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The Role of the Jewish Cantor
by Victor Tunkel
(December 2004)

The synagogue cantor (Hebrew: chazan, plural chazanim) is a prayer leader. He is not a priest or cleric but an individual chosen by the congregation to be a messenger for them and lead them in their prayers. The position has evolved and developed over many centuries. Initially, it called for someone familiar with the texts who was fluent in Hebrew. This was long before printing existed and at a time when manuscripts were scarce.

Over the years, other important qualifications soon emerged as being fundamental to the role. The Chazan was expected to be well-versed in the contents and meanings of the prayers and highly proficient in all the various prayer modes and ancient melodies which are associated with the liturgy and which characterise different days and even times of day in the Jewish year. He was expected to have a pleasant voice, clear diction and an ability to create an atmosphere of prayer and to move the congregation to enter into it. Nowadays, he may be called upon to minister in other ways to the community beyond the synagogue services.

Over the many centuries and lands of Jewish dispersion, the style of the chant of the chazan (“chazanut”) has varied greatly and has often been influenced by the surrounding culture. It is not surprising therefore that the voice-production and musical scales of chazanim from Morocco or from Yemen sound to our ears like that of their Arab neighbours. Similarly chazanim from Central Europe have sometimes aspired to be German helden-tenors. Since the prayer texts are more or less the same everywhere, we find a familiar picture richly painted in many alternative colours.