David Nowakowsky (1848-1921) - Russian/Ukrainian Jewish composer

[guest224]

I started researching this composer after seeing his name in the Ira Gershwin song "Tchaikovsky".  I found a reference to a short 2006 movie called "Nowakowsky: A Forgotten Master " - it is on youtube at - it's just under 7 minutes long.

The music which accompanies it is beautiful.  Its Jewishness is unmistakeable, you can hear the same Hebrew melody as that which underpins Bruch's Kol Nidrei.

However, the youtube page doesn't identifu the music.  Is it music by Nowakowsky?

As the movie plays, small textx appear with bits of information about Nowakowsky, and there's also a referencde to the Nowakowsky Foundation - www.nowakowskyfoundation.com - and there's a lot ofbiographical detail there. Also his wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nowakowsky

And an interesting article here - http://www.nowakowskyfoundation.com/history.html

Does anyone else know anything about this composer or of his recordings?  If the music on the youtube short movie is his, I am encouraged. 

[Neil McGowan]

Although Bruch wasn't in fact Jewish himself ;)  Kol Nidrei is indeed based on Hebrew melodies.

[JimL]

Although Bruch wasn't in fact Jewish himself ;)  Kol Nidrei is indeed based on Hebrew melodies.

One of Bruch's teachers, Ferdinand Hiller, who was a convert from Judaism, introduced him to the cantor of a Cologne synagogue.  Bruch, a pioneer in ethnomusicology, obtained the tune of the Kol Nidrei from him.  His only other concertante work for cello, a Canzona in B-flat, Op. 55 is based on Scottish melodies.

[guest224]

A 20-page article on Nowakowsky, if of interest:

The Music of David Nowakowsky (1848-1921): A New Voice from Old Odessa

Emanuel Rubin, University of Massachusetts Amherst

https://www.umass.edu/judaic/anniversaryvolume/articles/29-F2-Rubin.pdf

[guest224]

A performance of Nowakowsky's Resignation Romance in C Minor for Violin and Piano - lovely!