On taking out the Torah on Shabbat morning, we recite Sh'ma Yisrael and Echad Eloheinu. Instantly you know the melody I'm referring to... but maybe it's never even occurred to you that most congregations sing Sh'ma and Echad to at least two different tunes. Ostensibly the first part of the tune [A] is Sulzer – it sounds suspiciously similar to his Ki Mitzion. According to Joshua Jacobson, "Congregations apparently enjoyed singing Sulzer’s Ki Mitzion melody so much that they applied it to the subsequent texts of the Torah service, Baruch Shenatan Torah and Sh'ma Yisrael." This can already be seen by the mid 19th century in both Alois Kaiser and Marcus Hast's scores. However, Sulzer himself DID utilise this melody for Echad Eloheinu, which ironically most congregations today do not do, instead using the second melody... The second melody we use today [B] appears as Sulzer's congregational response for Echad. However a variant of this melody also appears in Mombach's score – whilst it's possible he copied Sulzer, I'd suggest this is likely a much earlier melody of unknown authorship. The Blue Book follows the same pattern but instead designates this melody as Traditional. There is a congregational response [X] for Sh'ma which appears in Sulzer, Mombach, and several other scores, but from my experience this is only sung today in some very traditional shuls with a strong sense of nusach. Confusingly, Sulzer's score actually contains four separate melodies – two for the Chazzan's recitation of Sh ma and Echad, and two for the congregation (or choral) responses. His tune for the Chazzan's exposition of Sh'ma [Y] I have personally never heard sung in any synagogue. For what it's worth, Zamru Lo, the Conservative movement's musical anthology, inexplicably identifies [Y] and [X] as by Sulzer, and [A] as Traditional. Sulzer: Y, X, A, B Mombach: X, X, B, B Blue book: X, X, B, B Hast: A, A, A, A Zamru Lo "Sulzer": Y, Y, X, X Zamru Lo "Traditional": A, A, A, A Most congregations today: A, A, B, B Some congregations today: A, B, A, B I have occasionally heard A, A, A, B, which I personally find deplorable for its lack of symmetry. What are we to make of this unsatisfying mess? At this point it's difficult to say what any authentic tradition is. The natural prosody of the words encourages a similar stress pattern, so it is unsurprising that these melodies (as well as other composers' tunes for these verses) sound similar. Sulzer's melody is fairly ubiquitous today, but certainly not in the way that he wrote it. To cover as many bases as possible and inevitably satisfy no-one, this interpretation utilises A, X, A, B. I like using A for the Chazzan's recitation of Echad as this is what Sulzer himself wrote (but not if it will lead to A, A, A, B as I mentioned earlier). In no way am I advocating this as the only authorised and correct version – to each his own!