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.
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: has a lot of stuff, including Torah and haftarah portions
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 some Tehilim sung in a Sephardic style (התיקון הכללי עם החזן משה חבושה); a lot of (mostly instrumental) niggunim for various occasions (שירי ברסלב - ניגוני חסידי ברסלב - שונות); more (שירי ברסלב - ניגוני חסידי ברסלב - נעימות ברסלב)
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 repository of mostly Ashkenazi liturgical music (I may have quoted this description from somewhere). There's a lot of old cantorial sheet music, like Sulzer's book for the whole year, Lewandowski tunes, and a few others. Really worth seeing. The recordings are concert-style rather than synagogue-style, though.
Note: chazzanut rather than nusach
Most of the page is in Hebrew, but the part with music is also in English. It contains two PDFs of the German nusach for what seems to be the whole year (with a lot of etc.'s, though). Really cool and rather comprehensive.
An insane amount of stuff in a completely unsearchable format. Mr. Bernhaut hosts a weekly radio show with two hours of music, and each episode is available, along with a list of the recordings used. There's Jewish music of all types, but quite a bit is chazzanut. The problem here is that the lists aren't organized by genre or occasion, so to me, it's completely opaque unless I go and listen to everything. Which I might just do, because this is really cool. In the meantime, this is actually a pretty good place to look for specific pieces of chazzanut provided you can suss out the spelling and use your browser's find function.
A huge archive of Jewish recordings of various types, from chazzanut to folk songs to dance. You can see the albums a few at a time, or see the songs a few at a time with genre information, but I don't think it's easily sortable by genre. Still, this is a great place to find stuff if you know what you want in particular.
A great archive of Jewish music of all sorts, and unlike its Dartmouth cousin, this one doesn't require registration. There's a lot of classic as well as modern chazanut. There are over 12000 songs/tracks (at the time of this writing, so who knows how many there are at the time of this reading), with all kinds of stuff. It's not easy to find things by service because there's just so much. It's really quite awesome -- and quite difficult to properly categorize its offerings. They are merging with the Recorded Sound Archives.
An archive of Hebrew music, including chazanut and much else.
A repository of links to videos of Jewish music by a big variety of performers.
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: Rosh Chodesh bentsching for various months, Tu Bishvat songs
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 night prayers, Bakashot, fast days, all life cycle events under Toldot Adam
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!
Note: includes lectures (and sheet music) on nusach itself, which is, well, really awesome
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: includes trope and pizmonim, as well as materials for life cycle events and bakashot
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.
Note: includes Brit Milah nusach 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.
Note: there's a lot there, including three albums of cantorial music
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: lots of random stuff, like Kaddish recordings, various Nusach Ari songs not in mainstream Ashkenazi siddurim, etc.
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.
Note: includes Sephardic Torah cantillations, memorial prayers for Auto da Fé victims; melodies for the Bar-Mitzvah Lezing ceremony
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.
Note: lots of pizmonim; also includes some of Daniel under Shabuot and Job under Ekha
In Hebrew -- there's an English page but it has a lot less stuff, so don't use it! Some selections from the library, some of them very nice! They reside at "Compilations", and they span a variety of Jewish musical traditions. Unfortunately, not all of them work at the moment.
Note: includes a notated Tu Bishvat seder and several long recordings of them, as well as plenty of other Jewish and Israeli music
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.
An Egyptian synagogue in New York. There are many recordings and videos here. Many. There are several years' worth of Seder Tawhid, an Egyptian Jewish celebration on Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Three years of Slichot plus selections from a fourth. Several High Holiday tunes. Several kinot. Havdalah in a whole bunch of different maqamat. Torah and haftarah trope according to the Egyptian minhag. All of Esther. Under R' Yosef Hamaoui Media there are even more recordings, including all of Psalms and a wedding service.
An extensive resource for laining (whole Torah, haftarot, Megillot) as well as some nusach (uses Eastern European pronunciation). Includes chanted psalms. It's currently growing fairly quickly, too, so this ranking may be outdated! The recordings in the Tefillah section don't actually contain melodies but shiurim on the respective prayers, except the one on the Kaddish.
