February 15, 2021

  • The Tattooed Torah (Daniel Alcheh)

     

    The beloved children’s book that helps teach children about the Holocaust, The Tattooed Torah, by Marvell Ginsburg, reaches the screen in this late 2019 animated short directed by Marc Bennet.  The score is by Daniel Alcheh (The Trouble With Bliss, The Man Who Collected Food ).

    The “Intro” is a beautiful wordless chorus that introduces the theme.  It is a stunningly-written piece that provides a fine emotional core of melancholy (it will recur often, including with a folkish-violin version in (“His Father Was One of Them”; and later for bassoon).  As we move into “Brno Czechoslovaki-Curfue” the theme is introduced with strings and then begins a fascinating shift through orchestral colors as different threads are passed effortlessly from one to the other.  The music shifts into more dissonance and unease as we move into “Then One Day Everything Changed.”  Alcheh moves through these shifts in tone using the primary theme as a link that is morphed and impacted by the narrative it accompanies.  It is also adept at lifting the darkness slightly when things shift in that directions.  The harp glissandi almost serve as a musical means of lifting the veil of what happened.  It becomes a bit more impassioned as well in “This Is How We Never Forget”.  “Following Every Lead” is another magical moment that bubbles along.

    Alcheh’s primay theme, which receives a fitting concluding expanded track, is really one that will stay with the listener far after.  It has moments of hope that are often heartbreaking without being to forceful in eliciting that emotion.  There are the sorts of melodic turns of phrase that also put this in a long line of orchestral pieces dealing with this subject.  The music itself will enchant listeners as well with the orchestration and shifts of instrumental color.  A simply stunning and surprising release worth seeking out.