This is my personal list of sites with mp3 and other recordings of nusach and Jewish liturgy. I collected these links because I am deeply interested in the music of Jewish liturgy, and I want to learn every melody there is for everything. I am not likely to ever reach this impossible goal, but this list is my attempt at it, at least!
These resources are arranged by an algorithm that considers how extensive a resource the resource is in each area. This consideration is subjective, but if you are looking for a particular High Holiday tune, you are more likely to find it toward the top of the High Holiday page than the bottom. Resources in gray boxes contain significant non-Ashkenazi nusach, in some cases alongside Ashkenazi nusach and in other cases to its exclusion.
Keep posted, since I add new resources to this list from time to time. I am also working on a larger project, NusachDB, to collect the melodies themselves. If you know of any useful sites not on this list, or notice a miscategorization, please let me know at webmaster@offtonic.com. Notable missing (or not well-covered) recordings include the Saturday night portions of Maariv, Kiddush Levanah, the Hoshanot of Sukkot, the Hakafot and Chatan Torah passages of Simchat Torah, the Al Hanisim paragraph in the Amidah and Birkat Hamazon of Chanukah, Purim, and Yom Haatzmaut (in the Conservative tradition, anyway), the Haggadah chanting of the Magid and others, and, of course, any less famous melodies for well-covered services like Kabbalat Shabbat and Hallel. If you know of any sites with these, please send them along, or hey, record them yourself if you'd like!
Click "Catalogued recordings" to see which recordings or sheet music in a particular site have been added to NusachDB. For the foreseeable future, these do not represent the totality of recordings for most sites, but the lists will get more complete with time.
Please enjoy this list and may it increase your learning.
This is really, really cool. It's a very complete resource for London Sephardic nusach. This main site focuses on congregational melodies, but it links to Shaar Hashamayim for the chanting and the London Sephardi Choir Archive for choral recordings. Here, I consider them all together.
Note: includes chanted Bameh Madlikin
This is a big collection of very musical Dutch Jewish nusach, including sheet music in many cases. It covers many services, including weekday, Shabbat, chag, and High Holidays, with multiple versions at times. This is a very extensive resource. The nusach is in large part compatible with the common Eastern European nusach, and a large number of lectures are provided on the subject as well. The sheet music uses Dutch transliteration, however, so it will look funny to English speakers!
A huge and fairly comprehensive collection of German-tradition nusach recordings by a Marcel Lang. There's nusach for everything, and sometimes even several different versions. This site is superlatively good for Friday night recordings and has several unique tracks like the Purim Kiddush!
Note: includes several versions of nusach; "Yedid Nefesh until Mikolot Mayim Rabim" has some interesting text; "Friday Night Traditional Nusach" has Kabbalat Shabbat as well as maariv; includes a version of Maariv for special Shabbatot
Also a great site with quite a bit, from the Conservative tradition. It has most of the Haggadah, as well as melodies for a lot of things on Shabbat and weekdays (all in streaming format). My second stop.
A site to teach the Shabbat services. There are multiple versions of many things, interesting melodies, and it's rather thorough.
A synagogue website with an extensive set of nusach recordings. There's a complete Kabbalat Shabbat with multiple melodies per text, a complete Shabbat maariv with multiple melodies per text as well, a complete Shabbat shacharit (from Nishmat), Hallel, Shabbat Torah service, Shabbat musaf, weekday shacharit (up to kedusha), and weekday maariv. There's also trope for haftarah, Torah, High Holiday, and Esther.
In Italian. Huge archive of Italian recordings, including Italian laining, Italian nusach, and classes. There's a lot more there than I've been able to properly categorize, especially without an Italian siddur, so the notes below are (and will probably always be) incomplete.
Note: includes L'chah Dodi, Edotecha, V'shamru, Kaddish, Yigdal inside I canti di Scola Tempio; includes L'chah Dodi, V'shamru, Yigdal inside I Canti di Scoletta; several versions of the complete service appear below as well
This is a project by Faraj Samra to preserve and present Sephardic chazanut (the title probably gave that away, didn't it?). It's actively growing and receiving regular updates, so this information may soon be out of date. It contains Torah, haftarah, and Tehilim readings, and a very large chunk of the siddur (including melodies sometimes).
In Hebrew (the English version has the same stuff, but not everything has been translated). Absolutely wonderful collection of piyutim (and regular blessings and psalms too, if you look hard enough) from all over the world. It's no longer updated, with the new site being Atar Hapiyut V'hat'filah. The old content uses Flash, so it might be, well, very difficult to get to it right now.
In Hebrew. This is the remake of Invitation to Piyut and Shituf Piyut. It's more difficult to navigate but has more stuff, and it includes most of the old stuff as well (but not all, for legal reasons).
In Hebrew (the English version is the legacy site, Invitation to Piyut, which is no longer maintained). Absolutely wonderful collection of piyutim (and regular blessings and psalms too, if you look hard enough) from all over the world, run by the National Library of Israel. It's massive, constantly updated, and it takes submissions if you want to send in your own recordings that they don't yet have. It's the successor site to Invitation to Piyut and Shitufiyut, containing (most of) the recordings from both.
A cantor's website with a nice full section of recordings. Most of them are under Ritual Resources, especially under Services, but a few are under Music instead, including motif samples from High Holidays and scanned wedding music. Under Ritual Resources -> Torah -> Special, you can also find the Megilot, including Kohelet.
Shiurim and music of Breslov chasidim. In Hebrew. Like other Chasidish sites, it also contains quite a few instrumental tracks, and the audio quality varies for older recordings. Loading times can be very slow! The Breslov chasidim use the Chasidish Nusach Sefard.
Note: includes a recording of Kabbalat Shabbat and maariv in nusach, skipping L'chah Dodi (שירי ברסלב - ניגוני חסידי ברסלב - זקני אנ"ש); another, including many, many, many melodies for L'chah Dodi, with different nusach, and Sefirat Haomer (שירי ברשירי ברסלב - ניגוני חסידי ברסלב: נוסח התפילותש)
A site with audio of shiurim -- and a whole lot of nusach!
