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

The article presents the few surviving documents concerning the incidental music to Polish-Jewish plays performed on the Polish stages in the first decades of the 20th century (until 1939). This kind of theatre was to constitute a space for the dialogue between the Jewish and Polish communities. The idea of its creators was to reject the existing, usually negative, way of presenting Jews in Polish theatre as well as to show authentic Jewish life — customs, rituals, music and dances — on stage. A breakthrough in both of these areas came with the so-called Jewish plays of Gabriela Zapolska — <italic>Małka Szwarcenkopf</italic> and <italic>Jojne Firułkes</italic>. The idea of the Polish-Jewish theatre was then developed by Marek Arnsztajn (Andrzej Marek). Referring to the surviving sources (scores as well as press reviews and notes in directors’ copies of the scripts), the author analyses music to two performances of <italic>Małka Szwarcenkopf</italic>, and presents the musical appendix to the Polish version of An-ski’s <italic>Dybbuk</italic> published in 1922. The analysis seeks to capture the composers’ specific ideas of Jewish music and to discover the sources of their inspiration. The second objective of the article was to present the cultural background against which the Polish-Jewish theatre evolved.
</abstract>

The article presents the few surviving documents concerning the incidental music to Polish-Jewish plays performed on the Polish stages in the first decades of the 20th century (until 1939). This kind of theatre was to constitute a space for the dialogue between the Jewish and Polish communities. The idea of its creators was to reject the existing, usually negative, way of presenting Jews in Polish theatre as well as to show authentic Jewish life — customs, rituals, music and dances — on stage. A breakthrough in both of these areas came with the so-called Jewish plays of Gabriela Zapolska — Małka Szwarcenkopf and Jojne Firułkes. The idea of the Polish-Jewish theatre was then developed by Marek Arnsztajn (Andrzej Marek). Referring to the surviving sources (scores as well as press reviews and notes in directors’ copies of the scripts), the author analyses music to two performances of Małka Szwarcenkopf, and presents the musical appendix to the Polish version of An-ski’s Dybbuk published in 1922. The analysis seeks to capture the composers’ specific ideas of Jewish music and to discover the sources of their inspiration. The second objective of the article was to present the cultural background against which the Polish-Jewish theatre evolved.

Music in the Polish-Jewish Theatre in the First Decades of the 20th Century in the Light of Surviving Sources

Institute of Musicology — Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Music in the Polish-Jewish Theatre in the First Decades of the 20 Century in the Light of Surviving Sources

The article presents the few surviving documents concerning the incidental music to Polish-Jewish plays performed on the Polish stages in the first decades of...

Music in the Polish-Jewish Theatre in the First Decades of the 20^th Century in the Light of Surviving Sources

Published Online: Feb 12, 2022

Page range: 67 - 89

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prm-2021-0002

Keywords
Polish-Jewish theatre, Jewish music, Marek Arnsztajn, Andrzej Marek,

© 2021 Michał Jaczyński, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Music in the Polish-Jewish Theatre in the First Decades of the 20th Century in the Light of Surviving Sources

Published Online: Feb 12, 2022

Page range: 67 - 89

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prm-2021-0002

KeywordsPolish-Jewish theatre, Jewish music, Marek Arnsztajn, Andrzej Marek,

© 2021 Michał Jaczyński, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Music in the Polish-Jewish Theatre in the First Decades of the 20^th Century in the Light of Surviving Sources

Keywords
Polish-Jewish theatre, Jewish music, Marek Arnsztajn, Andrzej Marek,