Re: Announcement, Heinrich Schalit Collection

[eliott kahn <elkahn...>]

The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the 
completion of the cataloging of The Heinrich Schalit Collection. The scores 
and archival material of the collection are now available for research and 
perusal by scholars and patrons. All scores are listed separately on the 
OCLC World-Cat data base. Photocopies of scores and archival material are 
available from the Library according to the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. 
Copyright Law. The Library reserves the right to deny access to any patron 
whose intention is to violate these copyright laws.

The Schalit Collection was cataloged by the Library's music archivist, 
Eliott Kahn. Dr. Kahn has recently received the Doctor of Musical Arts 
degree in choral conducting from the University of Iowa. His doctoral essay 
was entitled: "The Choral Music of Heinrich Schalit."

A brief description of the collection with biographical data follows:


The Heinrich Schalit Collection at The Library of the Jewish Theological 
Seminary of America is made up largely of the published musical works and 
unpublished music manuscripts, 1905-1976, of the German-American composer 
Heinrich Schalit (1886-1976). In addition, there are letters from prominent 
musicians, rabbis, cantors, and other important figures who were actively 
involved in Jewish religious and cultural life in Germany between the World 
Wars, 1918-1939, as well as in the United States during and after World War 
II, 1940-1976. There are Schalit's personal documents, 1906-1976; newspaper 
clippings of music reviews from Germany, 1908-1936; concert programs and 
synagogue bulletins from America, 1940-1994; and two photographs, 1933 and 
1952. Finally, there are books and music collected by Schalit, 1912-1974; a 
few sound recordings of  performances of his music, 1951-ca.1976; and a 
microfilm of all of his compositions, prepared after his death in 1976.

Heinrich Schalit was born in Vienna on January 2, 1886 and died in 
Evergreen, Colorado on February 3, 1976. During his long life, Schalit had 
the misfortune of experiencing two world wars as well as being born a 
European Jew in a time of great political upheaval. These circumstances 
profoundly altered the course of his life and his style of musical expression.

Schalit was enrolled at Vienna's Konservatorium für Musik und darstellende 
Kunst, where he studied piano with Polish pianist Theodor Leschetizky 
(1830-1915) and musical composition with Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)-- teacher 
of Gustav Mahler and Jan Sibelius.  Schalit graduated from the 
Konservatorium in 1906 with a "superior" rating ("vorzuglich") and at the 
end of the year won the prestigious Austrian State Prize for Composition 
with his Klavierquartett in E moll (Piano Quartet in E Minor).

Schalit relocated to Munich in 1907, embarking upon a successful career 
composing post- Romantic Lieder and chamber music. His Jugendland (Land of 
Youth) solo piano pieces were performed throughout Europe by renowned 
pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878-1936).  His 6 Liebeslieder (Six Songs of 
Love) was published in Vienna in 1921 by one of Europe's most prestigious 
music publishing concerns, Universal Edition.

The carnage and privations of the first World War affected Schalit as they 
would countless other young people. The continuance of German 
antisemitism--in the form of a 1916 army census seeking to verify Jewish 
service at the fronts--might also have deeply disturbed him. Whatever the 
reasons, in 1916 he made a conscious decision to begin writing music of 
"Jewish content and character."  This would align him with a small but 
vibrant Jewish cultural movement that was an offshoot of the burgeoning, 
early twentieth-century Zionist political movement.

  During the 1920s Schalit composed, performed, and published several 
important pieces of German-Jewish art music. His Seelenlieder (Songs of the 
Soul) for voice with piano was published in Vienna by Universal Edition in 
1921. His 1928 hymn In Ewigkeit (In Eternity) for chorus, organ, harp, and 
violins was performed and well reviewed in Munich, Frankfurt, Augsburg, 
Dresden, and Berlin. The texts of both works use German translations of 
Hebrew poetry by medieval Spanish poet Judah ha-Levi (12thcent.).

Schalit's early Jewish works profoundly influenced two younger Jewish 
musicians who studied at the State Academy for Music in Munich: renowned 
Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (née Frankenburger, 1897-1984) and Herbert 
Fromm (1905-1995), who became one of the most important creators of 
American synagogue music in the twentieth century.

In September 1927 Heinrich Schalit assumed the post of organist and music 
director at Munich's Hauptsynagoge (Great Synagogue). He remained there 
until late 1933, when he and his family were forced to to leave Munich to 
avoid Nazi persecution. At the Hauptsynagoge, Schalit worked under Cantor 
Emanuel Kirschner (1857-1938) and also began to compose religious music. In 
1932 at the request of Alexander Weinbaum (1875-1943?), then organist and 
music director at Berlin's Lützowstrasse Synagoge, Schalit composed his 
Eine Freitagabend-Liturgie. This synagogue work utilized contemporary modal 
techniques as well as traditional melodies discovered by Jewish 
musicologist A.Z. Idelsohn (1882-1938). At its world premiere on September 
16, 1932, the work was highly praised by German musicologists Alfred 
Einstein, Hugo Leichtentritt, and Curt Sachs.

After living in Rome and London, the Schalit family arrived in Rochester, 
N.Y. in August 1940. Schalit was music director at Rochester's Temple 
B'rith Kodesh until 1943. He would then serve as music director at Temple 
Beth El in Providence, Rhode Island until his resignation in 1948. His last 
full-time position was from 1949-1950 as organist at Temple Israel in 
Hollywood, California.

Schalit, his wife, and  their two younger sons  relocated to Denver in 
1948. In 1954, with their children grown, the Schalits purchased a plot of 
land in the nearby mountains and over the course of a few years had an 
additional room built on it. They moved up their permanently in 1958.

  In the 1960s Schalit received commissions to compose synagogue music for 
Congregation Emanu-El in New York, N.Y.,  Temple E-manu-El of Dallas, 
Texas, Temple B'rith Kodesh in Rochester, New York, and The Temple in 
Cleveland, Ohio. He would continue publishing his newer and older, 
revised  works throughout the 1970s. He was working on  Forget Thy 
Affliction, a setting of an English translation of a Hebrew poem by 
Medieval Spanish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol (1020-1027), when he died in 
February 1976.


Eliott Kahn, D.M.A.
Music Archivist
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
3080 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10027
         (212) 678-8091
FAX: (212) 678-8998

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