Re: Non-Jewish Composers of "Jewish music"

[<znmeb...>]

Dan Kazez (kazez (at) Wittenberg(dot)EDU) wrote:

: Ruben Frankenstein writes of non-Jewish composers who write 
: "Jewish music."  How odd!  I wonder what attracted composers 
: like Ravel, Prokofief, Shostakovich to compose "Jewish 
: music."  And the most bizarre--Max Bruch, who composed one 
: of the most famous works of instrumental "Jewish music"--Kol 
: Nidre, for cello and piano.
I can't speak for the others, but Shostakovich had many Jewish friends
who were persecuted during Stalin's purges.  His 13th symphony, "Babi
Yar", is based on poetry written by Yevtushenko.  His song cycle "From
Jewish Folk Poetry" was composed around a book of Russian Jewish poems he
picked up in a book store; the melodies sound as though they were
obtained from Jewish sources as well -- almost klezmer, in fact.  It is,
to my ears at least, as much a piece of Jewish music as anything written
by Jews.

I suspect his motivations for writing "Jewish music" were very similar
to those of George Gerswhin writing "Porgy and Bess" -- he was
fascinated by a subculture and its music.
--
znmeb (at) teleport(dot)com (M. Edward Borasky) http://www.teleport.com/~znmeb

Q. Who invented the non-Von Neumann computer architecture?
A. John non-Von Neumann.