Polish Music Journal 6.1.03 - Program of International Conference on Polish Jewish Music, 1998

INTRODUCTION

SESSION I: Historical Vistas

SESSION II: Soloists and Societies

SESSION III: From Poland to California

SESSION IV: Folk and Klezmer Music

CONCERT I: Tansman, Koffler, etc.

SESSION V: Fitelberg and Koffler

SESSION VI: Karol Rathaus

SESSION VII: Alexander Tansman

SESSION VIII: Panel Discussion

CONCERT II: Szymanowska, Friedman, etc.

NOTES: Scholars and Performers

Description:

This conference, the first of its kind, attempted to fill some of the larger gaps in Polish music history by (1) highlighting the richness of achievements of Polish composers of Jewish descent and Jewish music in Poland and by (2) emphasizing the complexity of cultural relationships between the two ethnic groups, including both assimilation and coexistence. Invited scholars discussed the lives and music of individual composers (Rosenthal, Friedman, Godowsky, Tansman, Fitelberg, Rathaus, Koffler, Ryterband, Vars), groups of musicians (klezmer) and various communities.

Several subjects were presented for the first time (or for the first time in North America); the conference included lectures, lecture-recitals and panel discussions. Scholars from five countries discussed music composed in and performed over the past 200 years. Two concerts presented rarely-heard solo and chamber music of Tansman, Koffler, Friedman, Rosenthal and others. The conference ended with a roundtable discussion focused on the issue of national and ethnic identity. It is hoped that by outlining this new subject area the conference will serve to further the Polish-Jewish dialogue as well as highlight the role of this particular community of musicians for the world.

Thematic Areas:

Music created by Polish composers of Jewish origin,
Music and lives of composers and performers who have retained their double identity,
Jewish music in Poland,
The achievements of Jewish emigré musicians who remained connected to the country of their birth.
Role of Jewish communities in Polish musical life of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
Other aspects of Jewish musical life in Poland.

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;

Ars Musica Poloniae Foundation, Los Angeles;

Jewish Community Foundation, Los Angeles;

Friends of Polish Music, Los Angeles;

The Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life, USC;

Polish American Congress of California;

USC Hillel Jewish Center.

PROGRAM:

SUNDAY, November 15. 9:00 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
SESSION I: HISTORICAL VISTAS

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Auditorium

9:00 - 9:30.
Welcoming Addresses (USC, HUC, School of Music, PMRC)
- Rabbi Susan E. Laemmle, USC Dean for Religious Life
- Asst. 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 (now: Maja Trochimczyk; S.& W. Wilk Director of the PMC, USC)

9:30 - 10:10.
Prof. Paul KNOLL, History Dept., College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, USC
"The Early History of Polish-Jewish Relations and the Jewish Community in Poland"

ABSTRACT:
The beginnings of Polish-Jewish relations are rooted in the medieval period, and can be dated to well before the thirteenth century and perhaps as early as the tenth century. One of the issues with which this presentation deals is the question of when the Jews moved to Poland and where they settled. But this rather mechanical issue is a less important matter than other topics which form the focus of this paper: the size of the Jewish community in various periods of Polish history before the partitions of the eighteenth century the activities of the Jews within Poland — both in their inner social and religious life and in their relations to the rest of the Polish community; the status of the Jews in the eyes of civil and religous authorities; and finally their contribution to Polish culture which forms the focus of the present conference. This presentation aims at an overview, setting these issues in context and perspective; it makes no effort to be comprehensive or definitive. The period treated in this paper comprises the centuries of medieval and early modern Polish history prior to the partitions of the late eighteenth century, which brought an end to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and profoundly changed the condition of Jewish existence in the region.

