The value of this CD is the glimpse it gives into the high art that the Ashkenazi rite had become in Europe and America by the time the phonograph recording had been invented. This is a compilation of 78 rpm recordings of a large number of renowned cantors from the "Golden Age" of the cantorial art. Among these are Leib Galntz, Semuel Malavsky, Joseph Shapiro, Pierre Pinchik, Gershon Sirota, and perhaps the most famous of all, Joseph (Yossele) Rosenblatt. Their was not the art music of the Levites of the Temple, but art music of its own genre for its own purposes.

 

Produced by Henry Sapoznik and Richard Nevins, this recording also includes very extensive liner notes and a good number of historical photographs as well, all illuminating a fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish music. The tracks are almost entirely liturgical prayers rather than chants of passages from Hebrew Scripture. In such prayers the words are often used rather as pegs on which chains of long melodic ornaments would be hung. Such pathogenic ("passion-born") music had its own way of bringing contemporary listeners to "tears of inspiration". (The recording itself "was co-produced with Living Traditions, Inc., a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the study, performance and continuation of traditional, folk and popular culture.")