Louis Lewandowski

Dianne Halliday organ recital – with music by Jewish musician Louis Lewandowski

Friday 5 September at 12:45pm in Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, corner of Hill and Molesworth Streets, Thorndon, Wellington

Organist Dianne Halliday will present a recital including two compositions from Synagogen-Melodien für Harmonium (Orgel oder Klavier) Opus 47 by Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894) for the Jewish High Holy Days.

The compositions are quite short and designed for home use rather than for a formal service. They are
suitable for the harmonium, reed organ or small pipe organ without pedals.

The recital will also include music by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Jean-Adam Guilain (1680- after1739), John Keeble (1711-1786) and contemporary Ukrainian composer Svitlana Ostrova (born 1961).

Free entry but donations are sought to help defray expenses.

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Notes about composer Louis Lewandowski

Born in Wreschen in the Prussian province of Posen (now Wzere śen in Poland) 3 April 1821; died in Berlin 3 February 1894. 

Louis Lewandowski was a renowned composer of Jewish sacred music in 19th century Berlin. He reformed the synagogue music heard and performed by Berlin’s Jews. 

Lewandowski came from a poverty-stricken family. Just thirteen when his mother died the family moved to Berlin where he sang in a synagogue choir directed by Cantor Ascher Lion (1776-1863). His talent was recognised, and he was able to attend high school in Berlin and to take music lessons with  community financial support. 

With Lion’s assistance Lewandowski secured the patronage of Alexander Mendelssohn, cousin of composer Felix Mendelssohn and pianist Fanny Mendelssohn, and a grandson of the influential Jewishphilosopher Moses Mendelssohn.  

Through Alexander’s influence and financial assistance Louis was accepted as probably the first Jewish student at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste. He showed great promise as a composer of secular music, writing lieder, string quartets and symphonies. He demonstrated little interest in synagogue music.

Lewandowski’s studies were interrupted for four years by a serious nervous condition, the details of which are not known. 

In 1838 he heard the celebrated Chazzan Hirsch Weintraub, So impressed was Lewandowski that he determined to devote his attention to Synagogue music. He also heard the music of the Viennese composer Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890) who was writing music for multipart synagogue choirs that resembled those of congregational Christian church groups of the day.

After 1840 (perhaps in 1844) Lewandowski became one of the first synagogue choir masters when he was appointed to organise and lead a choir at Berlin’s Old Synagogue. He composed four-part harmony prayer settings as well as writing down cantorial recitatives in a manner simple enough for people who did not have professional training. During this period he studied for six months with Salomon Sulzer in Vienna.

In 1864 Lewandowski was appointed music director and choirmaster at the New Synagogue on

Oranienburger Strasse. This was a new synagogue which after much debate, had installed an organ to accompany the choir and support congregation singing.

Before his appointment Lewandowski had advised the synagogue authorities about the installation of the organ “to control and to lead large masses in larger spaces.” The synagogue’s new organ was inaugurated with a festival attended by the Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck. The highlight, Lewandowski’s setting of Psalm 150 for four-part mixed choir, organ, trombones and percussion was enthusiastically received.

While holding both synagogue positions Lewandowski continued to compose choral works for liturgical use and pieces for the pipe organ, piano and Harmonium. He also had teaching roles at the Jewish Free School and Jewish Teachers Seminary in Berlin.

In 1866 (the year of the Austro-Prussian War) the Prussian Government granted Lewandowski the title of Royal Musical Director of Berlin. This is perhaps an indication of his integration into wider German society, assisted no doubt by the publication of his Opus 17 Deutsches Landwehlied  (Song of the German infantry). 

Lewandowski exerted a very strong influence on Western Ashkenazi synagogue music through his teaching roles at the Jewish Free School and Jewish Teachers Seminary in Berlin.

Some of Louis Lewandowski’s compositions are still heard today in those few Progressive temples in the United Kingdom and the United States with formed competent and often professional choirs and large organs.