10:10 - 10:50.
Prof. Piotr WRÓBEL, University of Toronto, CANADA:
"The Jews, the Poles, and the Culture of Poland in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"

ABSTRACT:
Poland is the fatherland of Polish Jews. There is no other country in the world, not counting Israel, where a Jewish contribution to local culture was so important. There is also no other country which influenced the contemporary culture of the North American and the West European Jewry so much. Even the shadow of the Holocaust cannot hide these facts. Jewish history in Poland is not only a tedious chronicle of persecution and suffering. Once, Poland was known as the paradisus Judeorum. Until World War I, Warsaw had the largest and the most vibrant Jewish community in the world. Poland had a larger percentage of Jewish population than any other country except Israel. Yiddish matured as a separate language in Poland. Chassidism, Bundism and several other important Jewish movements and ideologies were born there. Family roots or early experiences of such personalities as Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, Martin Buber, Chaim Weizman, David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, and many others are tied to Poland. The history of the Jews is incomplete and incomprehensible without its Polish segment.

The Jews have been living in the realm of Poland for more than a thousand years. The first Jewish settlements were established there before the end of the tenth century. Initially, the Jewish population of Poland was small. It grew quickly and, on the eve of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, over 75% of the world's Jewry lived there. Already in the fifteenth century, Poland because the most important cultural center of the entire Jewish Diaspora. The Polish Jewish center attracted the most outstanding Jewish thinkers and artists from other countries and, simultaneously influenced Jewish communities outside Poland. A fascinating culture of Polish Jews developed, a culture deeply rooted in the Jewish heritage and the Polish cultural environment. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries millions of Jewish emigrants from Poland brought elements of this culture to North America and Western Europe.

Until the nineteenth century, most Jewish and Polish communities lived separate lives and their contacts were limited. This situation began to change in the era of the Enlightenment. Its Jewish form, the Haskalah, initiated the emancipation of the Jews. The erosion of their traditional life was accelerated by numerous economic, political and cultural factors. Thousands of Polish Jews left orthodox and Chassidic ghettos to participate in the mainstream of Polish life. The assimilation assumed various shapes and reached several degrees. Thousands of the supporters of Jacob Frank converted to Catholicism and blended in with the Poles. Others did not leave their old religion and considered themselves Poles of the Mosaic faith, although, frequently, they did not speak Yiddish and abandoned the most traditional customs. Some Polish Jews, like Jan Bloch, Rosa Luxemburg or Janusz Korczak became bi-cultural. There were Jewish families, like the Kronenbergs, who merged with the most aristocratic Polish clans. Many Jews participated in Polish national uprisings, fought in the Polish Legions and the Polish armies. Many distinguished themselves in the political life of Poland. It is difficult to overestimated the contribution of the Kronenbergs, Wawelbergs, Natansons, Rotwands, Bersons, Toeplitz, Wertheims, and Epsteins to the development of the Polish economy.

The Jews, who contributed to Polish culture, were frequently intellectual rebels who stimulated new trends and styles. Often, they implemented in their work elements of the Jewish heritage; they represented new perspectives and original points of view. The history of Polish art includes about 700 names of Polish-Jewish artists. Some of them, like Maurycy Gottlieb, studied with the most outstanding Polish painters and were fascinated with Polish culture. A list of Polish writers of Jewish origin is impressive as well. It is difficult to imagine Polish poetry without Tuwim, Leśmian, Słonimski, Wittlin, Ważyk, and Jastrun. The most outstanding historians of Polish literature, Klaczko and Kleiner, were born in Jewish families. Askenazy, Handelsman, and Feldman became pillars of Polish modern historiography. Equally long are lists of Polish-Jewish physicians, journalists, lawyers, scholars and representatives of other professions. Even among the Catholic priests and missionaries from Poland there was a group of Polish Jews. The relationship between Polish and Jewish cultures was reciprocal. Yiddish was greatly influenced by Polish. Yiddish literature was born in the lands of partitioned Poland. Contemporary Hebrew includes numerous Polish borrowings. The greatest Chassidic dynasties originated in Poland where several outstanding theological schools and Jewish scientific institutions blossomed until World War II. It is impossible to eliminate Poland from the history of the Jews and to remove the Jews from the history of Poland.

10:50 - 11:10. COFFEE BREAK

Smokowski: <i>Jewish Wedding in Wilno</i>, frg.

Smokowski: Jewish Wedding in Wilno.

