Yoel Engel
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Joel Engel (also Yoel or Yury, , , 1868–1927) was a Russian music critic, composer and one of the leading figures in the Jewish art music movement. Born in the Russian Empire, and later moving to Berlin and then to
Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...
, Engel has been called "the true founding father of the modern renaissance of Jewish music." As a composer, teacher, and organizer, Engel inspired a generation of Jewish classical musicians to rediscover their ethnic roots and create a new style of nationalist Jewish music, modelled after the national music movements of Russia, Slovakia, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe. This style—developed by composers
Alexander Krein Alexander Abramovich Krein (; 20 October 1883 in Nizhny Novgorod – 25 April 1951 in Staraya Ruza, Moscow Oblast) was a Soviet composer. Background The Krein family was steeped in the klezmer tradition; his father Abram (who moved to Russia fro ...
,
Lazare Saminsky Lazare Saminsky (born Lazar Semyonovich Saminsky (; 27 October 1882 O.S. / 8 November N.S. – 30 June 1959) was a performer, conductor and composer, especially of Jewish music. Life Born to a merchant family in Valehotsulove (now ), near Odess ...
,
Mikhail Gnesin Mikhail Fabianovich Gnessin (; sometimes transcribed ''Gnesin''; 2 February .S. 21 January18835 May 1957)Sitsky, Larry. (1994) ''Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900–1929,'' pp. 242–243 & 247 Westport, CT: Greenwood Press was a R ...
,
Solomon Rosowsky Solomon (Salomo) Rosowsky (1878, Riga –1962) was a cantor (hazzan) and composer, and son of the Rigan cantor, Baruch Leib Rosowsky. Early life Rosowsky began to study music only after he graduated from the University of Kyiv, with a degree in ...
, and others—was an important influence on the music of many twentieth-century composers, as well as on the folk
music of Israel The music of Israel is a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish music traditions that have come together over the course of a century to create a distinctive musical culture. For almost 150 years, musicians have sought original stylistic elements ...
. His work in preserving the musical tradition of the
shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...
—the 19th-century Jewish village of eastern Europe—made possible the revival of
klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...
music today.


Early life and work

Engel was born Yuliy Dmitrievich Engel in
Berdyansk Berdiansk or Berdyansk (, ; , ) is a port city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, which is connected to the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Berdiansk Raion. The ...
, now in
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. Unlike most Jewish families of the period, he grew up outside of the
Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...
, the area designated by the Tsar as legal for Jewish residence. His parents were secular Jews. Engel studied law at the
Kharkiv National University The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (), also known as Kharkiv National University or Karazin University, is a public university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin, becoming the second olde ...
, and later, at the urging of
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
, who heard his compositions, entered the
Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...
. After graduating from the conservatory, Engel worked as the music critic of the influential Russian newspaper ''
Russkiye Vedomosti ''Russkiye Vedomosti'' () was a Russian liberal daily newspaper, published in Moscow from 1863 till 1918. Founded in Moscow in 1863 by Nikolai Pavlov, it was edited by Nikolai Skvortsov (1866-1882) and by Vasily Sobolevsky, in 1882–1912. Aft ...
''. He became an influential figure in Russian musical life, supporting composers who wrote in the increasingly popular Russian nationalist style.


Interest in Jewish music

According to Jacob Weinberg (1879–1956), concert pianist, classical composer and close associate of Engel's, Engel had no interest in Jewish music until a catalyzing meeting in 1899 with
Vladimir Stasov Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (also Stassov; ; 14 January O.S. 2 January">Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe">O.S. 2 January/small> 1824 – 23 October .S. 10 October/small> 1906), was a Russian critic of music and art. ...
, art critic and a leading proponent of Russian nationalism in art and music. According to Weinberg, Stasov shouted at Engel, "Where is your national pride in your own people?" Engel experienced an epiphany, and took a profound interest in his Jewish musical roots. In the summer of 1900, Engel returned to his home in Berdyansk, and collected
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
folk melodies. The next year, he organized lecture-concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which included performances of the songs he had recorded and arranged. Engel dedicated the next years to gathering and arranging Jewish folk music, presenting concerts, and encouraging other Jewish composers to rediscover their national roots and create a Jewish national musical style. Engel wrote ''Jewish Folksongs'', volume I in 1909 and Volume II in 1912, composing instrumentation for existing Jewish folk songs.