Note: includes weekday readings as well
A few songs from different communities and languages.
Note: niggunim, some audio classes on nusach
In Hebrew. A project to preserve old Hebrew song recordings, which includes some piyutim and liturgical passages. They're organized alphabetically, though, so it's difficult to figure out liturgical coverage for particular services or holidays, but there are very, very, very many of them!
Goethe University's digitized Judaica collection. It isn't all music, but there is a lot of that there anyway. There are over 10000 items -- good luck! If you know what you're looking for, you can find Baer's Baal T'fillah, for example. This place is extensive.
This is an interesting blog, which highlights a tune every post. There's good stuff here, though it's not exactly easy to find!
In Hebrew. This is a Yemenite yeshiva in Jerusalem, with a lot of videos, lessons, and so on scattered throughout the site. The videos are all in one page here.
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: Lag Baomer songs, much under Other
Very extensive and very specific recordings of a lot of things, in Netherlands and Ashkenazi traditions. Really, really cool.
Note: includes Rosh Chodesh bentsching for different months, specific melodies for different Shabbatot, many very specific things for various events
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!
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.
Note: includes a large number of bakashot
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 many Shabbat songs, several niggunim, lots of English
In French. It's in Flash, so wait for it to load; you can listen to the entire Torah and haftarah chanted. If the interface is a bit wonky, don't worry, "telecharger" means "download". On the right side are recordings of other things, like Esther, Tehilim (including an instructional pdf on Taamei Emet, in French), Shir Hashirim, a Haggadah full of ululation (the Haggadah stops about halfway and then the songs start, including an Arabic Chad Gadya), some Slichot, and taamei hamikra.
In Hebrew. It's a fairly nice collection of davening and nigunim, but do please note that this is Chabad.info, a messianic group, and not the mainstream Chabad Lubavitch. Many are very low-quality recordings, which appear to be either old or recorded in a very large party, but this only adds character. The nigunim are not particularly organized, so I can't rate them easily, but there are nigunim for Shabbat, high holidays, Pesach, you name it. Some are instrumental only (Chabad Classic, for instance). Contains the entire Torah, most haftarah, Esther, and a very good high holiday section. Note that the tables are arranged right to left then top to bottom, like this:
3 2 1 6 5 4 8 7
An Edot Hamizrach synagogue in Har Tziyon near David's tomb; features videos of chazanut from Purim, Rosh Hashanah, and Bakashot.
In French. A Sephardic (Tunisian and Moroccan) synagogue in Paris that includes, among other things, a course on chazanut and piyutim, with a website containing quite a few recordings in Tunisian, Egyptian, and Yerushalmi traditions. There are a lot of bakashot, some Haggadah recordings, and a few other items.
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 bunch of classes, including one by the Belz School of Music for Nusach Hatefilah. The Nusach Hatefilah class covers details of the Saturday morning service, though I don't think the third session is working.
A very informative site with links to YouTube videos of folk songs of various types, including Yiddish and Ladino.
A blog with videos of chazzanut -- lots of them! They're not categorized, though, so I can't know what's here without looking through all 55 pages of it (so far).
This is really cool! Torah and haftarah trope, in Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Moroccan traditions. The interface is heavy on Flash, so make sure to whitelist the site in your Flash blocker if you plan on using it. Includes blessings before and after Torah and haftarah in the three traditions as well, for many occasions (not all occasions are present). And also the entire Torah.
In French. There's a collection of radio programs, in French, about Jewish music from around the world. I don't know how to find anything, though. There are also recordings under Médiathèque Halphen, though those are, that I could see, all excerpts.
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 lots of things including Yom Haatzmaut maariv and kiddush, and the Mishmarah
The first congregation in America! It's in the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, and it contains a wealth of recordings, including a complete Shabbat morning service, complete weekday services, complete parshiyot, and much more.
In Hebrew. A site with Moroccan videos and such. Most are on YouTube, but it's fairly extensive. There are bakashot, Shabbat piyutim, etc.
