London Sephardi Congregational Melodies

The purpose of this website is to provide an online resource of all the congregational melodies sung at the synagogues of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London. It is intended for the use of regular congregants, visitors to the community  and any other interested parties. Non-commercial use and dissemination of these recordings for purposes appropriate to liturgical material is permitted and positively encouraged.

Each of the pages contain recordings of all the congregational melodies used in our communities for that service. The pages are arranged according to the order of the service as per the relevant prayer book, going through all parts of the service which are to be sung by the congregation in order. Where there is a selection of different melodies which may be sung to a given prayer, all of these are given under that prayer title, one after the other.

Throughout the site, if a particular melody is only sung on certain special occasions, then it (as well as any rubric accompanying it) is shown in italics.

This site does not contain any recordings of the Hazanut (Cantorial chant), unless it is directly relevant to a congregational melody (such as a congregational response). Persons interested in hearing that material are directed to the website Liturgical Music of Shaar Hashamayim, a sister site to this one, containing recordings of the complete cycle of Hazanut. Another site – London Sephardi Choir Archive – contains live recordings of the Congregation’s choir in action.

The vast majority of the recordings on this site have been prepared especially for this purpose by the creator of this site – Eliot Alderman, Director of Music to the Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ Congregation – with the intention of encouraging congregants and visitors to feel they can join in with confidence in synagogue.
Occasionally other authoritative recordings have been included, and these are noted as such when present.

Weekday Afternoon & Evening services

Sabbath Evening service

Kaddish

Sabbath table songs

Bakashot

Sabbath Morning service – part 1

Kedushah

Sabbath Morning service – part 2

Sabbath Additional service

En Kelohenu

Adon ‘Olam

Termination of the Sabbath

Tisha beAb morning

Weddings

Please note: This website is currently under construction. Many pages of melodies are still to be added, and some links are not yet live to files which have yet to be uploaded. More files are being added periodically.