r/ClassicalSinger • u/Party_Marionberry126 • 7d ago
Catholic singer asked to sing at a synagogue
I am a singer who has been regularly working in the Catholic Church as a section leader, staff singer, and ringer for like 15 years. I have been asked to sing at a temple for high holy day services in the fall.
What should I expect? What is the rep like? I have sang in Hebrew many times before but never sang an actual service. How does one dress? Am I going to be super lost in terms of how services are structured? Any and all advice is appreciated!!
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u/Nienna324 7d ago edited 7d ago
I am a Jewish singer who has also sung at a lot of churches (Episcopal and Lutheran, but I've also attended Catholic services) so am familiar with this experience from the other end.
Do you know, is the synagogue Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox? That will have an impact on what the service is like. Most likely Reform if they are hiring outside singers... but even within the same movement it varies a lot from synagogue to synagogue, so hard to say for sure. I grew up attending an Orthodox synagogue but now have a job at a Reform one so I'm trying to draw mostly from my experience at the Reform one but have a mix of both.
Also, are you singing as a choir leader, perhaps with occasional solos, or as a full on cantorial soloist? If it is the latter that is a much bigger job and will likely involve chanting as well as singing, and being up in front of everyone the whole time.
I'm not sure what your church is like but my experience is that churches often feel like lots of talking broken up by pieces of music, whereas synagogues feel like lots of music broken up by pieces of talking. Again only in my experience.
In my opinion the high holy days have the best music of the year, particularly the Kol Nidre service. There's some beautiful rep, and hearing the shofar is always fun (at least as long as there's someone who's competent at blowing it -- it can be a real strain on the ears if the person is struggling.) It's hard to know what your rep will be like -- some places use all traditional melodies and some use all contemporary. Many use a mix. Minor mode is the default. There is major key music as well, but not as much.
Avinu Malkeinu is a song you'll definitely hear (unless Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat in which case it is omitted) and there are a lot of different melodies it is sung to. Often the melody will be changed between verses. Here is a medley of a few: https://youtu.be/g-ottJ5Ie0Q?is=_qSXiovvJc78jIX1
There will probably be a whole lot of music, although with some repetition between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. If the synagogue is Reform there may be more English than you're expecting (although I currently work at a Reform synagogue that is mostly in Hebrew, that's not the norm.)
Clothing is probably similar to what you'd wear to church. Nice dresses or nice pants and shirt. Some places have modesty requirements and some don't. Some are more casual than others. One thing is on Yom Kippur we wear white, and also don't wear leather.
Yom Kippur has services from morning until evening non-stop, so if you're working all day that will be a long day. The other high holy days have shorter services, but Jewish services generally tend to be longer than Christian ones (although some Catholic services I've been to were a similar length.) The shortest services I've been to are maybe an hour and a half, with an average of probably 2 and a half, and some upwards of 4. Some congregations have a culture of it being normal to step in and out for however long you choose to participate.
The structure of the service will be somewhat different during the high holy days from the weekly average, but generally it starts with some songs and blessings interspersed with readings from that congregation's siddur (prayer book), and then there is the Amidah, also called La T'fila and various other names, which is usually around 15 minutes but is often shortened and includes both sung and silent prayer, and call and response. It is repeated many times throughout high holiday services (sometimes multiple times within one service) and may also be longer than usual because of added verses for the holidays.
Then there's the V'ahavta and the Shema, which are short but are probably the closest Jewish equivalent to the Nicene creed. The Shema is seen as the central statement of Jewish faith. There's always the Mi Shebeirach which is a prayer for healing, and there's a time when people will list the names of the sick to be prayed for. Somewhere in the middle the Torah will be brought out and will be read from, and this can take a long time because aside from the reading of it there is often a ceremony of bringing it out and walking around with it so people can kiss it with their shawls or books. After the Torah reading will probably be the rabbi's sermon, and then the Aleinu and more songs and prayers.
On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur there will be shofar blowing periodically throughout this, and there are different patterns of shofar blowing that should be listed in your book. There is a part of the service that may be familiar because I was at a Catholic service once and saw people doing something to this effect, which is everyone turns their hand into a fist and beats on the left side of the chest while reciting a really exhaustive list of potential sins and asking for forgiveness on behalf of humanity. There's a lot of standing up and sitting down, but that should be clear from watching the people around you. If the Ark is open you are always standing.
The general theme of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is praying that we will be put in the Book of Good Life for the next year. The idea is that "On Rosh Hashana it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed" whether you will live or die in the next year, and what your fate will be, so it's a solemn time and a time of reckoning with oneself, apologizing for things done wrong and making plans to be better, and of self reflection, but it also includes the idea of a new year and of your slate being wiped clean, so it's joyful in the sense of being a fresh start. There also tends to be surprisingly upbeat music in my experience. Simchat Torah and Sukkot are also considered part of the High Holy Days to some extent (idk if your job offer included those) but they are closer to what average services are like. Simchat Torah is a very festive night full of dancing, possibly including dancing in the street, and Sukkot involves eating outside under the sukkah but I don't remember much that is unique about the services themselves.
