A Glorious but Endangered Tradition

Jewish history is laden with paradox, and there is no better example than the dispersion of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago--a tragic cataclysm that led, among other things, to the phenomenal diversity of Jewish musical expression evident today.

The breadth of the Jewish vocal tradition will be on display this evening at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles, where a weekend-long program concludes with a cantorial concert featuring two of the art form’s leading exponents. Cantor Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson of New York and Chicago-based Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, both of whom have performed at Carnegie Hall and other major venues, will explore the rich Jewish vocal repertory. They will be joined by several local cantors and the Stephen S. Wise Master Chorus.

The concert includes traditional liturgical arrangements, contemporary choral compositions, Israeli songs and even a Borscht Belt musical comedy number. Many of the best-known composers of Jewish congregational and popular music, including Max Helfman, Max Janowski, Moishe Oysher and Naomi Shemer, will be represented.

“The unifying theme in Jewish vocal music is diversity,” says Nathan Lam, head cantor at Stephen S. Wise, who organized this weekend’s event and will perform with Mizrahi and Mendelson. Mizrahi embodies this ironic juxtaposition of identity and diversity. A Greek-born Jew trained in the Eastern European, or Ashkenazic, school of cantorial singing, Mizrahi performs in nine languages, including Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino (a hybrid of Spanish and Hebrew), Greek and English. His repertory is a mirror of the Jewish diaspora, and the varying musical idioms it has produced.

The appearances of Mizrahi and Mendelson at leading secular venues, such as Carnegie Hall, also underscore the long-standing relationship between Jewish liturgical music and the classical oeuvre. It is a nexus that stretches back to the choral pieces of early Baroque Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, and includes seminal 19th century Jewish composers Salomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski, who set cantorial music to Western harmonies, as well as 20th century figures such as Richard Tucker, who enjoyed dual careers as a cantor and soloist with the Metropolitan Opera.

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The Jewish vocal tradition has its roots in biblical times. Jerusalem’s holy temple was filled with the sounds of both instrumentalists and singers, according to Matthew Lazar, a Jewish music scholar and director of the New York-based Zamir Choral Foundation. He notes that when King David brought the sacred Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, the Levites--Jews who served as assistants to the priests--sang psalms along the way.

Around 300 BC, synagogues outside Jerusalem began to be constructed, and with them came the advent of the cantor. Rabbis sit atop today’s temple hierarchy, but until the mid-19th century it was the cantor who led prayer services and thus served as the populist spiritual leader of the community.

Cantorial singing is an improvisational musical form grounded in a handful of modes that date back to ancient Israel. It is non-rhythmical, non-harmonic and characterized by a florid sound that echoes the fervency of Jewish devotional prayer.

Until the 19th century, solo cantorial singing--known as hazzanut, derived from hazzan, the Hebrew word for cantor--was the dominant form of sacred Jewish vocal expression. An exception was 17th century Italian composer Rossi, a contemporary and friend of Monteverdi, and one of the first Jewish composers to write choral works based on Jewish liturgy. A resident of Mantua, he moved within the mainstream musical circles of his day, and his liturgical pieces, such as “The Songs of Solomon,” contain the familiar melodic and harmonic structure of early Baroque music.

Two hundred years later, Vienna-based cantor, composer and arranger Salomon Sulzer picked up where Rossi left off. A hugely influential figure, Sulzer undertook the task of notating and modernizing the Jewish liturgical canon.

“Sulzer is the father of modern cantorial music,” says Mizrahi. “He cleaned it up.”

Sulzer set Jewish congregational music to Western harmonies, replacing the quarter-tones that dominate the older cantorial tradition and assembling massive choirs for Sabbath and holiday services. “He was trying to prove that Jewish music is as legitimate a form as contemporary Christian music,” explains scholar Lazar.

Considered one of the great singers of his era, Sulzer also brought Jewish liturgy to the attention of such classical giants as Schubert, Schumann and Liszt, who would come to temple to hear him. “Schubert is rumored to have said that until he heard Sulzer singing one of his lieder, he didn’t understand it,” says Lazar. He points out that Sulzer even commissioned Schubert to do a setting of Psalm 92 with Hebrew text.

In Berlin, prominent 19th century synagogue composer Louis Lewandowski followed a similar path to Sulzer’s. Lewandowski went a step further by writing new melodies, some in major keys. He also helped enshrine the four-part choir as part of the Jewish temple experience.

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While Sulzer and Lewandowski transformed the sound of Ashkenazic cantorial and choral singing, it was the massive emigration of Jews from Europe to the U.S. that set the stage for what is known as the “golden age of hazzanut.” From the 1920s through the 1950s, cantors reigned supreme in the Jewish musical world. Legendary figures such as Yosef Rosenblatt, Mordechai Hershman and Moshe Kusevitsky drew legions of Jews both to temple and to concert halls. They made albums and hobnobbed with the likes of Caruso. When they gave concerts, they would often include an aria, sometimes in Italian, sometimes in Yiddish. A few, like Tucker--one of Toscanini’s favorite singers--pursued successful operatic careers.

“The cantorial art is very close to opera in terms of vocal demands, the difference being the music has more folk components,” says Mendelson. “I would say a great cantor would have to produce more colors in his voice than an opera singer.”

Mendelson grew up in Borough Park, N.Y., an area renowned for its wealth of cantors. He spent his childhood listening to some of the finest cantors in the world, including Kusevitsky. “Kusevitsky may be the greatest head-voice singer of the 20th century,” says Mendelson, making a distinction between Kusevtisky and other cantors who sometimes used falsetto. “He could sing a high C, and not only would he not turn red, he would look like he was waiting for the bus.”

He remembers being mesmerized by Kusevitsky, who died in 1966. “He came to temple with an entourage, wore a cape, was impeccably groomed. It was like Pavarotti. He was the last great cantor of the golden age.”

Like Yiddish theater and other cultural touchstones of the Jewish immigrant experience, hazzanut has been buffeted in recent decades by the forces of assimilation. As membership at synagogues dropped, congregations started to embrace a more Americanized kind of temple experience. This has often meant a diminished role for cantors coupled with the use of a more accessible musical approach that employs pop, folk and jazz elements. Neither Mizrahi nor Mendelson is optimistic about the future of traditional cantorial singing. “I am positive that the art we are going to present [at tonight’s concert] is a dying art,” says Mizrahi. Mendelson notes unhappily that cantors are seldom permitted to sing an entire piece, and instead must present what he calls “sound bites.” Indeed, old-fashioned hazzanut is now more welcome in the concert hall than in the synagogue.

Jewish choral singing, on the other hand, seems to be on the rebound after a parallel decline. Choral groups that combine liturgical and secular repertory have been established in cities around the country, including Los Angeles. Mendelson believes that the egalitarian nature of choirs may be the driving force behind this renaissance.

Both Mendelson and Mizrahi hope that hazzanut will one day witness a similar rebirth. “I think you’ll find a backlash of people who want to hear a fine voice singing the liturgy in the most beautiful way possible,” says Mizrahi.

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“CANTORS’ CONCERT,” Stephen S. Wise Temple, 15500 Stephen S. Wise Drive. Date: Today, 7 p.m. Price: $25. Phone: (310) 889-2208.