LEADER 04186cam a2200433Ia 4500001 102595 005 20240621180427.0 008 050222s2004 xx rb 000 0 eng d 028 52 3114198 |bUMI 035 (OCoLC)ocm58552033 035 102595 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 ML3776 |b.J33 2004 100 1 Jacobson, Marion S. 245 10 With song to the struggle : |ban ethnographic and historical study of the Yiddish folk chorus / |cby Marion S. Jacobson. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2004. 300 xvi, 412 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 2004. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-412). 520 Yiddish choruses, or groups of lay singers conducted by professionals, originated in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century and flourished within the fraternal movements established by immigrant Jewish garment workers in the early twentieth century. Reaching their heyday in the thirties, forties, and fifties as the "voice of Jewish labor," they introduced immigrant Yiddish-speaking garment workers to European art music while popularizing a broad repertory of Yiddish songs. I trace the careers of two choruses, the Freiheit Gezang Farein (founded by the communist-leaning Jewish People's Fraternal Order (the Ordn), and later known as the Jewish People's Philharmonic) and the Workmen's Circle Chorus (founded by the socialist Arbeter Ring). Their success helped to ignite a "Yiddish choral movement" that rapidly permeated Jewish left-labor culture and established itself as part of a larger American immigrant choral singing tradition. They functioned as grass-roots music academies, transmitting principles of formal choral singing to thousands of self-taught singers and instilling them with reverence for music in Yiddish.The first half of my dissertation examines the transformation of this tradition, using musical scores and archival sources to establish historical background and to outline a critical historiography of Yiddish music. The second half focuses on ethnographic observation and participation and interviews with contemporary singers and conductors. I illustrate how performances of Yiddish songs-initially linked with leftist and progressive ideals-were influenced by the two major developments affecting world Jewry: the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel. Within the latter two decades of the twentieth century, the klezmer revival and the veneration of Yiddish song as a kind of "heritage music" came to be a central part of Yiddish choral performance practice. In sum, the choruses had begun their career by offering opportunities for immigrants to acclimate to American culture, but later came to focus on maintaining yiddishkeyt (Yiddish language and culture). This dissertation concludes by describing new confluences among Yiddish choruses, professional Jewish chorales, synagogue choirs, and the careers of internationally-known Jewish singers, and by tracing some of the routes by which these groups disseminate Yiddish songs in performance, in print, and within the larger Jewish musical scene. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2005. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Jews |zUnited States |vMusic |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Music |zUnited States |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Choral societies |zUnited States. 610 20 Workmen's Circle Chorus. 610 20 Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765151581&sid=117&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib102595/3114198.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 C0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hML3776 |i.J33 2004 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook