The Bible and Music

In class today, we had Cantor Giora Sharon as our guest speaker. Mr. Sharon was born in Hungary and was a professional cantor for 47 years. His love and passion for being a cantor was passed through 4 generations of his family and he knew he wanted to carry it on at age 4. I thought it was incredible that Cantor Giora knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life at just 4 years old, which shows the time and commitment he has put into being a Jewish Cantor. In addition to being a cantor, Giora has lived another career of being an opera singer. One of the quotes that I found inspirational was when Cantor Sharon was talking about how his work was his whole lifestyle and he said, “If you wake up and realize this isn’t the only thing you want to do or you couldn’t die for singing…then don’t do it.” He was reflecting on the importance of revealing his emotion when he is singing to gain the audience attention. Gaining the audience attention can be feeling their sadness at a funeral for the loss of a loved on or keeping it interesting throughout a 4 hour long Jewish service.

When Cantor Giora began to talk about the history of how his profession originated, I remember him talking about how he did not want women to become cantors when he first started. After a few short years of working with women, he changed his mind. The five pieces of music that we listened to in class were very powerful and each one expressed a different emotion. Personally, I enjoyed the unknown artist one that had no background choir. Giora said the author was most likely Polish or Jewish, and the music sounded incredible. It was a slower pace, yet the pitch and voice of this cantor revealed how much emotion he put into his work. Cantor Giora Sharon showed his passion and love for his career when he was speaking, which confirms my thoughts on his dedication over his lifetime as having the lifestyle of a Jewish Cantor.