Stefan Wolpe Society Newsletter 2007 Greeting

1 STEFAN WOLPE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 2007 Stefan Wolpe Newsletter/2007 © 2007 Stefan Wolpe Society, Inc. 1075 Stasia St., Teaneck NJ, 07666 editor Austin Clarkson associate editors Noyes Bartholomew Martin Brody Matthew Greenbaum Cheryl Seltzer production Daniel Foley Stefan Wolpe Society, Inc. Directors honorary president Katharina Wolpe president GREETING Martin Brody We hope you enjoy this newsletter, which arrives after a lapse of vice-presidents many years. The article on the Cantata Yigdal is by Stefan Wolpe’s Austin Clarkson cousin Gerald, who was attending the Jewish Theological Seminary at Matthew Greenbaum the time. Stephen M. Fry tells the story of the bronze bust of Wolpe that found a home in the music library of the University of California secretary at Los Angeles. And the events attending the birth of Wolpe’s one and Cheryl Seltzer only Symphony are recounted by one of the editors of the new edition. Bruce Pomahac of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization treasurer was most generous in supplying information for the appreciation of Noyes Bartholomew Trude Rittmann, who made an extraordinary contribution to the Broadway stage over three decades. And Dave Lewis instructs us on Hannah Arie-Gaifman how to access the Wolpe listings that he prepared for the All Music James Kendrick Guide website. The remaining departments bring news from the Robert Martin archives, conferences, books, editions, and recordings. The Chronicle Robert Morris of 2001-2007 and the Bibliography are comprehensive, but surely not Zaidee Parkinson complete, and we would be grateful for additions and corrections. We Paul Sadowski also welcome news items from performers, scholars, and enthusiasts Fred Sherry for inclusion in the next newsletter. Becky Starobin David Starobin Austin Clarkson Todd Vunderink with Martin Brody, Matthew Greenbaum, [email protected] http://www.wolpe.org and Cheryl Seltzer The “Yigdal” Cantata and its Background Gerald Wolpe Table of Contents The trauma in the World Jewish Community in the mid 1940s was brutal. The full extent of the Holocaust was ARTICLES emerging from postwar Europe, and the number of the loss was shattering. I remember hearing Rabbi Kaplan, The Yigdal Cantata and its Background 2 the chief rabbi of France, in a lecture to our class at the Gerald Wolpe Jewish Theological Seminary. A survivor of the camps, he reported that a million Jews had died. We thought The Birth of Symphony No. 1 4 that his experiences had affected his mind. "A million Austin Clarkson Jews — impossible." The true number was yet to be absorbed. Remembering Trude Rittmann 6 Bruce Pomahac & Austin Clarkson As the community began to deal with this loss, religious and cultural responses arose. In the words of one A Wolpe Portrait in Los Angeles 7 scholar, we were not going to give Hitler a posthumous Stephen M. Fry victory. Loyalty to Judaism, or at least to the Jewish A Shout Out from All Music Guide 8 People, became a priority. One priority was the struggle Dave Lewis to establish a Jewish State. A second was to expand Jewish institutions — synagogue and secular — REPORTS throughout America. Allies were sought and talented Jews were recruited for the effort. We had to prove to Basel 9 the world that there were people of quality who wanted Heidy Zimmermann to be Jews and be identified without hesitation. Albert Einstein, Arnold Schoenberg (returning from Chapel Hill 9 Christianity), Leonard Bernstein. and others became Austin Clarkson symbols of a new renaissance. Kassel 10 Cantor David Putterman of the Park Avenue Synagogue Thomas Phleps in New York City used this energy to introduce new interpretations of the liturgy. He wanted to leash the Salzburg 10 extraordinary talent of modern Jewish composers to Brigid Cohen their ancestral heritage. In some cases the effort had regrettable results. Many composers had had no contact BOOKS 11 with their heritage, and their works seemed to be forced into unacceptable forms. In other cases there EDITIONS 12 was a meaningful understanding of the ancient and RECORDINGS 14 modern words and compositions. Ernest Bloch was a pioneer of this new approach, even composing a CHRONICLE 2007-2001 18 complete service for the synagogue. Darius Milhaud and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco worked from a firm BIBLIOGRAPHY 22 grounding of their ancient Jewish communities. Milhaud was from the Provence and its Jewish history began in APPEAL FOR DONATIONS 24 the pre-Christian era. Tedesco was from Italy, which featured major Jewish composers during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. These communities had developed distinctive Jewish musical traditions, and the composers were conversant with their nuances. In both cases they produced excellent works of Jewish interest. The Stefan Wolpe