SUNDAY. 11:10 a.m. - 1:10 p.m.
SESSION II: SOLOISTS AND SOCIETIES

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Auditorium
SESSION CHAIR: Prof. Piotr WRÓBEL, University of Toronto

11:10 - 11:50.
Asst. Prof. Halina GOLDBERG, Indiana University, Bloomington
"Assimilation of Jews into Nineteenth Century Polish Musical Culture"

ABSTRACT:
It is not accidental that when Adam Mickiewicz, in his celebrated epic, Pan Tadeusz, sought to epitomize the Jewish voice in the Polish national consciousness, he chose to speak through a Jewish musician. After all, the prominence of Jewish folk-musicians in the making of Polish music was already well-established by the time the poetic Jankel was conceived. Moreover, in Jankel, Mickiewicz prophesied generations of Jewish musicians who became enthusiastic and committed emissaries of Polishness around the world.
The roots of this Jewish acculturation can be traced to the first decades of the nineteenth century; in particular to the influence of the new assimilations tendencies popular among the Polish intelligentsia, and the German Haskalah ideology seeping into the traditional Jewish community of the Polish Kingdom. During this period, a limited number of individuals and of families of Mosaic faith joined Polish cultural circles: most notably Abraham Stern — a mathematician and member of the Society for the Friends of Learning (Towarzystwo Przyjaciółl Nauk); the publisher Karol Magnus and Natan Glucksberg; and the musical family of Joseph Wolff, who hosted a well-known musical salon. The children and grandchildren of these families, still better integrated into the mainstream culture, were able to further their musical interest into the realm of professionalism. Among the first to attain the status of professional musicians were pianists Edward Wolff (a professor at the Paris Conservatory) and Bohemian-born Alojzy Zygmunt Tausig.
Given the high rate of conversions among Warsaw's enlightened Jews and the growing concept of secular Jewishness, it is difficult to draw the line between Jews and persons of Jewish descent. The matter is further complicated by the increasingly hostile attitudes towards person of even distant Jewish ancestry. In the liberal atmosphere of Warsaw during the Congress Kingdom (1815-1830), acts of hostility were infrequent — the most notorious being the one directed at the local Frankists. In a slanderous campaign, the private concerts of Maria Szymanowska, famous pianist of Frankist descent, were denounced as secret subversive gatherings. However, only after 1858 did the antagonistic sentiments begin to truly color the assimilation process. Interestingly enough, this phase of history was launched by a concert review in a Warsaw newspaper, in which Jews were accused of a massive conspiracy supporting its members, "whether he is a banker or a tenor; whether a profiteer or a violinist."
Following this change in attitudes, the later part of the century was characterized by a rather mixed position toward the Jews: while some continued to support their assimilation, others did everything to discourage Jews from integrating into Polish society. But it was too late to reverse the effects of cultural integration — music lovers and musicians of Jewish origins were fully involved with Warsaw's musical life. Some were professionals (Adam Munchheimer, Ludwik Grossman, Adolf Gustaw Sonnenfeld, and Izydor Lesser, while others were music-lovers or amateurs (Henryk Toeplitz and Leopold Julian Kronenberg.) Others still made splendid international careers (the violinists Izydor Lotto and Henryk Wieniawski, and the pianist Karol Tausig). Although the relations between Polish Christians and Jews grew increasingly more complex and uneasy, the musical coexistence — initiated in the tolerant milieu of the first part of the nineteenth century and strengthened by mutual commitment to the propagation of Polish musical culture, continued until the destruction of Polish Jewry.
11:50 - 12:10.
Prof. Dr. hab. Marian FUKS, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, POLAND
"Musical Traditions of Polish Jews" (paper translated by Maria Piłatowicz and read in absentia)
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents an overview of musical traditions of the Jewish community in Poland, with its roots in folklore and in the religious culture centered in synagogues. Religious services could often be described as sui generis concerts for the cantor and the choir. The cantorial traditions were divided into schools established by famous singers, who all had strong voices and great musical abilities, especially of improvisation. The voice of Joel Jaszunski (d. 1850) delighted Stanisław Moniuszko and other Polish composers of the nineteenth century; tenor Gershon Sirota (1877-1943) was the most famous cantor during the interbellum period; known as the "Jewish Caruso," he often gave concerts of secular music.
The development of religious music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was stimulated by the creation of many large synagogues, e.g. the Grand Synagogue on Tłomackie Street in Warsaw (built in 1878, destroyed during World War II and never reconstructed) which allowed for organ accompaniment. Its choir was directed by David Ajzensztadt (1892-1942). Chassidic music, located on the borderline between sacred and the secular, and integrally connected with dance, was only rarely notated or transcribed, and its creators were mostly anonymous. Jewish folk music absorbed influences from many national traditions, including the Polish one. Klezmer ensembles performed at Polish weddings, in Polish inns, occasionally at courts. Among the many klezmer poets who improvised their texts and music, Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942) is the most famous. Instrumental ensembles of klezmer musicians were active in Poland since the sixteenth century. The musicians did not have formal training, did not know musical notation, but delighted listeners with their originality. Józef Michał Guzikow (1806-1837) was a virtuoso on the "straw harmonica" (the predecessor of the xylophone); known in all of Europe, he was heard by Lipiński, Chopin, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Liszt, Sand, and Lamartine. Considering himself a Polish Jew, he improvised many fantasias on Polish themes, he played mazurkas, polonaises, as well as Jewish, Byelorussian, and Polish folk songs.
In 1805, Józef Elsner wrote for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung that "Jewish musicians play the polonaise in such an exquisite Polish spirit that no-one can be their equal." Polish Jews valued music very highly and developed various forms of music making for their community. They also participated in Polish musical life, for example staffing the orchestras, or funding their creation (e.g. Aleksander Reichman, the founder of the Warsaw Philharmonic). This orchestra saw the beginnings of the international careers of Paweł Kochański (violinist), Gregory Piatigorski (cellist), and Grzegorz Fitelberg (conductor). Orchestral musicians included the families of Szulc, Ginsburg, and Szpilman, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. Many world-famous musicians had roots in Polish Jewry: Paul Klecki (conductor), Artur Rubinstein (pianist), Bronisław Huberman, Henryk Szeryng, and Ida Handel (violinists), Wanda Landowska (harpsichordist), and others. Polish composers of Jewish descent active in the nineteenth century include Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1888), whose father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, converted to Catholicism. Ludwik Grossman (1835-1915) was known for his operas, his pianos (he owned a factory), and his musical salon in Warsaw. Adolf Sonnenfeld (1837-1914) composed operettas, ballets, and popular dances. The latter was the primary domain of Leopold Lewandowski (1831-1896), violinist, composer and conductor, who penned over 300 popular Polish dances. In the twentieth century there were many important composers of Jewish descent: Józef Koffler (1896-1944), Karol Rathaus (1891-1954), Szymon Laks (1901-1983), and Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986). Numerous musicologists (Józef Reiss, Zofia Lissa, Mateusz Gliński) created the foundations for this discipline in Poland. Between the wars, the Polish "music industry" was dominated by composers of Jewish descent: Henryk Gold, Jerzy Petersburski, Henryk Wars, etc. The composer of the beloved war-anthem "Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino" [Red poppies on Monte Cassino] was Artur Schlitz. Despite the destruction of the Jewish community in Poland during World War II, the music of the many Polish Jews is a testimony of the existence and vitality of Jewish musical culture that had flourished in Poland.
12:10 - 12:30.
Dr. Isachar FATER, Ramat Aviv, ISRAEL
"Special Features of Jewish Music in Interbellum Poland" (Paper translated by Maria Piłatowicz and read in absentia)

