The Friendship that Shaped the Sound of “Jewish Classical Music”: Max Bruch and Friedrich Gernsheim, c.1860-1916

• In Event: Jewish Music: Engaging with the Past, Looking into the Future

Abstract

Arguably the most famous work of “Jewish music” for the symphonic concert hall is the contemplative, vocalesque fantasy for cello and orchestra, Max Bruch’s KOL NIDREI (1880). Yet, Bruch was a Protestant and wrote it for a non-Jewish cellist. While beloved by concert audiences, rewarding for the seasoned professional and accessible for the advanced student, this work has received relatively little scholarly attention. Its straightforward musical sources—the Ashkenazi melody of the Yom Kippur prayer together with a borrowed song melody from English-Jewish composer Isaac Nathan’s collaboration on Lord Byron’s HEBREW MELODIES (1815)—were identified by Bruch during his lifetime and are easily traceable. Yet, little has been done to explore the genesis of the work, Bruch’s own conflicting accounts on what inspired its creation, and his conception on the borrowed melodies as folk music.

This paper looks to a massive collection of over 300 surviving letters between the Bruch and fellow Rhineland-born Jewish composer Friedrich Gernsheim, held at the National Library of Israel and the Max Bruch Archive at the University of Cologne. Building on research done by Alexander Ringer in the 1980s on the correspondence, I seek to frame Bruch’s KOL NIDREI together with Gernsheim’s ELOHENU (1881), a more modest work also for cello and orchestra, which, despite its undeniable Judaism-evoking name, is far more elusive in melodic content and inspiration. Althouhg Gernsheim is nearly completely absent from most existing scholarship on Bruch, the impact of their friendship cannot be understated. In addition to tracing reports on performance and reception of these two works as well as the pair’s involvement with the Berlin Jewish singing community, I also reveal other shared musical inspirations, including a paired set of choral works on the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, each dedicated to the other friend. This enduring personal and professional relationship shaped the earliest acceptance of so-called Jewish sounds in the Western concert hall, setting the expectations for what has qualified and continues to qualify as “Jewish music.”

**NOTE**: This paper could easily be altered into a lecture-recital. The two cello works total ~16 minutes.

Author

• Amanda Ruppenthal Stein, Northwestern University