Society Newsletter | 2007 | Page 2 Cantor Putterman wanted to enlist composers who had meeting with her, but I do not think it took place. On made their mark on the national and international April 5, 1998, a gathering of the Wolpe family took place scene. He hoped to show them that there was a in Washington, D.C. Close to 400 people attended from meaningful Jewish musical tradition in which they could Israel, Europe, South Africa, Australia, as well as Canada participate. Primary in the group was Leonard and the U.S.A. People spoke of their knowledge of Bernstein, who had made a stir in the musical world by Stefan’s family in Germany and indeed we were related. a successful substitution for the ill Bruno Walter. He quickly became the star of the New York cultural scene As I went through my rabbinic training, Stefan and I and Putterman was quick to ask for his participation. would meet and discuss specific texts and I had known Leonard at our synagogue in Boston, and his interpretations. He surprised me with his knowledge of father was a close friend of our family. When Leonard Jewish sources, and I noted the extent of his own had a “Jewish concert,” his father would call me at the spiritual quests. His connection with leftist causes was Seminary and invite me to join him. Bernstein was clearly articulated, and he had piercing questions about presenting his Jewish symphonies, and I remember his the meaning of Judaism, as I understood it. He was telling me that the fourth movement of his Jeremiah clearly sympathetic to my choice of career. Cantor Symphony — the Eicha Theme — was based on his Putterman commissioned a work from Stefan, and, since remembrance of the Tisha B'Av service at our I knew both of them, I was present at many of their synagogue. The congregational musical director, Dr. meetings. The Third Annual Sabbath Eve Service of Solomon Braslavsky, taught him the ancient chant, a Liturgical Music by Contemporary Composers was held at mourning of the destruction of the Solomonic Temple. the Park Avenue Synagogue on May 11, 1945. While the One can imagine the response to any program which was compositions by the other composers — Bernstein, attended by Leonard Bernstein and which included Milhaud, Tedesco, Binder, etc. — were given complete works by Lukas Foss, Bernard Rogers, Irving Fine and performances, only an excerpt of Stefan's Yigdal Cantata others. It became a highlight of the New York cultural was presented. Some time later Putterman arranged a scene. It was no longer parochial for intellectuals to concert of liturgical music at the Seminary. It was, to my attend a Jewish program. Now it was fashionable. knowledge, the first time that he produced a concert outside of his synagogue. It was an extended program of It was at this time that I met Stefan. His wife Irma was instrumental and vocal music. I remember Bernstein's a close friend of Judith Lieberman, who was the wife of Hashkevanu and Wolpe's Yigdal. I think it was the debut one of my teachers. Saul Lieberman was the world’s of the complete Yigdal. The music was above the leading Talmudist and a legend in our seminary. Mrs. understanding of the general audience. Students from Lieberman, a noted educator, was the daughter of a the Julliard School, which at that time was across the famous rabbi in Europe, and she maintained connections street from the Seminary, were enthralled. I was uneasy with noted figures in Germany, Palestine, and now for Stefan. His ire was not directed towards the America. I had dinner at their home a few times, and she audience, but towards the musicians, chorus and told me about Stefan. I met him at a concert and we soloists, whom he felt were not well chosen. We had began a short but delightful relationship. A major theme coffee after the concert, but it was not one of our more was the family background. The Wolpe family has a long pleasant meetings. He was clearly upset. history in Lithuania. There is a tradition (later bolstered by a genealogist in the family) that we were descendants From then on our meetings and contact were sporadic. I of Italian converts to Judaism. Many members still was in the midst of ordination examinations, and I also spelled the name as ‘Volpe,’ which is a popular Italian had to teach to support myself. I had also begun a surname. Stefan and I could not trace a direct graduate degree at New York University in Renaissance relationship, but we discovered that we were related to Art and History. It was a period when I struggled between the same Wolpes. We decided that we had to be cousins. the choice of the rabbinate or an academic career in He was pleased to know that we were related to Arnold Renaissance studies. With an activist effort on behalf of Volpe, who was born in Lithuania in 1869 and came to the struggle for a Jewish State, my calendar was America in 1898.

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