Eastern European chazanut [hazzanut] is a form of art which has developed gradually since the mid-eighteenth century and reached a certain peak in the first half of the twentieth century. Eastern European cantors were brought up in the Orthodox tradition, some of them also in the Chasidic tradition, and their cantorial music stems from these musical legacies. In all of the great urban synagogues the congregations expected the cantor to sing traditional music based on the old Nusach motives (i.e. the traditional chant), yet at the same time they also expected the cantor to extend his music far beyond the traditional patterns. In their improvisations, also termed cantorial recitatives, the cantors sought to artistically elevate the traditional chant by using innovative melodic patterns and modalities, and by applying a great amount of coloratura and vocal virtuosity. Even in smaller towns such music was performed by itinerant cantors and, in a way, the cantorial singing was considered as both sacred prayer and entertainment. In various congregations one could hear connoisseurs arguing the merits of the cantor's performance. From this background the art of cantorial singing developed into an improvisational art which culminated at the beginning of the twentieth century in what is called “The Golden Age of the Cantorial Art.”

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the increased production of commercial recordings brought the chazanut to its peak in terms of popularity and extent of distribution. The recordings released during the first half of the twentieth century were extremely popular among Jews in Europe, America, and elsewhere, and their huge success led to the development of a canon of recitatives that set the tone and standard for the entire cantorial world.2 Due to this canon’s unprecedented success,3 both in terms of popularity and wide distribution and in terms of its influence on the character of the cantorial recitative (see Klein 2011), many cantors following the golden age began to imitate the canonic style, using the earlier records to recreate the music in synagogue services, concerts, and in new recordings of their own. To this day cantors look to their predecessors of the golden age and regard them as models, imitating their style, their timbre, and even their mannerisms. The congregational admiration of the golden age cantors has not stopped, and cantors of our time constantly feel the need to please their audience by using golden age masterpieces in their services and especially in concerts and on CDs.

The first cantorial recordings were made mostly in Europe at the very beginning of the twentieth century by cantors such as Meir Schor and by European immigrants in New York such as Yechiel Alter Karniol. These recordings were limited in scope and dissemination and therefore were not as influential as the recordings of later generations. The next generation, the second, was fortunate to have cantors of the highest caliber such as Yossele Rosenblat, Zawel Kwartin, Gershon Sirota and others. In the 1940s a new generation of cantors developed who followed in the steps of their predecessors such as Shalom Kats, Moyshe Oysher and Moshe Ganchoff. These cantors form the third and last generation of the golden age.

As noted, contemporary cantors still rely heavily on compositions that were recorded in the great golden age. These cover versions seem in many respects to adhere to the original recordings, but they also demonstrate a new approach to the performance of cantorial music. The purpose of this article is to examine the changes in performance practice4 between the era of the original performances (in the second recording generation) and contemporary performances. Firstly, I will demonstrate that there have indeed been significant changes in performance practices. Secondly, I will show how these changes in various performance elements generally reveal one coherent trend towards an increased attention to small performance details. I will also demonstrate how the focus of later generations on the fine details of performance has led to more varied and accentuated performances. In the final section of this essay, I will address the cultural significance of this change in the specific context of the cantorial world as well as in the music industry in general. The approach of contemporary cantors may well be a consequence of global trends in the commercial music industry. However, I would like to argue that it also reflects deeper cultural changes related to the decline of cantorial art in its original, functional synagogue environment, and to its realization in the recording studio. This change in performance, I will argue, is also consistent with the prominence of interpretation and commentary on canonized texts in the Jewish tradition.