The World of Jewish Music: Books

"...Beautifully translated by Hillel Halkin, here is Sholem Aleichem's heartwarming and poignant account of Tevye and his daughters, together with the "Railroad Stories," twenty-one tales that examine human nature and modernity as they are perceived by men and women riding the trains from shtetl to shtetl."

...many of the tales about Tevye are featured in Fiddler on the Roof.

"Since it first opened on Broadway in September, 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has constantly been onstage somewhere, including four Broadway revivals, four productions on London's West End and thousands of schools, army bases and countries from Argentina to Japan. ...[Tradition! is] a lively, popular chronicle of the making of Fiddler. Published in celebration of Fiddler's 50th anniversary, Tradition! is the book for everyone who loves Fiddler and can sing along with the original cast album."

“Part of the Jewish Encounter series in A Fine Romance, David Lehman looks at the formation of the American songbook--the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies--and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews. An acclaimed poet, editor, and cultural critic, David Lehman hears America singing with a Yiddish accent. He guides us through America in the golden age of song, when "Embraceable You," "White Christmas," "Easter Parade," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "My Romance," "Cheek to Cheek," "Stormy Weather," and countless others became nothing less than the American sound track. The stories behind these songs, the shows from which many of them came, and the composers and lyricists who wrote them give voice to a specifically American saga of love, longing, assimilation, and transformation. …”

"The first serious look at Klezmer, the rich tradition of Jewish dance music, from its roots in late 19th-century Eastern Europe through its modern renaissance today as world music and "Jewish jazz." "

"You can hear it in the hottest clubs in New York, the hippest rooms in New Orleans, Chicago, and San Francisco, and in top concert halls around the world. It's a joyous sound that echoes the past. It's Old World meets New World. It's secular and sacred. It's traditional and experimental. It's played by classical violinist Itzhak Perlman (his all-klezmer album in his all-time best-seller!), the hypno-pop band Yo La Tengo, and avant-gardist John Zorn. It made the late great Benny Goodman's clarinet wail. It's klezmer and it's hot! The Essential Klezmer is the definitive introduction to a musical form in the midst of a renaissance. It documents the history of klezmer from its roots in the Jewish communities of medieval Eastern Europe to its current revival in Europe and America. It includes detailed information about the music's social, cultural, and political roots as well as vivid descriptions of the instruments, their unique sounds, and the players who've kept those sounds alive through the ages. ..."

"Leonard Bernstein is a household name. Most know him for his classic musical reworking of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Broadway's West Side Story. But Bernstein accomplished so much more as a composer, and his body of work is both broad and varied. ...Often generated in short spurts, his work carries an urgency and even an element of improvisational genius that he flavored with his eclectic embrace of jazz, folk song, Jewish cantorial music, and innovations in contemporary classical theory. ..."

"Set amid the growing tyranny of Germany's Third Reich, here is the riveting and emotional tale of Gunther Goldschmidt and Rosemarie Gumpert, two courageous Jewish musicians who struggled to perform under unimaginable circumstances-and found themselves falling in love in a country bent on destroying them."

"Elizabeth Bettina's surprise when she discovered that her grandmother's village had a secret: over a half century ago, many of Campagna's residents defied the Nazis and risked their lives to shelter and save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. What followed her discovery became an adventure as she uncovered fascinating untold stories of Jews in Italy during World War II and the many Italians who risked everything to save them."

"In this landmark of musical scholarship, the leading 20th-century authority on Jewish music describes and analyzes its elements and characteristics, and chronicles its development from the earliest appearance of Semitic song two thousand years ago to the early 20th century. Drawing upon years of research, including his own collecting of synagogue and folk songs in Middle Eastern and European Jewish communities, the author examines the music as a tonal expression of Judaism and Jewish life, containing original elements and features reflecting the spiritual aspects of Jewish culture. ..."

pt. 1. The song of the synagogue.
pt. 2. Folk-song.

"The seminal work of folklorist, singer, and writer Ruth Rubin, Voices of a People remains the only general introduction to Yiddish folksong. A priceless collection of song texts in Yiddish and English, as well as a selection of tunes Rubin transcribed, this volume brings the Jews' ancient, itinerant culture alive through children's songs, dancing songs, and songs about love and courtship, poverty and work, crime and corruption, immigration, and the dream of a homeland. ..."

"This exhibit opened on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at The Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College."

"On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn’t hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.

Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling."

** The Pianist is also a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). Click on the DVDs tab above or search the Mid-Hudson Library System's catalog for this title.

"This book shows that even brutal treatment by the Nazis and the ever-present threat of death were unable to destroy the creative impulses of the people trapped in the ghettos and concentration camps. Poetry, diary entries, song lyrics, drawings, and paintings from the time express the full range of emotions, including the craving for normality in the very abnormal situations."

"Mendel's klezmer band travels from village to village in Eastern Europe playing happy music and sad music, until hard times force the players to seek a better life in America."

"This book examines the movies, music, writings, and museums that represent the victims and survivors of the Holocaust."

(Fiction) "Sammy Greenberg would rather talk back to The Boyz -- a gang of bullies at his school -- and get his head stuck in the toilet than constantly be afraid. But when his friend Skink gets beaten up so badly that he has to go to the hospital, Sammy thinks he may be in over his head. He decides to build a golem -- a mythical protector from Jewish folklore, made of clay and animated by the ineffable name of God. But this monster doesn't just protect him and Skink from The Boyz, he is also a great drummer for their rock-jazz-klezmer fusion band! But golems come with warnings. They will protect you until they don't."

(Fiction) "Ten-year-old Shira has been watching Isaac play the fiddle in the Kugel Valley Klezmer Band ever since she was a baby, so when Isaac gets sick and cannot perform, Shira surprises everyone by filling in for him."

"A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and the Israeli violin maker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life. The violin has formed an important aspect of Jewish culture for centuries, both as a popular instrument with classical Jewish musicians Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and also a central factor of social life as part of the enduring Klezmer tradition. ..."