Yehoshua Leib Neeman: The Cantor versus the Teacher

Cantors who studied Neeman’s recitatives from his “Nosach LaChazan” books acquired a simple, straight-forward style of the Ashkenazi Lithuanian prayer tradition. This was based on the traditional usage of the prayer modes, the proper pronunciation of the Hebrew and contained only few embellishments. One could learn even more about this style from the audiocassette in which Neeman recorded his own performance of the Shabbat volume.

Yet those who were fortunate to hear Neeman as cantor could testify that his own cantorial style was radically different from what he attempted to present in his volumes. Neeman was endowed with a light lyrical tenor voice and a high capacity for coloratura, which he used profusely in his practice as cantor. Fortunately, Neeman’s collection at the National Library of Israel contains manuscripts with a great number of recitatives for Shabbat and the High Holy Days, which he composed either for his own usage or for other advanced cantors. Most of these are in his florid style. This paper will attempt to present his two styles and to show how his writing evolved from the highly embellished style of the “Golden Age” of the eastern European Hazzanut to the simple pedagogic style of his cantorial compendium.