Michael H. Kater
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195096200
- eISBN:
- 9780199870219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195096200.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter begins with a discussion of Nazi anti-Semitic policy in the music sector. It then discusses Jewish musicians under Nazi rule, Jewish flight and exile, and exiled non-Jewish musicians. On ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Nazi anti-Semitic policy in the music sector. It then discusses Jewish musicians under Nazi rule, Jewish flight and exile, and exiled non-Jewish musicians. On 7 April 1933 the anti-Semitic Nazi government promulgated the so-called Law for the Reconstitution of the Civil Service. It called for the dismissal of Jewish employees in the public realm, excepting at first only a very few, such as veterans of World War I. By the fall of 1935 those exceptions were, by and large, cancelled. In terms of ideology, oppressive action by agencies of the Nazi state against Jewish musicians was predicated on a supposed antithesis between what was officially regarded as discrete categories of German music on the one side and Jewish music on the other. But try as they might, the Nazis could not define either German or Jewish music on the basis of empirically discernible evidence.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Nazi anti-Semitic policy in the music sector. It then discusses Jewish musicians under Nazi rule, Jewish flight and exile, and exiled non-Jewish musicians. On 7 April 1933 the anti-Semitic Nazi government promulgated the so-called Law for the Reconstitution of the Civil Service. It called for the dismissal of Jewish employees in the public realm, excepting at first only a very few, such as veterans of World War I. By the fall of 1935 those exceptions were, by and large, cancelled. In terms of ideology, oppressive action by agencies of the Nazi state against Jewish musicians was predicated on a supposed antithesis between what was officially regarded as discrete categories of German music on the one side and Jewish music on the other. But try as they might, the Nazis could not define either German or Jewish music on the basis of empirically discernible evidence.
Benjamin Brinner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195395945
- eISBN:
- 9780199852666
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395945.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
The courtyard of the Hebrew Union College in West Jerusalem fills with a mix of Israeli adults and rowdy Colorado teenagers on a summer trip to Israel. Rows of plastic armchairs face a temporary ...
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The courtyard of the Hebrew Union College in West Jerusalem fills with a mix of Israeli adults and rowdy Colorado teenagers on a summer trip to Israel. Rows of plastic armchairs face a temporary stage flanked by speaker towers and banks of colored stage lights. Shlomo Bar, the leader of Habreira Hativ'it, enters last and sits on a high stool in front of and higher than the arc of musicians on chairs. Bar tells the audience in Hebrew how happy he is to perform in Jerusalem. This chapter surveys musical life in Israel in the late twentieth century to highlight Jewish musicians' motivations to explore new directions that incorporated elements of Middle Eastern music, often in collaboration with Arab musicians. The portrayal of Israeli culture and society as dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European origin is too simplistic. The hegemony of European cultural and social forms is linked.Less
The courtyard of the Hebrew Union College in West Jerusalem fills with a mix of Israeli adults and rowdy Colorado teenagers on a summer trip to Israel. Rows of plastic armchairs face a temporary stage flanked by speaker towers and banks of colored stage lights. Shlomo Bar, the leader of Habreira Hativ'it, enters last and sits on a high stool in front of and higher than the arc of musicians on chairs. Bar tells the audience in Hebrew how happy he is to perform in Jerusalem. This chapter surveys musical life in Israel in the late twentieth century to highlight Jewish musicians' motivations to explore new directions that incorporated elements of Middle Eastern music, often in collaboration with Arab musicians. The portrayal of Israeli culture and society as dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European origin is too simplistic. The hegemony of European cultural and social forms is linked.
James Loeffler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300137132
- eISBN:
- 9780300162943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300137132.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter examines the history of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, an organization of composers, performers, scholars, and amateur enthusiasts committed to the mission of creating modern Jewish ...
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This chapter examines the history of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, an organization of composers, performers, scholars, and amateur enthusiasts committed to the mission of creating modern Jewish music, founded in 1908. It analyzes the organization's responses to the strange mixture of antisemitism and philosemitism in the Russian musical world, and suggests that their eloquent musical arguments constituted an affirmation of Jewish music as an integral yet distinct voice in modern European culture. The chapter also discusses their efforts to rehabilitate the image of the Jewish musician through a cosmopolitan notion of Jewish national music.Less
This chapter examines the history of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, an organization of composers, performers, scholars, and amateur enthusiasts committed to the mission of creating modern Jewish music, founded in 1908. It analyzes the organization's responses to the strange mixture of antisemitism and philosemitism in the Russian musical world, and suggests that their eloquent musical arguments constituted an affirmation of Jewish music as an integral yet distinct voice in modern European culture. The chapter also discusses their efforts to rehabilitate the image of the Jewish musician through a cosmopolitan notion of Jewish national music.
