At a conference not so long ago, a teacher told how boys would start the minchah service at school by singing Ashrei, the opening psalm, to the tune of Queen’s We Will Rock You. It is safe to say this is not what the classical cantorial books would have recommended. But if you can sing Ma’oz Tzur to the tune of a medieval German folk song, then why not a psalm to a rock anthem?

It is an example of a trend that has grown ever more prevalent over the past 20 or 30 years, a preference for tunes that encourage a congregation to join in prayers. Hence the import of easy-to-pick-up songs from the US and Israel that have found their way into our synagogues.

But this musical populism is not to everyone’s taste. There is a fear that it is driving out the more elevated styles of liturgical music that we typically associate with traditional chazanut — and it was expressed at a meeting last week organised by Edgware United Adult Education and the European Cantors Association.

Keith Rowe, the choirmaster at Birmingham’s Singers Hill Synagogue, was one of those worried about the future of chazanut. “This type of service is in huge danger of being completely lost,” he said.

Fewer and fewer synagogues employ cantors, even part-time. In central Orthodox synagogues in Manchester it may still not be uncommon to see a chazan as part of the clerical team. But you’d be hard-pressed to muster a minyan of chazans in the United Synagogue in London.

Occasionally, an appointment bucks the trend. Later this year Rachel Weston will become the third cantor at a UK Reform community when she arrives at Sinai Synagogue in Leeds and the first to act as the spiritual leader of one. In the same city, one of her Orthodox counterparts, Rabbi Alby Chait at the United Hebrew Congregation, for many years enjoyed the distinction of being the only full-time chazan to head a central Orthodox congregation — he gained his rabbinic ordination a couple of years ago.

Here and there, other qualified cantors head synagogues, such as Rabbi Natan Fagleman, minister of the Orthodox Allerton Hebrew Congegation in Liverpool, and the Reverend David Rome, of Sutton and District United Synagogue in South London, but they are few and far between.

Instead, Orthodox synagogues have come increasingly to rely on laymen to lead prayers. As Cantor Yehuda Marx, of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester, last year observed, in London “anyone can get up and take the service”.

Yehuda Marx

Cantor Yehuda Marx

There are a growing number of yeshivah-educated laymen with a decent voice and a good understanding of the prayers who may be capable of taking charge on the bimah. However, apart from the fact that they may not have received voice training, the main complaint is that they are often not schooled in nusach, the traditional modes of chanting prayer that would enable them to distinguish between the weekday morning, afternoon and evening prayers — or between Shabbat and festivals.

Respect for nusach doesn’t mean being chained to the melodies of the past. Rather, it will give a finely tuned sense of what is appropriate for a particular prayer. As Chazan Jacky Chernett, the doyenne of female cantors in the UK, notes, you could use Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah for the Shabbat pesukei dezimra (the early songs of praise) because it is in the right mode.

There was a time when Jews’ College (as the London School of Jewish Studies was then called) ran a course to train laymen to lead services. But today, as the ECA has said, “There is no centrally organised training for Orthodox prayer-leaders in the UK, nor is there any agreed standard which prayer leaders are required to meet in order to fulfil that role.”

Ten years ago, the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, told the European Cantors Convention, “Nusach has been lost in the Jewish world in a very tragic way.” It was important, he said, that “we guarantee that the traditional melodies and ways of leading the service will be preserved… for the generations to come”.

But while community leaders have voiced support for liturgical tradition, the ECA believes words have yet to be backed up by action. As a step to improving the quality of services, it has suggested that the United Synagogue appoint a central music officer to signal that it “takes music seriously”, with local officers in individual communities.

One option would be for local communities to fund talented and committed congregants to receive tuition from the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy, which is headed by Chazan Chernett. It offers mentoring on a one-to-one basis and while a pluralist institution, it will match students with religiously suitable tutors.

EAJL runs a ba’al tefillah programme that will equip graduates to lead services throughout the year.

Cantor Rachel Weston

Cantor Rachel Weston (Photo: copyright unknown)

For Chazan Chernett, who is from Kol Nefesh Masorti in Edgware, the clock won’t be turned back in synagogues. “We’re not going to have professional chazans — no one will pay for them. So let’s teach the lay leaders.”

EAJL has recently celebrated the fourth graduate from its ba’al tefillah course, Tim Motz, an Oxford University language graduate and member of New Stoke Newington (Masorti) Shul in London, who is currently in yeshivah in Jerusalem.

There are a number of other students on the course who include the leader of a small Orthodox community in Northern Finland. You can hear two others, Yoav Oved, the joint cantorial lead for New London Synagogue, and musician Ayala Gottlieb Alter on YouTube performing a setting of the Tefillat Tal, Prayer for Dew, which was originally composed by Stephen Levey, director of music at Immanuel College, for a chazan and a boy soloist. It is a quite lovely piece of music and a reminder that all is not lost.