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When Jews became Germany’s greatest composers

Kada su Židovi postali najveći njemački kompozitori

Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer arrive after centuries of anti-Semitism; new book explains how Jews became exemplary leaders in musical society.

Felix Mendelsohn i Giacomo Meyerbeer su se pojavili nakon stoljeća antisemitizma a  nova knjiga “Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner" , autor David  Convay,  objašnjava kako su Židovi postali lideri u muzičkom društvu.

By Benjamin IvryTags: Jewish World

The sudden proliferation of Jewish composers in the mid-19th century was unprecedented in the history of classical music. Until then, Jews had been limited to the role of virtuoso performers, but that all changed when Germany’s two most famous composers were of Jewish origin.

Iznenadna pojava židovskih kompozitora sredinom 19.stoljeća je bez presedana u povijesti klasične muzike. Do tada, Židovi su bili ograničeni na ulogu virtuoznih  izvođača, ali to se promijenilo kada su dva njemačka najpoznatija kompozitora bila židovskog porijekla.

These two were Felix Mendelssohn, whose most prominent public manifestation was the oratorio “Elijah” (1846), and GiacomoMeyerbeer (born Jacob Liebmann Beer), the prolific composer of the operas “Robert le diable” (1831), “Les Huguenots” (1836) and “Le proph?te” (1849).

David Conway’s “Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner,” published by Cambridge University Press in January, explains how Jews became such exemplary leaders in musical society.

Conway explains that in the 17th century, the Ashkenazi synagogue of Altona, Germany, forbade its congregants from attending the opera. Only toward the end of the 18th century did wealthy Berlin families attempt to “buy into Gentile culture as part of a process of entry to European society” by giving their children music lessons and emulating an “aristocratic style of education.” Among such beneficiaries were Mendelssohn’s great-aunt, Sarah Itzig Levy, and Meyerbeer’s mother, Amalia Liebmann Meyer Wulff.

An unprecedented degree of public acceptance was required in order for German Jews to gain prominence in the quintessentially social role of composer. Wealth and societal standing were essential elements of this acceptance. ...