Rabbi Menashe Goldberger: Under Jewish Prayer, you can find pretty much complete weekday shacharit, shabbat Kabbalat Shabbat/maariv/shacharit/musaf/minchah, and festival maariv/shacharit/Hallel/musaf. There's Shabbat Rosh Chodesh musaf AND weekday Rosh Chodesh musaf. The Birkat Achrona tracks are only spoken. Some of the services here have unlabeled tracks, but it's easy to find stuff anyway. There are also Haggadah songs and Chanukah blessings.
Rabbi Moshe Hiller: Complete Esther and haftarah blessings.
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder: Leining for most of the year, including the entire Torah, Ruth, Esther, and Eichah.
Zohar Killian: Some recordings of the Camp Kesher song, V'zot Habrachah, and Chanukah blessings.
A very thorough resource of beautiful Moroccan nusach recordings, including Tehilim, Esther, a lot of High Holiday and Slichot, complete Shabbat services, the Haggadah, Ruth, Azharot, Kohelet, Eichah (check the bar right above the navigation sidebar), and much of Tish'ah B'av (some kinot are missing). It's absolutely great, except that things are completely unlabeled!
An Orthodox congregation, with plenty of great nusach recordings and audio classes. Other recordings are in the pages under Resources, including some beautifully harmonized recordings for Shabbat.
Note: includes Cantor Sherwood Goffin's Baal Tefilah recordings (with accompaniment), which are great; there are multiple versions of L'chah Dodi, for example, and the maariv nusach is the real deal, with the El Chai V'kayam modulations nobody else knows how to do
A really great resource on proper nusach, with explanations on phraseology and musicality throughout the recordings. Has nusach (chanting, not many melodies) for weekdays, Shabbat, festivals, high holidays. Even has Slichot!
Note: includes examples of embellished and simpler nusach
A lot of nusach recordings by Ezra Lubelsky. They're very well-done. You will find complete Friday night services, shacharit, musaf, and minchah, Hallel, Rosh Hashanah maariv, shacharit, and musaf, complete services for Yom Kippur, Esther, and it looks like they're adding more.
A Conservative synagogue with pretty good nusach stuff for Shabbat, including a very nice Hallel and Anim Zemirot. Some of the more generally named files, like Kabbalat Shabbat – Maariv and Birkot Hashachar, are actually complete services.
Note: the special "Kabbalat Shabbat - Maariv" track has the whole service
A bunch of recordings of Shabbat and weekday services. Some are quite musical.
A Conservative synagogue with mp3's for a lot of stuff for Shabbat (and weekday maariv too). It's downloadable, which is nice, and it's a great resource.
A fairly complete resource for Shabbat prayers, including Kabbalat Shabbat, Maariv, Pesukei D'zimra, Shacharit, Musaf, and even Mincha. The down side is that you have to download the tracks and can't just play them in the browser.
Nusach samples from Shabbat and weekday. The Flash controls don't work, but the files still (mostly) exist, I think.
Some complete recordings of services in SoundCloud format. Includes Kabbalat Shabbat, maariv, the Torah Service, some of Musaf, mincha (sans repetition), Havdalah, Birkat Hamazon, etc.
An egalitarian minyan. There are a good number of Shabbat files and high holiday recordings.
Shabbat recordings. They're deliberately, but agonizingly, slow; however, they've got some hard-to-find stuff.
A Reconstructionist shul's website. Some high holiday Torah readings and a very, very nice collection of Shabbat tracks, including a bunch of songs at the start.
Note: inexplicably excludes Hamaariv Aravim, but has pretty much everything else, often multiple melodies
Melodies under Religious Services at both Holidays and Shabbat. Includes a Kabbalat Shabbat that's almost all Carlebach.
This is Cambridge in England. They have a nice sound!
A two-disk set for a Reconstructionist Friday night, including often several melodies for texts, even some that aren't traditionally part of the liturgy like Hineh Mah Tov and Dodi Li. 7 tunes for L'chah Dodi, 5 for Adon Olam, 4 for Mi Chamocha, both Y'did Nefesh and Shalom Aleichem, etc. The only issue is that the recordings have some annoying clicking, unfortunately.
There is a lot here! There are melodies and accompanied recordings for many things, and not so much nusach. If you aren't familiar with Chabad, you'll find exciting combinations here, like using the Hoshia et Amecha tune for the R'tzeh paragraph in the Birkat Hamazon. A fantastic resource.
Note: in a few different albums under Shabbat; includes Al Tira after Aleinu
A messianic congregation's collection of recorded liturgy. It's a pretty good collection! It actually includes Al Hanisim for Purim in the Birkat Hamazon, as well as stuff for Shabbat, weddings, Pesach, and much more.
Note: includes SEVEN different melodies for L'chah Dodi; Shema paragraphs in trope
This is a shul (the oldest shul, in fact) in Rio de Janeiro, so the site and directions are in Portuguese. The nusach is Morrocan Sephardic, which is a different musical paradigm than what you see in Ashkenazi congregations: it's repetitive nusach with few melodies. Much of the recordings are beautiful CDs for listening rather than straight nusach. By way of translation, you can find recordings of Psalms, Kabbalat Shabbat (CD), the Kedusha set to a wide variety of beautifully recorded tunes (CD), Slichot (CD), the Mishna, Megilat Esther, the Haggadah (though there is no singing that I can tell, just chanting), and weekday nusach.
Note: under Hazanut, accompanied Moroccan chants; includes entire Moroccan Kabbalat Shabbat with flute, drums, and guitar
A cantor's website with some excellent instructional recordings as well as plenty of concert and record tracks of chazanut and other music.
A collection of videos of the instructor chanting a lot of nusach (using nusach Sfard), including Shabbat, High Holidays, and even Simchat Torah. There are many interesting tunes throughout the videos! The Nigunim section contains only samples of tracks, though.
Note: includes videos of complete services, both traditional and Carlebach styles; uses major maariv nusach including that El Chai V'kayam modulation a whole bunch of times, and there are some interesting tunes, especially in the Carlebach video; includes some text before Barchu
Quite a few songs and prayer melodies, including bedtime melodies and Shabbat. It looks to be in the process of reconstruction, so not all of the links have been implemented yet.
In Portuguese. This was actually my father's synagogue when he was a child, catering to Egyptian Jews and later Syrian Jews, according to my father. It has extensive (nearly complete) recordings for weekdays and Shabbat, with the text and Portuguese translation, and the highlighting of the text follows along with the recordings. This includes shacharit/minchah/arvit for weekdays and Kabbalat Shabbat/arvit/kiddush/shacharit/musaf/minchah for Shabbat. Some of the recordings are from the Sephardic Hazzanut Project. This is a wonderful project of chazanut. In addition there is chanting for complete Tehilim as well.
