Now is the time for Passover, remembering when God redeemed
the Jewish people who were enslaved by the Egyptians. For hundreds of years,
Jewish people have been known for their rich culture and their creative
efforts, including in composing for the piano. Here is a sampling of classical European
piano composers.
One of the earlier known Jewish composers is Giacomo
Meyerbeer (né Jakob Liebmann Mayer Beer), who was born in 1971 near Berlin
and died in 1864. Although known mainly for his grand opera style, he also
wrote pieces for the piano, mainly early in his career.
Probably the most famous of the group is Felix
Mendelssohn, who was born in 1809 in Hamburg and died at the age of 38.
Both a composer and performer, Mendelssohn is known, in terms of his early
Romantic piano composition, for his collection Songs Without Words.
Parisian composer Charles-Valentin Alken was born in
1813 and died in 1888. He was friends with Chopin and Liszt, and like them, he
was as virtuoso pianist as well as a keyboard composer. He is known as the
first composer to incorporate Jewish melodies in art music.
British composer Frederick Hymen Cowen was born in
1852 in Jamaica, moved to England at age four, and died in 1935. His father was
Her Majesty’s Opera treasurer. Cowen wrote his first piano piece at age six,
and gave his first public piano recital at age thirteen. He won a Mendelssohn
scholarship to study at the Leipzig Conservatorium. He wrote over 300 songs as
well as piano works for piano solos, chamber music, choral music, cantatas and
oratorios.
Another renown composer is Gustav Mahler, an Austro-Bohemian
Romantic composer, born in 1860 and died in 1911. Tol get is job as the
director of the Vienna Court Opera, he had to convert to Catholicism; yet he still
experienced significant anti-Semitism. Most of his works were written for large
orchestras, but he did compose for the piano early in his career.
Arnold Schoenberg is also associated with Vienna,
where he was born in 1874. One of the early modernists, he is known for his
transformation of harmony and twelve-tone technique. Some of his best piano
works were written during his final period and showcase both twelve-tone and
tonal approaches.
Ernest Bloch, born in 1880 in Geneva and died in 1959
in Portland (Oregon), is celebrated as one of Switzerland’s greatest composers.
Several of his compositions draw upon his Jewish heritage. He was also a noted
music professor.
Another 19th century German composer is Otto
Klemperer, born in 1885 and died in 1973. At age five he started piano lessons
with his mother. He was a student of Mahler, and started conducting for the opera
when he was 22 years old. As a composer, Klemperer wrote almost a hundred songs
for the piano and for orchestras.
Ukrainian composer Leo Ornstein was born in 1985 and died
in 2002. His father was a Jewish cantor. Leo was a protégé piano performer, but
stopped performing at age 40 to focus on his experimental composing, mainly for
the piano.
Excellent Jewish piano composers continue to exist in modern
society, many of whom are Americans, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Leonard
Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Irvin Berlin, Jerry Goldstein, and Philip Glass.
These examples reveal that the world has greatly benefitted
from Jewish piano composers.