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, Mishnayot
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.
Note: some songs
In Box format, though the mp3's can be downloaded. The Shabbat morning recordings have quite a few songs rather than nusach. There are also some songs that have English as well.
Note: Musical version of the prayer for the State of Israel (under songs), and pretty extensive trope (Torah, haftarah, high holiday, shalosh regalim)
Interesting melodies from an Iraqi tradition, for a variety of texts including Kol Nidrei, Shabbat piyutim, etc.
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 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.
Note: lots and lots of niggunim
Tisch songs, as well as Yeshivat Reishit's beautifully harmonized high holiday tunes.
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.
Note: some high holiday Torah and haftarah readings, as well as lots of trope from Cantor Gaston
In Hebrew. Has various videos of piyutim and musical performances.
In French. A very interesting site about Tunisian Jewry that occasionally has some old recordings, like at the Pesach page from 2014. Unfortunately, finding recordings on the site is exceptionally difficult, but there are some! Note that they recently started using a new layout, but the older pages are still in the old layout; if a link takes you to a page straight out of the 90's, that's OK!
A website for learning to chant using Sephardic taamim, specifically Baghdadi, and Spanish and Portuguese as well.
A whole lot of playlists for the radio, grouped into selections of several songs with names like "Selection for Succot 2". Most of them have no track listings, unfortunately. There's some liturgical music, Israeli popular music, Chasidic, etc. The music opens in a player with no timer on it, so it's difficult to navigate, but it's really good for just listening!
Charlie Chehebar has recorded a 63-minute tape of Egyptian chazanut, available here. I really don't know what's in it without listening to the whole thing, since I don't recognize the texts, but they're nice singable melodies.
In French. This website explains the concept of the nouba and presents some examples. There are several recordings here, of bakashot and piyutim in the weekly nouba -- you can find them under Nouba de la semaine as well as under Auditorium -- though it looks like there are still many things missing.
Big collection of YouTube links to songs and melodies.
A huge collection of videos of Chasidic tishes and such.
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 Torah trope, including Simchat Torah trope; includes two versions of the Shirat Hayam reading and a few other parshiyot; includes a sung Mourner's Kaddish; includes El Male Rachamim for Holocaust victims
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!
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.
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 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.
Quite a few recordings of the Constantine nusach (Sephardic), including Torah reading, Hallel, the Haggadah, and various other songs and blessings.
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.
Note: trope for most of the Torah, haftarah, Megillot
Instruction on leading various blessings and services, partly aimed at teenagers (some sung fairly slowly). There are some High Holiday tracks as well, sung at regular speed.
Note: includes Torah trope (including rare trope), Shirat Hayam, Chazak for each book
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 multiple versions of Shirat Hayam, including sheet music; also, Yodukha Rayonai
In Hebrew. A website about Yemenite traditions. There are videos about how to read Torah and haftarah in the Yemenite way, for example, but the bulk of the recordings are here, organized by date. There you'll find, among other things, a Yemenite Birkat Hamazon.
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.
A few Sephardic recordings by Cantor Hezkia Eliezer "Kiki" Arochas, including Kiddush, some Tehilim (Shirei Hamaalot), all of weekday Shacharit, and more.
Note: includes Kaddish in different modes
This is a site that sells sheet music, but there's some available for free as well, most notably some Rosenblatt recitatives.
A sizeable collection of Sephardic liturgical songs, mostly arranged for four-part choir, as well as trope and a few other things. I don't know what language the page is in, though, and some of the links don't work.
An extensive collection of music, though much of it consists of demo samples and broken links rather than full tracks. Much of it is more appropriate for perfomance than shul. The sister site Tot Shabbat has music for children, but unfortunately is it written in Comic Sans. The vast majority of the files are incomplete, Real Audio, or broken, so there's not much point to going through it, but there are a few things in either site worth checking out.
A small collection of scores, mostly of Jewish art music. Includes some zemirot/piyutim as well.
Links to Chasidic albums by dynasty. Most are hosted at FAU.