The St. Petersburg Society and ''The Dybbuk''

In 1908, Rosovsky, Saminsky and other associates of Engel founded the
Society for Jewish Folk Music The Jewish art music movement began at the end of the 19th century in Russia, with a group of Russian Jewish classical composers dedicated to preserving Jewish folk music and creating a new, characteristically Jewish genre of classical music. The ...
. Engel was instrumental in organizing their first concert, where many of his songs were performed. The society published the works of Engel and the other Jewish nationalist composers, and organized concerts throughout Russia. Several stars of musical life at the time, including violinists
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...
(then a child prodigy) and
Joseph Achron Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron (Russian: Иосиф Юльевич Ахрон, Hebrew: יוסף אחרון) (May 1, 1886April 29, 1943) was a Russian composer and violinist, who settled in the United States. His preoccupation with ...
, pianist
Leopold Godowsky Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an United States of America, American citizen in 1891. He ...
and cellist
Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian-born American cello, cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Dnipro, Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a c ...
, participated in these concerts. In an article of 1914, Saminsky recalled the first concert of Engel's music in St. Petersburg, given under the auspices of the Society on 12 April 1909.
The young Jewish composers of St. Petersburg heard for the first time Engels's artistic arrangements of Jewish folksongs ..and were greatly surprised that such cultural and national value could result from such an enterprise. This concert stimulated the young Petersburg composers in the following period to the creation and performance of a whole series of Jewish song settings.
In 1912 Engel joined S. An-sky in the
Jewish Ethnographic Expedition The Jewish Ethnographic Expedition (1912–1914) was a project to document and preserve the traditional Jewish culture of the Pale of Settlement, a region in the Russian Empire where Jews were legally restricted to live. Led by the writer and socia ...
through the Pale of Settlement to collect folk songs of the Jewish communities. The researchers recorded the folksongs on wax cylinders using
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
's recently invented
phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...
. This was one of the first uses of the phonograph in ethnomusicological research, a technique pioneered by
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
in Hungary and Slovakia four years earlier. Engel wrote the incidental music for An-sky's play ''
The Dybbuk ''The Dybbuk'', or ''Between Two Worlds'' (, trans. ''Mezh dvukh mirov ibuk'; , ''Tsvishn Tsvey Veltn – der Dibuk'') is a play by S. An-sky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yidd ...
or Between Two Worlds''. The play, about a young bride possessed by a spirit, was produced by the
Habima Theatre The Habima Theatre ( ''Te'atron HaBima'', lit. "The Stage Theatre") is the List of national theatres, national theatre of Israel and one of the first Hebrew language theatres. It is located in Habima Square in the center of Tel Aviv. History ...
, and became an international hit. The theater toured throughout eastern Europe with the play. Engel's score became well known. He later worked the score into a suite for string orchestra and clarinet. It was Engel's first work for the stage, and his only large-scale work; his other compositions are songs and short instrumental pieces. Further cooperation between Engel and Habima never materialized, as the theater company experienced political troubles under the new post-revolutionary Russian regime, and was forced eventually to emigrate (first to America, and later to Palestine, where it eventually became the national theater company). Engel supported himself by working as a music teacher in a Jewish school outside of Moscow, where he developed a distinctive pedagogical approach. Rather than concentrating on music theory, he instituted a "listening program". "There is no need—and is boring to everyone—... to teach that a second is dissonant and a third is consonant... Rather we need... to let hildrenlisten to good music, ... to learn to love, enjoy, and live it," he wrote. The approach was the start of a revolution in music pedagogy.


