With its five thematic sections covering genres from cantorial to classical to klezmer, this pioneering multi-disciplinary volume presents rich coverage of the work of musicians of Jewish origin in the Polish lands. It opens with the musical consequences of developments in Jewish religious practice: the spread of hasidism in the eighteenth century meant that popular melodies replaced traditional cantorial music, while the greater acculturation of Jews in the nineteenth century brought with it synagogue choirs. Jewish involvement in popular culture included performances for the wider public, Yiddish songs and the Yiddish theatre, and contributions of many different sorts---technical and commercial as well as creative---in the interwar years. Chapters on the classical music scene cover Jewish musical institutions, organizations, and education; individual composers and musicians; and a consideration of music and Jewish national identity. One section is devoted to the Holocaust as reflected in Jewish music, and the final section deals with the afterlife of Jewish musical creativity in Poland, particularly the resurgence of interest in klezmer music. The essays in this collection do not attempt to to define what may well be undefinable---what ‘Jewish music’ is. Rather, they provide an original and much-needed exploration of the activities and creativity of ‘musicians of the Jewish faith’. CONTRIBUTORS: Eliyana R. Adler, Michael Aylward, Slawomir Dobrzanski, Paula Eisenstein-Baker, Beth Holmgren, Sylwia Jakubczyk-Sleczka, Daniel Katz, James Loeffler, Michael Lukin, Filip Mazurczak, Bozena Muszkalska, Julia Riegel, Ronald Robboy, Robert Rothstein, Joel E. Rubin, Adam J. Sacks, Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel, Eleanor Shapiro, Carla Shapreau, Tamara Sztyma, Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota, Joseph Toltz, Maja Trochimczyk, Magdalena Waligórska, Bret Werb, Akiva Zimmerman

Table of Contents:
Introduction François Guesnet, Benjamin Matis, and Antony Polonsky PART I. CANTORIAL AND RELIGIOUS MUSIC A Chestnut, a Grape, and a Pack of Lions: A Shabbos in Plock with a Popular Synagogue Singer in the Early Nineteenth Century Daniel Katz Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966) in Vilna, Warsaw, and Russia Akiva Zimmerman The Art of Cantorial Singing in the Polish Territories Bozena Muszkalska PART II. JEWS IN POPULAR MUSICAL CULTURE IN POLAND Musical Afterthoughts on Shmeruk’s Mayufes Bret Werb Servant Romances: Eighteenth-Century Yiddish Lyric and Narrative Folk Songs Michael Lukin Broder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish Theatre Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel Gimpel’s Theatre, Lwów: The Sounds of a Popular Yiddish Theatre Preserved on Gramophone Records, 1904–1913 Michael Aylward The Polish Tin Pan Alley—A Jewish Street Robert Rothstein On the Dance Floor, on the Screen, on the Stage. Popular Music in the Interwar Period: Polish, Jewish, Shared Tamara Sztyma The Jews in the Band: Anders Army’s Special Troupes Beth Holmgren Szpilman, Bajgelman, and Barsht: The Legacy of an Extended Polish Jewish Klezmer Family Joel E. Rubin Wladyslaw Szpilman’s Post-War Career in Poland Filip Mazurczak Abraham Ellstein’s Film Scores: Some Less Obvious Sources Ronald Robboy PART III. JEWS IN THE POLISH CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENE The ‘Lust Machine’: Recording and Selling the Jewish Nation in the Late Russian Empire James Loeffler Leo Zeitlin and the Flourishing of Jewish Art Music in Early 1920s Vilna Paula Eisenstein-Baker ‘Jewish musicians are the crowning achievements of foreign nations’: Jewish Identity and Yiddish Nationalism in the Writings of Menachem Kipnis Julia Riegel Ostbahnhof Berlin: Jewish Music Students of East European Origin at the Berlin Conservatory, 1918–1933 Adam J. Sacks Jewish Music Institutions and Organizations in Interwar Galicia Sylwia Jakubczyk-Sleczka Jewish Composers of Polish Music after 1939: A Story in Lists and Numbers Maja Trochimczyk Tadeusz Zygfryd Kassern’s American Years Slawomir Dobrzanski PART IV. THE HOLOCAUST REFLECTED IN JEWISH MUSIC ‘My song, you are my strength’: Personal Repertories of Polish and Yiddish Songs from Young Survivors of the Lódz Ghetto Joseph Toltz Singing Their Way Home Eliyana R. Adler The Nazi-Era Confiscation of Wanda Landowska’s Musical Collection and Its Aftermath Carla Shapreau Music as a ‘Paper Bridge’ between Generations before and after the Holocaust Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota PART V. KLEZMER IN POLAND TODAY The Klezmer Revival in Poland as a Contact Zone Magdalena Waligórska The Sound of Change: Performing ‘Jewishness’ in Small Polish Towns Ellie Shapiro