David Putterman
(1900-1979)
David J. Putterman was perhaps the most influential American cantor of his generation. He was born aboard an immigrant ship en route to New York City on either May 29 or August 27, 1900. (The confusion in birth dates results from changes made by Putterman himself for eligibility for an insurance policy; Putterman's son Alan is the source of this and additional family information.) The Putterman family hailed from Antapol, a town in Belorussia. Although he grew up in New York City, due to the enormous Jewish immigration to the United States around this time, Putterman received a traditional, Eastern European/Russian cantorial education. He attended the Yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan as well as other private Hebrew schools, and studied hazzanut and nusah hatefilah (repertoire and cantorial modes and melodies) with Professor A. Gann, Cantor Zeidel Rovner and cantor/conductor/composer Zavel Zilberts. Putterman later studied music theory with composers Max Helfman and Frederick Jacobi, and liturgy with Professor Ismar Elbogen. He received his secular education from Eastern District High School, Brooklyn, N.Y., Enron Prep School and at Pace Evening School and Pace Institute, all in New York City. As a boy Putterman sang in synagogue choirs and was an alto soloist in the choirs of world-renowned cantors Josef Rosenblatt, Gershon Sirota and Zeidel Rovner. By this time, they had all settled in New York City. He made his first public appearance at the age of eight. Putterman probably studied voice during his teen years with a Professor F. Pagano. He began his career as a hazzan "before his eighteenth birthday," ca. 1918. During the nineteen-twenties he had a successful recording and concert career, singing Yiddish and cantorial music on the Victor, Brunswick and Vocalion labels. He also sang in prestigious venues such as New York's Carnegie, Aeolian and Town Halls. For much of his adult life he would continue vocal coaching with Professor L.A. Espinal. During the nineteen-thirties Putterman sang under the name of Alan Roberts on a daily, fifteen-minute, commercial radio program. (His son Alan's middle name is Robert.) After suffering a gall bladder attack brought on by overwork, he quit radio in 1938. David Putterman served his first full-time congregation, Temple Israel of Washington Heights, from 1921-1933. In 1933 both he and Rabbi Milton Steinberg were jointly offered to lead New York's Park Avenue Synagogue towards a more traditional Jewish form of worship. By the time of Rabbi Steinberg's premature death in 1950, they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, transforming Park Avenue into one of the beacons for America's Conservative Jewish movement. David Putterman remained at the Park Avenue Synagogue until his retirement in 1976. David Putterman's three major career accomplishments made a profound impact on America's cantorate as well as the music of the American synagogue. Briefly, these were: initiating and heading, from 1943-1976, an annual series for the commissioning of contemporary synagogue music for the Park Avenue Synagogue; instigating the founding of the first professional organization for full-time Conservative cantors, the Cantors Assembly, in 1947; and spearheading the establishment of the Cantors Institute and Seminary College of Jewish Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1952. In his comments on the occasion of his fortieth anniversary at the Park Avenue Synagogue, David Putterman stated that both he and Rabbi Steinberg had mutually agreed in 1933 that neither would accept the position without the other. Rabbi Steinberg had been a pupil of Dr. Mordechai Kaplan — the founder of Judaism's Reconstructionist movement — and he accorded Cantor Putterman great freedom in choosing music for the religious service. In 1943 Putterman initiated a Sabbath eve service that contained newly-composed synagogue music by several prominent American composers. Save for 1954-1955, this annual contemporary service was to remain under Putterman's stewardship until 1976. The annual Park Ave. Synagogue "Sabbath Eve Service of Liturgical Music by Contemporary Composers" was a major musical event that filled the 1100 seat sanctuary with some of New York's most respected musicians, both Jewish and non-Jewish. From 1943-1949, anthem-like settings of individual Sabbath prayers were created by composers as prestigious as Darius Milhaud, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, Paul Ben-Haim and Lukas Foss. From 1950 on, complete Sabbath services were set by, among others, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, David Diamond, Isidore Freed, Yehudi Wyner, David Amram, Lazar Weiner and Miriam Gideon. Most of the individual prayer settings were first published by G. Schirmer in the 1951 collection, Synagogue Music by Contemporary Composers. Several were later published by the Cantors Assembly in Mizmor L'David: An Anthology of Synagogue Music, 1979. Also on his fortieth anniversary, Putterman stated his raison d'etre for commissioning this new music: "This music was never intended to displace the best elements of our traditional musical heritage... but rather that it might add to its enrichment." Perhaps because he was raised as an American, David Putterman recognized early in his career the importance of "Americanizing" not just the music of the synagogue, but also the status and education of America's hazzanim. Putterman had long petitioned the Conservative movement and the Jewish Theological Seminary, respectively, to endorse and establish a professional cantors' organization as well as an academy for the training of full-time cantors. In 1944 Putterman began working as consultant on cantorial placement for the United Synagogue of America. At the time the United Synagogue was the organization of congregations belonging to the Conservative movement. By January 1947, at Putterman's instigation, the United Synagogue had created a new Department of Music with Putterman as its head. Before the year was out the Cantors Assembly was born, a professional placement and benefits organization for full-time cantors. Five years later, with $25,000.00 pledged from Cantors Assembly members, the Cantors Institute and Seminary College of Jewish Music at The Jewish Theological Seminary became the second academic institutions to train cantors and grant degrees in Jewish music in the United States. Though assisted by others, it was Putterman's vision and drive that brought all of these valuable institutions into existence. In 1952 David J. Putterman was referred to as "the spiritual father of the Cantors Institute" by Seminary Chancelor Dr. Louis Finkelstein. The Cantors Assembly celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1997. David J. Putterman married the former Amy B. Racoosin on November 1, 1927. They had two sons, William Zev (1928-1996) and Alan Robert (1933-). Putterman's wife Amy became ill with a brain tumor in 1954 and died in May 1955. This would account for the missing annual contemporary music services from these years. In late 1957 Putterman married his former sister-in-law, Rea Cohen Racoosin. He served as the first Executive Vice-President of the Cantors Assembly from 1947-1959, and received that organization's first Kavod Award in 1960. In 1969 he was cited by The Jewish Theological Seminary for his twenty-five years as featured soloist on the radio and television broadcast, The Eternal Light — which was presented by NBC in cooperation with the Seminary. Putterman was also awarded a special citation of merit in 1973 by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his groundbreaking work commissioning new synagogue music. David J. Putterman died in New York City on October 10, 1979. His surviving son, Alan, lives in Valley Village, California.
Eliott Kahn
[78RPM]
Altmodishe Mame
(
Abner Silver, Al Sherman
& Al Lewis
)
David Putterman
Vocalion B 67162
1929
Kiddush (
Israel Goldfarb
)
David Putterman
RCA Victor 25-5012-A
Kiddush (
Israel Goldfarb
)
David Putterman
Victor V-9045-A
1938
Sholom Aleichem (
Israel Goldfarb & Samuel Eliezer Goldfarb
)
David Putterman
RCA Victor 25-5012-B
Sholom Aleichem (
Israel Goldfarb & Samuel Eliezer Goldfarb
)
David Putterman
Victor V-9045-B
1938
Sov, Sov, Svivon (
Shmuel Bas - Fua Greenshpon
)
David
Putterman
RCA Victor 25-5011-B
Sov, Sov, Svivon (
Shmuel Bas - Fua Greenshpon
)
David
Putterman
Victor V-9044-B
1938
Last update
21-06-2024
