Episode 8: The Cantorial Tradition

Click on the  icon on the top-right of the video to access the full playlist.

Listen on Spotify

Cantors Benzion Miller, Alberto Mizrahi, and Simon Spiro perform contemporary compositions and classic cantorial numbers from the golden age of ḥazzanut in America.

Episode Transcript

Leonard Nimoy
In virtually every culture there is a close connection between religious worship, and music. Prayer was accompanied by musical instruments in the temples of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. In Jewish history, the ancient Temple in Jerusalem resounded with chants by choruses of Levites, accompanied by string and wind instruments and even sometimes percussion. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the music of prayer became a part of the service of the synagogue.

Leonard Nimoy
Hello, I’m Leonard Nimoy. Welcome to another program in a 13-part series that celebrates three and a half centuries of uninterrupted Jewish life in the United States through music, as documented by the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music and issued on CD on the Naxos label. On today’s program, one of the most distinctively Jewish forms of music: the cantorial tradition.

Leonard Nimoy
In traditional Jewish worship, the cantor leads the congregation by intoning the prayers and animating their words through musical, and often emotional, expression. Neil Levin, the Artistic Director of the Milken Archive, talked with conductor Gerard Schwarz about what that role entails.

Gerard Schwarz
During a synagogue service, the Rabbi doesn't really run the service. The canter runs the service. Do you see that's accurate?

Neil Levin
A Rabbi's role is to decide issues of Jewish law, to teach. The cantor is a prayer leader. That's the best way to define them. Cantor. And since our prayers in Judaism are all sung, he is a prayer leader by chanting or singing the prayers. The word cantor is, of course, a translation of singer. But it means something quite different. In modern German, kantor, K-A-N-T-O-R, the first meaning in the dictionary has nothing to do with singing. The definition in any modern German dictionary of the word kantor is church choir leader. So Bach was a contour. Jews started using the word cantor as a modernization of the word. But the real word in Hebrew is hazzan. And hazzan doesn't have an exact translation. Hazzan in modern Hebrew chazzan in Ashkenazi Hebrew or Yiddish, it doesn't really have an exact translation in terms of singing. It means it's the one who is the prayer leader. And it's assumed, of course, that that leading of prayer is done through song— the role of the cantor is to entone the liturgy. On the esthetic level, it is to beautify it. And in Hebrew, there is a concept called Hiddur Mitzvah.

Neil Levin
It means the expanded beautification of a required act. Jews are required to put a mezzuzah on their doorpost. That's legally required. You have to do it. Hiddur Mitzvah means to make it a beautiful one, to take the law and give it an esthetic quality. So that's what hazzanut is. People ask me all the time, What is hazzanut? We say it's cantorial art. It means two things. It means prayer, and it means the beautification of the liturgy.

Gerard Schwarz
Can you give us now a list of what requirements to be a wonderful cantor are?

Neil Levin
There are talmudic statements about the qualities or the qualifications for a chazan, but those have changed over time. They talk about having a pleasant voice. But that was before virtuouso hazzanut. That was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before that developed. So it depends upon one's approach. One of the most famous of the virtuouso hazzanim, the Heifetz, Piatagorsky, Rubenstein group of cantors, was Pierre Pinchik, whose real name was Pinchas Segal once asked, What does it take to be a hazzan? And he said, First of all, the person that has to know what's called Parish Hamilus, the words, absolute master of the liturgy from a text point of view. An absolute master of what they are, what they mean and everything. Second, the person has to be a musician. And third, he has to be—in Yiddish, he called it a Mensch. In other words, a good person. Somebody got up and said, But what about a great voice? And Pinchik said, If he has that, it wouldn't hurt. Of course, it was easy for him to say with not only one of the greatest cantorial voices of all time, but probably the most distinctive.

Neil Levin
We're talking here about a certain level of cantorial music that is divorced from the prayer setting, and we're hearing it not as worshippers in the synagogue. And so we're hearing the esthetic and the artistic and the virtuouso in some cases aspects. Artistic cantorial art became something very, very special to Eastern European Jewry, and by extension, it's immigrant eras in America. We talk about a golden age of Hazzanut, of cantorial art. In many respects, it's a bygone era. In Jewish life, in certain circles, at certain times, the hazzan, the virtuous, famous hazzan, was a folk hero. And that's how far the art extended beyond the actual functional aspect of entoning the prayers in the synagogue.

Gerard Schwarz
So was that the way that the cantorial singing got outside the synagogue?

Neil Levin
Yes. Some of the most famous cantor of all time, beginning with Sulzer in Vienna from 1826 on, we're in synagogues where government dignitaries regularly came to hear them sing. In 1850, '60, you pick the year in Vienna when foreign dignitaries came at the invitation of the Emperor's Court, they were often brought to the synagogue to hear Sulzer sing, and this thing went on in Russia. It extended outside the synagogue into the concert hall, into religious concerts or cantorial concerts in major cities in Europe, but more in America, even than in Europe, and then came along radio and recordings, and people became aficionados of the cantorial art.

