Yiddish theater and Klezmer, and contemporary retro swing.
The Henech Kon Project / The Triangle Orchestra (2019 and 2022)
Yiddish Opera! Bas-Sheve
See: https://vimeo.com/375097552
Bas Sheve is a Yiddish opera written by Henech Kon in 1924 in Warsaw. Based on the story of King David and Batsheva, the opera was premiered there at the Kaminski Theater with vocal soloists and choir and with Kon himself accompanying on piano and singing the bass role.
This remarkable work, which appears to be the only surviving opera in Yiddish from pre-war Eastern Europe, was rediscovered by Dr. Diana Matut in 2017. In 2019, Yiddish Summer Weimar Curator Andreas Schmitges envisioned and mounted a newly commissioned, fully orchestrated version of Kon's opera.
Enlisting contemporary composer Joshua Horowitz to create the orchestration as well as to reconstruct missing sections of the work, the project invited young vocalists, instrumentalists and partner institutions from Germany, France and Poland to form the Triangle Orchestra to realize this daring artistic vision. The world premiere of the newly orchestrated opera took place on Aug 16th, 2019 during Yiddish Summer Weimar 2019, and was performed again in Lodz on Aug 21st, 2019.
For more information about this historic production as well as related projects, please see: https://forward.com/culture/music/515490/bas-sheve-yiddish-opera-henech-kon-ashkenaz-festival/
triangleorchestra.eu // bas-sheve.com // yiddishsummer.eu
KADYA: The Kadia Molodovsky Project (2015-2018)
New compositions for choir based on the poetry of Kadia Molodovsky
In cooperation with Yiddish Summer Weimar - Alan Bern
Voices of Peace (Tel Aviv/Jaffa) - Yair Dalal
Arab-Jewish Community Center Jaffa
Documentary Movie in 2019
For the trailer of The Young Kadyas:
Please see: https://vimeo.com/394287248
Simkhat hanefesh (Joy of the Soul), since 2012
Yiddish Song from Renaissance and Baroque
See: http://www.simkhat-hanefesh.com/
Simkhat hanefesh brings Yiddish songs and Jewish music from the Renaissance and Baroque back to life. The ensemble combines the latest research with long-standing experience in the field of Early Music.
Since its foundation, simkhat hanefesh has already brought dozens of rediscovered Old Yiddish songs back on stage. It unearths these cultural treasures and creates an awareness for the beauty and the venerable age of Yiddish song culture.
Programs:
- 2012-2019: Simkhat hanefesh (Joy of the Soul). Early Yiddish Music
- 2019- : A Journey Through Ashkenaz. The Travels of Abraham Levie
Alef, beys un giml, oder: Di shtume shprakh (2018)
[A, B and G or: The silent language]
Composition and staging of the children’s musical
Premiere: July 29, 2018 Yiddish Summer Weimar
With children from Israel, France, Spain, Italy, USA and Germany
With Alan Bern (Piano, Accordion) / Aleksei Rozov (Violin) / Mark Kovnatskiy (Violin) / Andreas Schmitges (Guitar) / Yulia Kabakova (Cello)
Ensemble MULTAQA. Trialogue of Religions (2017)
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rndztZXzxnY
“Multaqa” means meeting point. Ney meets Recorder, Djoze meets Viola da Gamba, Oud meets Lute, connected by framedrums and arabic, classical and yiddish singers. This ensemble is focussed in the uniting element ot oriental and occidental cultures, music and religions. This programme shows suprising connections of sephardic, yiddish, arabic and early music; bringing together versed and virtuos specialists on stage. Music doesn’t know boundaries – music is the answer.
Ensemble Multaqa: Diana Matut - Yiddish Chant (D) Rita William - Arabic Chant (Iraq/D) Björn Werner - Chant (D) Rageed William - Nay, Duduk (Iraq/D) Annegret Fischer - Recorders (D) Bassem Hawar - Djoze (Iraq/D) Benjamin Dreßler - Viola da Gamba (D) Saif al-Khayyat - Oud (Iraq/D) Erik Warkenthin - Baroque Guitar (D) Nora Thiele - Percussion, Frame Drums, Darbucca, Artistic Director (D)
Far dem nayem dor – For the New Generation. Yiddish Children’s Songs (2012-2014)
In cooperation with Yiddish Summer Weimar and Dr. Alan Bern
Rediscovery of Yiddish children’s songs from the folks shuln.
CD Production