Re: Kurt Weill quartets

[elkahn <elkahn...>]

Yoel:

With Joseph Achron you can rest assured that most of his work will have
Jewish motifs; He was an early member of the Society for Jewish Folk Music
at St. Petersburg way back BEFORE the Russian Revolution. After emigrating
to America he wrote Hollywood film scores as well. 

>From a book published on Achron by Israeli Music Publictions in 1966, I
see that most of his chamber works were written for solo violin and piano.
(He was a virtuoso violinist and student of famed Russian violinst Leopold
Auer.) I've heard his STEMPENYU SUITE for solo violin and piano performed
(Vienna: Universal Editions, 1932) and, believe me, it's a monster to play
well but a wonderfully Jewish and artistic piece. It was written for
Joseph Szigeti, another Auer student.)

There's quite a good run-down of twentieth century Jewish-influenced
chamber music in the final chapters of Peter Gradenwitz's second edition
of THE MUSIC OF ISRAEL (Portland, Oregon: Amadeaus Press, 1996).

Happy Hunting,

Eliott Kahn
JTS Library


On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, Yoel Epstein wrote:

> Since I started this thread, I guess I ought to drop in again.
> 
> While Weill is Jewish, it would be hard to describe most of his music as 
> having a "Jewish bent", as Ernie suggests.  While he did write some things 
> which are specifically Jewish - most notable is his orchestral arrangement of 
> Hatikva - most are not.
> 
> Weill was one of a number of German Jewish expatriate composers who emigrated 
> to America before World War II.  Many of these composers wrote string 
> quartets.  They include Arnold Schoenberg, Ernst Toch (who wrote several 
> quartets), Joseph Achron, Korngold, Ernst Bloch.  Of these, Toch, Achron and 
> Bloch wrote music of specifically Jewish character.  However, I don't know if 
> their string quartets have any Jewish content in them.  
> 
> Aaron Copland wrote a piano trio called "Vitebsk", which is Jewish in 
> character.
> 
> Yoel Epstein, etses gibbers consultants
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