The Music of the High Holiday Prayers

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For those attending Ashkenazi services in the High Holidays, the melodies, modes and motifs of the prayers generate the atmosphere and feeling of the Days of Awe, no less than the words of the prayers themselves.

Our three-part series explores the melodies and nusach formulas used on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to understand the mechanisms that enable such a powerful synagogue experience.