Sulzer, Salomon

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Sulzer, Salomon

Sulzer, Salomon, important Austrian composer, father of Julius Salomon Sulzer; b. Hohenems, Vorarlberg, March 30, 1804, d. Vienna, Jan. 17, 1890. He was only 16 when he was appointed cantor at the chief synagogue in his hometown. He studied music with Seyfried in Vienna, and from 1825 to 1881 he was cantor of the new Vienna synagogue. He undertook a bold reform of liturgical music by the introduction of musical form and actual compositions from the Classical period, setting Schubert’ s songs as a model. By so doing, he succeeded in bringing traditional Jewish cantillation together with Western modes. He brought out an anthology, Salir Zion (The Heart of Zion, 2 vols., 1838-40, 1865-66), and Denkschrift an die hochgeehrte Wiener israelitische Cultus-Gemeinde zum fü nfzigjä hrigen Jubilä um des alten Bethauses (Vienna, 1876).

Bibliography

M. Steiner, S. S.(Vienna, 1904), P. Minkowski, Der S.ismus (Vienna, 1905), H. Avenary, Kantor S. S. und seine Zeit: Eine Dokumentation (Sigmaringen, 1985).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire