The sounds and tones of music weave through Jewish life as a thread through a tapestry.  This tapestry is rich and vibrant, much like Joseph’s coat of many colors.  But instead of colors, we have tones and harmonies which can lift us up and raise our spiritual identity, helping to fill us with sweet sounds.  We only have to listen, and let ourselves be carried away by these sweet sounds.

Jewish Music has been around for over 3,000 years.  The most common and best known version of music is sung in the Synagogue by the Hazzan (Cantor).  This is the music of Prayer, the chant of the Torah and the Megilloth.  Jewish music of the Synagogue spans the evolution of Cantorial, Synagogal, and Temple melodies since Biblical times.

The earliest Synagogue music of which we have any account was based on the system used in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Mishnah gives several accounts of Temple music. According to the Mishnah, the regular Temple orchestra consisted of twelve instruments, and a choir of twelve male singers. The instruments included the kinnor (lyre), nevel (harp), shofar (ram’s horn), hozeirot (trumpet) and three varieties of pipe, the chalil, alamoth and the uggav.  The Temple orchestra also included a cymbal (tziltzal) made of copper. The Talmud also mentions use in the Temple of a pipe organ (magrepha). No provable examples of the music played at the Temple have survived.  Though there are vivid descriptions of the instruments utilized and the use of music.

After the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and the subsequent dispersion of the Jews to Babylon and Persia, versions of the public singing of the Temple were continued in the new institution of the Synagogue. Three musical forms were identified by scholars of the period, involving different modes of antiphonal response between Hazzan congregation: the Hazzan singing a half-verse at a time, with the congregation making a constant refrain; the Hazzan singing a half-verse, with the congregation repeating exactly what he had sung; and the Hazzan and congregation singing alternate verses. All of these forms can be discerned in parts of the modern synagogue service.

The Prayers are musically broken up into different Modes, these are referred to as Nusach.  There are many different melodic forms of Nusach.  Nusach (Hebrew: נוסח‎ nosaħ, modern pronunciation nósakh or núsakh), plural nuschaot or nusachim, is a concept in Judaism that has two distinct meanings. One is the style of a prayer service (Nosach Teiman, Nusach Ashkenaz, Nusach Sefard or Nusach Ari); another is the melody of the service depending on when the service is being conducted.

These modes serve as a musical means to identify specific prayer services: Chol (Weekday) Shachrit; Minha; Ma’ariv.  Shabbat Services have different nuschaot – P’zukei D’zimrah; Shachirt; Torah Service; Musaf.  Also Minha for Shabbat has its own specific nusach.

There are three main modes. The three main modes are called Ahavah Rabbah, Magein Avot and Adoshem  Malach. Traditionally, the Hazzan improvises sung prayers within the designated mode, while following a general structure of how each prayer should sound. Over time many of these chants have been written down and standardized, yet the practice of improvisation still exists to this day.

The Ahavah Rabbah mode (also referred to as freygish) – is named after the blessing that immediately precedes the Sh’ma in the morning service.  Musically, Ahavah Rabbah is considered to be the most Jewish sounding of all the prayer modes, because of the interval of an augmented second, contained between its second and third scale degrees.

The Magein Avot (Shield of our Fathers) mode takes its name from a paragraph in the prayer of the same, which follows the Amidah in the Friday evening service. Musically, it most closely resembles a minor scale from the Western classical music. It is used in simple davening, or prayer chant, often by means of a single recitation tone, which the Hazzan utilizes to cover a large amount of liturgical text in a quickly-flowing style.

The Adoshem Malach (G-d Reigns) mode consists of a major scale with a lowered (minor) seventh and tenth. This mode has a majestic feel to it and is used for a number of services that require a grand atmosphere.

In modern times there has been an emergence of modern melodies composed by Contemporary Hazzanim and Jewish song writers that have made their way into the Synagogue service.  Writers like Debbie Friedman; Craig Taubman; Rick Recht; Hazzan Sol Zim; Hazzan Meir Finkelstein; Hazzan Avi Albrecht; and many others.  Most of the new melodies stay true to the Nusach melodic forms, while others go in a different musical direction.  This does not make those melodies wrong.  Instead these newer melodic forms (i.e.: Debbie Friedman’s MiSheberach) add a contemporary sound and style to Modern Synagogue Music.