Polish Music Reference Center at the University of Southern California

The PMRC and the USC School of Music are preparing an international music history conference devoted to the subject of Polish-Jewish music. Thematic areas include: music created by Polish composers of Jewish origin, musical lives of composers and performers who have retained their double identity, Jewish music in Poland, and the artistic achievements of Jewish musicians who left Poland but have remained connected to the country of their birth. Emphasis will rest on art music of the 19th and 20th centuries, but other aspects ofJewish musical life in Poland will also be discussed.

The invited participants include distinguished scholars from Poland (Prof. M. Golab, Dr. M. Fuks, Dr. U. Fuks), Germany (Dr. Martina Homma), Canada (Prof. Pr. Wrobel, Prof. A. Szpilberg, Dr. P. Cohen) and the U.S. (Prof. Paul Knoll, Dr. J. Timmons, Dr. S. Fremaux, Dr. H. Goldberg, Dr. B. Werb, Dr. Ch. Hailey, Dr. Don Pirone). The conference will include formal papers, as well as lecture-recitals, and concerts offered by USC faculty and students.

CO-SPONSORS:

Hebrew Union College -- Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles; The Ministry of Arts and Culture of the Republic of Poland; Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles; Jewish Community Foundation; Ars Musica Poloniae Foundation; Polish American Congress of California; The Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life (USC); USC Hillel Jewish Center.

SCHEDULE:

Sunday, November 15, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Four Sessions and One Chamber Music Concert
USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium

SUNDAY, 9:10 - 10:50
SESSION 1: HISTORICAL VISTAS

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium

9:10 - 9:30
Welcoming Addresses (USC, HUC, School of Music, PMRC)

• Rabbi Susan E. Laemmle, USC Dean for Religious Life
• Ass. Prof. Douglas Lowry, Associate Dean, USC School of Music
• Rabbi Lewis M. Barth, Dean of the Hebrew Union College-JIR, Los Angeles
• Asst. Prof. Maria Anna Harley (S. &W.Wilk Director of the PMRC, USC)

9:30 - 10:10

• Prof. Paul KNOLL, History Dept, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC:
  "Early history together, Medieval to Baroque"
  Prof. Knoll (historian) is a leading American specialist in the early history of Poland, a member of the Editorial Board of the Polish Review, the Journal of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.

  10:10 - 10:50
  

• Prof. Piotr WRÓBEL, University of Toronto, CANADA:
  "Polish multiculturalism: Polish, Jewish, both or either?"
  Prof. Wróbel (historian) is the main specialist in "minority" issues in Polish history, the author of two books on the subject. He taught history at the University of Warsaw (including a course on the history of Polish Jewry) before assuming his current post at the endowed chair in Polish History at the University of Toronto.

10:50 - 11:10 COFFEE BREAK

SUNDAY, 11:10 - 1:00
SESSION II: SOLOISTS AND SOCIETIES

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium

11:10 - 11:50

• Asst. Prof. Halina GOLDBERG, Indiana University, Bloomington
  "Assimilation of Jews into 19th Century Polish Musical Culture"
  Dr. Goldberg (musicologist) is an American scholar of Polish Jewish descent, who has just completed her dissertation on the social context of F. Chopin's early life in Warsaw (including a study of 19th c. Jewish salons as the site for the development of Polish culture). This study presents a new direction in her research, stimulated by her personal interests and this conference.

  11:50 - 12:30
  

• Dr. Marian FUKS, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, POLAND:
  "Jewish Music in Polish and Jewish Communities"
  Dr. Fuks's (historian) doctoral dissertation deal with the history of the Jewish press in Poland; especially the periodical published in Yiddish. He is the author of the first monograph on Jewish music in Poland that was published in the Polish language ("Muzyka Ocalona"/"Saved Music"). His main emphasis rests on sociological issues.

