GLANZ, LEIB

GLANZ, LEIB (1898–1964), cantor and composer. He was born in Kiev, where his father was cantor at the synagogue of the Talna Ḥasidim. He led congregational prayers at the age of eight. After holding cantorial posts at Kishinev and in Romania, he immigrated to the United States in 1926 to become cantor of the Ohev Shalom Synagogue in Brooklyn, n.y. Glanz had a lyric tenor voice which had great appeal both in its technical range and warmth of expression. He rebelled against the "sobbing" style favored in his time by many cantors and disapproved of the excessive use of the minor scale. The music he arranged for the synagogue had grace as well as devotional fervor. While holding his post at Brooklyn, he toured extensively and then accepted a post as cantor of Heikhal Sinai Synagogue and the Sha'arei Tefillah Synagogue in Los Angeles. In 1954 he settled in Israel and was chief cantor of the Tiferet Ẓevi Synagogue in Tel Aviv until his death. Glanz regarded the pentatonic scale as the ancient basis of Jewish music. He did research on liturgical melodies, and arranged choral music in the ḥasidic style. He aimed at creating a new tradition of ḥazzanut, and for this purpose founded the Tel Aviv Institute of Religious Jewish Music, to which the Cantorial Academy he headed became affiliated. He left more than 100 compositions in manuscript form and many recordings of his own performances.

bibliography:

E. Steinmann (ed.), Zoharim (1965); E. Zaludkowski, Kulturtreger fun der Yidisher Liturgie (1930), 263; Sendrey, Music, index.

[Joshua Leib Ne'eman]