Berlin and Palestine

In 1922, the Society sent Engel on a mission to Germany, to promote the new Jewish music movement in the German Jewish community. Engel organized a series of concerts in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
and
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, including performances of songs and instrumental works by Engel, Krein, Gnesin, Rosowsky, and others. Among the performers in these concerts was Gregor Piatigorsky. The following year, Engel opened the Juwal (Yuval) publishing house in Berlin. Juwal became the main publisher for composers of the society, printing editions of songs and chamber works in the new Jewish style. Yet, despite his intense activity in Germany as a composer, publisher and impresario, Engel was dissatisfied, and decided to move to Palestine. By now a renowned composer in the Jewish world, Engel's arrival was awaited anxiously by the Jewish community in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. He was offered a position teaching theory at the Shulamit music school, and there was some discussion of setting up a full conservatory under his direction. Engel moved to Palestine in 1924. In Palestine, Engel devoted himself to teaching and to composing, primarily children's and folk songs. Concerned that children's songs at the time were either European tunes with new words in Yiddish or Hebrew, or Yiddish songs from the
shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...
, Engel tried to create a new, indigenous style. "How can we sing the song of the Diaspora in the promised land?" he wrote in a letter. Many of his new songs were based on Yemenite melodies or motifs. During his life in Palestine, Engel also became associated with the ''Ohel'' theater group, one of the first theaters in Palestine. He wrote incidental music for the original play "Neshef Peretz", which toured the Jewish settlements of Palestine. He organized and conducted the Ohel choir, and wrote many new songs for choir and solo. His songs were popular, and were sung throughout Palestine. In spite of the warm reception he received, Engel had a difficult time adjusting to life in Palestine. "I was pampered in Moscow and Berlin," he wrote in a letter in 1924. "... Here no one knows what Engel the composer wrote then, and what he is writing now." His health gradually failed, and on 11 February 1927, he died in Tel Aviv.


Engel's music

Engel was one of the first—perhaps the first—musician to recognize that traditional Jewish music was not based on the major-minor tonal system that dominated classical and popular music of the period. "Most Jewish songs are built on the ancient modes ( Aeolian, Dorian, Mixolydian, and so on)," he wrote in 1900. "Occasionally, one encounters major or minor; but more common are modes that are not written in our modern text books, and could be called 'eastern'." This harmonic conception is apparent in Engel's compositions. For example, in the Dybbuk suite, opus 35, Engel uses an augmented fifth as the tonic chord, rather than a standard major or minor chord. Aside from the Dybbuk suite, for string orchestra and clarinet, Engel wrote no orchestral music, and no large-scale works (symphonies, operas, concertos, and so on). His entire oevre is either piano solo, chamber works, or songs. He frequently used innovative combinations for his chamber music; for example, "Adagio Mysterioso", opus 22, is scored for violin, cello, harp and organ. He, like others of the Jewish art music movement, favored songs with obbligato string parts. The song "Ahava Rahya", for example, is scored for singer and violin, flute, viola and organ. Many of Engel's songs are based on traditional Jewish folksongs. For example, his cradle song "Numi Numi Yaldaty" ("sleep, sleep my child"), is a variant of a traditional Yiddish lullaby. However, Engel often draws on sources other than Jewish traditional music, as well. Ahava Rahya, cited above, is based on an Arabic melody, and many of the tunes he composed in Palestine are based on Yemenite songs. Engel's popular music, which during his lifetime dominated the popular music scene in Palestine, has been largely forgotten. Some of his songs, however, are still sung today. These include "Numi Numi", one of Israel's most popular lullabies; "Omrim Yeshna Eretz", the children's song "Geshem Geshem Mishamayim", and others.


Notes


References

* * * * * *


External links

*
Jascha Nemtsov's website on the new Jewish School in Music
written by Engel and other Jewish composers.
Archival recordings
of Jewish art songs by Cantor Louis Danto.
"50 Yudishe kinder-lider far kinder-heymen, shuln, un familye" in the German National Library


* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Joel 1868 births 1927 deaths Jewish classical composers Israeli composers Russian classical composers Russian musicologists Russian ethnomusicologists German emigrants to Mandatory Palestine German ethnomusicologists Russian Jews German people of Russian-Jewish descent People from Berdiansk Moscow Conservatory alumni National University of Kharkiv alumni Russian male classical composers Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery 19th-century musicologists Secular Jews Mandatory Palestine people of German-Jewish descent Mandatory Palestine people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish musicologists