Leonard Nimoy
Professor Neil Levin of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, talking with maestro Gerard Schwarz.

Leonard Nimoy
Here is an example of cantorial music in the form of an extended concert setting, rather than for actual worship. The words are from the meditation at the end of the main daily prayer, the Amidah, and they express the hope for ultimate redemption in the messianic era, and the restoration and rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. These lines are usually prayed silently in the synagogue. But here, in an exuberant setting by Israel Schorr that was made famous by the legendary cantor, Moshe Koussevitzky, they form the basis of a virtuoso concert rendition, with orchestra in place of an a cappella choir as the accompaniment. The setting is sung here Cantor Benzion Miller—the hazzan, or cantor, of Young Israel Beth-El Synagogue of Boro Park in Brooklyn.

Israel Schorr's Sheyyibbane bet hammikdash

Leonard Nimoy
A prayer for ultimate redemption, symbolized by the hope for the rebuilding of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, in a setting by Israel Schorr…sung by cantor Benzion Miller, with the Oxford Philomusica conducted by Marios Papadopoulos, in a Milken Archive recording issued on the Naxos label. Benzion Miller comes from a long line of cantors, as Neil Levin explains.

Neil Levin
Benzion Miller is one of today's foremost interpreters of traditional Eastern European virtuoso cantorial art. I know that's a mouthful, but if you don't say it all, you don't pin down what we're talking about. Benzion Miller happened to have been born in a DP camp, a displaced persons camp, right after the war. He comes from very, very devoutly Hassidic backgrounds on both his mother's and father's side. His father was a cantor, his grandfather, and they were canters at Hassidic courts. His father's first wife and children were all murdered by the Germans in one of the camps. His mother's whole first family was murdered by the Germans in one of the camps. One of the teachings of his particular Hassidic dynasty, which is the Bobover, one of their greatest teachings is that there is no such thing as a 100 % absence of joy. Everything has some joy. The question is how much or how little? There's more, there's less, but there's never zero. And that's how they were able to, in a way, survive that and have new families. And Benzion became really one of the premier traditional cantors in the world, and certainly one of the most important cantors carrying on the virtuouso tradition of Eastern European Hazzanut.

Leonard Nimoy
Neil Levin, Artistic Director of the Milken Archive.

Leonard Nimoy
Here is another rendition by Benzion Miller, this time in one of the classics of the cantorial repertoire for synagogue services. It’s a piyyut, or liturgical poem, that is recited annually on the first day of Passover, and marks a change from wintertime to spring. This setting was composed by one of the most famous cantors of all time, Yossele Rosenblatt – so famous that his voice appears briefly in the Al Jolson movie “The Jazz Singer.” The prayer is known as Tal, or “dew,” and Cantor Benzion Miller sings it here with the London Synagogue Singers under the direction of Neil Levin.

Yossele Rosenblatt's Tal

Leonard Nimoy
The liturgical poem, Tal, or “dew,” composed by Yossele Rosenblatt and sung by Cantor Benzion Miller, with the London Synagogue Singers conducted by Neil Levin, from a Naxos release. You’re listening to a two-hour program of cantorial selections from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music; I’m Leonard Nimoy.

Leonard Nimoy
Our next cantorial selection is one of the most profound prayers of the High Holy Day season

Neil Levin
The setting of Un'tanne tokef from the High Holy Days from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which is sung by cantor Benzion Miller and an adult male chorus, is often attributed to the very famous virtuouso hazzan, Moshe Koussevitsky. But actually, since it was really improvisatory, this selection is really, in a way, anonymous, and in a way, it's, quote, as sung by Moshe Koussevitsky, which is typical in cantorial tradition. Even the choir is singing in an improvisatory way. They are holding tones according to the way the choirmaster, in this case it was myself, indicates they should, not from written music.

Leonard Nimoy
Dr. Neil Levin.  Here once again is Cantor Benzion Miller in Un’taneh Tokef.

Moshe Koussevitzky's Un'tanne tokef

Leonard Nimoy
From the liturgy of the High Holy Days, the prayer Un’taneh Tokef… sung by Cantor Benzion Miller with the London Synagogue Singers under the direction of Neil Levin. It’s from a Naxos CD recorded by the Milken Archive.

Leonard Nimoy
In addition to his role in synagogue worship services, the cantor is also traditionally a principal officiant at festive life-cycle occasions such as wedding ceremonies. At a Jewish wedding, a group of seven benedictions is chanted before the bride and groom. Next we’ll listen to a composite musical setting of those seven benedictions that incorporates compositions by Meyer Machtenberg and Sholom Kalib, in a new arrangement by Cantor Simon Spiro, who is also the soloist in this recording.

