The Syrian Cantor or hazzan

Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

leads the traditional prayer rituals in the synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s of the Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern...

. He conducts the services using ten maqam

Maqam

- Musical structures :* Arabic maqam, melodic modes* Mugam genre of Azeri-speaking cultures* Maqam al-iraqi genre of Iraq* Weekly Maqam prayer services of Sephardic Jewish culture* Makam, melody types of Turkey* Muqam, melody type of Uyghur culture...

at or musical modes. A cantor must be fully cognizant of these maqamat and their applications to the prayers. Each week, depending on the week's Torah portion, there is a different maqam

The Weekly Maqam

In Mizrahi and Sephardic Middle Eastern Jewish prayer services, each Shabbat the congregation conducts services using a different maqam. A maqam , which in Arabic literally means 'place', is a standard melody type and set of related tunes. The melodies used in a given maqam aims effectively to...

 being used.

Maqamat

The maqam system is characteristic of, and can be used to classify, all Arabic music.

The term maqam has various shades of meaning. On the most basic level, a maqam is a musical scale. A few of these consist of steps of a whole tone and half a tone in the same way as the Western diatonic scale

Diatonic scale

In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps...

. Others also admit steps of one and a half tones, like the Western harmonic minor and the steiger

Jewish prayer modes

Jewish liturgical music is characterized by a set of musical modes. There are a number of ways to define a musical mode - many scholars think about a mode as a collection of pitches or a scale, while others define a mode as a collection of musical motives or phrases....

of Ashkenazic cantorial practice. The majority include one or more three-quarter tone steps, this being the distinguishing characteristic of Arabic and other Middle Eastern music.

In addition to the scale used, each maqam has different conventions governing which note of the scale predominates, which note a melody must end on and the characteristic melodic turns of phrase; thus there can be two or more maqamat using the same basic scale. Each maqam has a different flavor or mood, which is meant to provoke certain moods, thoughts, and emotions. Due to that fact and the myriad of possible combinations, there are over one hundred maqamat, each named after its supposed city or region of origin in the Middle East. (This may be compared with the geographical terms such as "Dorian" and "Phrygian" used for the modes in ancient Greek music.) Approximately ten of these maqamat are in widespread use in the Syrian Jewish community.

In yet another meaning, maqam can be used for an improvised instrumental cadenza using a given musical mode (the vocal equivalent is called a mawwal

Mawwal

In Arabic music, the mawwāl is a traditional genre of vocal music that is usually presented before the actual song begins. It is characterized by spelling vowel syllables longer than usual...

, and is used for the petiħot interspersing the baqashot

Baqashot

The Baqashot are a collection of supplications, songs, and prayers that have been sung by the Sephardic Aleppian Jewish community and other congregations for centuries each week on Shabbat morning from midnight until dawn. Usually they are recited during the weeks of winter, when the nights are...

 service).

Maqam of the week

Each week in the Hebrew calendar is associated with a particular maqam, usually governed by the Torah portion for that week. There are also maqamat associated with the Jewish festivals.

Certain maqamat are associated with certain themes. Therefore, the cantor must be aware of the themes in the weekly Torah portion in order to apply the proper maqam on that Shabbat. The choice of maqam for a given Shabbat is determined by the subject matter of the Torah portion and is set forth in an index of the pizmonim book. Numerous lists have been compiled over the last one hundred and fifty years designating the maqam for each parasha. Occasionally the lists conflict with each other (for example, when two portions are read on the same Sabbath), but most of the time the underlying pattern is evident.

Application of the weekly maqam

In a Shabbat or festival service, the maqam is relevant for three purposes:

1. The main body of the prayers is rendered in a recitative, which differs according to the applicable maqam.
2. Certain prayers, such as Kaddish
   Kaddish
   Kaddish is a prayer found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service...
   
   , Nishmat and the Kedushah, are more elaborate, and borrow their tune from hymns ("pizmonim
   Pizmonim
   Pizmonim are traditional Jewish songs and melodies with the intentions of praising God as well as learning certain aspects of traditional religious teachings. They are sung throughout religious rituals and festivities such as prayers, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, weddings and other ceremonies...
   
   ") used in the community. The hymn used is chosen so as to fit the applicable maqam, and there is an elaborate table set out at the back of the community's hymn books, showing which tune should be used for which prayer on which occasion.
3. Additionally pizmonim
   Pizmonim
   Pizmonim are traditional Jewish songs and melodies with the intentions of praising God as well as learning certain aspects of traditional religious teachings. They are sung throughout religious rituals and festivities such as prayers, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, weddings and other ceremonies...
   
    conforming to the “maqam of the week” will be interpolated at points of the ritual. These include both traditional hymns and newer compositions, in which the Hebrew words were written to fit an existing Arabic melody.

Exceptions to the use of the weekly maqam

Regardless of the maqam for the week or festival:

• the cantillation
  Cantillation
  Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...
  
  of the Shabbat Torah portion is always performed in maqam Sigah;
• the Friday night service is recited in maqam Nahawend or Nawa;
• the Saturday night service is recited in maqam Bayat;
• the service on the occasion of a circumcision is recited in maqam Saba.

Weekday services also are not recited according to the maqam of the week.

Notable cantors

The following were or are well-known cantors in the Syrian Jewish communities of Israel and the United States.

• Moshe Ashear
• Hayim Shaul Aboud
• Gabriel Shrem
• Raphael Yair Elnadav
• Yosef Elnadav
• Meir Levy
• Yehiel Nahari
• Edward Farhi
• Yehezkel Zion
• David Shiro
• Yair Hamra
• Jack Salama
• Charles Saka

Pizmonim books

• Aboud, Ḥayim Shaul, Sefer Shire Zimrah, Jerusalem, 1936.
• Aboud, Ḥayim Shaul, Sefer Shire Zimrah Hashalem im Sefer le-Baqashot le-Shabbat, Jerusalem, 1953, repr. 1988.
• Antebi Tabbush, Refael Yiṣḥaq, Shirah Ḥadashah, Aleppo, 1888.
• Ashear, Moshe, Hallel Vezimrah, Jerusalem, 1928.
• Cohen, Refael Ḥayim ("Parsi"), Shir Ushbaḥah, Jerusalem, 1905 and 1921.
• Shrem, Gabriel, Shir Ushbaḥah Hallel Vezimrah, Sephardic Heritage Foundation, New York, 1983.
• Sefer Shirah Ḥadashah Hashalem (second edition), Zimrat Ha'Aretz Institute, New York, 2002.
• Shir Ushbaḥah, Machon Haketab, Jerusalem, 2005.
• Sefer Pizmonim Hameforash - Od Yosef Ḥai, 2006/7.

Secondary literature

• Kligman, Mark, Maqam and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, Detroit 2009