This project began as a series of conceptual explorations in Jewish electronic music. The first was a Gematria-based sonification of Torah passages, but once I started working in SuperCollider—having never used it before—I realized the idea didn’t hold. It was more about projecting structure onto noise than revealing anything meaningful.

The second iteration centered on the idea of spectral resynthesis using Golden Age cantorial recordings. The plan was to decompose the recordings into partials and envelopes, then use that data to drive synthesis systems—to let the phrasing and gesture of the Chazzan modulate new sound, as well as serve as material for spectral morphing and granular synthesis. But I wanted the project to be more than a gesture toward expressivity. I wanted it to be structurally Jewish.

That led to a shift. After speaking with my Chazzan, I realized I didn’t have access to the same systems of oral transmission or theoretical training that historical Chazzanim did. Rather than trying to reconstruct something closed off to me, I turned to a range of Jewish music theories—some still in use, others fragmented or neglected. These frameworks now shape the next phase of the project.

What began as curiosity became something more urgent as I confronted the state of Jewish music in Reform Judaism—where it’s often dulled for accessibility to a heavily assimilated American audience. That realization turned the project into a matter of responsibility: to help restore cultural memory and spiritual engagement in the shul, and to take seriously the historical question that Judaism has always returned to—how to integrate modernity into tradition without erasing either one.