Chor- und Orgelsätze aus dem Gesangbuch der Synagogen-Gemeinde Elberfeld

Choral and organ movements from the hymnal of the Elberfeld synagogue community with the participation of Rabbi Dr. Joseph Norden and Cantor Magnus Wetzstein, arranged by Senior Cantor Hermann Zivi (1867-1943)

From the preface:
In April 1898, the cantor, composer and teacher Hermann Zivi, born in Müllheim/Baden in 1867, took up his post as senior cantor in the Jewish community of Elberfeld (part of the city of Wuppertal since 1929). Zivi was a pupil of Samuel Rubin in Karlsruhe, who in turn had studied with one of the leading composers of 19th century synagogue music, Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890). From 1890, Zivi worked as a teacher and cantor in Ober-Ingelheim, but at the same time attended the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main and the Mainz Conservatory. Three years later, he was appointed as a teacher in Düsseldorf and finally, in 1998, as head cantor at the synagogue in Elberfeld. The synagogue had had an organ since it was built in 1865, a sure sign of the liberal orientation of the congregation. For the musician, who was just 31 years old at the time, the instrument and his position opened up an extremely fruitful and creative career.

In collaboration with the local rabbi Dr. Joseph Norden (1870-1943) and the second cantor of the Jewish community in Elberfeld, Magnus L. Wetzstein (1841-1916), Zivi compiled a hymnal in 1910 that fully met the contemporary needs of the community, which saw itself as bourgeois. It contained 40 one-part songs with text and notes as well as 26 four-part songs with text only, and all the pieces were in German.

Thorsten Pech, who worked as a cantor in Wuppertal, has compiled some of the works and brought them into a new version so that they are once again accessible for today's use and serve both performers and listeners with their sound and content for joy and edification.
Stitched edition.