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Shul Show?Or SEGULA | September 2020 Tishrei 5781 54 3333 from Exodus Issue 54 NIS 39 | September 2020 Tishrei 3333 5781 from Exodus SEGULTH E JEWISH HISTORY maGAZINE A Brief History of of History Brief A Cantorial Music | Meir Dizengoff | A Lubavitch Tale | Edward Brampton Tel Aviv Tel L OR “The Mishna and Talmud ... were never intended, in their true SHU nature, to serve as an account of history and the lives of the SHOW? sages ... there is a fundamental preference in the literature of THE GOLDEN AGE OF the Oral Law to present matters as part of an eternal present.“ CANTORIAL MUSIC Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael (Steinsaltz) 1937–2020 AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE! TREAT YOUR FRIENDS LUBAVITCH LEGEND MEIR EDWARD BRAMPTON TO A SEGULA GIFT SUBSCRIPTION THE SIXTH DIZENGOFF JEWISH ADVENTURER www.segulamag.com 058-541-6146 [email protected] Rebbe’S REWRITE MR. TEL AVIV IN THE ENGLISH COUrt Golden Age of Cantors SHUL SHOW?OR www.segulamag.com 30 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 31 Golden Age of Cantors The huge popularity of cantorial concerts and records during the first half of the 20th century turned the most talented cantors into celebrities. But did they cross the line from prayer to entertainment? // David Olivestone A century ago, in the a man of meager means, with a family to 1910s and 1920s, waves of support, so as to lend his appeals to Heaven emigration from Europe’s urgency and passion. Empathy with the troubled Jewish communities congregation’s needs was vital as well brought many of the world’s finest (Ta'anit 16a). cantors to American synagogues. Thanks In the Middle Ages, there was to this extraordinary array of talent, much discussion as to which of the the first half of the 20th century became aforementioned requirements took known as the golden age of cantorial precedence. Ultimately, if a candidate music. Its stars set the standard by which met at least the basic standards, his vocal cantors are still judged, and the liturgical ability won the day. classics of those years remain synagogue Following the Emancipation, as ghetto staples and favorites at cantorial concerts walls came down and Jews were exposed around the world. to Western culture, cantorial music grew Music has been a central feature of more sophisticated. Pioneering cantors, Jewish worship since Temple times. As composers, and choirmasters such as communal prayer in synagogues became Salomon Sulzer (1804–1890, Vienna), the norm following the destruction of Samuel Naumbourg (1817–1880, Paris), Jerusalem’s Second Temple, liturgical Louis Lewandowsky (1821–1894, Berlin), poems composed by paytanim (poets) – and David Nowakowsky (1848–1921, who also often led the congregation in Odessa) introduced more formal and worship – were added to the basic prayer elaborate choral pieces. While consistent text. Standards had to be established with the character and nusach (musical regarding who could lead the services, but modes) of the various prayer services, it wasn’t always easy to find cantors to fit these compositions also conformed the bill. to the musical standards of the day. Beyond the obvious requirement of Many such works became fixtures in a pleasant voice, the arbiters of Jewish Ashkenazic cathedral synagogues. law determined that the leader should In addition, while aspiring cantors Jewish celebrities of the be scholarly, fully conversant with the had traditionally trained under their cantors’ golden age. Cantor prayers, pious, and known for his modesty predecessors, quite a few now studied Mordechai Hershman and good deeds. He should preferably be with professional music teachers or at 30 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 31 Golden Age of Cantors CANTORS’ HALL OF FAME Louis Lewandowsky Salomon Sulzer Samuel Naumbourg 1821–1894 1804 –1890 1817–1880 Berlin Vienna Paris Yossele Rosenblatt First Jew to study David Nowakowsky 1882 –1933 composition at the 1848 –1921 Odessa Pressburg; Berlin Academy Ohab Zedek, Harlem, New York Gershon Sirota Murdered in the Mordechai Hershman 1874 –1943 Warsaw ghetto 1888 –1940 Warsaw uprising Vilna; Temple Beth El, New York Invested in Tel Aviv’s Zavel Kwartin Virtuoso exponent Pinhas Minkowsky Ahva neighborhood 1874 –1952 of Yiddish folk 1859 –1924 in 1931 Vienna, U.S., music Odessa; Eldridge St. Palestine Synagogue, New York Selmar Cerini Enjoyed a Composed the classic 1860 –1923 distinguished tune for Shir Ha-maalot, Neue Synagogue, career in opera promoted by some as the Breslau, Germany before becoming anthem of the Zionist a chief cantor movement Moshe Koussevitzky 1899 –1966 Numerous recordings (and in Vilna, Warsaw, U.S. some cases even videos) of almost all these cantors can be found on YouTube 32 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 33 Golden Age of Cantors conservatories, becoming proficient in CANTORS’ HALL musical notation and vocal techniques. Virtuoso Cantors The golden age was rooted in the closing