American Yiddish musical theater, a uniquely valuable night school of an immigrant people, had its early flowering in the Bowery area on the Lower East Side of New York City during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. It soon rose to a golden age flourishing in adjacent places--Grand Street, East Broadway, and Second Avenue up to 14th Street-and then moved into other Jewish communities in cities throughout the United States. Over those decades around the turn of the century, this art form not only served its special Jewish patronage but was also the portal by which Jewish music entered into mainstream American life, and it illuminates a period of American social and cultural history. Yiddish musical theater arose out of age-old Jewish musicality transported to the new golden world (Die Goldene Medine). Based on historic traditions reshaped by dynamic cultural influences in the United States, the music and particularly the popular songs of American Yiddish theater properly belong to the dual continuities of Judaic inspiration and American expression. Since early postbiblical times the Jewish people have fashioned a special musical heritage. The Jewish liturgical canons, the cantillations of Bible texts, and the melodies of prayers evolved with distinctive motifs, structures, and styles; furthermore, there was a body of special hymnology for each of the three basic traditions: Ashkenazic, or mainland European; Sephardic, or Spaniolic and Mediterranean; and Oriental, or Near Eastern and Asiatic. Until the sixteenth century this music was not formally transcribed but was an oral tradition passed from generation to generation. The Ashkenazic Jews in particular created a rich body of sacred and secular music. They developed liturgical music with Hebrew and Aramaic prayer texts for Sabbaths, holy days, and festivals throughout the calendar year, chants for reli-
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Jan 1, 1987
Phong Th Nguyen + 1
Open Access