Many recordings by a cantor, including Friday night, Shabbat musaf, Sheva Brachot, and some high holiday, and there is actual sourcing for many of the melodies!
Note: a cappella chatzi kadish
A very nice set of recordings, some with multiple versions. It has Atah Hor'eta Ladaat from Simchat Torah!
Note: includes chanting for the whole psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat as well as the whole blessings in maariv; has both nusach and Carlebach melodies
Tracks from a bar-mitzvah CD. Includes a nice Ashrei melody.
Includes trope, obviously! It's a bunch of recordings for bnei mitzvah, including Torah and haftarah trope as well as selections from maariv, musaf, and the Torah service. The catch: Chrome at least makes you download the recordings instead of playing them in the browser. The site has a part 2.
A handful of melodies for weekdays and havdalah, with copious directions (for example, for the kedushah).
A liberal synagogue with various very nice Shabbat recordings, including minchah, and elsewhere on the site there's an album from their regional interfaith Unity Choir.
A bunch of Shabbat recordings, both services and zemirot, sung by upbeat groups of people who harmonize beautifully. Many recordings are listed but not linked for some reason.
A synagogue website with a bunch of Shabbat recordings.
An egal synagogue's website with an almost complete Friday night service, as well as Kiddush and Shalom Aleichem.
A Conservative synagogue in Brooklyn -- the oldest Jewish congregation there, in fact. It has very good (accompanied) Friday night mp3 recordings, with melodies you might not find in other sites.
A very nice set of recordings for Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv, several with multiple different tunes. Sadly, Or Chadash's home page appears to have been hacked, and this is all that's left of it. Still, it's a great resource.
Great site with mp3's of nearly everything. This should always be the first stop. His nusach can be unique, at times, and he has great melodies that are hard to find elsewhere.
Great site with lots of Chasidic recordings of melodies! Has a section for Sephardic and Chasidic melodies, too. Click on the download links to listen in your browser if the player doesn't work.
Note: all of Kabbalat Shabbat, but no Maariv; also includes some psalms and piyutim under Sefardi and Chasidish
A surprisingly large collection of audio classes, including model complete seders, songs (including actually teaching the songs) and blessings, stuff like that. It's basically an open directory structure, and it's just filled with stuff. It even has correct laining for Job, Proverbs, and Psalms! I should mention that there's much more in here than I can categorize myself, so if I missed anything, let me know! There are many recordings under Songs that I don't immediately recognize, so if you're looking for something in particular, it could be here. There are also many videos of classes which include songs and nusach at the main site.
Note: includes L'chah Dodi under Chazan Chaim Moykopf Classical Chazanut, as well as many pieces in other places; classical nusach for first half of Kabbalat Shabbat under Songs
Not what I'm interested in -- until "More Cantorial", where you'll find a Haggadah recording of Cantor Pinchas Rabinowitz with a whole bunch of new tunes. Awesome. Would totally rock if it didn't have blinking animated GIFs.
Very extensive and very specific recordings of a lot of things, in Netherlands and Ashkenazi traditions. Really, really cool.
Note: many melodies for L'chah Dodi and a few other things in Kabbalat Shabbat, nearly complete and varied Maariv
A shul's website with a fairly inclusive collection, including Shabbat, nearly the entire weekday services, trope for everything, many, many Torah readings, and more.
Quite an extensive set of recordings! Most are congregational melodies, but there's stuff here for Shabbat, weekdays, and high holidays, as well as haggadah tunes.
A cantor's website with some recordings, including some beautiful lullabies. There are links to YouTube videos under Shabbat in the Round and some recordings under Shaharit Live, but go under Skills and there are tons of files! Many songs as well as simple nusach.
In somewhat mixed Hebrew and English. Contains very nice recordings of weekday and Shabbat nusach, though you have to download them; you can't listen in the browser. A run-down of which nusach to use in each part of the weekday services is also available, with short samples, under נוסח התפילה.
The Jewish Community of Japan caters mostly to American expats -- the website and recordings are all in English, and the rabbi is American -- but it's there and they have a website! Most of the links here are YouTube, but if you go to Services -> Sing With Us and choose the submenu options, you'll find a complete Shabbat maariv (no Kabbalat Shabbat), a few from Shabbat morning, and even some Shabbat mincha.
A Reform and Conservative synagogue with an extensive audio section. Includes nearly all of the Shabbat morning service excluding musaf, including the Etz Chayim Hi for Hagbahah, sung after the Torah is raised. There's a Hallel and havdalah as well. The Friday Evening section is not as extensive, but most of the tracks are from a CD with beautiful guitar and violin accompaniment. The High Holiday section has some stuff too, including a kiddush for Rosh Hashanah.
A Conservative synagogue. There are a few things from various Shabbat services, as well as Havdalah and weekday maariv.
A Conservative synagogue that sadly no longer exists, but there are still some audio files up, with much of Shabbat (excluding Pesukei D'zimrah).
NOTE: Sorry. The site is no longer there. Gone. But the Wayback Machine has stored it, along with the files on it, here!
Note: no Kabbalat Shabbat other than L'chah Dodi
All of Shabbat including the Motzaei thereof. Worth a listen! Shacharit, the Torah Service, and Musaf are all in the same section, but they're shuffled for some reason; look at the page numbers to get a sense of order. There are recordings of the High Holiday Torah readings here.
Shabbat recordings, including Mincha and that less-used melody for the tune when the Torah is paraded around on Saturday morning before reading.
A good bunch of recordings, but it's not in order! Most is in nusach, but there are some melodies too.
Note: includes a L'chah Dodi I hadn't heard before
In construction, but it contains recordings of the entire Friday night service and the preliminary morning services for high holidays, as well as a few other things. The Friday night recording was apparently done in a long session with many people, so some of the tracks have more than what they say.
A shul's website with tunes for Shabbat. Several have alternate melodies! Be sure to note at the bottom where it links to other pages within the website with melodies for Friday night home rituals.
A shul's website with some old-time chazzanut/choral recordings under both tabs, including one by Ganchoff and Lewandowski's Uv'nucho Yomar. Includes several High Holiday selections. The same temple also runs cybermitzvah.org, with standard Shabbat audio files for a bar- or bat-mitzvah, though many are spoken.
