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.
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.
Note: alternate Hallel under Haggadah including Magid-7
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: a special Rosh Chodesh melody is under Sabbath Morning Part 1 in the congregational site; additional version under Haggadah
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!
What it says on the tin. Also has trope for high holidays and chag services, but it does not cover Kol Nidrei. Very good mp3 recordings, with directions. One of my top high holiday sources.
Note: includes special Sukkot tune for start of Ps. 118
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).
Note: in the Rosh Chodesh section, includes melodies for various times of the year
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.
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!
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.
Note: alternate Hallel under Passover (Seder)
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.
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.
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.
Note: includes two melodies for the opening blessings, and a new (to me) melody for Pitchu Li
Excellent source for Pesach, high holidays, Shabbat morning, and festivals. Big .wav files, but the nusach is really good.
Note: more Hallel under Haggadah
An Orthodox shul's recordings of various services, including Hoshanot! Also has a couple of High Holiday melodies and recordings of Yom Tov maariv and shacharit.
Note: includes an interesting B'tzet Yisrael melody and intricate nusach
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 many renditions; one is inside I canti di Scola Tempio; Baruch Habah under weddings can also be used for Ps. 118
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.
Note: straight nusach (except Ps. 118), under Various
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 opening blessing, Ps. 113 and Ps. 115 chatimot, Ana Adonai (מיוחד: שירי ברסלמיוחד: שירי ברסלב - ניגוני ברסלב לפסח ונוסחאות ההגדה); all the chanted bits and singing for Ps. 117 and 118 (שירי ברסלב - ניגוני חסידי ברסלב - זקני אנ"ש)
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: full nusach
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 cantor's website with some excellent instructional recordings as well as plenty of concert and record tracks of chazanut and other music.
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 site to teach the Shabbat services. There are multiple versions of many things, interesting melodies, and it's rather thorough.
Note: includes interesting melodies, sometimes multiple per psalm, but only includes the half Hallel (no first half of Psalms 115 and 116)
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 many melodies less often heard; 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.
Quite a few recordings of the Constantine nusach (Sephardic), including Torah reading, Hallel, the Haggadah, and various other songs and blessings.
A nice Sephardic version of Shabbat musaf as well as some piyyutim and prayers for the high holidays. The audio is streaming, and the text is shown on the page as well for the piyyutim.
Note: under women's service for Rosh Chodesh; note that it's a short Hallel because it's for Rosh Chodesh
You don't find recordings of the gabbai calls very often, but here you go, calling the first aliyah in almost every conceivable scenario! Also has the normal Shabbat morning stuff. I found that the player doesn't work, but the links link to the mp3 directly and those are fine.
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 nice and varied collection of recordings, including including extensive festival morning nusach!
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.
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 videos of Baruch Haba (Ps. 118) by a choir, and the rest of Hallel under Rosh Chodesh (I couldn't get most of the tracks to play in the browser, but I was able to download them and use iTunes); some additional tracks under Pesach
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 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: straight nusach
A bunch of recordings of Shabbat and weekday services. Some are quite musical.
Complete weekday, Shabbat, and some other stuff.
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.
A set of recordings including quite a bit from the seder. The recordings are on different pages under "Worship", including under Junior Congregation.
Note: under Seder Songs
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.
Several recordings of psalms, some to original melodies.
A Conservative synagogue. There are a few things from various Shabbat services, as well as Havdalah and weekday maariv.
A partnership Orthodox synagogue in Israel with a few audio files, including Hallel, P'sukei D'zimrah for Shabbat, the Torah service, and Ruth, Esther, Kohelet, and Shir Hashirim.
Many songs from the Haggadah, including some less usual ones, and often many tunes -- four for Mah Nishtanah! Includes some things in English for young children, too. Has an extensive Hallel (no nusach, though), a melody for Vay'chi Bachatzi Halailah, four for Adir Hu, etc.
A couple of Shabbat morning recordings as well as the congregational melodies of Hallel (not the nusach).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Note: Moroccan chanting; Ps. 113-117 but no Ps. 118
The site of a Sephardic cantor with a large selection of recordings, including videos of Hoshana Rabbah. Unfortunately, much of it is in Real Audio format.
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 Tefilot and Hagadá, but very repetitive nusach mostly
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.
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 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.
Much of the Haggadah chanted in a very old style; this is probably not useful to someone who wants to lead a modern seder, but it's interesting nonetheless. Note that "Na'ar Hayiti" is missing in the file list.
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 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.
Some recordings of Shabbat songs and prayers, including a nice recording (with instrumental accompaniment) of the Birkat Hamazon that uses some interesting melodies at times. The site is difficult to traverse, but there are other musical resources on it: Chanukah blessings, Chanukah songs, more Chanukah songs, Purim songs, and Haggadah songs.
Note: a few melodies in the Haggadah section
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.
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.
A recording of the Haggadah. The difference between the nusachim and speeds is JUST pronunciation and speed; "Shir HaMaalot (Fast)" and "Shir HaMaalot (Slow)", for example, are the same melody, with different speeds. Different nusach from Virtual Cantor and Siddur Audio.
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 few spirited recordings of Shabbat melodies, using quite a bit of Carlebach. Includes an interesting melody for Eliyahu Hanavi.
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: a few melodies in the Haggadah section, though some are kids' songs
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.
Note: includes a responsive reading of Psalms 113, 114, 115 without Hallel nusach
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.
15 albums' worth of Regesh music, featuring melodies by Rav Shmuel Brazil, which includes plenty of liturgical tunes and z'mirot and such. Very Flash-based. There's also another section with R. Brazil's niggunim under More Extras.
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.
An egalitarian minyan, associated with Mechon Hadar. The website contains Saturday morning mp3 files with good directions, which is very nice, as well as the (free) digital download for the Pri Eitz Hadar CD, full of great harmonized melodies. There are also High Holiday pages each year, but they're a bit hard to find; here's the one for 2016.
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 few piyutim from various traditions, with a focus on the Near and Middle East.
Very extensive and very specific recordings of a lot of things, in Netherlands and Ashkenazi traditions. Really, really cool.
Note: very little
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 B'tzet Yisrael, Eli Atah
A few Shabbat, Pesach, and Rosh Hashanah melodies, though the site is very much in progress. Pesach files are spread over a few different pages, and currently, some of the links don't work (though most do).
Note: includes just the beginning of Psalm 113
Various Chasidic recordings and niggunim. Has an extensive section on Ana B'choach and three versions of Shoshanat Yaakov.
Note: B'tzet Yisrael, under Pesach
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 few Sephardic recordings by Cantor Hezkia Eliezer "Kiki" Arochas, including Kiddush, some Tehilim (Shirei Hamaalot), all of weekday Shacharit, and more.
Note: includes Baruch Haba
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
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 Mah Ashiv
A cantor's professional recordings, taken from his CD's. Very beautiful settings. Includes Kol Nidrei, Sim Shalom, L'dor Vador, Mah L'cha Hayam, Hodu, Od Yishama.
An organization to promote global Judaism that happens to also promote some Jewish music from around the world. There are just a few tracks, including a few from the Abayudaya in Uganda some Zimbabwean and Sephardic popular music, and a YouTube video of a Sephardic Yah Ribon.
A French Ashkenazic haggadah with some sheet music at the end. Includes Hodu/Ana/Adir Hu, two tunes for Ki Lo Naeh, Chasal Sidur Pesach, and two tunes for Echad Mi Yodea, one of which is in French.
There are only two working tunes here, for Mim'kom'cha and for Mah Ashiv. Looks like a test site that never got off the ground.