Joseph Achron

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Judy and Eliot,

If it's Achron's violin music you're  after, including the Stempenyu
Suite (and 21 other pieces), try to get a copy of the CD "Stempenyu:
The violin music of Joseph Achron" performed by Hagai Shaham (violin)
and Arnon Erez (piano) with notes in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish!

Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Pinnolis <pinnolis (at) brandeis(dot)edu>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Thursday, January 06, 2000 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: "elevating" ("improving") folk music


>Eliot:
>And I wanted to congratulate you (and Julie) on that excellent
publication
>from JTS: the "Inventory of the Solomon Rosowsky Collection"
published in
>1996, but also your newly released "Inventory of the Max Wohlberg
>Collection." I just started to take a look at those yesterday and
they're
>wonderfully helpful reference additions to help people locate
archival
>sources.
>
>I agree with you that more attention to Joseph Achron's music! If I
recall
>(this stretched the memory some and I had to look it up), several
>compositions were attributed to him in the 1932 Union Hymnal.
Actually,
>this, the UH, was my first exposure to Joseph Achron, believe it or
not.
>(Amazing to think about now.)
>
>Judy
>
>At 06:03 PM 1/5/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>Robert:
>>
>>RE: The Society for Jewish Folk Music. There were quite a few
branches but
>>the two most important ones were at Moscow, founded by Joel (Julius)
Engel,
>>and the one at St. Petersburg, founded a little later, in 1908, by a
few
>>composition students at the Conservatory there (L. Saminsky, S.
Rosowsky,
>>E. Skliar).
>>
>>An interesting anecdote: When author Sholom Aleichem was first
informed of
>>the St. Petersburg Society's goals of collecting tunes in the Pale
of
>>Settlement and using them as the basis for art songs and chamber
works, he
>>warned the members to make sure (I paraphrase) "that the tunes don't
freeze
>>on the way to St. Petersburg." According to accounts by S. Rosowsky
and L.
>>Saminsky, however, he soon became an ardent supporter of the
Society's
>>goals. During its brief ten-year existence (1908-1918), The Society
gave
>>over 1200 concerts to adoring masses of Zionists throughout the Pale
of
>>Settlement. They were proud, indeed, that what were once considered
>>"kitchen songs" were now works of art in very sophisticated, yet
>>accessible, chamber music and art song settings.
>>
>>The folks here who frequently refer to the Beregovski Collection
should
>>realize that the core of the collection that Beregovski cataloged,
>>transcribed, and annotated in the 1920s-1930s were the cylinder
recordings
>>made during the Baron Horace von Ginsbourg Expedition of ca.
1913-1914. The
>>two ethnomusicologists who made these field recordings were Joel
Engel
>>(somewhere in the Pale, I forget), and Lazare Saminsky in the
Caucausus
>>region. As you can see, both these men were instrumental in founding
the
>>Societies for Jewish Folk Music. I believe that Engel is referred to
in
>>Israel as "the father of Jewish music."
>>The lost cylinders were recently recovered and are now at the
Vrenadsky
>>Library in Kiev. The recently published CD was just a sampler
compiled by
>>the Library from the many cylinders in their possession.
>>
>>I hope folks won't sell this art music short before they've heard
it. At
>>the present time I am not aware of any performances that do this
music
>>justice. Joseph Achron (another member of the St. Petersburg
Society) was a
>>virtuoso violinist who studied with Leopold Auer -teacher of
Heifetz,
>>Gingold, Elmann, Milstein, etc. You've no doubt heard Heifetz' (and
>>Perlmann's) performance of Achron's "Hebrew Melody." But I would
love to
>>hear a passionate, accurate performance of his "Stempenyu Suite,"
among
>>other works. I would wager that you'd hear the same type of fire and
>>authenticity that you hear in Bartok, if the right players were to
perform
>>this music.
>>
>>Arnold Schoenberg actually had very high praise for Achron's music;
they
>>knew each other in Los Angeles. Other St. Petersburg Folk Music
Society
>>composers of note were Moses Milner and Alexander Krein. The Society
for
>>Jewish Music at St. Petersburg published over eighty pieces during
their
>>brief ten-year existence. Most of the music I've looked at strikes
me as
>>extremely tasteful and well-wrought--and very authentically Jewish.
>>
>>We have Solomon Rosowsky's Archive here at the Seminary Library, and
in
>>1996, we published an Inventory of the collection by myself and
archivist
>>Julie Miller.
>>
>>Eliott Kahn, D.M.A.
>>Music Archivist
>>Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
>>3080 Broadway
>>New York, N.Y. 10027


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