Neil Levin
Simon Spiro is another one of today's most important, virtuouso, cantors. Simon Spiro is English. His father was a Yiddish actor on the East End in London on the English Yiddish Theater. Simon Spiro is also a very talented arranger of cantorial music and synagogue choral music. Vocally, he brings back many of the idioms and cliches of the cantorial art in a most convincing way.

Leonard Nimoy
Neil Levin, Artistic Director of the Milken Archive, introducing Cantor Simon Spiro…who now sings the seven wedding benedictions, with the Coro Hebraeico conducted by Dr. Levin.

Sheva b'rakhot arranged by Simon Spiro

Leonard Nimoy
The seven benedictions of the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. Cantor Simon Spiro sang his own arrangement incorporating settings by Meyer Machtenberg and Sholom Kalib, with the Coro Hebraeico conducted by its music director and founder, Neil Levin, from a Naxos CD.

Leonard Nimoy
Another of the leading cantors of our day, Alberto Mizrahi, is our soloist in the next three selections. Neil Levin tells us about his background.

Neil Levin
Alberto Mizrahi comes from a completely different background. It's quite extraordinary because Alberto is a Sephardi Jew born in Greece. There was a very large segment of Greek Jewry who were taken to German concentration camps, and many of them murdered. His father was one of the fortunate survivors. He came to the United States with his family, was a child, and simply latched on to the Ashkenazi cantorial tradition without forgetting his own Sephardi tradition. Alberto became one of the leading American cantors.

Leonard Nimoy
The first two selections are excerpts from liturgical poems for the eve of Yom Kippur, “Ya’ale” and “Ki Hinei Kachomer,” both set by Joshua Lind. Again, Neil Levin.

Neil Levin
Joshua Lind was one of the most beloved cantorial teachers as well as cantors. Many famous cantors worked with Lind, including Jan Pierce and Richard Tucker. Lind represents a very folksy, down-to-earth, melodic style, as opposed to a more formal, restrained, cantorial style, both of which are important branches of the art of European Ashkenazi, hazzanut. Lind's style, of course, was very popular in Europe, in Eastern Europe, among traveling choirs and smaller towns and cities. But in America, it was even more popular. I shouldn't say was, is very popular. These are selections that one hears today in not only Orthodox but traditional synagogues, and they can be sung by women's and men's voices together. In this case, this piyyut, the liturgical poem, inserted in this case into the Yom Kippur-Eve service, sometimes known as the Kol nidre service, but it's the Yom Kippur-Eve service. This piyyut is sung by a choir of children and men, not women and men. And we hear that purity of sound that's typical of that tradition.

Leonard Nimoy
Here is Cantor Alberto Mizrahi to perform excerpts from Joshua Lind’s settings of “Ya’ale” and “Ki Hinei Kachomer,” followed by a concert version of a prayer from the daily liturgy about the restoration of Jerusalem.

Joshua Lind: Y'ale | Ki hinne kahomer

Leonard Nimoy
Cantor Alberto Mizrahi, with the Seattle Symphony and Gerard Schwarz, in a concert setting of the daily prayer “V’Yirusholayim Ircho,” from a Naxos CD. Before that, Cantor Mizrahi joined Schola Hebraeica and the Finchley Children’s Music Group under Neil Levin’s direction in portions of Joshua Lind’s settings of “Ya’ale” and “Ki Hinei Kachomer.”

Leonard Nimoy
To conclude the first half of this week’s program from the Milken Archive, we’ll hear a lively setting by the renowned cantor Pierre Pinchik of a liturgical poem, or piyyut, from the service for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It describes the splendor of the High Priest as he emerged from the Holy of Holies in the ancient Temple, after performing the ritual that brings atonement to the people Israel. In this Milken Archive recording on the Naxos label, “Marei Kohen” is sung by Cantor Benzion Miller, with the London Synagogue Singers under the direction of Neil Levin.

Pierre Pinchik's Mar'eh kohen

Leonard Nimoy
Cantor Benzion Miller was joined by the London Synagogue Singers under the direction of Neil Levin in Pierre Pinchik’s setting of “Marei Kohen,” from the liturgy for the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

Leonard Nimoy
This week’s two-hour program from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music is devoted to the cantorial art. In the second half of our program, portions of a service for the start of the penitential season of the Jewish year. I’m Leonard Nimoy. This is the W-F-M-T Radio Network.

Leonard Nimoy
Welcome back to this week’s program from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, today featuring examples of the art of the cantor – both as prayer-leader, and as a concert performer of Jewish sacred music. In the second half of our program we’ll be listening parts of a religious service for the penitential season just before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Leonard Nimoy
The founder of the Milken Archive, Lowell Milken, sees a universality in music, as he remarked in a recent interview.