  12:30 - 1:10
  

• Prof. Philip COHEN and Prof. Anna SZPILBERG, Leonardo Project, Concordia University, Montreal, CANADA:
  "The great virtuosi (Rosenthal, Godowski, Friedman)"
  Prof. Szpilberg (pianist) and Prof. Harley worked together on a concert of Polish Jewish Music presented at McGill University, Montreal, spring 1997. Prof. Cohen (musicologist) and Prof. Szpilberg received a grant from the Canada Council to research the forgotten music of the Jewish virtuosi who originated from Poland but conquered the world with their art.

1:10-2:10 LUNCH BREAK

SUNDAY, 2:10--4:10
SESSION III: IMAGE AND SOUND

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium

2:10 - 2:50

• Dr. Urszula FUKS, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, POLAND:
  "Jewish musicians portrayed in art (Polish and Jewish)"
  Dr. Fuks (art historian) specializes in the history of Jewish photography and iconography. This study, commissioned for the conference, is the first of its kind.

  2:50 - 3:30
  

• Dr. Linda SCHUBERT, UCLA, Los Angeles:
  "Film Music by Henryk Wars"
  Dr. Schubert's (musicologist) dissertation about the use of early music in film opens a new study area. Her research on Henryk Wars (Vars) and his work for the Hollywood film industry is a new project, stimulated by this conference.

  3:30 - 4:10
  Presenter TBA (USC graduate students in musicology and film music):
  Screening of Film Excerpts with Music by Tansman, Wars, and Rathaus
  

4:10 - 4: 30 COFFEE BREAK

SUNDAY, 4:30-6:00
SESSION IV: FOLKLORE AND POPULAR MUSIC

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium

4:30 - 5:10

• Bret WERB: Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
  "Jewish Musicians in Polish Music: The Mayufus Dance"
  Mr. Werb's tenure as a staff musicologist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum has been filled with scholarly and artistic discoveries. He produced several recordings, expanded the collection, finding new sources and interviewing witnesses of the thriving Jewish culture in Eastern Europe.

  5:10 - 6:00
  

• Mr. Hankus NETSKY (New England Conservatory of Music):
  "Polish Roots of Klezmer Music"

6:00-8:00 DINNER: USC HILLEL JEWISH CENTER

SUNDAY, 8:00 p.m.
CONCERT I: TANSMAN & HIS CONTEMPORARIES

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium.

Performers - USC Faculty and Students.
Prof. James Smith and students -guitar music; Dr. Kathleen Rowan - song recital

MONDAY, November 16, 1998.
Four Sessions, with Roundtable Discussion and One Concert
USC Campus, Newman Recital Hall
& Hebrew Union College, L.A. Campus

MONDAY, 9:10-10:30
SESSION V: COMPOSERS BETWEEN THE WARS

USC Campus, Newman Recital Hall

9:10 - 9:50

• Dr. Martina HOMMA, Cologne, GERMANY:
  "Grzegorz Fitelberg, his music, his colleagues"
  Dr. Homma's doctoral dissertation about Witold Lutoslawski received the highest academic prize in Germany, "opus eximium". She has written extensively about 20th-entury Polish music and musical life, with publications appearing in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland

  9:50 -10:30
  

• Prof. Dr. hab. Maciej GOLAB, University of Warsaw, POLAND:
  "Koffler - the first Polish composer of 12- note music"
  Prof. Golab wrote books about 12-tone music, Chopin's chromatic style and the first ever monograph of Józef Koffler, Poland's only 12-tone composer before World War II, a student of Schoenberg and a Holocaust victim. Prof. Go b teaches in Warsaw, Wroc aw and Pozna , and is currently the editor of the Polish Musicological Quarterly, Muzyka.

10:30 - 11:00 COFFEE BREAK

MONDAY, 11:00--1:00.
SESSION VI: KAROL RATHAUS

USC Campus, Newman Recital Hall (Hancock Building)

Session organized by Asst. Prof. Halina GOLDBERG, Indiana University (Session Chair)

11:00 - 11:40

• Dr. Christopher HAILEY, Director of the Schreker Fundation, L.A.
  "Rathaus and the Viennese Composers: Morgenstern, Schreker, Berg"
  Prof. Hailey (musicologist) is the main specialist in the musical world of Schreker who was the teacher of Karl Rathaus.