ABSTRACT: During the nineteenth century, music was the most neglected branch of art in Jewish cultural and social life. While there were numerous congresses about literature and theater, and many art exhibits, the Jewish community still lacked organized musical activities. The great musical revolution achieved in Russia by Joel Engel and his associates from the Jewish Music Society in Petersburg was possible thanks to good advice of non-Jewish musicians, such as Rimsky-Korsakov and his students who were convinced of the value of the Jewish musical heritage. Jewish contemporary music developed in three great musical centers: America, Palestine, and Poland. The musical traditions of each of these centers were different; each carried their own burden of foreign influences that needed to be controlled.
Jewish musicians in America sought integration. All that was characteristic for America was adapted by Jewish music; atonal Indian cantilenas, angular melodic contours, and modern harmony based on dissonance became a stylistic source for such composers as Gershwin, Weill, or Bernstein. These artists did not respect the tradition, they were indifferent towards the national history. In general, Jewish music in America may be described as opportunistic, not flowing from the depth of the soul and not fulfilling the spiritual needs of the people. In Palestine, from the time of Chibat Cijon, Jewish music was a faithful reflection of the new life in the old/new country. At first, the music mixed various styles, expressing enthusiasm and patriotism, religious and familial feelings. Joel Engel introduced many new elements, while preserving the national heritage—he created an original Hebrew song tradition. However, younger generations of composers did not maintain close connections to their musical past. The Jewish folk music traditions were neglected and destroyed. Israeli cities had a rich musical life and enjoyed close ties with various countries of the world, but the artists ignored their own heritage created in the diaspora, including even liturgical music.
In contrast to these two centers, the best conditions for the development of Jewish music existed in Poland. Here, the music remained a natural continuation of the past; it was not influenced by artificial, academic factors (as in the U.S.), and it was not permeated with a search for the foreign element (as in the Palestine). Folk song was a part of daily life of every Jewish home; Jewish people in Poland sang always and everywhere. At the time when the first organizations were created to collect and preserve Jewish song in Petersburg and Moscow, Warsaw and Łódz already had Jewish concert organizations, e.g. "Hazamir" [Nightingale], sponsoring a rich musical life. Even before World War I there were hundreds of choirs in many cities. Liturgical music had the highest position in society, but the development of music for theatrical performances was also quite impressive, especially since the time of the pioneering achievements of Abraham Goldfaden. In interbellum Poland there were many theatres and theatrical ensembles, each with its own orchestra. Many songs by Josef Kaminski, Isa Szajewicz, Henech Kon, and others became very popular. Various parties, groups and cultural societies initiated the creation of music schools, organizations, institutions, and courses. During the 1930s these activities intensified, as Jewish musicians began to lose their jobs elsewhere and Jewish community organizations established Jewish concert series and orchestras. Nonetheless, the greatest wonder in the world of Jewish music in Poland was the Jewish audience filling the halls for an immense number of performances, concerts, opera spectacles and other musical occasions. Concerts given by cantors, symphonic orchestras and choirs became holidays, with halls filled to the brim. When discussions about "what is Jewish music?" were conducted in America and in the Palestine, Jewish composers, conductors, and music lovers, as well as choirs and orchestras were thriving in Poland. On the shores of the Vistula they composed, arranged folk songs, gave concerts, and enjoyed the traditional Jewish melodies. This treasure of Jewish music in Poland should not be forgotten.
12:30 - 1:10.
Prof. Philip COHEN and Prof. Anna SZPILBERG, Leonardo Project, Concordia University, Montreal, CANADA
"The Virtuoso Connection(Godowski, Friedman, Rosenthal, and the Cosmopolitan Imperative)
Lecture-Recital (Cancelled)

