KOLANG – the tuning fork

The KOLANG web project pursues two goals. One is to continue the activities of Marcel Lang, the teacher, and to make melodies used in Jewish religious services and customs available as learning content for self-study. The other is to preserve the oeuvre of Marcel Lang, the artist, and to make it publicly available as a piece of Jewish culture. The name KOLANG is derived from the Hebrew kol = voice, kolan = tuning fork and the artist's last name, and stands for the musical aid that KOLANG aims to offer interested Jews for their prayers and traditions.

How KOLANG came into being

Throughout his life, Marcel Lang created a large number of recordings of concerts and a wealth of teaching material. After his death, his family was faced with the decision as to what to do with these recordings. Having sought the advice of Marcel Lang’s colleagues and connoisseurs of Jewish music, they quickly agreed that the recordings should be reworked and published. Marcel Lang had always worked with a group of students to whom he taught the art of leading prayer and reading the Torah. He used the simple but proven method of giving the students the music so that they could take it home and practise it. As the melodies of Jewish liturgy hardly exist in written form, these recordings are a valuable source of teaching material for future generations. Under the heading "Marcel Lang, the teacher", KOLANG would like to offer you the possibility of learning the melodies of Jewish prayer. Marcel Lang recorded many of his concerts himself and then analysed them at home again. Among the many recordings are some wonderful and rare examples of Jewish music and "chazanut" (cantorial singing). KOLANG has compiled this valuable documentation of Jewish culture and presents it in the section "Marcel Lang, the artist".

Note about quality and completeness

We would like to point out that the recordings on KOLANG are not professional recordings of the quality customary in CD production (Marcel Lang’s CDs are available in music stores). Marcel Lang made most of the recordings published here for his own use or for his students using simple equipment. The recording quality would therefore never have met his professional standard for public distribution. The sound files have been mastered as far as technically possible to ensure a consistent level of volume. This website does not, moreover, claim to reproduce the texts of the prayers in their entirety, as this collection was not created for publication on a website. KOLANG is publishing these recordings precisely because we are convinced that they are of great value to students and lovers of Jewish music.