FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Throughout history, Jews worldwide have contributed to our society in many fields. The field of music is no exception.
Author David Lehman describes in great detail the lives of Jewish songwriters, performers and producers, their contributions to music, their roles in creating popular songs, and biographical information of the impact of their works’ Jewish roots.
The songwriters discussed in this book include Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin,George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Loesser,Yip Harburg, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and several others. Readers can relate to their songs, included in popular musicals and movies such as “Gypsy,” “My Fair Lady,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “West Side Story” and many more.
Mr. Lehman tells of their ancestors, their immigration to the United States and the struggles of these artists for self-expression dealing with conflicts between their Jewish practices and the world of music and stage production. He notes that many of them changed their names to sound less Jewish and more American, to gain acceptance and achieve fame in their careers; and he elaborates on the families of many of these artists and the effects of these relationships on their careers and contributions to music and theater.
At the end of the book, Mr. Lehman provides a chronology of historical events in relation to the lives of these artists, their songs and the shows they produced. The reader learns of the historical events that took place during their lifetimes. Detailed footnotes demonstrate the extent of his research and interest in this field.
Reading about these songwriters was fascinating and the chronology was educational. While the amount of information provided can be detailed and sometimes tedious to read, one can appreciate the 7extent to which our Jewish ancestors contributed to and influenced music throughout the ages.