Re: Jewish themes in Offenbach

[cohenedmunds <cohenedmunds...>]

Milhaud's "Chants Populaires Hebraiques" and Ravel's "Deux Melodies
Hebraiques" and "Chanson hebraique" (from "Sept chants populaires") are also
considered "standards" in the contemporary Art Song repertoire.
Beth

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yoel Epstein" <yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2003 2:59 AM
Subject: RE: Jewish themes in Offenbach


> Here are some suggestions regarding Jewish themes in 19th century
classical
> music:
>
> Joachim, Hebrew Melodies for viola and piano.
>
> Bruch, Kol Nidrei (of course).  Bruch also wrote a choral work based on
> Jewish themes, the name of which I have forgotten, but which someone else
on
> this list will surely remember. (Don't forget that Bruch was NOT himself
> Jewish).
>
> The St. Petersburg composers.  These were Jewish musicians trained at the
> St. Petersburg Conservatory (where Anton Rubinstein taught).  They
> rediscovered their Jewish ethnic roots, and wrote a corpus of works based
on
> Jewish music.  Some of the leaders were Joseph Achron, Joel Engel (who
> immigrated to Palestine and was more or less the father of modern Israeli
> folk music), Michael Gnessin, Israel Brand, Rosowsky, Shitomirsky.  If you
> need references to specific pieces, I can help you a bit (I suggest
> off-list).
>
> I don't know of any specifically Jewish content in the music of Offenbach,
> but you should certainly not ignore the operas of Halevy.  These operas
deal
> with specifically Jewish themes, and were quite popular in their day
(still
> are).
>
> If you are looking at contemporary composers who wrote on Jewish themes,
> don't forget Darius Milhaud.  His opera Esther de Carpentras is about the
> Jewish community of Provence in the Middle Ages.  He has other works as
well
> that draw on Jewish themes.
>
> As for Beethoven and Mozart: I know that the Adagio of opus 133 sounds
> Jewish, but I have never seen any evidence that that is not mere
> coincidence.  As for the Mozart Symphonia Concertante, I never heard the
> claim that it was even Jewish-sounding, though, now that you mention it, I
> suppose the slow movement could be construed that way.  In any case,
Mozart
> certainly didn't intend it.
>
> Good luck with your course.
>
> Yoel Epstein
>
>
> >
> > ------------------------------
> > From: "Geraldine Auerbach" <jewishmusic (at) jmi(dot)org(dot)uk>
> > To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> > Subject: Jewish themes in Offenbach
> > Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 00:19:29 +0100
> > Message-ID: <BFEJLEMGNINDCIDNAIFOOEMKFIAA(dot)jewishmusic (at) 
> > jmi(dot)org(dot)uk>
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > Content-Type: text/plain;
> > charset="iso-8859-1"
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> >
> > We have been approached by Ed Eisen with the following request. Can
anyone
> > think of anything
> >
> > Dear Jewish Music Institute,
> > I have been collecting recordings of Jewish Music for some time.  I have
a
> > decent collection of the music of Isreali composers for Ben-Haim
> > to Leef and
> > Oram Schapira with all the guys in between like Seter, Sharif, Orgad,
> > Ehrlich and others.  I also have collected the entartete series
> > as issued by
> > EMI.. Goldscmidt, Sculoff, Brautenfels (Jewish by the same standard that
> > made Mendelsohn a 'Jewish' composer) Zemlinsky, Dessau (including his
> > Haggudah).
> > I am launching a course concerning Jewish Music next month and I have
been
> > looking for something - maybe you can help me out.  In the 19th century,
> > Jews after the Haskalah were moving into the mainstream Mayerbeer
> > and Halevy
> > and maybe Mendelsohn and others.  I have been looking for
> > examples of Jewish
> > music in the works that they produced.  I have fouun 'Kol Nidrei' in the
> > adagio section of Beethoven String Quartet No. 14, op. 133 and
> > Jewish themes
> > in the K364 of Mozart.  I am looking for what would be Jewish citations
in
> > the music of Offenbach who was the son of Cantor Herbst of Offenbach,
> > Germany.. Are there any citations in the music of Offenbach that you
know
> > of?  Thank you   ed eisen
> >
> > Geraldine
> >
> > Jewish Music Institute
>
>
>

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