The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia
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The Jewish Experience in Classical Music The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia Edited by Alexander Tentser The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Publication Series 1 The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia, Edited by Alexander Tentser This book first published 2014 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2014 by Alexander Tentser and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-5467-0, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5467-2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................... vii Alexander Tentser Acknowledgements .................................................................................... xi Introduction .............................................................................................. xiii A Legacy of Honor and Risk in Jewish Music Janet Sturman Part I: Shostakovich Dmitri Shostakovich and Jewish Music: The Voice of an Oppressed People .......................................................................................................... 3 Alexander Tentser Self-Imagery and Resilience: Hermeneutics of Jewish Sound in Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2 ..................................................... 35 Christopher Booth Shostakovich in America: 1973 ................................................................. 61 Alexander Dunkel Part II: Asia Breath in a Ram’s Horn: Judaism and Classical Music ............................. 77 Daniel Asia Sacred and Profane in the Music of Daniel Asia ....................................... 81 Aryeh Tepper On Daniel Asia’s Symphonies ................................................................... 89 Jan Swafford vi Table of Contents Ear to Ear: A Conversation with Composer Daniel Asia .......................... 95 Jan Swafford Contributors ............................................................................................. 109 PREFACE The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia is a collaboration among musicologists, composers, and performers who are interested in exploring and preserving Jewish culture and music. It focuses on the work of two composers, a Russian composer whose life coincided with the development of a totalitarian regime in the former Soviet Union and a contemporary American composer whose work reflects current American and Jewish culture. This combination of composers allows us to explore the different ways Jewish elements may be incorporated in music. It also allows us to delve into the roots of Jewish culture and examine its interaction with various national schools of music, in particular Eastern European and American. In the music of Shostakovich, Jewish elements are magnified to the point where they become universal symbols of protest against genocide and racial discrimination. In this respect, Shostakovich exemplifies the great Russian intellectual, humanitarian tradition described by Dostoevsky as the tendency “to become brother to all men, uniman, if you will.”1 Asia’s music, in contrast, incorporates the Jewish philosophical, religious, and intellectual traditions in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the relationship between the sacred and the profane. This relationship is explored in his Symphony No. 2, as presented in the broader context of his total symphonic output, and in his approach to issues of text and sacred moments, as presented in his 5th symphony. Some chapters in the book are dedicated to specific works of Shostakovich and Asia: the Second Piano Trio, the Song Cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry, and Symphony #13, “Babi Yar,” by Shostakovich; and Symphony No. 5: Of Songs and Psalms by Asia. Other chapters deal with the sources of Jewish folk music in Russia, the philosophical and intellectual traditions of Judaism in the arts, and the historically valuable personal recollections of Dmitri Shostakovich’s interpreter concerning the composer’s last visit to the United States in 1973. The book also includes an in-depth interview with Asia about his music and the roles of Jewish thought and culture in his work. The book can be read both as a narrative of the Jewish musical 1 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pushkin Memorial Speech, 1880, in Solomon Volkov, St Petersburg: A Cultural History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), 126. viii Preface tradition and as an introduction to the contemporary treatment of Jewish elements in music. So, how shall we define the sound of Jewish music? In general, listeners find a huge variety of meaning in music, particularly the “serious” or classical kind. Music triggers memories, stimulates our intellectual activity, and transmits a great deal of information; in short, it functions on many different levels. And, of course, good music expresses human emotions more fully than does any other form of art. In spite of all these properties, or perhaps because of them, we are able to define the distinctive sounds of the music of different peoples. So what is the sound of Jewish music? In the following collection you will encounter the expression “laughter through tears” several times. It is descriptive of the sound of the Eastern European Jewish folk music that profoundly influenced Dmitri Shostakovich, the twentieth-century Soviet composer. To fully understand this expression we would have to traverse the entire history of the Jewish people, from their origin to their diaspora and assimilation into foreign lands. That would, of course, be beyond the scope of this book. But the reader will definitely be able to see how the Jewish people have contributed musically to other cultures, specifically Russian and American, and how the distinct sound of their music has evolved in the twenty-first century. It is a very strong sound, having formed over centuries and carrying all the encoded information of a people’s suffering and their rejuvenation in modern times. We believe it is important to study the sound of this people; moreover, it is the only way to truly comprehend their achievement of new cultural heights. We hope that this book will be viewed as contributing to the study of the Jewish cultural heritage and that it will perhaps stimulate more studies on this important subject. The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia was presented by The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies as the Shaol and Louis Pozez Memorial Fine Arts Symposium at The University of Arizona on January 13, 2013. It was sponsored by the Pozez families and The Pozez Family Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, The University of Arizona School of Music, The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, the Marriott University Park Hotel, and the Center for the Study of American Ideals and Culture. The chapters of the following volume were originally presented by guest speakers in the afternoon symposium session. Following the presentations, a performance was given of two movements of Shostakovich’s Symphony #13, “Babi Yar,” and his Piano Trio #2, and The Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia ix of Asia’s Amichai Songs from Symphony #5, Of Songs and Psalms, and his Piano Trio. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTTS Our thanks to the Pozez families and The Pozez Family Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, The University of Arizona School of Music, The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, the Marriott University Park Hotel, and the Center for the Study of American Ideals and Culture for their support of the original symposium. My thanks also to the other members of the Steering Committee, Daniel Asia and J. Edward Wright, for their support and assistance both in the original project and in the preparation of this volume for publication, and to the contributors for their efforts in converting papers and presentations into the articles found here. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Curtis and Margaret Smith for their invaluable help in editing this manuscript. Alexander Tentser, November 2013 INTRODUCTION A LEGACY OF HONOR AND RISK IN JEWISH MUSIC JANET STURMAN Introduction It is my pleasure and honor to introduce the topic of this volume, the examination of the Jewish Experience in Classical Music, part of the Shaol Pozez Memorial Lecture Series, co-sponsored by The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The University of Arizona School of Music. This broad theme permits us to explore, discuss, and exchange, focusing on different individuals and circumstances. Our specific case studies are the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who lived from 1906 to 1975, and the American composer Daniel Asia, born in 1953.1 One is a Jew, the other was not, but both men find common cause with Jewish concerns and perspectives, and include in their own compositions sounds rooted in Jewish religious and secular practice. Connections and Comparisons One purpose of this volume is to identify connections and points of comparison between Shostakovich and Asia. Mr. Asia tells me that he was never particularly influenced by the music of Shostakovich and the