Hast, Marcus

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HAST, MARCUS

HAST, MARCUS (Mordechai ; 1840–1911), ḥazzan and composer. Born in Praga, near Warsaw, Hast served as ḥazzan in Warsaw, Torun, and Breslau, and from 1871 in the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place in London. He published the traditional repertoire of the London synagogue, together with some of his own compositions, in Oẓar ha-Rinnah ve-ha-Tefillah (1874, with Michael *Bergson), Seder ha-Avodah (1879), and Avodat ha-Kodesh (1910). He also composed some cantatas and oratorios on Jewish subjects (Bostanai, Azariah, The Death of Moses, The Destruction of Jerusalem), conducted the Amateur Choral Society, and founded the Association of Cantors of Great Britain. Some of his synagogal compositions were included in the collections edited by his son-in-law Francis Lyon *Cohen.