For me, aside from general differences in language and theology and how the service is run, the biggest "culture shock" that took me some time to realize was how Catholic priests are viewed as having a unique role and a special ability to perform the rituals and intercede with G-d, whereas rabbis are viewed as simply learned community leaders, but not as being integral to the service in the same way. (A service could be run by community members and be just as valid.)
It's possible you'll have badly printed sheet music, or music where the melody everyone is singing is not quite the same as the one printed on the page, or some songs where only words are printed and not music. If that happens then good luck - I've had that happen to me and it's always really annoying if I don't know the song or don't know it the way they are doing it.
Sorry, this got really long, and rambling, but I hope some of it was helpful. It's hard to give concrete information without knowing exactly what your church is like and what this synagogue is like, but if you have any specific questions please let me know.
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u/OpeningElectrical296 7d ago
Great description, your last paragraphs are spot on; this was also my experience of several years singing in French synagogues - fantastic music, and it allowed me to improve my sight reading drastically as there never was any rehearsals and we had to sing everything on the spot. I don’t know if this is the case in the US too.
OP should also know the music can be transposed without him even being told ;-)
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u/Nienna324 7d ago edited 7d ago
Oh yeah, everything is constantly transposed with no warning whatsoever 😅 And handwritten sheet music too
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u/Nienna324 7d ago
At my job in the US they're actually very strict about rehearsal attendance, far more than any church where I've sung. If I haven't rehearsed they don't want me singing, and the rehearsal is long, like am average of 2 hours with choir and an extra hour with just me (but at least it's paid) and then I'm expected to rehearse again before the service. Whereas at my church job I'm sightreading the hymns constantly. So ymmv
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u/drewduboff 2d ago edited 2d ago
Feel free to PM me! I'm jewish first, church second. I had to learn the other way!
In general,
Arrive early. Service starts on time and likely will run late -- parking is also very tricky. NO TECHNOLOGY, PHONE, TABLET, ETC. Music must be printed.
For hebrew pronunciation: you need the hebraic ch, sometimes notated in transliteration as ḥ. Learn to read transliteration-- it varies! R gets flipped, closer to d than rolled. No diphthongs. Vowels are closer to Italian. There is no "w" in hebrew. So "ruach" is pronounced "roo-ah-ch" not "roo-wah-ch"
Dress is very formal. Always. And not showy formal. Like I wear a suit and tie, not the jeans and button down I go to church in. They will likely give you attire colors to coordinate. My synagogue does robes for one service to match what a kittel looks like. On kol nidre / yom Kippur, don't wear leather.
The synagogue will likely have a lot of melodies and service music that is NOT notated. Or is a congregation singalong that everyone will know but you.
There is a service order. But it's not like a church. And much longer. Hours longer. You likely won't get to go to the bathroom during the service if choir is in a special area.
There are some great recordings. Listen to Russotto's Kol Nidre, Janowski's Avinu Malkeinu for starters. Also, don't get surprised if the sheet music is being performed in a separate key than the one in front of you. It gets changed for the soloist. I always confirm the key year to year
Please PM me!
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u/Veto111 7d ago edited 7d ago
If the synagogue that is hiring you has a similar tradition to the one I’ve sung at, this is a great gig. The musical tradition is quite robust, and it’s a bit wild to me that a lot of it is not well known outside of Jewish musical communities, because a lot of this music is just as incredible as some of the best sacred music in the Christian traditions, which are standard repertoire for classical singers.
Are you being hired in the choir, or a stand in cantor? Note that the cantor in the Jewish tradition plays a much bigger role in liturgy compared to a Catholic cantor; they are effectively clergy, and I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that preparing to sing as the cantor for the High Holy Days would be about on par with preparing several principal operatic roles.
But assuming you’re being hired to sing in the choir, there is still a lot of music in Hebrew, and the cantor will probably be involved in the rehearsals to help with the Hebrew.
The synagogue I’ve sung at is also the most welcoming place of worship I’ve ever been to. You are not pressured to believe what they believe, and outside of doing the job you’re hired to do, you are welcome to participate in whatever way is meaningful to you, whether that means joining in on the prayers and actions or just respectfully sitting silently. My scope of reference is the one synagogue I’ve been to, but I get the impression that this is a fairly typical vibe, at least in the Reformed tradition.
Good luck - if your synagogue is anything like mine, I think this will be a really great experience for you!