Louis Lewandowski was a German composer and conductor of cantorial music (haz- zanul). His melodies form a substantial part of synagogue services around the world.
Background
He was born in Wreschen near Posen to a poor family. As a child he already, showed a bent for religious music. During the High Holy Days, his father was the cantor in the local synagogue and he brought his five sons to help him with the service.
Education
After his mother’s death, Louis Lewandowski went to Berlin where he studed violin and piano. At the age of twelve he joined the Berlin Synagogue as a singer, under the instruction of the local cantor, Ascher Lion.
Lewandowski became the first Jewish student at the Berlin Academy of Arts.
Career
Lewandowski became the music director of the Old Synagogue in the Heidereutergasse in Berlin in 1840. In 1886 he moved to the New Synagogue in the city, in Oranienburgerstrasse. Lewandowski compiled the Jewish service music for use by the Berlin Jewish community.
He tended to reduce the exotic and asymmetrical pattern of the Jewish cantilena to simple song meters that came from German romantic music. These melodies contributed to the popularity of Lewandowski’s service music. He published Kol Rinnoh ulefilloh and To do v'Zimroh.