Lowell Milken
I think music really transcends the boundaries of origins of individual cultures. I think that's what's so powerful about music is that it has the ability to speak to each of us in a very personal way. And, one of the most gratifying aspects of the Archive has actually been the interest in the non-Jewish world of what we have recorded. I think that confirms the universal qualities of the music and how it speaks to people of all faiths and cultures. I was particularly touched by the remarks of Sir Neville Marriner, when after recording a number of pieces, indicated to us that he had been totally unaware of the quality of this particular music and that he was now going to incorporate it in the repertoire for a number of his concerts. And the same is true of the Vienna Choir Boys. I think that this music has great applicability. I think that there is a tremendous resurgence within the United States today of almost all kinds of ethnic music. I see this as contributing and telling part of the story of American culture, not just of Jewish culture. Ultimately, perhaps the greatest compliment that we will have for the work that we've done is when the pieces of the Milken Archive are effectively integrated, really, just into the greater story of American music. And we don't even have to speak of American Jewish music.

Leonard Nimoy
Lowell Milken, Chairman of the Milken Family Foundation, and founder of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music.

Leonard Nimoy
The central feature of the morning synagogue service on the Sabbath, holy days, and other occasions, is the chanting of a portion of the Torah, or The Law -- the Five Books of Moses. Afterwards, as the Torah scrolls are returned to the Holy Ark, the congregation recites a series of Biblical verses beginning with the words “Uv’nucho Yomar,” which recall God’s admonition: “The Torah is a Tree of Life to those who hold to it, and its paths are paths of peace.” These verses are repeated in an elaborate interpretation by the cantor and choir.

Leonard Nimoy
This setting by the celebrated cantor Yossele Rosenblatt reflects the influence on cantorial music of Italian opera, which had a considerable vogue among sophisticated circles of Eastern Europe in the 19th century, when this type of cantorial music flourished. In some places this setting resembles a Verdi opera; in others, it incorporates traditional cantorial idioms and styles. Here is Yossele Rosenblatt’s “Uv’nucho Yomar,” in a rendition by Cantor Robert Bloch, with Schola Hebraeica conducted by its music director and founder, Neil Levin. The arrangement is by Raymond Goldstein.

Yossele Rosenblatt's Uvnuḥo yomar

Leonard Nimoy
Cantor Robert Bloch and Schola Hebraeica sang a liturgical setting by Yossele Rosenblatt: “Uv’nucho Yomar” – the Biblical verses that follow the reading of the Torah in synagogue services. This rendition is taken from the Naxos release of cantorial recordings made by the Milken Archive.

Leonard Nimoy
You’re listening to a program of cantorial music, part of a series from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. I’m Leonard Nimoy. To conclude this program, a recording made specially for the Milken Archive that captures the experience of midnight prayers in the synagogue shortly before the Jewish New Year. Milken Archive Artistic Director Neil Levin explains.

Neil Levin
In addition to literally dozens and dozens of individual settings of the liturgy in a cantorial style and cantorial pieces, we have also recorded several complete synagogue services that incorporate cantorial art throughout, but that present to the listener a synagogue service as if one were actually in the synagogue, especially in the traditional ones, where there would be no Rabbinic interruptions, no English readings, no responsive readings. There's just the liturgy started from beginning to end with choir, with cantor alone, with cantor and recitative, with improvisation, with composed pieces flowing from one to the other throughout the service. One of the important ones we did in the traditional vein was the S'liḥot service. S'liḥot means forgiveness. It is the first of the High Holy Day services. It begins the penitential season and the daily recitation of the penitential liturgy culminating in Yom Kippur. So musically, this is a virtual concert in its real sense. What does concert mean? It means together. It does not mean entertainment or show. It might, but it doesn't necessarily. It means togetherness. It means connectedness. As Sam Adler on our board once said, If you have been to a concert and heard the late Beethoven string quartets and you are not spiritually moved and changed by the experience, then you've missed something.

Neil Levin
And in that sense, a concert is a perfectly appropriate word. It is a spiritual, religious experience in the form of music from beginning to end. And many of our most important cantorial pieces occur in that S'liḥot service.

Leonard Nimoy
Here are excerpts from that complete recording of the S’lichot Service. Cantor Benzion Miller is the soloist with the New London Children’s Choir, and the Schola Hebraeica and conducted by its music director, Neil Levin.

A Traditional First S'liḥot Service

Leonard Nimoy
You’ve been listening to another program in a 13-part series devoted to the recordings of the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, currently being issued on CD by the Naxos label. The Milken Archive was created by Lowell Milken, chairman of the Milken Family Foundation. Neil W. Levin is Artistic Director.

Featured Speakers 

Lowell Milken	Neil Levin	Gerard Schwarz

Featured Tracks 

About the Series