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Betzalel Shulsinger

Betzalel Shulsinger (c. 1790 – c. 1861), also known as Betzalel Odesser or Tzalel Odesser was an Eastern European cḥazzan and composer closely associated with Odessa, where he shaped a distinctive local cantorial school. Although he did not notate music himself, his recitatives and motifs circulated widely through pupils and later cantors, and he is frequently described in cantorial literature as an influential authority on nusach. He is sometimes referred to as the grandfather of chazzanut due to his influential role in its development and his mentorship of the next generation of leading chazzanim.

Early career​

Little is known of Shulsinger’s early life. One source details he was born in Uman in 1790, though other sources give 1770 and 1779. A tradition portrays him as originally working as a shochet who also served as baal tefilla, a common dual role in small communities. According to a widely repeated anecdote, a rabbinic authority—identified as Rabbi Moshe of Savran—advised him to abandon shechita and devote himself entirely to cantorial work, predicting he would become a nationally known cantor.

By 1826, Shulsinger is described as an already renowned cantor holding a major post at the Great Synagogue of Odessa (also referred to as the Shtot Shul, or the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol).

Style and musical approach​

Shulsinger worked in a period before a fully systematized cantorial art existed. Later writers describe him as helping to shape the improvised recitative tradition (shteyger zogn) into a more coherent and transmissible form. His style is often contrasted with that of his contemporary Salomon Kashtan: Kashtan's is described as more austere and dignified, while Shulsinger’s is characterized as lyrical, sweet, persuasive, and marked by simplicity and grace, yet firmly grounded in traditional nusach, especially the Ahava Rabba mode.

Accounts differ regarding his vocal type. Some describe him as having a powerful baritone voice, while another source characterizes him as possessing an extraordinary high-pitched voice. Across sources, he is consistently portrayed as a singer of unusual vocal impact and expressive authority.

He received no formal musical education and could not write music notation. Nevertheless, he is repeatedly described as having an exceptionally keen ear and strong instinct for form, balance, and textual clarity. He is commonly said to have avoided excessive vocal display and coloratura in favor of direct melodic lines closely tied to the meaning of the prayer.

Compositions​

Shulsinger composed numerous recitatives, especially for the High Holy Days, and introduced musical settings for certain texts not previously treated in a fixed cantorial manner in his milieu. Because he did not notate his music, his works were preserved by pupils and choir members who transcribed them and often based their own compositions on his. As a result, many pieces circulated without his name. The most famous works of his that we know of are:

  • Ata Noten Yad, which he performed for his disciples and friends prior to leaving for Jerusalem
  • Umishechorav Beit Mikdasheinu
  • Ata Hivdalta, a widely admired piece which survives only in fragments

Teaching and pupils​

Shulsinger is remembered not only as a composer and performer but as a formative teacher of chazzanim. Many leading figures of mid-19th-century chazzanut are described as his pupils or indirect disciples, including:

Sources describe how Shulsinger recruited talented boys during his travels, trained them in his choir in Odessa, and instilled in them his approach to nusach, phrasing, and expressive restraint. Through these pupils, his style spread widely across Ukraine, Galicia, Bessarabia, Romania, and beyond.

Later cantors such as Pinchas Minkowsky identified themselves as working within Shulsinger’s tradition. Minkowsky stated that Shulsinger was the last chazzan of past centuries who had deep knowledge of the various nuschaot. Leib Glantz wrote that Shulsinger was in his time the only great authority of the true nusach hat'fila.

Later life and death​

Several traditions state that Shulsinger retired late in life and traveled to the land of Israel, hoping to spend his final years in Jerusalem. Sadly he took ill shortly after arriving and passed away soon thereafter. His date of death is reported inconsistently: 1860, 1861 or 1873. Another account suggests that he never made it to Israel and died in Odessa in 1860.

Legacy​

Later cantorial literature portrays Shulsinger as a pivotal figure in the transition from loosely improvised folk practice to a more structured art of chazzanut, and he is frequently credited with laying foundations for later stylistic schools and for the disciplined use of nusach.

Through his pupils and their pupils, his musical ideas became embedded in the mainstream cantorial tradition of the 19th century. Even where individual compositions were no longer attributed to him by name, writers repeatedly note that his melodic thinking and approach to prayer continued to shape synagogue music long after his death.