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Sulzerism, Sulzermania, and the Shaping of the American Cantorate

“The name of Salomon Sulzer has, to modern cantors, an almost mythical sound.”1 When musicologist Eric Werner wrote these words for the 1954 reissue of Viennese cantor-composer Salomon Sulzer’s Schir Zion,2 the name, much more than the music, was a source of reverence for American cantors. New York’s Hebrew Union College (HUC) School of Sacred Music, which Werner helped spearhead into existence, was just six years old.3 It was the first American academy to train professional cantors, and the idea of cantors leading Reform services—as opposed to a choir director or soloist—was still new in many parts of the country. Werner saw Sulzer (1804–1890) as the cantorial ideal, equally adept at vocal performance, Hebraic texts, and Western art music. For the first time in the history of European synagogue song, Sulzer transformed entire services from a functional oral tradition to a decorum-conscious art form.4 His voice was celebrated beyond the Jewish community. His dignified persona was widely praised. Yet, as Werner asks parenthetically in the same preface, “Is his mythical stature perhaps a mere reverential oblivion? It might seem so.”5 The reprinting of Sulzer’s music in 1954 coincided with the cantor’s 150th birthday. It was a hopeful tribute. The material had for decades been inaccessible to American synagogues. Existing editions were enormously expensive, and Jews of Eastern European background stereotyped Sulzer’s music as “not Jewish enough,” while Classical Reform congrega-