Cantorials for the High Holidays: Roshashona and Yom Kippur

Cantorials are musical settings of prayers and other liturgical selections used in Jewish services and sung by the cantor, often with elaborate embellishments and flourishes. Although singing is traditionally unaccompanied during Orthodox services, an organ often provided accompaniment for cantorials when performed outside of services or on recordings, including this one.

Roshashona (often spelled Rosh Hashanah), the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are referred to as the “High Holidays,” (or “High Holy Days”) because they are regarded as the most important two holidays in the Jewish calendar. Abraham Brun (1909–1998) a cantor in Poland who immigrated to the U.S. after WWII, was cantor of Temple Beth–el in Long Beach, New York.

Liner notes provide biographical information about Cantor Brun plus the lyrics of the cantorials in Hebrew and English.