I’m going to limit my comments to Shlomo Carlebach’s (SC) influence on synagogue music. The other issues I leave to those more knowledgeable than I. I heard SC daven a few times. His nusach, while techinically correct, was bland; pedestrian even. He really didn’t do anything with it. But then again he made to claim to being a cantor. It was his melodies on which he focused. Some were good in terms of nusach, others not. All in all, I think SC himself tried to adhere to the klalei hanusach. But it is legacy that is dismal. Sadly he failed to impart to his successors the importance of maintaining the nusach. At this point a Carlebach davening is little more than a Romper Room song fest pandering to the aesthetically lowest common denominator. What Young Israel didn’t kill in terms of dignified davening, SC’s progeny anihilated.
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