Instructional recordings on the Syrian t'amim for the Sifrai Emet (Job, Psalms, Proverbs), in English, with plenty of explanation for how the system works. It's the only source with this level of instruction that I know of so far.
In Spanish. A site with links to videos of Jewish music, including quite a few golden age cantors on YouTube.
In Hebrew. A major Jewish/Israeli cultural center, featuring a large number of songs and videos.
In Russian. Messianic Chabad website with niggunim and songs in Russian, Hebrew, and English.
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: includes a bunch of Shabbat songs
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.
Complete weekday, Shabbat, and some other stuff.
Note: rather extensive trope 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 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.
Several recordings of psalms, some to original melodies.
Incredibly beautiful recordings of Kabbalat Shabbat, as well as a whole bunch of songs and zemirot. Includes weekday maariv and mincha.
The kids section of the Chabad website, which has several songs for holidays and other occasions, as well as original children's songs about the Torah and other Jewish themes.
A few digitized music collections from the JTS library. It includes field recordings of laining (examples from most books of the Tanach, at least) from 1936-8 Israel, which are naturally very scratchy and whose titles are in Hebrew, some music from Cochin, India, and Jewish art music manuscripts. The interface, I should warn, is horrendous, as sadly befits a library website.
Note: includes some of Job, Daniel, Proverbs, Psalms and a bit of other tefilot
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.
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.
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.
In Hebrew. A band that performs Jewish music, with extensive samples on the page.
Contains some rather interesting items, like recordings of the Megillot (Esther, Eicha, Shir Hashirim, some of Kohelet) with trope in English.
A set of (weekday) morning blessings, from Modeh Ani to the Torah reading, for children to learn the morning service. Includes Al Tira after Aleinu (under Amidah and End of Shacharit)
Note: includes the Twelve Pesukim
Some Iraqi Jewish music, including Bavli Slichot.
Several Ladino songs on YouTube, along with the text and English translations. It's very nice.
A center for promoting Iraqi Jews. There are some recordings of Torah and piyutim here in Real Audio format.
A site of daily psalms, which also includes the entire book chanted in the Syrian tradition.
A website with Yemenite interest; includes a music section with links to Yemenite, Sephardic, and other recordings.
A Renewal congregation that particularly enjoys chanting, with a lot of recordings of the chants they sing.
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 examples of trope, several examples of the Kaddish
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: Torah, haftarah blessings and trope
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: niggunim, some audio classes on nusach
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.
An independent congregation with a fairly extensive audio library.
A very nice set of recordings, some with multiple versions. It has Atah Hor'eta Ladaat from Simchat Torah!
Note: includes weekday readings for all of the Torah and some special festival readings
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 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.
Tracks from a bar-mitzvah CD. Includes a nice Ashrei melody.
Note: includes Torah and haftarah trope
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 Karaite congregation with quite a few audio files of prayers and songs from the Egyptian Karaite tradition, including Shabbat, havdalah, kiddush, slichot, Esther, etc.
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.
A Modern Orthodox shul's with a whole bunch of recordings of Shabbat and holidays.
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 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.
Note: includes a chant for the Mourner's Kaddish, though it's the same as for the weekday Pesukei D'zimrah (Music for Mourning)
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
A Conservative synagogue with a bunch of blessings, in .ram and .mp3 formats, over bread, wine, etc. Mostly spoken, not chanted.
Note: blessings for many things, Shema recitation, Torah/Haftarah blessings, Ashrei
The gold standard in trope websites, as far as I'm concerned. There's Torah, haftarah, high holiday, Eicha, Esther, and Shalosh Regalim (Shir Hashirim, Ruth, Kohelet) trope, and with musical notation to make it even easier.
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 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: a few things I don't recognize, niggunim, a 20-minute recitation of Psalm 45 (it says 44 but my Tanakh disagrees)
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.
A shul's website with recordings for Shabbat morning (not including Musaf).
Note: includes Torah and haftarah trope
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.
