David Meyerowitz (Yiddish דוד מאיראװיץ, April 2, 1867 – 1943) was a Latvian-born composer active in the early Yiddish theater. His music was oriented mainly to

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

and

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...

formats.

Early life

Meyerowitz was born Dinaberg, Latvia, then part of czarist Russia. Growing up in a poor family he had to go to work in a match factory at a young age. He had his start there as a songster by singing for his co-workers. In 1888 his father came to the U.S. To support himself and his family, and to pay for his passage to America, he sang

Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfad ...

operettas and

Eliakum Zunser Eliakum Zunser (Eliakim Badchen, Elikum Tsunzer) (October 28, 1840 – September 22, 1913) was a Lithuanian Jewish Yiddish-language poet, songwriter, and ''badchen'' who lived out the last part of his life in the U.S. A 1905 article in ''The New ...

ballads, and old Russian folk songs. In 1890 his father bought him to America. With no formal education, only later did he become literate in English and Yiddish.

Musical career

After coming to America, he lived on the

Lower East Side of Manhattan The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal Street (Manhattan), Canal to Houston Str ...

and continued doing menial work, working with his father in a rag shop, all the while composing songs in his mind. He sang at small venues and gatherings, getting attention and small remunerations. He joined Gilrod's Yiddish vaudeville theater troupe where he sang and wrote for other performers. Meyerowitz became known as "the wandering poet." By age 30 he had graduated from cafe concerts to the Grand Music Hall, at the corner of

Orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

and

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

Streets, a Yiddish variety and vaudeville theater on the Lower East Side. He furnished the theater with an original operetta every week as well as writing five to a dozen new songs a week for the actors. He also sang in, directed and produced these operettas. Meyerowitz could not read or write music; he would sing a song for the conductor who would transcribe the music. His best known songs were written for leading Yiddish producers: He created songs for the Yiddish actor and producer Jacob P. Adler, including "Aheym" for the play ''The Power of Nature''. When impresario

Boris Thomashefsky Boris Thomashefsky (, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; ) (1868–July 9, 1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-born (later American) Jewish singer and actor who became one of the biggest stars in Yiddish th ...

wanted a Zionist-themed song for the play ''Tate mame tzores'' (Heartbreak, Papa and Mama), Myerowitz wrote "Kum, srul, kum aheym" (Come, Little Srul, Come Home). His one act operettas played at all of the 14 Yiddish music and vaudeville houses that once existed in New York simultaneously. In his music he addressed political, social and political themes of the times. He wrote the music for the song ''Die Fire Korbunes'' (The Fire Victims). This was elegy to the 146 immigrant young girls, mainly Jewish and Italian, who died in the 1911

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, a borough of New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest List of industrial disasters, industrial disaster in the history of the city, an ...

. He showed his patriotism in an early song, "Kolombus, ikh hob tzu dir gornit" (Columbus, I’ve Got Nothing Against You!), with the words: “And I have nothing against you either, America! You’re very good to us, and life here is happy; you’re okay!" In "Got Un Zayn Mishpet Iz Gerekt" he alludes to the 1903 pogrom in Russia. An ardent Zionist, he also wrote "Zion's Liedel." He has been described as a member of a "galaxy of

coupletist Couplets (, , ) were wittily ambiguous, political, or satirical songs in a number of European countries, usually performed in cabaret settings, usually with refrains, often used as a transition between two cabaret numbers. Couplets could also be in ...

s," who have been credited with creating the genre of Yiddish parodies of American hit songs. The coupletists generally used the songs to discuss the plight of the Jewish immigrants. The genre has been described as the Yiddish equivalent of American popular song.

Selected music

"A Gut Yor"
"Vos Geven Iz Geven Un Nito"
"Got Un Zayn Mishpet Iz Gerekt"
"Ikh For Aheym"

References

{{Authority control 1867 births 1943 deaths Latvian composers Latvian male composers Yiddish-language singers of the United States Yiddish theatre performers Jewish American composers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Latvian Jews People from Daugavpils Composers from New York City People from the Lower East Side Musicians from the Russian Empire