decades of the 19th century. In major European Jewish centers such as Vilna, Odessa, Warsaw, and Vienna, you would find achorshul , a cathedral- type synagogue with a virtuoso cantor and a large choir of men and boys. But as congregants fled the increasingly oppressive imperial regimes for the New World, most cantors followed them to the Goldene Medina. In New York and other big cities, leading congregations competed fiercely for the star cantors, tempting them with huge salaries and benefits. Popular opinion tends to grant countries like Italy a monopoly on great tenors. Yet talent knows no boundaries, and certain cantors were blessed with voices no less magnificent than the greatest international vocalists. Upon hearing Gershon Sirota, the famous cantor of Warsaw, opera star Enrico Caruso reputedly remarked how fortunate he was that Sirota, who’d received many offers to sing opera, preferred the synagogue. Hailed as one of the most powerful and highly trained tenors of his time, Sirota An ornate structure seating thirteen was known for his climactic high notes and outstanding voice control. Born hundred, Temple Beth El still boasts the around 1874 in Imperial Russia's Podolia acoustics of a concert hall region, he landed his first position in Odessa when he was only eighteen. Just three years later, as accounts of his only virtuoso cantor of his era to decline Gershon Sirota of Warsaw’s extraordinary prowess spread, he was a position in America. Great Synagogue, in cantorial appointed cantor of the enormous Vilna Trapped in Warsaw when war broke robes and tallit, on a New Year Synagogue, a prestigious post previously out, Sirota continued to inspire those who card, ca. 1912 Photo: National Library of Israel, filled by some of the biggest names in heard him lead High Holy Day prayers Schwadron Collection cantorial music. in the ghetto. He perished together with In 1905, Sirota became Oberkantor his family during the suppression of the (chief cantor) of Europe’s most renowned Warsaw ghetto uprising in May 1943. house of Jewish prayer, Warsaw’s Great Another superstar of the golden age Synagogue. Seating upwards of two was Zavel (Zevulun) Kwartin. Born in the thousand worshippers, it was attended same region and year as Sirota, Kwartin by the city’s most prosperous Jewish possessed a beautifully expressive and elite. From 1927 on, he focused on powerful lyric baritone. He composed international concert tours and was the as well, and many of his emotionally 32 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 33 Golden Age of Cantors Cathedral synagogues. Built in 1887 on New York’s Lower East Side, the Eldridge Street Synagogue boasted stained-glass rose windows, a dome seventy feet high, and a barrel- vaulted ceiling. But by the 1930s the congregation could no longer 2018 Rhododendrites, Photo: fill the vast space and moved to the basement. Today the building is a Jewish museum charged pieces remain popular to this day. Having officiated in Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Budapest, Kwartin emigrated to the United States in 1919. He visited Palestine in 1926, settling there in 1931, but returned to the New York area in 1937, where he remained until his death in 1952. Mordechai Hershman (1888–1940) served as chief cantor in Vilna in 1913 before relocating to New York in 1920. Photo: G. K.Tramrunner, 2006 A magnificent and versatile tenor, Hershman sang the synagogue liturgy with polished elegance and charmed audiences with his mastery of Yiddish folk songs. He officiated at Temple Beth El in Brooklyn, New York’s equivalent of an Orthodox chorshul, which engaged the greatest cantors of the day. An ornate structure seating thirteen hundred, the synagogue still boasts the acoustics of a concert hall. Perhaps the most famous of Beth El’s luminaries was Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966). In 1920, when Hershman left Vilna for the U.S., Koussevitzky replaced him at that city’s Great Synagogue; in 1927, he succeeded Gershon Sirota as chief cantor of Warsaw. Koussevitzky spent World War II singing opera in the Soviet Union. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1947. A robust but graceful tenor with a phenomenal upper register, Koussevitzky was widely regarded as the greatest cantor of the postwar era. 34 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 35 Golden Age of Cantors When celebrity cantor Yossele Rosenblatt sang in Jewish Harlem, police often had to control the crowds The best-known and most beloved of the celebrity cantors was Yossele Rosenblatt (1882–1933). After officiating in various European cities, Rosenblatt was brought to America in 1911 by one of New York City’s leading shuls, Ohab Zedek. Located in what was then the But Rosenblatt’s life story was filled Warsaw’s Great Synagogue, on fashionable Jewish neighborhood of with highs and lows, from Hollywood Tlomackie Street, was dedicated in Harlem, the synagogue overflowed on and opera companies luring him with 1878.
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