Prayers for Special Occasions

This score is a significant historical document: it is linked to a pivotal moment in 19th-century Hungarian Jewish religious music and education. Mór Friedmann composed this work, which consists of two psalms, for the inaugural general meeting of the teachers’ association—an event that marked a milestone in the Jewish community’s self-organization and religious renewal at the time.

On February 12, 1871, a memorial service was held at the Dohány Street Synagogue in memory of Minister of Culture Baron József Eötvös. In the memory of the Jewish community, he was the one on whose initiative the General Assembly of Israelites was convened. Mór Friedmann composed a funeral hymn for the event based on Psalm 49. The cover of the hymn’s sheet music features a portrait (lithograph) of the minister.

Mór Friedmann’s composition of Psalm 45, composed on the occasion of the marriage of His Imperial and Royal Highness Crown Prince Rudolf to Archduchess Stefania, May 10, 1881