A Conservative synagogue with a nearly complete Friday night service as well as some of Birkot Hashachar, some of P'sukei D'zimrah, and quit a bit of shacharit for Shabbat. The recordings are often subdivided verse by verse. There's Birkat Hamazon as well.
A synagogue website with a whole bunch of Shabbat recordings, as well as a weekday Amidah.
Many blessings and songs, for Shabbat and in general. There are additional interesting melodies for many of them, with attributions! They don't follow the traditional order of the service, however, especially for Kabbalat Shabbat.
Tunes for a Carlebach Shabbat (Kabbalat Shabbat and maariv), though not every single paragraph. Also contains a large set of High Holiday congregational melodies.
Note: includes a tune for Emet V'Emunah and Ufros Aleinu, as well as some Mi Chamocha melodies
Traditional egalitarian shul in Pennsylvania with well-sung Shabbat recordings, some of them accompanied on piano.
Three flat recordings of Kabbalat Shabbat, maariv, and shacharit (only from Shochen Ad to the end of the Amidah).
In Hebrew (the English version is less complete). Nava Tehila is a Renewal prayer group in Jerusalem that has come up with nice new melodies and produced songs -- in quantity! -- for Kabbalat Shabbat, and a bit for High Holidays. The albums (see the bar at the top) are listenable, but only in the Hebrew version of the site. Parts of the site are still to come, including Shir Hashirim and Shabbat Arvit.
Note: includes niggunim as well as many, many tunes for pretty much everything in Kabbalat Shabbat
Some Friday night recordings. On the left side, go to Resources then Passionate Davening, or try this and see if the link works. Also includes Torah and haftarah trope.
A Reform synagogue's website with a mostly complete Kabbalat Shabbat, some of Shabbat maariv, and the opening of the Shabbat Torah service.
Some very beautiful recordings of Friday night services accompanied by guitar. Note that I couldn't get them to open by clicking, but right-clicking and hitting "Save link as..." worked.
A Carlebach minyan with a bunch of Friday night tunes. Unfortunately -- and this is indeed very unfortunate -- most of the links on the page are dead, but you might be able to explore what once was through the Wayback Machine. At the second paragraph there's a link to a local page with recordings, and that one is still alive.
In Hebrew. It's a site where users can upload their own recordings of piyutim and make their own piyut-centered pages. There's a ton of stuff on here, in various traditions (emphasis on Moroccan and Yemenite, but there's Ashkenazi as well), with a LOT of non-piyut recordings as well; it's affiliated with Invitation to Piyut, so you know it's good. However, unlike its relative, browsing for anything is an absolute nightmare, since within each occasion, they're ordered by *date*. However, there's much more than just piyutim -- there's laining and tefilah as well, but you have to dig. There's a Google-powered search engine too, which helps.
Note: includes a recording of all of Maariv in the Yemenite tradition
In Hebrew. This is an institute for the preservation of the traditions of Libyan Jews, and there are TONS of recordings WITH text! Oh, and they're all neatly organized from the side menu.
A big collection of songs, focusing on zemirot and piyutim, with words, translation, and often multiple recordings (though some have none). It's not organized by occasion, so I could be off in my categorizations, but this should be a primary resource for zemirot. There are some Indian (Bene Israel) tunes, but they're all cut off after exactly one minute. Be careful, too, because a few of the recordings are sung without particular attention to pitch!
Note: includes Aleinu, and Al Tira, from the paragraph after Aleinu, Ana B'choach, L'chah Dodi, Mikolot Mayim Rabim, Ps. 95, Ps. 96, Ps. 97, Ps. 98, Ps. 99 (and Rom'mu), Ps. 29 (including an interesting melody), Rau Banim (third blessing), Sab'einu (second blessing), Tov L'hodot, Tzadik Katamar, V'shamru (to the tune of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav), Y'did Nefesh, Y'hi Shalom (end of Bameh Madlikin), Yigdal
A RIDICULOUS Mediafire archive of chazzanut. RIDICULOUS. Great cantors, old recordings, many live and of low quality but still, and it's enormous. MANY recordings of Slichot -- more than you'd think exist! Shabbat, holidays, weekdays, you got it. Seriously cool stuff. It is chazzanut, though, mostly in the Golden Age style.
A Reform synagogue with trope lessons, prayers, and some songs, including Haggadah stuff. Much of it is more song than nusach with simple songs that may even involve clapping and English.
Note: many songs not in the siddur, and several of the tracks contain multiple melodies
A fairly large set of recordings for a shul site, with varied things, including some nice ones with instrumental accompaniment. There's a beautiful recording of the blessing of children, for instance.
Several recordings of psalms, some to original melodies.
A synagogue's site with a whole bunch of files. Unfortunately, they're .wma's, so it takes some hacking to get them to play on my Mac! Highlights include a great Kabbalat Shabbat service, a fairly complete Shabbat morning service from Shochen Ad, weekday afternoon (weekday evening is broken), and trope for many things.
A shul with some recordings, including a nice high holiday selection.
In French. A Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Paris. It takes a very long time to load, unfortunately -- the files are large -- but they're there. There's Friday night, Saturday morning, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Shabbat Chatan, and the haftarah for Simchat Torah. They're accompanied by organ and feature a children's chorus.
A Conservative synagogue with some varied Shabbat recordings. There's a complete Kabbalat Shabbat, some Shabbat morning tracks including two melodies for Ps. 136 and a Moroccan El Adon, an Algerian melody for Yayin Tov (bakashah and piyut for Shavuot and Simchat Torah), and seder melodies as well. This link contains all the melodies; the other links on the sidebar each contains a subset.
A shul's website with some Shabbat recordings for Friday night and Saturday morning. Includes an interesting V'shamru melody.
Note: there are other recordings (with guitar) under Instrumental Kabbalat Shabbat; the maariv section includes up to the Chatzi Kaddish
A temple's website with some fairly nice bar mitzvah recordings. They're in alphabetical order, sadly, but things are easy to find. The melodies are often different from the ones heard elsewhere.