ABSTRACT:
Consummate virtuosi in a golden age of virtuoso pianism, Leopold Godowsky, Ignacy Friedman and Moritz Rosenthal shared a broadly educated, multi-talented, multi-lingual cosmopolitanism rooted in the European cultural legacy. Throughout their lengthy careers — roughly five decades spanning the turn of this century — they enjoyed virtually uninterrupted acclaim, as much for their wit and breadth of interests as for their transcendent musicianship. The lecture/demonstration will discuss: (a) the degree to which the cosmopolitan experience informed the lives, work, values and aspirations of these supremely gifted artists; (b) what — if any — inferences can be drawn from the experience that might illuminate Polish Jewish cosmopolitanism in the twilight years leading to the Second World War.
The illustrations at the piano will focus on passages selected from works composed by all three artists. In this regard it is important to note that while their pre-eminence as virtuoso pianists is a matter of historical record, few of their original compositions have survived in the standard repertoire. (One would, for example, be hard put today to find a concert program featuring selections from Godowsky's four hundred odd works for piano — apart from the occasional performance of a song transcription or notoriously demanding "arrangements" of the Chopin Etudes). When heard, however, in a context that includes documented interviews with the artists, their personal correspondence, concert reviews, dedications, pedagogical contributions and related memorabilia, these works rise above period piece limbo to illuminate a way of life and art that flourished for a few precious years before vanishing forever. As a consequence the paradoxes that emerge and the questions that are raised endow these musical gems with a poignancy well beyond mere nostalgia. Most compellingly, they recall a commitment to a world view that endured until the mounting spectre of barbarism extinguished all hope.
1:10-2:10 LUNCH BREAK

