Track 1.  Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi chants the opening of Kol Nidre. Excerpted from The Birthday of the World: Music and Traditions of the High Holy Days: Part II: Yom Kippur. Recorded by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, with guest artists including Matthew Lazar, conductor, and Hazzan Mizrahi.  Available at www.westernwind.org

Track 2.  The opening section of the Spanish-Portuguese version of Kol Nidre, chanted by the late Hazzan Abraham Lopes Cardozo on a private recording.

Track 3.  An excerpt from Louis Lewandowski’s setting of Kol Nidre.  Despite adopting the “modern” style of his 19th century German colleagues in most of his original compositions, Lewandowski maintained the MiSinai melody, including its extended melismatic passages, even when providing an organ accompaniment for his setting.  This excerpt is from Great Synagogue Composers, Vol. X: Louis (Eliezer) Lewandowski, produced by Musique International of Chicago, IL in 1979. The soloist is Lewandowski’s great-nephew, Cantor Manfred Lewandowski (1895-1970), who escaped the Nazis by emigrating to Philadelphia, PA (where one of his most difficult transitions to life in America was likely the part he played in training my extremely non-musical father for his bar mitzvah!). This album is out of print, but limited numbers of another recording of Lewandowski’s setting by Cantor Robert Brody and the Zemel Choir of London (Olympia OCD, 347 recorded in 1995) can be obtained at www.amazon.com.

Track 4.  A brief excerpt from Sholom Secunda’s setting of Kol Nidre, written for his lifelong friend Richard Tucker and recorded with organ and choral accompaniment on an album called Kol Nidre Service/Richard Tucker, Columbia Records, 1978.  A remastered CD is available at www.cduniverse.com.

Track 5.  Although the text excerpted here comes from a later passage, the melodic setting recapitulates the familiar opening motives. This setting by Samuel Adler is included on Gems of the High Holy Days, featuring Cantor Lisa Levine, issued in 1999 and available through Transcontinental Music Publications www.transcontinentalmusic.com.

Track 6.  The great Joseph “Yossele” Rosenblatt (1882-1933) would never have used instruments while officiating at services, but he did utilize the organ and even full orchestral accompaniment on his many recordings. This remastered excerpt from Kol Nidre, originally recorded in 1913, is found on Disc 3 of the 6-disc collection The Immortal Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt issued by the Cantors Assembly in 2007.  For further information or to purchase the collection visit www.cantors.org.

Track 7.  An excerpt from Max Bruch’s setting of Kol Nidrei (sic) for cello and orchestra. Recorded by soloist Hamissa Dor and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, it is conducted by Sergiu Comissiona on Jewish Prayers, an updated album issued by Mace Records, a division of Scepter Records, Inc. While this recording is not available for purchase, several CDs on www.cduniverse.com feature the Bruch selection.

Track  8.  The opening bars of the 6th movement (Adagio quasi un poco andante) of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in C# minor Op. 131, completed in July 1826, are performed here by the Emerson String Quartet from the recording Beethoven: The Late String Quartets (Deutsche Grammophon DG 474). It’s available via most online outlets.

Track 9.  After a lengthy introduction which repeats the first three notes of the familiar Kol Nidre theme, the Electric Prunes’ performance of  Kol Nidre (from the first movement of a larger work by David Axelrod entitled Release of an Oath: The Kol Nidre) intones an English translation of the traditional Aramaic text. Heard here are its opening lyrics, “All the vows and guarantees, all the noble promises to God we left unaccomplished…”  A remastered version of the original 1968 recording was issued in March 2007 and is available at www.bn.com.

Track 10. Guitarist and sitarist Nicolas Jolliet of Psycho Key explains that he was drawn to the “spiritual and musical power” of the tradition Jewish melody. He recorded the short album from which this excerpt is taken, Kol Nidre Goes East, while on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.  Purchase and download information are available at www.kolnidre.org.