Bloch - Nigun (Improvisation) No. 2 from 'Baal Shem'

What interests me, wrote Bloch, is the Jewish soul, the enigmatic, ardent, turbulent soul that I feel vibrating throughout the Bible...it is all this that I endeavor to hear in myself and to transcribe into my music; the venerable emotion of the race that slumbers way down in our souls. Bloch's Baal Shem is made up of I. Vidui (Contrition) -- Un poco lento; II. Nigun (Improvisation) -- Adagio non troppo; III. Simchas Torah (Rejoicing) -- Allegro giocoso. Nigun is the most extrovert composition. Bloch attempts to recreate the feeling of ecstatic religious chanting through a highly charged and ornate melodic line that rises to a fever pitch of spiritual intensity before dying away to a gentle close.