A Sephardic synagogue with two streaming players on the page with Moroccan nusach and music, one of which has a CD that can be downloaded. The one that can't be downloaded has several recordings of each part of the Friday night service, several parts of the Saturday morning service. However, you have to scroll through them to see them. The second player has music from a concert (the CDs can be downloaded, but there's no track information on them), which mostly includes piyutim (a couple from Havdalah) and features instrumental music as well.
Contains a CD of accompanied Friday night melodies, as well as other Shabbat and even a couple of High Holiday melodies without accompaniment.
A Reform synagogue with recordings for b'nei mitzvah and a few other tracks including nicely accompanied songs. All of these are under Spiritual Life->Music.
Rabbi David Paskin's site; it includes a rock Kabbalat Shabbat and maariv under "Unplug"!
Note: includes some English
A synagogue's site with several Friday night recordings.
A guide to leading a Conservative Friday night service from the Sim Shalom, including recordings for many of the parts of the service.
This is the Conservative synagogue where I had my bar-mitzvah! There are some mostly Carlebach tunes for Friday night here.
A bunch of really good instructional recordings for various services, including Shabbat minchah and the wedding Birkat Hamazon, as well as trope for Torah, haftarah, High Holidays, and Purim, Slichot, Shabbat maariv, shacharit, and P'sukei D'zimrah, the Kol Nidrei paragraph, Rosh Chodesh musaf, and festival kiddush. It's easy to miss the link at the bottom that says "Older Entries" -- there you'll find two versions of Hallel, more P'sukei D'zimrah, and weekday minchah.
Weekday nusach and high holiday recordings. The site is Flash-based and will not work with a Flash blocker. Interestingly enough, the menus at the top of the page are somewhat inconsistent, and a set of recordings for their junior congregation is difficult to find but present. That set has plenty of Shabbat, festival Amidah, and Hallel recordings as well as a large number of Torah readings, though the recordings are in alphabetical order.
A nice and rather extensive synagogue resource, including Haggadah nusach, a big set of Youtube videos, other Shabbat sound files, trope, and bentsching.
A Reform synagogue. Go to "Worship" at the top and go to "Songs & Prayers". There are a few songs and prayers (as the title indicates), read (with no melody) and sung (with instrumental accompaniment), in streaming Quicktime format. Mostly Reform Shabbat stuff. There's also a separate Pesach section with recordings.
NOTE: The old site, with the recordings, is still here.
There are several Carlebach CD's available for purchase, but you can listen to the individual tracks on the site. These are great melodies, but as is usually Reb Carlebach's style, the words are usually just a line or two from the liturgy.
An independent congregation with a fairly extensive audio library.
A series of recordings in various places on the website. At Worship-Lifecycle - Shabbat - Shabbat Prayer Recordings, there are several recordings of the prayers being read one word at a time, but some of them do go into song eventually. By the way, there are more than 10 recordings on that page, but you have to click on the number select to show them. Many don't even have actual recordings. Under Music at TBS, though, there are a LOT of great cantorial recordings (including for Shabbat), most with talking before them.
Note: includes stuff under Worship-Lifecycle - Music at TBS - Cantorial Recordings - Cantor Steven Haas - Shabbat Recordings and under Worship-Lifecycle - Music at TBS - Cantorial Recordings - Cantor lisa Segal
In Hebrew. An Israeli synagogue with a bunch of recordings (Ashkenazi melodies, including Carlebach). These include Shabbat evening and morning, birkat hachodesh, Geshem, several selections from Shalosh Regalim and High Holidays, and even a kinah from Tish'ah B'av.
Incredibly beautiful recordings of Kabbalat Shabbat, as well as a whole bunch of songs and zemirot. Includes weekday maariv and mincha.
A Modern Orthodox shul's with a whole bunch of recordings of Shabbat and holidays.
A synagogue's site with a bunch of audio files primarily for students of their religious school. In particular, the recordings for 4th and 5th graders are from a student collection called Hineni; I don't know exactly what is in them but they include liturgy like the Avot from the Shabbat morning amidah. Otherwise, there are recordings from Shabbat and weekdays, as well as a Birkat Hamazon with some less common tunes.
A Reform/Reconstructionist synagogue (it's affiliated with both) with a long list of audio files, mostly for Shabbat but also a bit for High Holidays. They're in .wma format, though.
A minyan's website with a whole bunch of melodies on Google Drive. There are Friday night melodies, a complete Shabbat musaf service, and scanned pages of musaf from Zamru Lo: The Next Generation. There are also several High Holiday recordings.
In French. You have to dig a bit, but there's some interesting stuff! Much of it is recordings from other places, like Shira Hadasha, but there are original recordings as well. Several recordings of the Shema under Rite quotidien, Friday night and Saturday day kiddush (with an interesting non-Lewandowski melody for Friday night) under Rites domestiques, several versions of several parts of Kabbalat Shabbat, including a whole lot of L'chah Dodi tunes, 10 versions of Tzur Mishelo under Chants du Shabbat; under Shabbat matin, haftarah blessings, kedusha, Ps. 150, and Shirat Hayam; and a whole bunch of High Holiday and Slichot recordings (including a whole Slichot service).
Hey, it's my non-denominational shul! It's a page that lists page numbers on different siddurim, but it also has Shabbat recordings in .wav and .mp3 formats for some stuff. In particular, it has things from the Torah service, which is hard to find (though not everything).
A bunch of recordings of Haggadah songs exists here.
NOTE: The old site, with the recordings, is still here.
In Spanish. A Conservative synagogue with links to videos and selections from various CDs by its cantors, including some Shabbat tunes and many Yiddish songs.
This is a site mostly for transliterations, but some of them have a music symbol that provides recordings.
Note: several things in Maariv
A Conservative synagogue with some recordings for b'nei mitzvah as well as a few Shabbat tunes under Worship->Music Corner. Includes some of the Birkat Hamazon, Torah service, Friday night, and Torah trope.
Some upbeat accompanied recordings of Shabbat melodies. Includes Torah and haftarah trope as well.
Some Shabbat recordings and some High Holiday Torah readings.
A Reconstructionist synagogue. Ironically, there's no recording of Shirat Hayam on this page. But there's some Friday night and a bit of Saturday morning stuff, mostly songs and a few prayers. Streaming mp3's.
A synagogue website with a bunch of recordings of congregational melodies for Shabbat evening and morning.
Kabbalat Shabbat and some high holidays. Includes some external recordings as well.