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 blog with an emphasis on recordings of North African Jewish music, among other things. Unfortunately, it is a blog, so you'll have to do some digging if you want to find anything; the link goes to all posts tagged with "music". Most of the music is secular music, but you can find some music and text from the Haggadah at this post and Ki Lo Naeh, Kol Nidrei, and El Nora Alilah at this one. You can also browse the author's SoundCloud.
A zemirot project with an interesting selection. Unfortunately, it's the kind of thing that Chrome makes you download rather than opening in the browser.
Beautiful choral recordings (and sheet music) of a Slichot service by a British choir. There are also recordings of Sefirah services.
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.
A class wiki for a liturgy class that has some recordings and sheet music on it, including a comparison of kaddish for N'ilah and Geshem. Most of the items on the wiki are notes on the liturgy itself rather than the melodies, though.
Several recordings, in several styles, of Baal Hasulam (Yehuda Ashlag)'s compositions.
In Hebrew, but there's a French site as well that's somewhat different with an odd sidebar. A site dedicated to North African Judaism. You can find taamim and Torah reading here and here and some piyutim (Y'did Nefesh, Yom Shabaton, Ki Eshmera Shabbat, a few others) here.
Torah and haftarah trope.
Torah reading in the Egyptian style, with an audio lesson on the taamim.
Cantor Moshe Schulhof's recordings of chazanut; there are a few tunes here.
In Hebrew. A songbook/workbook featuring a number of notated Israeli songs.
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.
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.
Note: includes Torah and haftarah trope
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: Some trope
A nice and rather extensive synagogue resource, including Haggadah nusach, a big set of Youtube videos, other Shabbat sound files, trope, and bentsching.
A set of recordings including quite a bit from the seder. The recordings are on different pages under "Worship", including under Junior Congregation.
Note: includes trope
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.
Note: Modeh Ani, a few other songs and blessings
A shul with some recordings, including a nice high holiday selection.
Note: some trope
A synagogue with recordings for a quite complete Shabbat morning service, several tunes for High Holidays including a complete Birkot Hashachar and P'sukei D'zimrah, and Sheva Brachot.
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.
Weekday and some Shabbat recordings.
A good bunch of recordings, but it's not in order! Most is in nusach, but there are some melodies too.
Note: includes haftarah trope
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: a few songs
A few CD's of music for Shabbat, Purim, Pesach, High Holidays, and more.
Note: a few very listenable piyutim from various cultures, the same as Invitation to Piyut North America
Lots of normal Shabbat morning stuff, including some melodies omitted by the previous two, but the interface is a bit awkward.
Note: some random songs like Torah Tzivah Lanu
In French. A website with information about observances of Francophone Jews; it includes a few recordings and videos under their respective holidays and under Radio Tv.
Note: includes sheet music for a Tu Bishvat song (Tu Bishvat Layeled Kat); includes a whole bunch of videos for Yom Haatzmaut; Bar Yochai; several Yom Yerushalayim, Yom Hashoah, and Yom Hazikaron videos; a 35-minute recording of "chansons orientales" under Radio TV which I think are all popular music
In Portuguese. Features a bunch of Brazilian Chabad recordings, including Chanukah, z'mirot, etc.
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.
This is a personal website straight from the 90's with RealAudio of actually a big collection of Sephardic music. It was hosted on GeoCities, but it has been saved by ReoCities, and as far as I can tell, all the subpages (except All Occasions) and .ra files work, but it might take some doing to get them to actually play -- for me, RealPlayer wasn't doing it, but MPlayer was -- and the sound quality is extremely low. There are a few MIDIs as well.
A few piyutim from various traditions, with a focus on the Near and Middle East.
WARNING: AUTOPLAY! A band that performs weddings and other events. They have a huge collection of music to listen to, though, including, obviously, a lot of wedding and dance music.
Ashkenazic trope for every occasion, as well as, separately, Reform trope for Torah and haftarah. Includes a special melody for Eichah 3. It also features interesting melodic diagrams for the different t'amim.
Some upbeat accompanied recordings of Shabbat melodies. Includes Torah and haftarah trope as well.
