Article on P.Bohlman/German Jewish Cabarets

[Sam Weiss <SamWeiss...>]

(Link appears at the bottom, in case you want to view the 2
illustrations.)

from U. of Chicago Chronicle, June 12, 2003:
BOHLMAN RESCUES MUSIC OF RARE JEWISH CABARETS 
By Seth Sanders 

Not only can Philip Bohlman discuss the Jewish cabaret music that was
rescued from oblivion by the Austrian Censor's office--he and his
colleagues also can perform it, rescuing it once again. 

Bohlman, Professor in Music and the College, is an ethnomusicologist who
researches Jewish music, the musical cultures of Europe, America and the
Middle East, and the musical dimensions of religion, nationalism and
racism. Just last year he published World Music: A Very Short
Introduction, which brings all of these elements together. 

In a fashion typical of Chicago's Department of Music, where composers
like Shulamit Ran teach, Bohlman's scholarly research and teaching
naturally flow into musical performance. He is artistic director and
emcee for the New Budapest Orpheum Society, a revival of the
longest-running Jewish cabaret in Vienna, which existed from the 1880s
through the end of World War I. 

A closer look at Bohlman's work on the cabaret serves as an introduction
to his research--the sometimes startling way it brings history, social
conflict and entertainment together through music. 

People may remember cabaret as an emblem of German decadence and cynicism
(think The Blue Angel or Cabaret). But what is less well known, Bohlman
explained, is how this very Jewish art form crossed national boundaries
and endured, even in the darkness of the concentration camps. 

"You could find these cabarets in Budapest, Prague and Berlin. An
evening would consist of a mix of skits, poetry and comedy, and pop songs
composed on satirical themes, called Spottlieder in German, which poke
fun at people. The stage would be filled with Jewish stereotypes: the
shopkeeper, the Yeshiva boy, the obedient daughter." 

Word about the New Budapest Orpheum Society has spread, due in large part
to the recent double CD, "Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano." On
Wednesday, May 28, the troupe took a new program to the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

"The theme of our show is 'the world turned upside down,' which
alludes to the confusion of the new immigrant, the social turmoil of the
time." 

But, Bohlman explained, the cabarets persisted when the Jewish world was
turned upside down in the worst way.

"We do one show based on Theresienstadt, where there were nine
cabarets, an opera and orchestra. There was a famous women's orchestra in
Auschwitz, and operas were regularly performed at
Theresienstadt.

"Our repertoire is very synthetic, but it comes from real
turn-of-the-century pop songs, broadside ballads printed on cheap paper
and sold on the street, which would be labeled 'performed by musician X
for Budapest Orpheumgesellschaft.' It's stuff I found in the censors'
records, which was often the only way it would be preserved.

"The material was well known but very ephemeral--they often made it
up as they were going on. And it's all in Viennese dialect, which is very
close to Yiddish," said Bohlman. "We always include
translations into English; we have a lyricist who really renders them
into song form. The two CDs we recently recorded include one in English
and one in the original languages--German, Yiddish and
Hebrew."

Bohlman and Ilya Levinson, Lecturer in Music, work "to reconstruct
the music--sometimes all we have is the text itself, usually with an
engraving of a picture, 'sung to the tune of song X,' so we can figure
out what the music is." 

To animate his careful reconstruction of this lost culture, Bohlman said,
there is nothing like a really bad joke. "On stage, I play the Joel
Grey character, Herr Ober or 'headwaiter' figure, who orchestrates
everything that's happening in that social space. One of the main things
I do is tell bad jokes. Everybody feels they can laugh at
them."

In addition to his stage performances, Bohlman is the author or editor of
17 books, and he currently has two books in press.

His many honors include the 1997 Edward J. Dent Medal of the Royal Music
Association and a University Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate
Teaching. He has been a member of the Chicago faculty since 1987
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/030612/bohlman.shtml



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