String quartets with Jewish content

[Yoel Epstein <yoel...>]

Following my offer of string quartet arrangements of Holocaust songs, I
received a number of emails asking for other string quartet music of
specifically Jewish interest.  Since several asked, I am posting my reply to
the list.  Anyone who has what to add, welcome:

There are quite a few volumes of string quartet arrangements of Jewish
music.  I have a book of arrangements by Matt Springer, which you can buy
from Tara Publishers
(http://www.jewishmusic.com/index.asp?FID=2101&ACT=4&ID_Prd={00765EB4-BBB1-4
4C8-8188-4113457A7D85}&RND=95062).  I also have a volume of arrangements by
Meir Mindel which are really excellent.  Tara used to carry them, but I
don't see it now in their catalog.  Maybe they know where to get ahold of
it.

The Israel Music Institute (IMI) publishes a number of arrangements of
Israeli songs by contemporary Israeli composers,
http://www.aquanet.co.il/vip/imi/index1.htm  Some of these are lovely, some
of them pretty cacaphonic, and some of them difficult.  They are all priced
very cheap.

Other string quartets of Jewish interest:  I have copies, now long out of
print, of some string quartet works by composers of the Petersburg school
and followers: Elegy by Joseph Achron, variations on a chassidic theme by
Gnessin, and a string quintet arrangment (2 violas) of Reb Nachman's niggun
by Zeitlin.  I have no idea where you can find these.

The Terezin Collection, published by Excelsior, contains short string
quartet pieces written in Theresienstadt. The volume is edited by Joza
Karas.  One of the pieces, Uv'tseil K'nofecho, by Grunfeld and arranged by
Zikmund Schul, is specifically Jewish.  The other pieces are quite
beautiful, but there is nothing particularly Jewish about them.  Of course,
if you want to expand the list to include music by Jewish composers, the
list becomes endless: quartets by Schul, Pavel Haas, Schulhof, Kohn, and the
other Theresienstadt composers.

____________________________________________
joel epstein
moshav magshimim 56910
israel
972-3-9333316
972-52-333316
972-3-9338751 (fax)
____________________________________________

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