Salomon Sulzer ( he, סלומון זולצר, March 30, 1804,
Hohenems
Hohenems (High Alemannic: ''Ems'') is a town in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg in the Dornbirn district. It lies in the middle of the Austrian part of the Rhine valley. With a population of 15,200, it is the fifth largest municipality in Vorarlb ...
,
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...
– January 17, 1890,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
) was an
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
''
hazzan'' (cantor) and composer.
Biography
His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of ''
Levi
Levi (; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron, Moses and ...
'', removed to Hohenems from
Sulz in 1748. He was educated for the cantorate, studying first under the cantors of
Endingen (
Switzerland) and
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
, with whom he traveled extensively, and later under
Salomon Eichberg
Salomon may refer to:
People
* Salomon (given name)
* Salomon (surname)
Companies
* Salomon Brothers, a former investment bank, now a part of Citigroup
* Salomon Group, a company manufacturing sporting equipment (which was a part of Adidas-Salom ...
, cantor at Hohenems and
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
. In 1820 Sulzer was appointed cantor at Hohenems, where he modernized the
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
, and introduced a
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
. At the insistence of
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
Isaac Noah Mannheimer
Isaac Noah Mannheimer (October 17, 1793, Copenhagen – March 17, 1865, Vienna) was a Jewish preacher.
Biography
The son of a '' chazzan'', he began the study of the Talmud at an early age, though not to the neglect of secular studies. On complet ...
of Vienna he was called to the Austrian capital as chief cantor in 1826. There he reorganized the song service of the synagogue, retaining the traditional
chants and melodies, but harmonizing them in accordance with modern views.
Sulzer's ''"Shir Tziyyon"'' (2 vols., Vienna, 1840-1865) established models for the various sections of the musical service—the recitative of the cantor, the choral of the choir, and the responses of the congregation—and it contained music for
Sabbaths, festivals, weddings, and funerals which has been introduced into nearly all the synagogues of the world. In the compilation of this work he was assisted by some of the best musical composers of Vienna.
Sulzer published also a small volume of songs for the Sabbath-school, entitled ''"Duda'im"''; and a number of separate compositions, both secular and sacred. His responses are tuneful, and though more melodious than the choral chant of the Catholic Church, show a strong resemblance to it. In all his compositions strict attention is paid to the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
text; and a scrupulous adherence to syntactic construction is observed throughout. The collection ''"Zwanzig Gesänge für den Israelitischen Gottesdienst"'' (Vienna, 1892) was printed posthumously. In his ''"Denkschrift an die Wiener Cultusgemeinde"'' he sums up his ideas on the profession of cantor. Sulzer, who was widely famed as a singer and as an interpreter of
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
, was a professor at the imperial conservatorium of Vienna, a knight of the
Order of Francis Joseph
The Imperial Austrian Order of Franz Joseph (german: Kaiserlich-Österreichischer Franz-Joseph-Orden) was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on 2 December 1849, on the first anniversary of his accession to the imperial throne.
Classes
...
and a maestro of the
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints pro ...
in Rome. Universally recognized as the regenerator of
synagogal music, he has been called the "father of the modern cantorate". The Jewish Museum in Hohenems in western Austria
www.jm-hohenems.at houses a documentation of Sulzer's career in its permanent exhibition and an extensive genealogy o
www.hohenemsgenealogy.at
Family
Sulzer had several children: Marie (1828–1892) was an operatic soprano, appearing in France, Spain Italy and Vienna;
Julius
The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
(1830–1891) was a composer and conductor in opera houses; Henriette (1832–1907) and Sophie (1840–1885) were also singers; Joseph (1850–1926) was a cellist and composer, a member of the orchestra at the
Hofburgtheater
The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...
in Vienna and of the
Hellmesberger Quartet
The Hellmesberger Quartet was a string quartet formed in Vienna in 1849. It was founded by Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. and was the first permanent named String Quartet.
Composition
Violinist Leopold Jansa had started a string quartet in 1845. Hellm ...
. Musician and administrator
Lionel Salter was a descendent.
'Lionel Salter', in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 141, No. 1871 (Summer 2000), pp. 5-6
/ref>
See also
* Jewish music
Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish people. There exist both traditions of religious music, as sung at the synagogue and domestic prayers, and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may originate ...
* IKG Wien
The Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10 000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all of Austria's Jew ...
References
Jewish Encyclopedia
by Isidore Singer
Isidore Singer (10 November 1859 – 20 February 1939) was an American encyclopedist and editor of ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'' and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man.
Biography
Singer was born in 1859 in Weisskirchen, M ...
, Alois Kaiser
; Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
* Heinrich Graetz
Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective.
Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielko ...
, ''Hist.'' v. 581
* Tänzer, ''Gesch. der Juden in Hohenems,'' 1903
* A. Friedman
Avner Friedman ( he, אבנר פרידמן; born November 19, 1932) is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at Ohio State University. His primary field of research is partial differential equations, with interests in stoch ...
, ''Der Synagogale Gesang,'' Berlin, 1904
* Josef Singer
Josef ("Josi") Singer (יוסף זינגר; August 24, 1923 – November 12, 2009) is a former president and professor of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Biography
Singer was born in Vienna. He and his family immigrated to Haifa, Isra ...
, ''Entwickelung des Synagogengesanges: Gedenkblätter an Salomon Sulzer,'' Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
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, utc_offset = +1
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, 1882
* Alois Kaiser, ''Salomon Sulzer, in Report of Society of American Cantors,'' New York, 1904
** idem, ''Sulzer's Music, in Year-Book of the Central Conference of American Rabbis,'' 1904
External links
*
Schir Zion
' online at ''shulmusic.com''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulzer, Salomon
1804 births
1890 deaths
19th-century Austrian Jews
People from Hohenems
Academic staff of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Viennese hazzans
Jewish classical composers
Austrian male classical composers
19th-century classical composers
19th-century Austrian male singers