Mark Solbin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520227170
- eISBN:
- 9780520935655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520227170.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter attempts to rescue an early American Jewish institution from historical oblivion—di rusishe progresiv muzikal yunyon no. 1 fun amerike (the Russian Progressive Musical Union No. 1 of ...
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This chapter attempts to rescue an early American Jewish institution from historical oblivion—di rusishe progresiv muzikal yunyon no. 1 fun amerike (the Russian Progressive Musical Union No. 1 of America)—the first Jewish musicians' union in the United States and the missing link in the history of the migration of klezmer music and musicians from eastern Europe to the United States. The origins of this union reveal a great deal about the early effects of social, cultural, and political currents of urban America on this genre of eastern European Jewish music, and about the overall transformation of traditional Yiddish culture in the New World.Less
This chapter attempts to rescue an early American Jewish institution from historical oblivion—di rusishe progresiv muzikal yunyon no. 1 fun amerike (the Russian Progressive Musical Union No. 1 of America)—the first Jewish musicians' union in the United States and the missing link in the history of the migration of klezmer music and musicians from eastern Europe to the United States. The origins of this union reveal a great deal about the early effects of social, cultural, and political currents of urban America on this genre of eastern European Jewish music, and about the overall transformation of traditional Yiddish culture in the New World.
James Loeffler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300137132
- eISBN:
- 9780300162943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300137132.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter examines the role of Anton Rubinstein in the rise of Russian Jewish musicians. It analyzes what his life and art may reveal about Jews, Russians, and music in the nineteenth century, and ...
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This chapter examines the role of Anton Rubinstein in the rise of Russian Jewish musicians. It analyzes what his life and art may reveal about Jews, Russians, and music in the nineteenth century, and traces the effects of his own personal dilemmas of identity on his views of music and nationalism. The chapter also argues that Rubinstein's quest to reconcile art and religion, Judaism and Christianity, and East and West reflected a novel expression of a hybrid Russian Jewish identity which deserves to be reconsidered in the context of Russian and Jewish history.Less
This chapter examines the role of Anton Rubinstein in the rise of Russian Jewish musicians. It analyzes what his life and art may reveal about Jews, Russians, and music in the nineteenth century, and traces the effects of his own personal dilemmas of identity on his views of music and nationalism. The chapter also argues that Rubinstein's quest to reconcile art and religion, Judaism and Christianity, and East and West reflected a novel expression of a hybrid Russian Jewish identity which deserves to be reconsidered in the context of Russian and Jewish history.
James Loeffler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300137132
- eISBN:
- 9780300162943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300137132.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history of Jewish musicians in late Russian Empire. It considers the broader Jewish musical legacy in one of the most important ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history of Jewish musicians in late Russian Empire. It considers the broader Jewish musical legacy in one of the most important Russian–Jewish cultural encounters of the twentieth century: the post-World War II friendship of composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The chapter also discusses the lives of actual Russian Jewish musicians who looked past conventional politics and religion to culture as the foundation of modern Jewish identity.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history of Jewish musicians in late Russian Empire. It considers the broader Jewish musical legacy in one of the most important Russian–Jewish cultural encounters of the twentieth century: the post-World War II friendship of composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The chapter also discusses the lives of actual Russian Jewish musicians who looked past conventional politics and religion to culture as the foundation of modern Jewish identity.
Michael Haas
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300154306
- eISBN:
- 9780300154313
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300154306.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. ...
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With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich, and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germany's historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile, and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation. The author looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge such as Britain and the United States, and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment.Less
With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich, and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germany's historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile, and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation. The author looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge such as Britain and the United States, and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment.
Mark Solbin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520227170
- eISBN:
- 9780520935655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520227170.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter focuses on the careers of two major bands—The Klezmorim and Brave Old World—which emerged partly or wholly from the little-known California context of the 1970s. Drawing on interviews ...
