Brooklyn Reports: Noah Schall - First Installment
In the early 20th century, Noah Schall (1885–1941) emerged as a significant figure in Jewish liturgical music. A composer, cantor, and musicologist, Schall played a crucial role in modernising and preserving traditional synagogue music.
Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1929, Schall's musical journey began early, with his first lessons taken from Elias, the son of Seidel Rovner. Over the years, Schall developed a close working relationship with Moshe Genchoff, one of the last "star" Eastern European-born cantors working in the United States.
Schall's unique talents as a creative artist in the genre, coupled with his personal association with "golden age" cantors, made his approach to teaching nusakh (cantorial styles) especially attractive to singers who favoured the sound of classic cantorial records. He served as an instructor in the cantorial training programs of the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox seminaries.
Schall's collection of century-old cantorial manuscripts, a veritable treasure trove of bulky ephemera, often found itself taking up space in cramped living spaces. These manuscripts, jealously guarded tools of the trade in Schall's early career, were not always treated with the discretion promised by his customers.
Schall's work significantly influenced the blending of Eastern European Jewish chant traditions with Western musical influences, shaping synagogue music in America and beyond. He highlighted the importance of the subtonic in Jewish music and appropriated the Western theoretical construct of relative keys to name the relationship of different modal areas in Ashkenazi liturgical music.
One of Schall's notable contributions was the development of the koralishe nusakh, a style that uses a major third instead of the familiar minor modality to create a "grand" effect. The koralishe nusakh is associated with the "choral" synagogues of Eastern Europe and is less frequently heard today.
In the early years of his career, Schall helped fledgling cantors make sense of musical scores, translating written notes into musical practices consistent with conventions of cantorial vocal performance. His efforts contributed to the modernisation of Jewish liturgical music.
However, the value of Schall's collection remains ambiguous due to the absence of a legitimizing structure of authority and a paucity of use value due to reduced interest in cantorial art music. Despite this, Schall's work continues to resonate in the world of Jewish liturgical music, leaving an indelible mark on the genre.
As of now, Noah Schall, elder cantorial pedagogue, resides in the Five Towns area of Long Island, continuing to share his wealth of knowledge and passion for Jewish liturgical music. Despite the scarcity of information about Schall in online searches, his significance in the history of Jewish liturgical music is undeniable. For a more comprehensive understanding of Schall's contributions, specialized academic or musicological sources on Jewish liturgical music history should be consulted.
- Noah Schall's unique approach to teaching nusakh (cantorial styles) was particularly appealing to singers who appreciated the sound of classic cantorial records, especially those who favored blending Eastern European Jewish chant traditions with Western musical influences.
- Schall significantly contributed to the world of Jewish liturgical music by developing the koralishe nusakh, a style that uses a major third instead of the familiar minor modality to create a "grand" effect, which is associated with the "choral" synagogues of Eastern Europe and is less frequently heard today.
