(studia slavica musicologica, Bd. 15)
Price 49.95 Euros or 98 Swiss Francs (outside the Euro-Zone)

The flow of interesting books continues to emerge from Verlag Ernst Kuhn Berlin (or ‘VEK’). In this review I’m considering two fascinating new editions, the first of which Jüdische Musik in Sowjetrussland, is particularly welcome given the small number of publications available on this aspect of Russian history.

It is difficult to imagine the extent to which most Russian musicologists (even as recently as 2001) ignored the activities of the New Jewish School. For seventy-five years many Jewish founders of this genre - composers and musicians alike, simply did not exist. Some did become familiar figures on the musical scene, although few could have realized how important these composers were to be for their work with new musical styles in the twentieth century, namely the Jüdische Nationale Schule der zwanziger Jahre

The book is jointly edited by Jascha Nemtsov and Ernst Kuhn, with German texts translated from Russian and English by Izaly Zemtsovsky, Sussman Kisselhof, Jascha Nemtsov, Beate Schroeder-Nauenburg, Leonid Sabaneyev, Galina Kopytova, Antoli Drosdov, Julian Krein, Leonid Sabaneyev and Friedrich Geiger.

The work contains twelve chapters

I. Einfuerung
II. Voraussetzungen
III. Die Herausbildung der Jüdischen Kunstmusik und ihrer Organisationsstrukturen.
IV. Leonid Sabaneyev (1881-1968) und seine Arbeiten ueber die nationale jüdische Schule in der Musik und ihre Vertreter
V. Joseph Achron (1886-1943)
VI. Michail Gnessin (1883-1957)
VII. Alexander Krein (1883-1951)
VIII. Grigori Krein (1879-1955)
IX. Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959)
X. Moshe Milner (1886-1953)
XI. Alexander Weprik (1899-1958)
XII. Schluss: Auf der suche nach einer versunkenen Welt (2001)
The first four chapters are based on the evolution and organization of the New Jewish School and their developers while the remaining chapters look at various composers and their works: Joseph Achron, Gnessin, Alexander Krein, Grigori Krein, Lazare Saminsky, Moshe Milner, Alexander Weprik. To conclude, a significant epilogue by Jascha Nemtsov / Beate Schröder describes their pioneering work in the sphere of Jewish archives. Historical texts are combined with new articles written specially for this book.

Each chapter ends with a chronological survey of compositions as well as a list of articles concerning each composer and his works. Overall, the book is compiled with much care and the clear structure makes it very readable.

A brief overview of the content. The main subjects are:

- A reflection on the specific characteristics of Jewishness in music; the question of the roots and origins of Jewish music.

- The emergence of the New Jewish School in Petersburg and Moscow; the activities of the members of the Society (the collecting of folksongs, liturgical melodies, sheet music, organization of concerts and lectures etc.) Among many important musicians and composers are reviews of Joseph Achron, Joel Engel and Lazar Saminsky, responsible for the founding, in 1908, of the Society for Jewish Folk Music in Petersburg (1908-1913).

- From 1923 until 1931 an official section of the Society for Jewish Folk Music was also established in Moscow. Composers like Krein and Gnessin played an important role in the organization of their activities.

- Chronologically-arranged reviews concerning their various activities in Petersburg (1908-1917) and Moscow (1923-1929).

- A selection of articles written by important members of the Jewish School, such as Sussman Kisselhof and Leonid Sabaneyev. Biographies of composers along with chronological surveys, combined with descriptions of some of their compositions.

Occasionally the different articles deal with very similar subject matter, although this does not pose a great problem, each author dealing with his subject in a sufficiently different manner.

Levels of accessibility vary: for example an article looking at M. Millner’s opera is not easy to follow, principally due to its intensely religious subject-matter, clearly not familiar to all.

Most notable is a fascinating portrayal of the composer Weprik, who was tortured and exiled in 1950. The author mentions the different reasons for which Weprik fell into disgrace in 1937/38 and again in 1950. The first time the likeliest cause would have been through the persecution suffered by Weprik’s sister and husband. She was sent to the Gulag, while her husband, a Communist, was shot. Finally the author adds that there is even evidence that Weprik was already a marked man in the twenties, due to his contact with A. Toscanini and Zionism!

Significant is the fact that the rise of the Jewish National School goes hand in hand with the emerging Zionism in the Soviet bourgeoisie. Jascha Nemtsov explains in the article: Leonid Sabaneyev Uber die nationale Schule in der Musik, that Sabaneyev was a vital figure in the creation and promotion of the National Jewish School and its new Jewish music. On the other hand Nemtsov points to the subjective way in which Sabaneyev tended to undertake his musical research. Sabaneyev’s article Die Nationale Jüdische Schule in der Musik (1924) is provided with additional footnotes from Nemtsov to illustrate his arguments.

Through this book it becomes increasingly evident that there are various points of view as regards the origin of Jewish music; to understand the different, fundamental opinions (quarrels even) and for a critical insight into the research into the roots of Jewish music the Introduction by M. Beregovski, Old Jewish Folk Music, is highly recommended.

It also becomes clear to the reader that certain composers of this Jewish school had many musical contacts in the West with, for example, Schoenberg and others. They also travelled extensively. Hence, the influence of the New Jewish School on twentieth-century music extended beyond the Soviet Union to Europe and even to America.