DISSERTATIO DE MAGREPHA began as part of my exploration of the organ’s intersection with Jewish history and culture. The organ has been a part of both sacred and secular Jewish life, spanning from Talmudic times to the 19th century, and continuing its presence in modern Jewish communities in America, Europe, and Israel. Hebrew writings dating as far back as 200-300 CE mention the “Magrepha,” a mysterious, possibly fictional pipe organ which was used as part of the Jewish ritual. Accounts in various sources are fragmentary and contradictory, but many describe an instrument consisting of 10 pipes, and according to some versions, 100 pipes that could play simultaneously to produce a shrill and menacing sound.
The mystery around the Magrepha and the possibility that it might be a literary creation rather than an historical fact stirs the imagination - what did it sound like? What kind of music could it play? My piece, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the 2024 Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Annual Competition, explores these questions and envisions the sounds and behavior of the Magrepha, thereby reconstructing an imagined history of the first Jewish organ. In doing so, I hope to shed light on a curious, little-known, and possibly dubious chapter in the history of the “king of instruments”.
The various accounts of the Magrepha provided a conceptual and formal foundation for my composition. It is structured into three parts: Part I is inspired by the earliest descriptions of the Magrepha, as they appear in the Mishna and the Talmud. Part II is influenced by 17th and 18th-century quasi-scientific accounts of the instrument. Part III, which serves as a postlude, takes its inspiration from a quote found in the 2001 Grove Dictionary entry on the Magrepha, which calls into question the very existence of this enigmatic instrument.