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This chapter focuses on the careers of two major bands—The Klezmorim and Brave Old World—which emerged partly or wholly from the little-known California context of the 1970s. Drawing on interviews and song texts, it imagines how klezmer music evokes emotion and makes experiences of “Jewishness” reverberate with both fondness and a sense of loss.Less
This chapter focuses on the careers of two major bands—The Klezmorim and Brave Old World—which emerged partly or wholly from the little-known California context of the 1970s. Drawing on interviews and song texts, it imagines how klezmer music evokes emotion and makes experiences of “Jewishness” reverberate with both fondness and a sense of loss.
Mark Solbin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520227170
- eISBN:
- 9780520935655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520227170.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
The klezmer tradition suffered major discontinuity after World War II, owing to the near destruction of eastern European Jewry in the Holocaust and to the changes wrought by assimilation and ...
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The klezmer tradition suffered major discontinuity after World War II, owing to the near destruction of eastern European Jewry in the Holocaust and to the changes wrought by assimilation and acculturation on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to the increasing importance of Israeli culture in shaping Jewish cultural identity worldwide. As a result, postwar musicians and scholars pursuing the study of klezmer music have mainly been compelled to turn to commercial recordings of the music—in large part, 78 rpm records made during the first four decades of this century—as a primary aural source, rather than to contemporary practitioners. In some cases, however, students of the genre in North America, Israel, and eastern Europe have been fortunate to make the acquaintance of both immigrant and native-born exponents of the tradition in various stages of its contemporary development. As a researcher of traditional eastern European Jewish music and dance as well as a professional musician active in the klezmer revitalization, the author conducted in-depth interviews with Ben Bazyler between 1984 and 1990, exploring many aspects of his life and work. This chapter focuses on Bazyler's life story and its significance.Less
The klezmer tradition suffered major discontinuity after World War II, owing to the near destruction of eastern European Jewry in the Holocaust and to the changes wrought by assimilation and acculturation on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to the increasing importance of Israeli culture in shaping Jewish cultural identity worldwide. As a result, postwar musicians and scholars pursuing the study of klezmer music have mainly been compelled to turn to commercial recordings of the music—in large part, 78 rpm records made during the first four decades of this century—as a primary aural source, rather than to contemporary practitioners. In some cases, however, students of the genre in North America, Israel, and eastern Europe have been fortunate to make the acquaintance of both immigrant and native-born exponents of the tradition in various stages of its contemporary development. As a researcher of traditional eastern European Jewish music and dance as well as a professional musician active in the klezmer revitalization, the author conducted in-depth interviews with Ben Bazyler between 1984 and 1990, exploring many aspects of his life and work. This chapter focuses on Bazyler's life story and its significance.
Beth Abelson Macleod
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039348
- eISBN:
- 9780252097393
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039348.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter examines the role that Judaism played in Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler's life and career. It begins by summarizing the experiences of nineteenth-century European musicians of Jewish heritage ...
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This chapter examines the role that Judaism played in Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler's life and career. It begins by summarizing the experiences of nineteenth-century European musicians of Jewish heritage and the extent to which music, unlike other professions, allowed them a pathway to success. It then considers the portrayal of Jewish musicians in novels and plays of the period, with particular emphasis on Israel Zangwill's The Melting Pot. It also discusses various Jewish aspects of Bloomfield-Zeisler's life, including early conflicts within her immediate family, her experience in Chicago attending a Christian boarding school, and her time in Vienna during a period of increasing anti-Semitism. Finally, it analyzes the reasons for Bloomfield-Zeisler's frequent comparison with Sarah Bernhardt; allusions to her Jewishness in reviews; and the Zeislers' monthly salons in Chicago, which attracted an impressive range of prominent U.S. and European intellectuals—musicians, authors, jurists, artists, writers, scientists, and philanthropists.Less
This chapter examines the role that Judaism played in Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler's life and career. It begins by summarizing the experiences of nineteenth-century European musicians of Jewish heritage and the extent to which music, unlike other professions, allowed them a pathway to success. It then considers the portrayal of Jewish musicians in novels and plays of the period, with particular emphasis on Israel Zangwill's The Melting Pot. It also discusses various Jewish aspects of Bloomfield-Zeisler's life, including early conflicts within her immediate family, her experience in Chicago attending a Christian boarding school, and her time in Vienna during a period of increasing anti-Semitism. Finally, it analyzes the reasons for Bloomfield-Zeisler's frequent comparison with Sarah Bernhardt; allusions to her Jewishness in reviews; and the Zeislers' monthly salons in Chicago, which attracted an impressive range of prominent U.S. and European intellectuals—musicians, authors, jurists, artists, writers, scientists, and philanthropists.
