The ‘Yidishe Paganini’: Sholem Aleichem's Stempenyu, the Music of Yiddish Theatre and the Character of the Shtetl Fiddler

2014 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Walden
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Character Type ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

ABSTRACTThis article explores the music of Yiddish theatre in early twentieth-century New York by considering multiple adaptations of Russian Jewish author Sholem Aleichem's 1888 novel Stempenyu, about a klezmer violinist, which was transformed into two theatrical productions in 1907 and 1929, and finally inspired a three-movement recital work for accompanied violin by Joseph Achron. The multiple versions of Stempenyu present the eponymous musician as an allegory for the ambivalent role of the shtetl – the predominantly Jewish small town of Eastern Europe – in defining diasporic Jewish life in Europe and America, and as a medium for the sonic representation of shtetl culture as it was reformulated in the memories of the first generations of Jewish immigrants. The variations in the evocations of Eastern European klezmer in these renderings of Stempenyu indicate complex changes in the ways Jewish immigrants and their children conceived of their connection to Eastern Europe over four decades. The paper concludes by viewing changes in the symbolic character type of the shtetl fiddler in its most famous and recent manifestation, in the stage and screen musical Fiddler on the Roof.

A NEW IMAGE OF THE NATION: READING CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN HISTORY

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
GÁBOR BÁTONYI
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Association ◽  
European History ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
East European ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Duke University

The Little Entente and Europe (1920–1929). By Magda Ádám. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1993. Pp. 330. $40.00.The economy and polity in early twentieth century Hungary. The role of the National Association of Industrialists. By George Deák. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. Pp. ix + 209. $32.00.Stefan Stambolov and the emergence of Modern Bulgaria, 1870–1895. By Duncan M. Perry. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1993. Pp. xi + 308. £37.95.Hungarians and their neighbors in modern times, 1867–1950. Ed. Ferenc Glatz. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. 347. $42.00.The Czech fascist movement, 1922–1942. By David D. Kelly. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. xii + 243.

Reconsidering Hyperreality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine T. von Stackelberg
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Self ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Twentieth Century America ◽  
Saratoga Springs

The term “hyperreal” is generally associated with sites that take anachronistic decorative styles and eclectically recombine them into environments that claim to surpass mimicry by creating a fully immersive experience. At Franklin Smith’s Pompeia in Saratoga Springs, New York (1892); the Roman ruin garden of Louise du Pont Crowninshield at Hagley, Delaware (1924); and John Paul Getty’s recreation of Herculaneum’s Villa of the Papyri in Malibu, California (1974) hyperreality is a lens through which to examine the reintegration of Classical tropes into the domestic architecture of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. In each of these sites hyperreality extended beyond the boundaries of the built artifact into the garden environment where the dialogue between built space and greenspace expresses an ongoing, living relationship between Classical past and contemporary present. The role of hyperreality in creating Neo-Antique made places and imaginative portals is considered in terms of enchaînement, the socially anchored process of deliberate breakage and reuse that recombines fragments to generate new forms of cultural self-perception.

“The Biggest Small-Town Store in America”: Independent Retailers and the Rise of Consumer Culture

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 457-486
Author(s):  
Vicki Howard
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Department Stores ◽  
Urban Bias ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
American Consumer

The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, New York, suggests that small-town department stores were not necessarily fully “modern” by the early twentieth century. This article demonstrates how modern, big-store, business methods came later and documents how earlier modes of trade, such as credit and bartering, persisted into the early twentieth century, even in non-rural, northern contexts. Preliminary findings suggest that eliminating the urban bias in much historiography by including small-town retailing practices may lead to a later periodization of American consumer society.

Shaping Jazz

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damon J. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Recording Industry ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Long Run

There are over a million jazz recordings, but only a few hundred tunes have been recorded repeatedly. Why did a minority of songs become jazz standards? Why do some songs—and not others—get re-recorded by many musicians? This book answers this question and more, exploring the underappreciated yet crucial roles played by initial production and markets—in particular, organizations and geography—in the development of early twentieth-century jazz. The book considers why places like New York played more important roles as engines of diffusion than as the sources of standards. It demonstrates why and when certain geographical references in tune and group titles were considered more desirable. It also explains why a place like Berlin, which produced jazz abundantly from the 1920s to early 1930s, is now on jazz's historical sidelines. The book shows the key influences of firms in the recording industry, including how record labels and their executives affected what music was recorded, and why major companies would re-release recordings under artistic pseudonyms. It indicates how a recording's appeal was related to the narrative around its creation, and how the identities of its firm and musicians influenced the tune's long-run popularity. Applying fascinating ideas about market emergence to a music's commercialization, the book offers a unique look at the origins of a groundbreaking art form.

„MAGIŠKASIS KAMBARYS“: GYVYBINGA IR PRISITAIKANTI VAISTINĖLĖS TRADICIJA LIETUVOS BAJORŲ NAMUOSE

2018 ◽  
pp. 164-195
Author(s):  
Marius Daraškevičius
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Community Treatment ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Single Room ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Manor House ◽  
Medicine Cabinet ◽  
Culture Education

The article discusses the causes of emergence and spreading of a still room (Lith. vaistinėlė, Pol. apteczka), the purpose of the room, the location in the house planning structure, relations to other premises, its equipment, as well as the role of a still room in everyday culture. An examination of the case of a single room, the still room, in a noblemen’s home is also aimed at illustrating the changes in home planning in the late eighteenth – early twentieth century: how they adapted to the changing hygiene standards, perception of personal space, involvement of the manor owners in community treatment, and changes in dining and hospitality culture. Keywords: still room, household medicine cabinet, manor house, interior, sczlachta culture, education, dining culture, modernisation, Lithuania.

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