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.
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.
Wikimedia has a handful of recordings from the National Library of Israel, including Lag Baomer, the Shema, some High Holiday recordings, Haggadah, and Chanukah.
Some MIDI files of various songs and prayers.
In French. A blog dedicated to the preservation of old vinyl records, including North African music. Searching by tags yields a few Algerian and Moroccan Jewish artists, but the only liturgical recordings are Jo Amar's Haggadah de Pessach, 1ère partie and 2ème partie.
Beautiful choral recordings of pieces from the Saturday morning and high holiday services, but it may take some trickery to play them. It appears that the Javascript isn't well-formed for all of the links, but you can right-click the track name, click Copy Link Address, paste that into your address bar, and delete the parts before http and after .mp3. They're really nice, so it's worth the trouble!
A chazan's website; features several audio clips from Shabbat as well as Im Eshkachech.
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 cantor-performer's website, with some recordings from performances.
In French. There's a bunch of information about cantors, some with RealAudio clips that I can't get to work. At the bottom, though, is sheet music for the French trope, which is cool. Also on the site is La chorale EI de Léo Cohn, with several Jewish recordings from the 1930's including Tanu Rabanan (a version of Echad Mi Yodea), Yom M'nuchah, Hatikvah, Maoz Tzur, etc.
Torah readings for the year, as well as taamim and Esther.
A minyan whose cantor has participated in some Jewish music radio programs linked, which include some liturgical music.
The Orthodox Berlin Synagogue, featuring a few YouTube videos of Cantor Arie Zaloshinsky, including Kol Nidrei and a wedding.
A blog post with a great many links to Pesach niggunim, most sadly broken.
Some beautiful professionally recorded music based on liturgy. I'm not sure it's useful in leading a service, but it's certainly very, very nice. Includes melodies for R'tzeh and Modim in the Amidah, a folk tune for V'shamru, Hashkiveinu, Ps. 96, etc.
A few recordings of Jewish songs with good accompaniment. The group is Italian, so there are some Italian melodies along the modern Israeli melodies.
Several of Mechon Hadar's Joey Weisenberg's niggunim (including one of An'im Z'mirot) as YouTube videos, as well as opportunities to purchase his books and albums of Jewish communal music.
A synagogue site with several guitar-accompanied songs with lyrics from liturgy and some prayers as well (like Shabbat maariv Bar'chu).
Some scholarly articles about synagogue music, with notated examples.
MIDIs (yes!) of niggunim. No words, naturally -- they're niggunim! Also MIDIs. There are Chabad niggunim, other Chasidic niggunim, and the author's own.
The first four psalms, chanted according to a Moroccan tradition (note that the first psalm is preceded by Ps. 95:1-3). There appear to be links to a great deal of chazanut by Ribi David Kadoch, but there really aren't -- however, the darkeabotenou Youtube channel does have them.
A cnator's website with some beautiful chazanut.
A site dedicated to Jews of color, especially those who were children of US soldiers in Germany after WWII. There are some links to music by Jews of color, including some gospel!
A Reform congrgation; they've put out a CD with some songs and prayers, and they even have the sheet music available! There is also audio of blessings under their religious school, but it's all spoken, not sung.
Some MIDIs and sheet music of Jewish and liturgical tunes, including Ashrei Hagafrur.
A Flash slideshow with text and songs for a Tu Bishvat seder.
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: conversion blessings, read one word at a time
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.
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 haftarah trope, though they're in separate recordings so it's hard to get the context
The Shabbat morning service (using the shortened Pesukei D'zimra). Has Torah trope as well. There's also an alternate melody for the Kaddish Shalem at the end of musaf (which is shortened; Shacharit is full-length), which is cool.
Various Chasidic recordings and niggunim. Has an extensive section on Ana B'choach and three versions of Shoshanat Yaakov.
Note: a lullaby for a line from the Bedtime Shema
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 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).
Some Shabbat recordings and some High Holiday Torah readings.
Several resources from the Reconstructionist Movement.
