Description:
The purpose of this book is to present a survey of Jewish music to illuminate its special role as a mirror of history, tradition, and cultural heritage. The 27 topical chapters have been placed within a modified chronological perspective to present a historic picture of virtually every important development in Jewish music. The book represents a culmination of several decades of the author's dedicated labor and scholarly study in this field.
Brief description:
IRENE HESKES is a music historian who specializes in Jewish music. She has written numerous articles and reviews for musicological and general journal publications in America, Europe, and Israel, and has contributed to the Encyclopedia Judaica, as well as to Musical Theater in America (Greenwood, 1984), and Handbook of Holocaust Literature (Greenwood, 1993). Among her books are: Studies in Jewish Music (1971), Jews in Music (1974), Ernest Bloch: Creative Spirit (1976), The Resource Book of Jewish Music (Greenwood, 1985), The Music of Abraham Goldfaden (1990), The Golden Age of Cantors (1991), and Yiddish-American Popular Songs, 1895 to 1950 (1992).
Review Quotes: "Irene Heskes, the seemingly indefatigable bibliographer and promoter of Jewish music study, provides a sampling of the fruits of "several decades of dedicated study and scholarly labors in the field of Jewish music,"(p.ix). The volume contains a collection of newly compiled essays and preexistent lectures, chapters, journal articles, book reviews, and prefaces, arranged systematically to cover the diverse terrain of Jewish music. .../For the newcomer to Jewish music scholarship(to whom these writings seem mainly directed), the volume is particularly useful for its brief biographies and assessments of those who are fundamental to the field."- Music Reference Services Quarterly