The Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Cantorate

Hazzanut developed into an especially elaborate concert style among Ashkenazi communities of Central and Eastern Europe from the nineteenth century onward, a period often described as the golden age of the cantorate, in which star hazzanim drew audiences to synagogues much as opera singers filled concert halls, and some moved between the two worlds, performing liturgical material in the synagogue and secular repertoire on stage. Cantorial recordings from this period, made possible by the spread of commercial recording technology, preserved a body of highly ornamented, improvisatory performance style that continues to shape how hazzanut is taught and evaluated.

Many of the most celebrated hazzanim later emigrated to the United States and other countries as European Jewish communities were displaced and destroyed across the twentieth century, carrying this performance tradition with them and reshaping the sound of American synagogue music in the process. Formal cantorial training today, offered through dedicated schools and seminary programs rather than purely informal apprenticeship, typically combines vocal and musical training with study of nusach, Hebrew and liturgy, reflecting the same balance between fixed tradition and individual artistic voice that defined the role during its most celebrated period, even as the venues, technology and scale of the audience have changed considerably.