Samuel Naumbourg (15 March 1817 – 1 May 1880) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Career

Naumbourg was born in Dennenlohe,

Unterschwaningen Unterschwaningen is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the ...

, Bavaria. After having held the office of

chazzan 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 al ...

and reader at Besançon and directed the choir of the

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

at Strasbourg, he was called in 1845 to officiate in the synagogue of the rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth at Paris where he became professor of

liturgical music Liturgical music originated as a part of religious ceremony, and includes a number of traditions, both ancient and modern. Liturgical music is well known as a part of Catholic Mass, the Anglican Holy Communion service (or Eucharist) and Evensong, ...

at the Séminaire Israélite. Shortly before his death he was elected Officier d'Académie. The more important of his compositions are: ''Chants Liturgicals des Grandes Fêtes'' (Paris, 1847); ''Zemirot Yisrael'', comprising psalms, hymns, and the complete liturgy, from the most remote times to the present day (1864); ''Shire Qodesh'', new collection of religious songs for use in Jewish worship (1864); ''Aguddat Shirim'', collection of religious and popular Hebrew songs, from the most ancient times to the present day (1874); "

Shir ha-Shirim The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, it is erotic poet ...

Asher li-Shelomoh" (1877), with an essay on the life and works of Solomon de Rossi. The last-mentioned work is dedicated to Baron

Edmond de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine, his large donations lent significant support to ...

, who discovered a portion of the songs of Rossi and who encouraged Naumbourg in his efforts to revive the musical productions of the old master. He died in

Saint-Mandé Saint-Mandé (; named for Saint Maudez) is a Communes of France, commune in the Val-de-Marne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France, in the high-end eastern inner suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, cent ...

, near Paris.

Bibliography

* Zadoc Kahn, ''Souvenirs et Regrets'' * Winter and Wünsche, ''Jüdische Litteratur'', iii. 527 * Eliyahu Schleifer (ed.): ''Samuel Naumbourg. The Cantor of French Jewish Emancipation" (Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2012); {{DEFAULTSORT:Naumbourg, Samuel 1817 births 1880 deaths 19th-century French composers 19th-century French Jews 19th-century French male singers French male composers Hazzans Jewish classical musicians Jewish composers