  11:40 - 12:20
  

• Jolanta GUZY -PASIAKOWA, Institute of Arts, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw:
  "The evolution of Rathaus' compositional style based on his chamber music"
  Ms. Guzy-Pasiakowa (musicologist) is currently completing her doctoral dissertation about the music of Karl Rathaus, under Prof. M. Go b. This is the first ever extensive study of the music of this composer.

  12:20 - 1:30
  

• Dr. Don PIRONE, CUNY, New York:
  "Rathaus piano music: Motivic development in the Fourth Piano Sonata"
  Lecture Recital with the performance of the whole sonata.
  Dr. Pirone (musicologist/pianist) is the author of a ground-breaking study of Rathaus's piano music and the world's leading expert on the music of this composer.

1:30 - 2:30 LUNCH

MONDAY, 2:30-4:30
SESSION VII: ALEKSANDER TANSMAN

Session organized in cooperation with The USC Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life, Prof. Barry Glassner, Chair.
Hebrew Union College, L.A., Lecture Hall

2:30 - 3:10

• Barbara MILEWSKI, Princeton University, USA:
  "Tansman's Mazurkas and the Mazurka tradition"
  Ms. Milewski is currently completing her doctoral dissertation on the history of the "mazurka" including contributions of Jewish, Russian, and German composers to the development of this stylized dance form. In August 1997, she presented a paper on songs in concentration camps at the 16th Congress of the International Musicological Society.

  3:10 - 3:50
  

• Dr. Jill TIMMONS and Dr. Sylvain FREMAUX, Linfield College, Oregon, USA:
  "Tansman: A Polish Jewish composer in California"
  Dr. Timmons (pianist) and Dr. Fremaux (conductor) "discovered" Tansman's music when looking for little known French composers. They received the 1997 Wilk Prize for Research in Polish Music for their article about Tansman and are currently working on the first book in English about this composer.

  3:50 - 4:30
  

• Asst. Prof. Maria Anna HARLEY, PMRC, USC:
  "Tansman's Isaiah - The Music of Return"
  Prof. Harley's research into the history of Polish music focuses on works composed after 1945, with a preference given to little known titles or aspects of the composers' work (Bacewicz, Lutos awski, Górecki, etc. ). Tansman's forgotten oratorio reveals his identity as a Polish Jew who survied the war in California; the work has been performed in L.A. for the 10th anniversary of the creation of Israel.

4:30-5:00 COFFEE BREAK

MONDAY, 5:00 - 6:30
SESSION VIII: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

Hebrew Union College. Lecture Hall

5:00 - 5:20

• Prof. Michael BECKERMAN, University of California, Santa Barbara:
  Position Paper: "The identity/ethnicity question in Eastern Europe"
  Prof. Beckerman is the President of the Czech Music Society, and this music is his main research area. He is also the member of the Board of the American Musicological Society and the recipient of numerous prizes and grants. His resent research subjects include a study of the Gypsy culture in Eastern Europe and transnational/ethnic issues.

  5:20 - 6:30
  

• Discussion. "Is There Polish Jewish Music?"
  Panelists: Prof. Beckerman, Dr. Goldberg, Prof. Harley, Prof. Knoll, Dr. Homma, Mr. Werb, Prof. Wróbel.
  Proposed subject areas: Musicians who are "Polish-Jewish" i.e. assimilated, "Jewish in Poland" i.e. retaining their identity, "Jewish from Poland" who emigrated.

6:30 - 8:00 DINNER: USC HILLEL JEWISH CENTER

MONDAY, 8:00 p.m.
CONCERT II: GREAT MUSIC BY GREAT VIRTUOSI

USC Campus, Newman Recital Hall

Anna Szpilberg (piano), solo repertoire, Agnieszka Lejman (voice): Songs by Friedman and others.

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Copyright 1998 by the Polish Music Reference Center
Send your comments and inquiries to: polmusic@usc.edu This page updated on 10 July 1998 by M. A. Harley. The Conference Program may still change.