From St. Petersburg to Vienna
The New Jewish School in Music (1908–1938) as Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance
von Jascha NemtsovThe history of the so-called “New Jewish School” in music began in 1908 in St. Petersburg with the founding of the Society for Jewish Folk Music by students from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The end of this movement came with the invasion of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, and the dissolution of the Vienna Society for the Promotion of Jewish Music later that year.
The fascinating and dramatic history of the New Jewish School is the subject of this monograph, which summarizes the author’s years of intensive international archival research. While many other national schools of music – such as the Russian, Czech or Hungarian – were able to develop freely and establish themselves in a favorable cultural environment, the Jewish school was violently suppressed. The reconstruction of its historical development in Russia and, after 1917, increasingly in other Eastern and Central European countries was first presented in German in 2004 and has since served as the basis for rediscovery of the valuable, highly original repertoire of New Jewish School composers. For this English-language publication, the entire book has been thoroughly revised and richly supplemented with extensive additional texts and materials.
The fascinating and dramatic history of the New Jewish School is the subject of this monograph, which summarizes the author’s years of intensive international archival research. While many other national schools of music – such as the Russian, Czech or Hungarian – were able to develop freely and establish themselves in a favorable cultural environment, the Jewish school was violently suppressed. The reconstruction of its historical development in Russia and, after 1917, increasingly in other Eastern and Central European countries was first presented in German in 2004 and has since served as the basis for rediscovery of the valuable, highly original repertoire of New Jewish School composers. For this English-language publication, the entire book has been thoroughly revised and richly supplemented with extensive additional texts and materials.