The Jewish King Lear

The Jewish King Lear

Author: Jacob Gordin

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780300108750

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The Jewish King Lear, written by the Russian-Jewish writer Jacob Gordin, was first performed on the New York stage in 1892, during the height of a massive emigration of Jews from eastern Europe to America. This book presents the original play to the English-speaking reader for the first time in its history, along with substantive essays on the play’s literary and social context, Gordin’s life and influence on Yiddish theater, and the anomalous position of Yiddish culture vis-�-vis the treasures of the Western literary tradition. Gordin’s play was not a literal translation of Shakespeare’s play, but a modern evocation in which a Jewish merchant, rather than a king, plans to divide his fortune among his three daughters. Created to resonate with an audience of Jews making their way in America, Gordin’s King Lear reflects his confidence in rational secularism and ends on a note of joyful celebration.


Solo Vocal Works on Jewish Themes

Solo Vocal Works on Jewish Themes

Author: Kenneth Jaffe

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0810861356

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Solo Vocal Works on Jewish Themes: A Bibliography of Jewish Composers is a comprehensive and annotated compendium of stage, concert, and liturgical compositions written by Jewish composers from every known time period and country. Kenneth Jaffe has amassed nearly 3,000 large-scale musical works for solo voice(s) on Jewish themes, written by Jewish composers. The works include over 400 cantatas, 150 oratorios, almost 300 operas, more than 100 sacred services, 20 symphonies, and more than 350 stage works, including Yiddish theatre, Purim and sacred plays, multi-media pieces, and musical theatre. In addition, original song cycles and liturgical services arranged for a modest to large complement of instruments are also included. The works are organized by composer and subdivided by genre, and each entry is fully annotated, detailing the title, opus, voicing and instrumentation, text source, commission, year completed, year and location of the premiere, the year of publication and the publisher (if any), the location of scores, and the duration of the work. The works are then broken down by theme, such as Biblical themes, works for children, works of the Holocaust or Jewish suffering and persecution, interfaith works, and wedding music. They are then cross-referenced by voice type, arrangement, and by title. A list of libraries and publishing houses of Jewish music rounds out this invaluable reference.


And We're All Brothers: Singing in Yiddish in Contemporary North America

And We're All Brothers: Singing in Yiddish in Contemporary North America

Author: Abigail Wood

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1317181271

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The dawn of the twenty-first century marked a turning period for American Yiddish culture. The 'Old World' of Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe was fading from living memory - yet at the same time, Yiddish song enjoyed a renaissance of creative interest, both among a younger generation seeking reengagement with the Yiddish language, and, most prominently via the transnational revival of klezmer music. The last quarter of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first saw a steady stream of new songbook publications and recordings in Yiddish - newly composed songs, well-known singers performing nostalgic favourites, American popular songs translated into Yiddish, theatre songs, and even a couple of forays into Yiddish hip hop; musicians meanwhile engaged with discourses of musical revival, post-Holocaust cultural politics, the transformation of language use, radical alterity and a new generation of American Jewish identities. This book explores how Yiddish song became such a potent medium for musical and ideological creativity at the twilight of the twentieth century, presenting an episode in the flowing timeline of a musical repertory - New York at the dawn of the twenty-first century - and outlining some of the trajectories that Yiddish song and its singers have taken to, and beyond, this point.


Passport to Jewish Music

Passport to Jewish Music

Author: Irene Heskes

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 1994-06-30

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 031338911X

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The purpose of this book is to present a survey of Jewish music to illuminate its special role as a mirror of history, tradition, and cultural heritage. The 27 topical chapters have been placed within a modified chronological perspective to present a historic picture of virtually every important development in Jewish music. The book represents a culmination of several decades of the author's dedicated labor and scholarly study in this field.


