Aaron Beer Gabriel (); (10 February 1739 – 3 January 1821), also known as the Bamberger Ḥazzan, was a German ''

ḥazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' (, plural ; ; ) is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term also ...

'' and composer, who served as chief cantor of the Jewish congregation of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He was known as a

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

of considerable vocal range.

Biography

Aaron Beer was born in Poppenlauer,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, in 1739. He became cantor in

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

at a young age, and in 1765 he came to

. He succeeded as chief cantor of the Heidereutergasse Synagogue in 1786. Beer composed himself, but also commissioned compositions, collecting over 1,200 pieces of music for use in the synagogue. He actively sought to discourage the congregation from singing along by constantly adding new melodies. His collection is now held at the

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, United States.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Aaron 1739 births 1821 deaths Clergy from Berlin Composers from Berlin German tenors Hazzans Jewish composers Singers from Berlin