In Hebrew (though the English site is complete). The website of a Masorti synagogue in Israel, with prayer tunes for Kabbalat Shabbat and aliyah/haftarah blessings.
Dutch Sephardic nusach, in old recordings, for large parts of weekdays, Shabbat, holidays, etc. You can also listen to an enormous treasure trove of old nusach tapes (instructions mostly in Dutch) as well as find sheet music for a variety of pieces of liturgy.
In Hebrew. A site with Moroccan videos and such. Most are on YouTube, but it's fairly extensive. There are bakashot, Shabbat piyutim, etc.
A very thorough archive of pizmonim from Syria that also explains the maqam system, featuring the standard book of Syrian pizmonim and several auxiliary books, with integrated recordings and even videos.
An educational egalitarian institution that focuses on community building, and this used to include audio resources for leading services. There were recordings for weekdays, Shabbat, high holidays (including a great Ki Hineh Kachomer), etc., and they're still available under Archive. Now... it's an ambitious experience: a categorized collection of submitted recordings for the various parts of the various services. It's growing quickly and is already an extremely helpful resource. You can even search for melodies by tempo, time signature, or mode!
Note: nusach only for Kabbalat Shabbat (no songs) under Shabbat
In French. A Tunisian synagogue in Paris, with quite a few recordings! I'm not sure why, but under Hazanoute, there are several recordings of the Kaddish and even more of the Kedushah, and they include Shabbat evening and morning. There are also a number of miscellaneous recordings, including piyutim, Sheva Brachot, havdalah, Shabbat morning, Brit Milah tunes, etc. Under Haguimes (Fêtes), aside from Torah and haftarah readings, there's Esther, the Haggadah in several recordings (including in Judeo-Arabic), Ruth, Eichah, and Slichot. Under Autres passages, there's Shir Hashirim, more Haggadah recordings, and a few other things like haftarah blessings and the Shema.
Note: includes a recording of arvit with all but the Kriat Shema under Kadish
The page for a Reconstructionist shul; it has a few rather nice recordings with pretty melodies! Check out her recording of Mah Ashiv, for instance.
A wealth of Spanish and Portuguese melodies (and some chazanut), including parts of Hallel, S'lichot, festival liturgy, Shabbat, and a whole bunch of stuff, along with a bit of info on each melody.
General blessings, each in its own page, so it's not easily categorized. Not all blessings have sung recordings attached, but many do, often covering more than the written text. Other pages with recordings (not hosted locally) are here, with posts marked "music".
Note: includes Chatzi Kaddish and the Sh'ma (and Baruch Shem K'vod), but the Kriat Sh'ma blessings (Maariv Aravim, for instance) are spoken, not chanted; incudes a shortened chanted version of the Sh'ma paragraphs, an interesting melody for Mi Chamocha, a melody for Adonai Sfatai Tiftach, Shalom Rav, a medley for Oseh Shalom, Aleinu with a different melody at the end, and even some of a reader's repetition at Maariv; many melodies (in excerpt form) of L'chah Dodi, Yigdal at one of the music posts
In Spanish. Includes a very nice collection of Shabbat table tunes, including Bendigamos, kiddush, and several zemirot. Some of the recordings have harmony and guitar. There are also accompanied Shabbat recordings from services including minchah.
A large liberal New York synagogue. The links on the sidebar include a recording of a seder, with piano accompaniment, where there are some very pretty English songs and many English readings in addition to the standard Hebrew tunes. There are also Chanukah blessings, Shabbat blessings (audio under Life Cycles->Bar and Bat Mitzvah, as well as under Wosrhip->Music at Emanu-El), and more.
Interesting -- a bunch of recordings of only the chatimot, along with sheet music for same. Only includes chatimot from "Baruch atah Adonai". Includes maariv and shacharit for Shabbat, weekdays, and festivals.
A synagogue's website with several nice produced albums' worth of Shabbat and High Holiday tunes.
A transliterated siddur, with some tunes too! It's not very easy to navigate, though, and the links don't seem to always have what they say they have.
A cantor's site with several Shabbat recordings.
In French. A site dedicated to the Portuguese rite in France with a few recordings. There are recordings for High Holidays and Slichot, brachot for an aliyah and haftarah, some for Shabbat, and Ps. 137 for Tish'ah B'av.
An interesting site, centered around Rabbi Frydman's book Calling on God. It contains meditative chants based on repeating a few words, but it also has recordings of prayer melodies for Kabbalat Shabbat (and Ahavat Olam from maariv) under Melodies -> Shabbat and Holy Days. Additionally, there's a melody for Ana B'choach under Prayers -> Ana Bkoach.
A shul's website with a few Shabbat recordings.
Some audio files for Friday evening and Shabbat morning's Torah service.
A synagogue's website with recordings for the religious school's prayer curriculum. There are various recordings for Friday night and Saturday morning.
A recording for Shabbat maariv, using some interesting nusach choices like minor for Avot.
A Renewal synagogue with a few spirited Kabbalat Shabbat tracks at Renewal Service, Rhythm and Ruach, and Shira Chadasha on the left navigation bar.
The Moroccan Sephardic Heritage Institute, featuring a few Kabbalat Shabbat recordings in the Moroccan T'hilim trope.
Several Carlebach (and Carlebach-style) Friday night melodies.
A whole bunch of Sephardic recordings. If it's similar to the Liturgical Music of Shaar Hashamayim website, it's because it's made by the same person! The content is different, though, and there's a lot more detail in some of the pages, including texts of prayers and piyutim. Jewish Table Singing is a sister site and features many of the same recordings.
Note: includes two recordings of Bameh Madlikin and L'chah Dodi
In French. They sell CD's, but they also have videos and recordings, neatly categorized, including recordings and videos mostly from the Syrian and Tunisian traditions, often with the text as well. Recordings and videos range from traditional to accompanied and produced.
In Hebrew -- the versions of the page in Spanish and in English are still under construction and do not have all of the features of the Hebrew. This site contains extensive recordings and teachings of the Damascus Sephardic tradition, and there are actually quite a few of them. However, the interface is diffcult to use.
Various recordings from a Reconstructionist congregation. Note that the Reconstructionist text can vary from the original at times. Includes Torah blessings (with text) elsewhere on the site, and includes trope as well.
A lot of nice Chasidic niggunim, many very march-like, but it's in Real Audio format, which makes it exceedingly awkward to listen to. Many of the files don't work, either.
