<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Eminent Polish composer Karol Rathaus (1895–1954) left behind an essay dedicated to his uncle Chune Wolfsthal (1851–1924). In this text, Rathaus recalls his childhood and adolescent years in (Austria-Hungary’s crown land of ) Galicia. His memories of Wolfsthal, a famous klezmer and operetta composer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, provide an opportunity to recollect the now non-existent world of Jewish amateur musicians working in Tarnopol and Lwów before World War II. Those musicians performed in synagogues, at family events and social functions, in cafés and tea gardens. Some of them, including Chune, became involved in the activity of the then emerging Jewish theatre, which was a part-vulgar, part-artistic phenomenon.</p>
</abstract>

Eminent Polish composer Karol Rathaus (1895–1954) left behind an essay dedicated to his uncle Chune Wolfsthal (1851–1924). In this text, Rathaus recalls his childhood and adolescent years in (Austria-Hungary’s crown land of ) Galicia. His memories of Wolfsthal, a famous klezmer and operetta composer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, provide an opportunity to recollect the now non-existent world of Jewish amateur musicians working in Tarnopol and Lwów before World War II. Those musicians performed in synagogues, at family events and social functions, in cafés and tea gardens. Some of them, including Chune, became involved in the activity of the then emerging Jewish theatre, which was a part-vulgar, part-artistic phenomenon.

Jewish Popular Music in Galicia: Karol Rathaus’ Recollections of Chune Wolfsthal

Musicology Today

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Eminent Polish composer Karol Rathaus (1895–1954) left behind an essay dedicated to his uncle Chune Wolfsthal (1851–1924). In this text, Rathaus recalls his...

Jewish Popular Music in Galicia: Karol Rathaus’ Recollections of Chune Wolfsthal

Published Online: Apr 27, 2024

Page range: 60 - 68

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/muso-2023-0006

Keywords
Karol Rathaus, Chune Wolfsthal, Galicia, Lwów (Lviv), Tarnopol (Ternopil), klezmer (), Jewish theatre

© 2023 Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Jewish Popular Music in Galicia: Karol Rathaus’ Recollections of Chune Wolfsthal

Published Online: Apr 27, 2024

Page range: 60 - 68

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/muso-2023-0006

KeywordsKarol Rathaus, Chune Wolfsthal, Galicia, Lwów (Lviv), Tarnopol (Ternopil), klezmer (), Jewish theatre

© 2023 Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Karol Rathaus, Chune Wolfsthal, Galicia, Lwów (Lviv), Tarnopol (Ternopil), klezmer (), Jewish theatre