He was a mixture of a Jewish professor and a
chazzan (cantor).
In Kikl, their father served as the
chazzan, or cantor, and as the shochet, the ritual slaughterer.
a sadness so unbearably compressed that I wonder the
chazzan [cantor] does not explode." As he goes on to hear the music of clarinetist Artie Shaw and other jazz musicians, he hears in it "the soul-shaking power of the
chazzan." Later in life, he speaks to jazz composer and double bassist Charles Mingus about "Jewish blues." (31) Ben Sidran was similarly drawn to jazz because it reminded him of the music he heard in synagogue as a child: "I swayed with them as they davened [prayed] and made soft chanting sounds, rocking back and forth, as if in a trance.
(11) It is also interesting to note that Mendelssohn used the traditional melody for Yigdal composed by Leon Singer ('Leoni'),
chazzan at the Great Synagogue in London, in one of his twelve string symphonies written at the age of twelve or thirteen.
Led by a rabbinic intern, a
chazzan, and a few others, and with no electronic amplificationthe group relied, instead, on the old protest trick of forming concentric circles and having the outer layers repeat what the inner layers have saidthe group davened the Kol Nidrei service.
The cantor, or
chazzan, is a singer who leads the congregation in sung prayer at a synagogue, and for the last two years the Jewish Musical Institute at the University of London has organised a Young Cantor of the Year competition.
Lipkind explains that the
chazzan is chanting a verse from the holiday Musafservice.
Venetoulis, Jason, Dahlia
Chazzan, and Christopher Gaudet.
Chazzanut means cantorial music or synagogue music of the
chazzan, who leads Jewish liturgical prayer.
But the "essence of klezmer music is that it should sound like a
chazzan"--the singing prayer leader of the synagogue.
In one workshop the famous
chazzan, Gershon Sirota, led the prayers.
We would scrimp and save, taking on extra work to make the trips possible, such as my educator husband's two-week gig as an amateur
chazzan at a synagogue over the high holidays, an annual event for which he leaves all of us in Israel while he travels to Toronto to boost his salary.