SUNDAY. 2:10 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
SESSION III: FROM POLAND TO CALIFORNIA

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Institute Auditorium.
Session organized in cooperation with the USC Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life.
SESSION CHAIR: Prof. Paul KNOLL, History Department, USC College of Letters Arts & Sciences.

2:10 - 2:50.
Asst. Prof. Maria Anna HARLEY (MAJA TROCHIMCZYK), USC
"The Question of Identity: Polish Jewish Composers in California"

ABSTRACT:
In 1996, Adam Scharf, a Jewish scholar from Poland who settled in England, wrote: "Poles have always taken me for a Jew, Jews for an Englishman, the English for a Pole, I myself could say that I look upon England as a wife, Israel as a lover, on Poland as a step-mother," In naming Poland a (wicked?) stepmother, Scharf bemoaned the non-inclusivity of the traditional definition of Polish national identity: "Polish = Catholic." Obviously, if this was the case, there could be no Jewish Poles. This study presents an overview of the issue of national identity and ethnic belonging of Jewish emigrants who left Poland at different times to settle in various countries, including the U.S. These "displaced persons" were faced with one of the most difficult tasks — that of re-defining their personal and national identity. After an examination of the interrelationships between personal, communal, ethnic, religious and national definitions of "Jewishness" and "Polishness" (identities which may be either inherited or selected) we may try to understand how "Jews from Poland" [or "Polish Jews" or "Jewish Poles"] have adjusted to their new societies.

I will discuss three cases of emigrants to California: Aleksander (or Alexandre) Tansman, Roman Ryterband, and Henry Vars. Tansman, born in an affluent family in 1897, was assimilated to Polish culture (Polish was his first language), but left for France in 1919, to settle in Paris and never return to the country of his birth (d. 1986). He expressed his Polishness by composing more mazurkas, polonaises and obereks than almost any other composer after Chopin. Tansman described himself as "un compositeur polonais," but spoke French at home; after Hitler's rise to power the internationally known composer gradually reclaimed his Jewish roots. In 1941 Tansman left for California where he became a member of the international community of refuge artists, a personal friend of Igor Stravinsky, and a successful film composer. However, he was not able to adjust to the "American way of life" and accept American popular culture; in 1946 he returned to Paris. The typical dictionary description of Tansman as a "French composer of Polish descent" overlooks his Jewishness which remained untouched by any influences of an American identity.

Roman Ryterband, born in 1914 in Łódz, survived World War II in Switzerland, where he received a degree in musicology and became a conductor. In 1955 he emigrated to Canada and in 1960 to the U.S. The last move, to Palm Springs, California, occurred in 1967; he died there in 1979. His music manuscripts were deposited at the Americana Collection in the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Ryterband and his family were americanized without forgetting their Polish roots. The composer regretted the suffering and discord caused by differences between the world's people and saw in music "the most sublime international language" that should be used to advocate understanding and the "ideals of harmony, happiness, and mutual respect" pursued by the citizens of the U.S. since its inception.

Poland's foremost film composer, Henryk Wars (b. 1902 in Warsaw as Henryk Warszawski, d. 1977 in Beverly Hills), after emigrating to the U.S. in 1947 changed his name to "Henry Vars." The demands of Vars's career as a successful composer of music for films, TV, and popular songs provided the motivation for these name changes. Vars's family has remained active in the Polish American community in California — participating in the community functions and supporting its organizations. Vars shared Ryterband's belief in the power of music as an "international language" and strove for excellence in his art. While his name usually appears in books about "Jewish music in Poland" his way to a Hollywood career led through Polish popular culture, not through the Yiddish culture that had flourished in the country of his birth.