In Hebrew. This is a big Judaism site that also has a bunch of recordings. Many are actually samples from Harav Levi Sudri, in the Moroccan tradition, but there are some weekday shacharit recordings as well in both Sephardic and Ashkenazic nusach. There's some sheet music as well; in particular, you can find [sheet music for z'mirot](http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/shabat/zmirot/tohen-2.htm) at some of these pages.
Various Chasidic recordings and niggunim. Has an extensive section on Ana B'choach and three versions of Shoshanat Yaakov.
Note: several versions of Ana B'choach, a couple of things
A few CD's of music for Shabbat, Purim, Pesach, High Holidays, and more.
Recordings, mostly a cappella, from Camp Ramah in California. These are really cool. There are Shabbat songs, general songs, havdalah, etc. There are 6 CDs in total that you can listen to right on the site.
A Reform synagogue with some very beautifully done recordings, with instrumental accompaniment. Their primary set of recordings (Congregational Music) is a bit ambiguous as to service, with chanted Avot v'Imahot and G'vurot, but then it continues with a chanted Atah Kadosh, apparently a substitute for the silent Amidah. There are some beautiful tunes there, though with a Reform flavor certainly. The B'nei Mitzvah Prayers is a set of recordings for b'nei mitzvah; it must be downloaded as a zip, but it's got a bunch of stuff (without accompaniment).
Note: includes a nice melody for part of Psalm 98
Some beautiful accompanied recordings of mostly piyutim with melodies from around the world. It's the same collection as from Bnai Jeshurun and at Invitation to Piyut North America
I really like going to services at this shul! The page is a bit hard to navigate, though. Shabbat recordings (for children) are under Congregational Learning. High Holiday Tunes are at the Shabbat and Prayer link (not the one that shows up in the menu), and for extra confusion, the link that does show up in the menu is Chazzan Saul Wachs's recording, which is separate. Several of the High Holiday Tunes are borrowed from other sites as well, so check those out!
A Reform synagogue with several recordings, often along with the text.
A few songs and prayers in a very old style (notes are difficult to hear, though). The page is in Hebrew; the headings are Shabbat, second meal of Shabbat, third meal of Shabbat, Psalms, Pesach, and Yom Kippur.
Note: Kaddish, Tzadik Katamar, a few things I don't recognize
Great resource for Torah/haftarah trope and P'sukei D'zimrah, both with weekday nusach and the major Shabbat nusach.
A Modern Orthodox synagogue with a few links to recordings elsewhere, including YouTube, and several really wonderful accompanied recordings by their cantor. These include L'chah Dodi, Yism'chu B'malchut'cha, the Kedushah, Birkat Kohanim, Sim Shalom, some of Hallel, and Birkat Hachodesh.
A Modern Orthodox synagogue in Cape Town, in South Africa, with some wonderful recordings of their cantor and choir. They are hosted on their SoundCloud and include Shabbat, wedding, and High Holiday tunes.
A few recordings of blessings -- with sheet music! It's not a big collection, but I hadn't heard their El Adon melody before. (By the way, the sheet music links are broken, but they're only missing the colon after the 'http' so you can still access the link.)
A site dedicated to Spanish and Portuguese communities, with links to videos on YouTube from the Paris, Montreal, Gibraltar, and London communities.
A synagogue in Pinner, outside of London. There are a few recordings of Shabbat morning under Davening Recordings, with a few general Shabbat recordings under Songs for the 5-8s Service and a page with Ashrei and An'im Z'mirot. There are weekday recordings under Minchah and Ma'ariv Recordings, not easily linked from the main site.
Some MIDI files of various songs and prayers.
A set of recordings of Shabbat blessings and songs. In .wma and Real Audio formats. Some of it is spoken rather than chanted. The site is sort of difficult to navigate; another page with very nice accompanied recordings is here.
Some sheet music for Shabbat (and Avinu Malkeinu).
A Reform congregation with some Shabbat recordings (in a Flash app). Some of the texts are read, some chanted, some both.
A Reform synagogue with a set of Shabbat recordings for Friday night and Saturday morning.
A cantor's website with a few recordings for Shabbat and High Holidays.
A few examples of Kabbalat Shabbat nusach as well as a few melodies for L'chah Dodi.
Some Friday night ideas from the people behind the Siddur Lev Shalem for some of their new texts.
It's a blog, but the music links on top have a pretty nice variety of nusach and melodies. Very much in progress at the moment. The high holiday recordings are in very large files, though, so it's a bit hard to find what you want in them, but they're very good.
Note: just the very beginning of Kabbalat Shabbat (so far)
In Hebrew. The English language Modzitz site may be old and have RealAudio files, but the Israeli site has all the music! The site's English section is apparently under construction, but the Hebrew section is easily navigable (especially with Google Translate). There are melodies for various zemirot and blessings, as well as many, many niggunim. Some recordings are instrumental only, some are sung with accompaniment, some are just sung.
A site dedicated to the memory of Ronny Horvitz and his melodies from Frankfurt. Contains taamim for Torah and haftarah, some Esther,
Many recordings of table songs from various traditions, and not just for Shabbat! Some are piyutim also sung at other occasions (Adon Olam, Ein Keloheinu, Yigdal). It's a sister site to London Sephardi Music.
A bunch of nice recordings (that need to be downloaded) of Pesach tunes, Shirat Hayam, Chanukah blessings, Shabbat, and more. Some have beautiful piano accompaniment!
Note: includes Yedid Nefesh and L'chah Dodi
A rabbi and his family have put up three wonderful albums of Shabbat table songs, Sheva Brachot table songs, and year-round songs.
A collection of seder melodies, zemirot, and other songs, along with transcribed sheet music, with many different melodies per song. A nice treasure trove, since most sites only have one melody for each thing, but the audio controls are very fussy.
Note: L'chah Dodi in Zemirot section
A small but varied selection of recordings, many of artistic settings, from Adon Olam and Eli Tzion to Shalom Rav and Maoz Tzur. From what I can tell, this list is also made by the E-Hazzan and contains mostly the same things as the blog.
In French. It has recordings of the Portuguese rite, some with choir, at Manuel d'étude. It's got quite a bit, including taamim for prose and poetry, Eicha, Geshem, L'chah Dodi, etc. There's more in the Ceremonie de la Bar Mitzwa. The first track even has a pronunciation guide for the French rite (nasal ע, for instance).
