Park Avenue Synagogue celebrates an expansive tapestry of Jewish music, and one thread running through it is the sophisticated Ashkenazi cantorial style. While the original idiom relies on the power of a single, unaccompanied voice for expression, this new arrangement deploys choral sound creatively, sometimes sustaining chords with vocal “oohs” or “aahs” in harmony with the cantor, at other times repeating elements of the text.
See if you can identify which concepts the great cantor and composer Yossele Rosenblatt (1882–1933) thinks are most important by how the text is sung in the cantorial style, and which ideas the present-day arranger Raymond Goldstein emphasizes with the choir. Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom as you enjoy the treasury of Jewish music at PAS.
Music: Yossele Rosenblatt, arranged Raymond Goldstein
AV: Oscar Acevedo, Erik van Batavia, Justin Goodman
Video Editor: Joshua Crespo