{"id":2589,"date":"2020-11-27T10:40:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T09:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2020-11-27T11:12:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T10:12:02","slug":"mbs-with-cantor-israel-shorr-the-brilliant-composer-who-left-too-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/musicbeforeshabbat\/mbs-with-cantor-israel-shorr-the-brilliant-composer-who-left-too-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"MBS with cantor Israel Shorr, the brilliant composer who left too soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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27th November 2020 \u2013 Shabbat is almost here<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And we’ll listen to a cantor that is also the author of some of the most celebrated pieces of cantorial repertoire: Israel Schorr, born in 1886 at the Polish Galicia.<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Hello, how are you? I hope well. Today it is the black Friday, isn’t it? Well!!! I have a super offer for you: your subscription to Music Before Shabbat, now, half price! ? Guaranteed.<\/p>\n

I am having a super demanding week and I must say I am exhausted but when I\u00a0start to delve in the thrilling Jewish music and history my strengths are renovated.<\/p>\n

This week many people have seen the “secret” Hassidic wedding with 7 thousand guests in New York. If you haven’t seen it yet, check\u00a0this<\/a>. I hope the time to celebrate with massive amounts of people together will come back soon…\u00a0 In the meantime, I was thinking what are the usual insights of the population about the Hassidic Jews. Our protagonist of today, Israel Shorr, was from a Hassidic family so I will dedicate a part of this MBS to the Hassidism.<\/p>\n

? And remember, there are previous editions of MBS about\u00a0wonderful hazzanim from the Golden Age<\/strong>:\u00a0Pierre Pinchik<\/a>,\u00a0Yossele Rosenblatt<\/a>,\u00a0Gershon Sirota<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Moishe Oysher<\/a>.<\/h6>\n
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– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom –\u00a0?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Please, if you like this, share it with your friends.<\/span>\u00a0Thank you in advance.<\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n
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\"Share<\/a><\/td>\nShare this with a friend, right from here<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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The cantor and composer that left too early<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span>The life of Israel Schorr, as of many great cantors, is reasonably well documented. But Schorr is not as famous as others, because he died quite young\u00a0at the very early age of 49 on April 9th 1935. This way, he was not a witness of the horror that would trap his mother land.<\/p>\n

He was born in 1886 in\u00a0Khyriv<\/a>, or Chyrov, that was at that time in the Polish Galicia that was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire\u00a0and that now is Ukraine. But other sources say that he was born in\u00a0Ryman\u00f3w<\/a>, two hours to the West from Khyriv, that is currently Poland.<\/p>\n

He started singing as a boy soprano and became the official cantor in L’vov in 1904. He succeed his distant relative, the Hazzan Boruch Schorr, who was very appreciated because of his improvisations and his innovative compositions. There is some nice information about Boruch in this book,\u00a0Discovering Jewish Music<\/em><\/a>, by Marsha Bryan Edelman.<\/p>\n

He served also in Brno, Krak\u00f3w, Piestany and Zurich before emigrating to the USA in 1924, thanks to a visa for artist that he got with the help of Solomon Bloom. This man deserves attention too, his life is absolutely fascinating. You can start with\u00a0this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There at the USA, Schorr\u00a0served in synagogues in Chicago and New York.\u00a0Shorr was a composer as well as a cantor himself and one of the most famous pieces for hazzanut art,\u00a0Sheyibone Beit Hamikdash, has done by him. You can find many renditions of this piece in Youtube. But my favourite is the one by the aforementioned Moishe Oysher, of whom I talked\u00a0in this previous edition<\/a>. Israel Shorr died at his 49 years old, because of a heart condition.<\/p>\n

Sources for Schorr’s bio (check them to learn more):<\/p>\n

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  • https:\/\/www.milkenarchive.org\/artists\/view\/israel-schorr\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • https:\/\/www.radiosefarad.com\/israel-schorr-la-voz-de-la-devocion\/<\/a>\u00a0(Spanish)<\/span><\/li>\n
  • http:\/\/www.chazzanut.com\/articles\/schorr.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Poland at the Google Maps Street View is always sunny. This is\u00a0Ryman\u00f3w<\/a>\u00a0nowadays (Khyriv is not streetviewed yet):<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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    Hassidism in (very) brief\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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    Do you remember the edition about John Zorn and the piece Sippur? Find it\u00a0here<\/a>. In that edition I already talked about\u00a0the founder of Hassidism, Baal Shem Tov, who made many sippurim, many tales, to teach in an easy and appealing way the ethics and practices of this new line of Judaism. It you are not familiar with it, this video is very nice. Maybe I am a little childish?\u00a0? The fact is that it is very nice!<\/p>\n

    The happy way of approaching the religious celebration that you can see in this wedding in New York is explained in the way Hassidism understands life and the relationship with the divinity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n