Julius Mombach

Julius (Israel Lazarus) Mombach (1813 – February 1880) was a 19th-century English synagogue composer. Tunkel (2012) regards him as "the most important of the composers of synagogue music in the Anglo-Jewish tradition of the 19th Century" whilst Elton (2003) doesn't even restrict this assessment to England.

His compositions started from the traditional modes of synagogue music, but extended to include German and English folk song and contemporary classical themes. His style was influenced by Mendelssohn, and it is noteworthy that motifs from Elijah appear in a number of his pieces.

Mombach was born in Pfungstadt, Germany in 1813, the son of a cantor. Pfungstadt is a small town to the south of Darmstadt in central Germany. The family name comes from the town of Mombach near Mainz.

In 1827 or 1828, Enoch Binom Elias (Enoch Eliasson) from Darmstadt was appointed cantor at the Great Synagogue, Duke's Place, London. A condition of his appointment as cantor was that he should bring a boy accompanist (or meshorrer) with him. The cantor traditionally sang in a trio with a meshorrer and a bass. In 1827, Mombach would have been 14, and it is unknown whether his voice had broken; in practice this was not a major issue, as the meshorrer could be either a treble or a tenor.

Within two years, Elias had caught a chill which damaged his voice. In 1829, he left his position and took up an appointment as Director of Concerts at the Lyceum Theatre. Mombach remained at the Synagogue and took musical instruction from Elias. The post of cantor remained vacant until 1832, when Simon Ascher of Gröningen was appointed. He had "a fine, clear tenor, whose florid style of recitative with frequent roulades long remained a beloved memory with London Jews".

After Salomon Sulzer pioneered the use of a full choir in the synagogue in Vienna in 1825, Jewish communities all over Europe followed his example. However, at the Great Synagogue in London, Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschell expressly forbade the use of sheet music (which he referred to as the "Book of Strokes") and the tuning fork. Hirschell would not permit the repetition by the new choir of the word Hallelujah unless the last syllable, embodying the Divine name, were omitted until the close.

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