Background

He was born on March 30, 1804 in Hohenems, Vorarlberg, Austria to a family of rich manufacturers.

Education

At an early age Sulzer fell into a river and was believed dead. His mother vowed to devote him to a sacred career if he recovered.

He was educated for the cantorate, studying first under the cantors of Endingen (Switzerland) and Karlsruhe, with whom he traveled extensively, and later under Salomon Eichberg, cantor at Hohenems and Düsseldorf. In 1820 Sulzer was appointed cantor at Hohenems, where he modernized the ritual, and introduced a choir. At the instance of Rabbi Isaac Noah Mannheimer of Vienna he was called to the Austrian capital as chief cantor in 1826. There he reorganized the song service of the synagogue, retaining the traditional chants and melodies, but harmonizing them in accordance with modern views.

Career

He was the chief cantor of the new Vienna synagogue from 1825 to 1881. His baritone-tenor voice had admirers not only in Vienna but also among scholars and musicians like Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Franz Liszt. In 1868 Sulzer was appointed knight of the order of Franz Joseph.

His compositions became the models upon which congregations based their services throughout the year. He was a true reformer, who believed that the traditional musical material of the past should be used in a new way in order to be relevant in the modern synagogue. Sulzer worked to improve not only the festival services, but above all the Sabbath services. His Schir Zion, an anthology of music for the synagogue, was published in two separate volumes (1838-1840 and 1865-1866), aiming, according to its author, “to consider, as far as possible, the traditional tunes bequeathed to us, to cleanse the ancient and dignified type of the later accretions of tasteless embellishments, to bring them back to the original purity, and to reconstruct them in accordance with the text and with the rules of harmony.” Although his music and cantorial innovations won only limited acceptance in eastern Europe, they became standard in central Europe.

Works

More photos

• album

  • Sulzer Salomon (1804-1890): Eighteen Liturgical Compositions Including 'L'cho Dodi' 'Kaddisch

    (VARIOUS ARTISTS - Sulzer Salomon (1804-1890): Eighteen Li...)

• book

  • Von Salomon Sulzer bis " Bauer und Schwarz " .

    (Von Salomon Sulzer bis Bauer und Schwarz . [Konfuzius] on...)

  • Salomon Sulzer

References

• Jewish music in its historical development
  1948