https://youtu.be/W_9eK9vregI# Essa Enai - Zemirot | London and AmsterdamThe pan-Sephardi tradition of reading almost everything aloud in the synagogue serves a number of important pedagogic purposes. Among them, inculcating a love for the sound of the Hebrew language, and allowing the children of our communities to become familiar with our ancient texts even before they are able to read them. Given these self-evident benefits, the widespread Ashkenazi custom of reading the *Pesukei Dezimrah* pretty much in silence is undeniably a missed opportunity. It is also bewildering and perplexing.Bewildering, because to mouth those songs of praise without being able to hear the power of their majestically crafted words is almost to defy their whole purpose. It certainly stretches beyond recognition the definition of the word ‘song’. And perplexing, because you do have to wonder whether King David would actually have bothered to write such beautiful poetry had he known that it was going to be read in a sub-whisper.So, *snogeiros* of Amsterdam and New York, I think you have some ‘splaining to do. Does anyone amongst you know of any reason behind the practice of not reading every word of the *Zemirot* in full voice? Seriously, I’d be interested in hearing your answers. I should add that in Amsterdam, the custom of reading in an undertone pervades much of the Hazzan’s recitative and has even extended to passages that were originally sung by the congregation. Inevitably, over time, this practice has resulted in the perhaps irretrievable erasure of several melodies from the community’s musical memory.In this recording, I have taken a couple of small liberties. First, I have harmonized the chanting of the text which normally would be read, unaccompanied, by the Mezamer. Secondly, I have paired the recitative of the London tradition for the reading of the psalm with the majestic and dramatic Amsterdam variant for the final verse chanted by the congregation, which unusually ends on the dominant (fifth note of the scale).Please like and share.