NOTE: This paper is forthcoming in Polin, vol. 19, special issue on Jewish-Polish relations in America.

2:50 - 3:30.
Dr. Linda SCHUBERT, UCLA, Los Angeles:
"Recovering a Repertory: The American Film Scores of Henry Vars"

ABSTRACT:
Polish composer Henry Vars [Henryk Wars, born Warszawski] (1902-77) wrote many popular songs between the wars and provided the music for more than one third of the sound films made in Poland before World War II. A member of the Polish armed services during World War II, Vars escaped imprisonment by the Nazis and became the leader of the music group "Polish Parade." (This group eventually joined General Anders' Second Polish Corps which traveled first to the Middle East then on to Italy to win the Battle of Monte Cassino.) After the war Vars and his wife Elizabeth came to the United States, where Vars continued his career as a film composer in Los Angeles. Perhaps best known for his score to Flipper (both the film and television series), Vars scored over 80 films in his career. He also composed for television and continued to write popular songs.

For the most part, American studio composers of the 1950s still wrote within the musical conventions of the classic Hollywood style that crystallized in the 1930s. In many ways Vars was a typical industry composer of the time, writing scores (often anonymously) for a variety of popular genres including mysteries, crime dramas, science fiction films and westerns. He, too, worked within musical conventions that emphasized leitmotifs, the use of a full symphony orchestra, and late nineteenth century harmonies. But Vars was also unique in the breadth of musical experience that he brought to his work.

Though he accomplished much, Henry Vars has been all but forgotten in the United States, though his music (particularly the songs) is still played and admired in Poland. This paper is intended to give an overview of Vars' American film scores, to set them within the context of industry practices of the time, to discuss some of the influences on and characteristics of his scores: in short, to re-introduce listeners to his music. Information on Vars is not readily available in the U.S. and I will, therefore, discuss some of the particular research problems that have developed, as it may throw light on the process of film music research in general. The paper will include biographical information, an outline of Vars' filmography, and a discussion of several individual scores.

NOTE: This article appeared in Polish Music Journal 4 no. 1 (2001).

3:30-3:50 COFFEE BREAK

SUNDAY. 3:50 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
SESSION IV: FOLK AND KLEZMER MUSIC

USC Campus, Arnold Schoenberg Auditorium.
SESSION CHAIR: ASST. PROF. TIMOTHY COOLEY, UCSB, Ethnomusicology.

3:50 - 4:30
Dr Jordan CHARNOFSKY and Leo CHELYAPOV, The Brandeis-Bardin Klezmer Ensemble, Los Angeles.
"Two Voices on Klezmer Music" (Lecture-Recital)
USC graduate, classical guitarist, Jordan Charnofsky and Leo Chelyapov, originally from Russia, discuss the various folk sources and styles of klezmer music as well as the approach of their group to this musical repertory.
4:30 - 5:10
Hankus NETSKY, Instructor, New England Conservatory, Boston; Ph.D. Candidate, Wesleyan University.
"Three Klezmorim From Poland (Frydman, Rosner, Bazyler)"
ABSTRACT:
Although it was never the heartland of Jewish dance music, Poland was the birthplace of a large number of skilled and influential klezmorim. I examine the lives and repertoire of three twentieth century professional Jewish folk instrumentalists, Carl Frydman, Leo Rosner, and Ben Bazyler, focusing special attention on how their Polish origins and adopted homes influenced their careers.
5:10 - 6:00.
Bret WERB, Staff Musicologist, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
"A Musical Parergon to Chone Shmeruk's Mayufes: A Window on Polish-Jewish Relations"
ABSTRACT:
"Mayufes: A Window on Polish-Jewish Relations," an article in Polin (v. 10) by Chone Shmeruk, tells the story of a musical phenomenon that is uniquely Polish-Jewish. Yet the Polin article lacks musical examples of any kind. In "A Musical Parergon" Mr. Werb recounts his attempts to supplement Shmeruk's literary survey with examples of notated or recorded music. The paper concludes with some reflections on musical caricature as a possible subject for ethnomusicological investigation.
6:00-8:00 DINNER

Jankiel from Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz, by Edward Loevy, 1890.