Yom Kippur Liturgy: Kol Nidrei, Ashkenazi Style
Daniel Mutlu
Central Synagogue
2019
Today, the words of this ancient liturgical declaration are obscure because it is written mostly in Aramaic, rather than the Hebrew of most Jewish prayers. Despite the difficult language and controversial intent to annul vows, Kol Nidrei is central to the Ashkenazic High Holiday experience. This video demonstrates the pomp and circumstance surrounding this prayer among Ashkenazic Jews. Cantor Dan Mutlu leads, backed by choir, organ, cello, and violin. Notice the VIPs holding Torahs behind the cantor. Compare Mutlu’s rendition to this church performance by Andrew Bearden Brown.
Comparing Cantor Mutlu’s rendition to Brown’s church performance, what similarities and differences do you notice in vocal style and instrumentation?
Creator Bio
Daniel Mutlu
Daniel Mutlu is senior cantor of Central Synagogue in New York City. The son of Turkish Jewish parents, Mutlu was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he attended the Yeshiva Academy Achei Tmimim. He received a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2003 and a master’s degree in sacred music from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of religion in New York City, where he was ordained as a cantor in 2008. Mutlu served as the cantor of Community Synagogue of Rye, New York, and Congregation Beth Israel of Houston, Texas, before joining the clergy of Central Synagogue in 2017. He teaches in the cantorial ordination program at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music and has performed with many musical ensembles.
Creator Bio
Central Synagogue
Central Synagogue is located on East 55th Street in Manhattan, in a building designed in a nineteenth-century “Moorish Revival” style by Jewish architect Henry Fernbach and completed in 1872. Architectural elements also invoke the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest. The congregation was originally made up primarily of Jews from Germany and Central Europe. In 1898, two congregations, originally based on the Lower East Side, merged: Ahavath Chesed (est. 1846) and Shaar Hashomayim (est. 1839). The congregation took the name Central Synagogue in 1918. The first rabbi of Shaar Hashomayim was the Reform thinker Max Lilienthal. A fire damaged the building in 1886, as did another in 1998, but in both cases the building was restored.