Note: includes some other songs, including a setting for the chatimah of Ps. 27 with English, a setting for the last line from Shirat Hayam that could be used for Pesukei D'zimra
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 handful of recordings with basic Torah/haftarah trope, a couple of songs, and a few blessings.
A Jewish school in Rio de Janeiro (that I almost went to, actually). They have a blog where occasionally some recordings are posted, though not all of them actually work. The link goes to the Pesach page, but there's also a page for Rosh Hashanah, Purim, etc.
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.
This is a Christian site, but it contains a few recordings: Oseh Shalom, Eshet Chayil, and the first paragraph of the Birkat Hamazon.
A synagogue website featuring some YouTube videos of Cantor Sol Zim. Under Worship and Prayer -> Davening for Dummies, there are also recordings of Tikanta Shabbat and Mimkomcha from Shabbat services.
A Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogue with High Holiday Torah readings as well as Torah trope.
An online "synagogue", with sermons and other services. There are some recordings of Kol Nidrei, as well as High Holiday Torah readings and streamed services.
In Spanish. This is a Messianic website with links to YouTube videos of psalms and slichot.
A synagogue with a recording of Torah trope. The cantor's page also has the Shabbat musaf k'dushah.
A website for the Black Jews, also known as Israelites, featuring a few videos containing melodies of this community.
In Portuguese. A Messianic congregation in Vitória, Espírito Santo. The site isn't really all up, and most of the recordings are Christian-style church band songs (oddly, they're mostly in English though the titles are translated in Portuguese), but there's a nice melody for Eshet Chayil in there somewhere, and maybe a few other things.
A site with some music related to Kabbalah. I have only been able to get the four tracks at the bottom to work, and only when I do Save Link As... on them. One of them is Dror Yikra.
A couple of audio classes on niggunim.
Some recordings (five songs) of Cardiff Synagogue's choir, with instrumental accompaniment. Includes Shir Hamaalot sung to the tune of Scarborough Fair, which is kinda cool.
A bentscher, but one bit of it contains sheet music for some niggunim.
A site with Moroccan customs. The linked page has some children's songs; other pages also contain Yalla Mimouna and a kinah for Tish'ah B'av.
A 1996 website about the Song of Songs. Contains small samples of its chanting is Ashkenazi, Moroccan, and Yemenite traditions, in RealAudio format.
Torah tropes, each in an individual recording.
Torah and haftarah tropes, each in an individual MIDI.
Torah and haftarah tropes, each in an individual MIDI, with musical notation as well.
A Yemenite (Aden) synagogue in London, with some Adeni music with unsure connection to liturgy.
A very old, unmaintained webpage for the Jewish Community of Malta (there are other sites claiming to be the official site for this community). It features a few MIDIs (this site is that old) of a few Jewish songs from the liturgy and otherwise.
Four recordings of the complete Sh'ma.
Some videos of melodies from Aleppo. There's very little content here, and it actually varies by language.
Two Belzer niggunim.
A Modern Orthodox with a men's choir; there's just one recording here, of the Al Tira after Aleinu.
At some point I must have found some recordings here, but I can't find them now. The page is all in Hebrew, and I feel like I'm getting 404's, but I can't tell.
In Hebrew. Worse, in Flash, so Google Translate doesn't work on it. There are some recordings under "folklore", but they're in .wma and Real Audio formats, and they don't seem to be liturgical.
In Hebrew. There are presumably recordings of chazzanut here, but the files are all 404'd. They do have an archive here.
In French. This is a French Jewish magazine, and this part of it is about Jewish customs and such. Unfortunately, most of the audio is Real Audio, which means good luck. There's Torah and haftarah here, and a few other recordings under Nos fêtes. However, I haven't been able to get anything to play.
In Hebrew. A site about Ethiopian Jews and their struggles, which also includes music. I couldn't figure out the connection of the music to liturgy, unfortunately, nor am I familiar with the liturgy of Ethiopian Jews at all, so I can't give much guidance here.
Various chasidic niggunim. The links appear to be dead, though.