Musical Note By Cantor Sherwood Goffin
The Regal and Majestic Musaf Kaddish
Almost lost in the sounds of flapping seats of rising congregants and mumbled short discussions of points in the Rabbi’s sermon is the unique Kaddish that is sung before the silent recitation of the Musaf Amidah. This ancient Kaddish is one of a corpus of holy, immutable melodies that were sanctified by the Chief Rabbi of his generation, the Maharil, Rabbi Jacob Mölin of Mayence in the Rhineland (1365-1427), and confirmed as unchangeable minhag by the Shulchan Aruch (o.c. 613). This majestic melody of the Kaddish is often repeated as a theme throughout Musaf, subject to the choice of the individual serving as the Chazzan. It is estimated that this melody is more than 1,000 years old. Those who mistakenly substitute the Kaddish that is sung at the end of the reading of the Torah for the Kaddish of Musaf are making a major error and should be corrected. The mark of a true Baal Tefillah is the one who zealously preserves the prayer tradition as bequeathed to us by our ancestors. No one should ascend the bimah who is not willing to adhere to the musical halacha of Tefillah!
Daven Well and Sing Along!
6 comments:
Is he talking about year round, or just on Rosh Hashana? It wasn't clear from the post.
No, he's talking about the kaddish before Shabbos Musaf. Which has its own tune, which is not the same as the one a lot of people use for after Shabbos leining (which is itself really for Friday night, rather than any time Shabbos morning).
It's one of his repeated themes - the right tune for the right service at the right time.
"The mark of a true Baal Tefillah is the one who zealously preserves the prayer tradition as bequeathed to us by our ancestors. No one should ascend the bimah who is not willing to adhere to the musical halacha of Tefillah!"
Omein.
Yeyasher kochachem !
These snippets are great! Can we get MP3's or something of the tunes under discussion?
Much obliged.
If I get a microphone, yeah.
However, note that the Chaz has started selling a CDROM of his basic Shabbat service, which I think duplicates his Belz-School course.
See here.
Found a simple way to record - use the MP3 player/recorder, then copy the file to the PC.
OK, so the "traditional Shabbat Musaf Kaddish can be found here. That's me doing [a less-fancy version of] Cantor Goffin's Shabbat musaf kaddish. He does the same every week, so I figure it must be the kaddish he meant.
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