Ashkenazi Cantorial Music

Ashkenazi cantorial music is the composed and improvised liturgical singing of the Eastern European synagogue, performed by the professional cantor (chazzan) with choir or unaccompanied. Built on the prayer modes (nusach) and melismatic coloratura, it balances fixed liturgy with virtuoso improvisation, dramatic recitative and set pieces for the Sabbath and High Holidays. Its golden age ran from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War, when cantors such as *Gershon Sirota*, *Yossele Rosenblatt* and *Zavel Kwartin* were international celebrities whose 78 rpm records carried synagogue art into the home.