Inventing the Modern Yiddish Stage

Inventing the Modern Yiddish Stage

Author: Joel Berkowitz

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 0814335047

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Collects leading scholars' insight on the plays, production, music, audiences, and political and aesthetic concerns of modern Yiddish theater. While Yiddish theater is best known as popular entertainment, it has been shaped by its creators' responses to changing social and political conditions. Inventing the Modern Yiddish Stage: Essays in Drama, Performance, and Show Business showcases the diversity of modern Yiddish theater by focusing on the relentless and far-ranging capacity of its performers, producers, critics, and audiences for self-invention. Editors Joel Berkowitz and Barbara Henry have assembled essays from leading scholars that trace the roots of modern Yiddish drama and performance in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe and span a century and a half and three continents, beyond the heyday of a Yiddish stage that was nearly eradicated by the Holocaust, to its post-war life in Western Europe and Israel. Each chapter takes its own distinct approach to its subject and is accompanied by an appendix consisting of primary material, much of it available in English translation for the first time, to enrich readers' appreciation of the issues explored and also to serve as supplementary classroom texts. Chapters explore Yiddish theater across a broad geographical span--from Poland and Russia to France, the United States, Argentina, and Israel and Palestine. Readers will spend time with notable individuals and troupes; meet creators, critics, and audiences; sample different dramatic genres; and learn about issues that preoccupied both artists and audiences. The final section presents an extensive bibliography of book-length works and scholarly articles on Yiddish drama and theater, the most comprehensive resource of its kind. Collectively these essays illuminate the modern Yiddish stage as a phenomenon that was constantly reinventing itself and simultaneously examining and questioning that very process. Scholars of Jewish performance and those interested in theater history will appreciate this wide-ranging volume.


Subject Guide to U.S. Government Reference Sources

Subject Guide to U.S. Government Reference Sources

Author: Gayle J. Hardy (Davis)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 1996-09-15

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0313078661

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Revised and updated, this compendium helps readers identify and understand the scope of key government reference sources-traditional books (including publications catalogs and telephone directories); information clearinghouses; and materials in new formats, such as CD-ROMs, datafiles, and Internet sites. The authors focus on free information and depository materials-both readily available through toll-free phone numbers, mail or e-mail requests to agencies, or federal depository library collections. Materials are fully described in annotations that differentiate between similar materials, identify typical citation formats, and note common abbreviations


Hungering for America

Hungering for America

Author: Hasia R. DINER

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0674034252

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Millions of immigrants were drawn to American shores, not by the mythic streets paved with gold, but rather by its tables heaped with food. How they experienced the realities of America’s abundant food—its meat and white bread, its butter and cheese, fruits and vegetables, coffee and beer—reflected their earlier deprivations and shaped their ethnic practices in the new land. Hungering for America tells the stories of three distinctive groups and their unique culinary dramas. Italian immigrants transformed the food of their upper classes and of sacred days into a generic “Italian” food that inspired community pride and cohesion. Irish immigrants, in contrast, loath to mimic the foodways of the Protestant British elite, diminished food as a marker of ethnicity. And East European Jews, who venerated food as the vital center around which family and religious practice gathered, found that dietary restrictions jarred with America’s boundless choices. These tales, of immigrants in their old worlds and in the new, demonstrate the role of hunger in driving migration and the significance of food in cementing ethnic identity and community. Hasia Diner confirms the well-worn adage, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”


Sounding Authentic

Sounding Authentic

Author: Joshua S. Walden

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0199334668

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Sounding Authentic considers the intersecting influences of nationalism, modernism, and technological innovation on representations of ethnic and national identities in twentieth-century art music. Author Joshua S. Walden discusses these forces through the prism of what he terms the "rural miniature": short violin and piano pieces based on folk song and dance styles. This genre, mostly inspired by the folk music of Hungary, the Jewish diaspora, and Spain, was featured frequently on recordings and performance programs in the early twentieth century. Furthermore, Sounding Authentic shows how the music of urban Romany ensembles developed into nineteenth-century repertoire of virtuosic works in the style hongrois before ultimately influencing composers of rural miniatures. Walden persuasively demonstrates how rural miniatures represented folk and rural cultures in a manner that was perceived as authentic, even while they involved significant modification of the original sources. He also links them to the impulse toward realism in developing technologies of photography, film, and sound recording. Sounding Authentic examines the complex ways the rural miniature was used by makers of nationalist agendas, who sought folkloric authenticity as a basis for the construction of ethnic and national identities. The book also considers the genre's reception in European diaspora communities in America where it evoked and transformed memories of life before immigration, and traces how many rural miniatures were assimilated to the styles of American popular song and swing. Scholars interested in musicology, ethnography, the history of violin performance, twentieth-century European art music, the culture of the Jewish Diaspora and more will find Sounding Authentic an essential addition to their library.