Jewish Composers of Polish Music after 1939:

Author(s):  
MAJA TROCHIMCZYK
Author(s):  
Maja Trochimczyk

This chapter looks into the devastating impact of the Holocaust in Jewish musical creativity in Poland. It discusses the inclusion of Jewish composers in the world of Polish music by its post-1945 historians. It also examines the presence of Jewish composers in Poland's musical world before 1939 and the disappearance of these composers as shown by official publications, dictionaries, and music histories up until 1989. The chapter reviews all the composers of Jewish origin who were alive in September 1939, regardless of their attitude and relationship with Judaism. It mentions the most important composers of Jewish descent but not of Jewish faith, such as Józef Koffler, who gave up his official Jewish religious allegiance in May 1939, and Roman Palester, who was baptized Catholic as a baby.


1981 ◽  
Vol 62 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 478-481
Author(s):  
JIM SAMSON
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Julia Riegel

This chapter discusses the treatment of the Jewish identity of various composers by the Yiddish folklorist and music critic, Menachem Kipnis. It describes Kipnis as a small, energetic man with a soft but beautiful singing voice and considered one of the most popular Jewish folklorists of interwar Poland. It also looks into Kipnis' book World-Famous Jewish Musicians, a collection of biographies of nineteenth-century composers with a Jewish background. The chapter examines the contradictions and idiosyncrasies of World-Famous Jewish Musicians compared with Kipnis's other works. It seeks to understand the balance Kipnis struck between praise for Jewish composers and quasi-nationalist emphasis on their Jewishness on the one hand, and his work as a folklorist in Poland, collecting songs from traditional, Yiddish-speaking Jews on the other.


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