A bunch of Chasidic niggunim as well as various classes on various subjects. The recordings are in Real Audio format, and at least for me, my browser says the plugin did not load but the files open in my external Real Audio program.
A nice and varied collection of recordings, including including extensive festival morning nusach!
Note: includes three L'chah Dodi melodies
Several cantorial recordings by cantors from Maine. Includes some classical chazanut from the 40's and 60's as well as more modern cantorial recordings.
A site to collect liturgical tunes -- a worthy goal, if I may say so myself! Each of the pages on the right has some recordings, but our communities has a complete Shabbat morning service with good nusach and tunes.
In Portuguese. Features a bunch of Brazilian Chabad recordings, including Chanukah, z'mirot, etc.
A site that looks stuck in the 90's (though it's not like my site is any better). It has MIDI files for some things, some .mp3 files, and some .mp3 samples, along with links to purchase the files on iTunes or Rhapsody (so it isn't actuallystuck in the 90's).
A site for Sephardic chazzanut. It contains many links to off-site tracks, but it hosts many as well; there's a pretty good library here! There are more recordings under From the Esnoga, but that part of the site is in Dutch and contains only snippets.
Note: includes Adon Olam, Aleinu, Ps. 92 and 93, Yigdal
A series of blog posts about liturgy, usually including musical examples (though these are usually chazzanut rather than synagogue nusach). Since it's a blog, things aren't organized by subject, so my rankings may be off. There are also numerous demo excerpts from commercial CD's rather than full tracks, and many of the older posts have broken file links.
A few Sephardic recordings by Cantor Hezkia Eliezer "Kiki" Arochas, including Kiddush, some Tehilim (Shirei Hamaalot), all of weekday Shacharit, and more.
Note: includes Boi V'shalom
In Hebrew. A band that performs Jewish music, with extensive samples on the page.
This is a site that sells sheet music, but there's some available for free as well, most notably some Rosenblatt recitatives.
A few piyutim from various traditions, with a focus on the Near and Middle East.
A personal blog with YouTube videos of divrei Torah, haftarot, and some singing, which as of this writing includes the Ashkenazic Shir Hamaalot (Ps. 126) and Eshet Chayil, Moroccan havdalah and Shir Hashirim.
A cantor's recordings of wedding and Shabbat music with embellished nusach. Very nice!
Note: includes R'tzeh Vimnuchateinu
A few spirited recordings of Shabbat melodies, using quite a bit of Carlebach. Includes an interesting melody for Eliyahu Hanavi.
Recordings of Selmar Cerini, who was Oberkantor at the Neue Synagogue in Breslau, Germany from 1894 until his death in 1923. As can be expected from 100-year-old recordings, these are very scratchy, but they're absolutely wonderful to listen to. There are several from High Holidays, kaddish from Geshem and Tal, Mi Adir from the wedding service, and a few other tunes.
A progressive synagogue with a wide variety of recordings, including Shabbat, bar mitzvah, high holidays, and some really cool older stuff.
The website of the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan. It features several beautiful recordings of produced songs with liturgical texts, as well as some chazanut.
Several resources from the Reconstructionist Movement.
Note: includes sheet music for an original setting for L'chah Dodi (not the one called "contemporary setting")
Tracks from a bar-mitzvah CD. Includes a nice Ashrei melody.
A Reform synagogue's website with a set of Shabbat morning recordings for bnei mitzvah.
This is an ensemble from Tel-Aviv that performs and writes music for liturgical songs. There is sheet music for Adon Olam and Ps. 92 under Y'tzirah Y'hudit Yisraelit -> Sidurei T'filah -> Tavim Litfilah. You can also find their Bandcamp, with various tunes.
A band that plays a blend of musical sounds, some of which to liturgical texts, like Kabbalat Shabbat psalms, L'chah Dodi, Adon Olam, etc.
In Hebrew. There are examples from the choir's repertoire, neatly separated by service, but there are recordings available (.wma) only for few of the pieces.
Note: includes Tzadik Katamar, Adonai Malach, and Mi Chamocha
A Reform synagogue with with several Shabbat service recordings that include explanations of the prayers.
A band's website, with some rock settings for Shabbat piyutim and zemirot.
Several recordings, in several styles, of Baal Hasulam (Yehuda Ashlag)'s compositions.
A long list of audio shiurim, but also some songs as well, including L'chah Dodi, M'ein Olam Haba, Adon Olam, and a couple of others.
A singing group with some demo recordings in Real Audio format of blessings and z'mirot.
A few beautiful melodies, most original, with accompaniment (including piano, choral, etc.). Includes L'chah Dodi, Etz Chayim, B'rosh Hashanah, Hu Eloheinu, M'chalkel Chayim (for High Holidays), Yismach Moshe, Ribono Shel Olam (from taking out the Torah).
A synagogue site with several guitar-accompanied songs with lyrics from liturgy and some prayers as well (like Shabbat maariv Bar'chu).
A website with some Shabbat recordings. There are not many parts of the services available, but for the ones that are, there are many melodies, including 8 for El Adon and 6 for Ps. 29.
A handful of beautiful songs; I'm not sure they stand on their own without the accompaniment, but there is one (instrumental) Chasidish L'chah Dodi and P'tach Lanu Shaar from Neilah.
An indedependent congregation; there are a couple of Ramón Tasat recordings here and links to a YouTube channel.
A small set of Friday night recordings in the style of chazzanut done beautifully with piano accompaniment. Includes a wonderful Kiddush.
A cantor's website with a couple of Friday night tracks from one of his CD's.
A non-denominational minyan with some Friday night audio files selected from Northwestern Conservative.
A few samples of Nefesh Mountain's Shabbat concert/service music.
A Modern Orthodox with a men's choir; there's just one recording here, of the Al Tira after Aleinu.
A few Shabbat melodies, but the links don't work right now. There's also a page of seder melodies, and those are all good, even if the singing is a bit rough around the edges. "Friday Night Jam" has sheet music for Ana B'choach and Tzadik Katamar.
A Reform synagogue with just a couple of audio files so far, covering Aleinu, the chatzi kaddish from the Torah service (or Shabbat maariv, according to some traditions), and the Shema/Baruch Shem K'vod.