DEUTSCH, MORITZ

DEUTSCH, MORITZ (1818–1892), cantor and teacher. Deutsch, who was born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, was an infant prodigy in talmudic studies. Having a remarkable tenor voice, he went to Vienna to study music and cantorial singing. In 1842 he was appointed second cantor of the Liberal templein Vienna, where solomon sulzer was chief cantor. Two years later he became chief cantor at the Reform synagogue in Breslau. Here he formed and conducted a mixed choir. Deutsch taught cantorial music at the Breslau Theological Seminary for 30 years and in 1859 founded an institute for training cantors. He made original arrangements of liturgical music, aiming perhaps excessively at German choral style. His compositions include Breslauer Synagogengesaenge (1880) for soloist and choir, school songs, 12 preludes for organ and piano, and Vorbeterschule (1871). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Friedmann, in: AZDJ, 75 (1911), 174–5, 199–201; Sendrey, Music, index; Idelsohn, Melodien, 6 (1932), 24; E. Zaludkowski, Kulturtreger fun der yidisher Liturgye (1930), 63–67. (Joshua Leib Ne'eman)