Cantorial music

06 Akavyo Ben Mahallalel.m4a

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt Sings His Original Compositions
The Greater Recording Co. LP GRC 36, 1964, Brooklyn, NY

I don't think people care too much about collecting records down in Florida, I don't seem to have too much competition. My collection of LPs really took off since I got here.  Take cantorial records for example; I had never even seen one up north but down here I find four, by three different cantors, in a two week period, in three different thrift stores. I had always thought of cantorial music as esoteric, that you could only hear in the temples, not on vinyl records produced for a mass audience. But I learn that there was a golden age of cantorial music, that the music was played in concert halls for general audiences, and that cantor Jossele Rosenblatt was considered one of the best tenors of his time throughout the world. The title of one of the Rosenblatt LPs I bought says all: Cantor Jossele Rosenblatt Sings His Most Famous Cantorial Compositions, Volume 8. The record is from 1969, Rosenblatt died in 1933, so his fame lasted well beyond his own time.
I wrote the above paragraph a couple of weeks ago for the blog http://berrystop100.blogspot.com/ Read more about my sudden infatuation with cantorial music by clicking on that link. The title to a second Goldblatt record I got the same day is Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt Sings His Original Compositions. The song Akavyo Ben Mahallalel that I included here (above) comes from that collection of songs that was released by The Greater Recording Company in 1964. For those of you who like a good falsetto voice I recommend to download the song (just click on the link on top.)
Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt was known for the seemless transitions between his tenor and falsetto voice. The famous tenor Enrico Caruso, a contemporary of Rosenblatt, who I love and of whom I have many records in collection (most from thrift stores, mind) was an admirer of his voice. And so am I.