Music history

Written as a memoire of the musical encounters of the author, composer and conductor Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959), with Jewish communities in his homeland, the Russian Empire and elsewhere, the book is a document of the late Romantic Orientalistic views of Western intellectuals regarding the authenticity of Jewish music in the East.

A survey of Jewish music from Biblical times to the present that compiles a great amount of selective data without offering in-depth insights into the social context in which the music is created, performed, judged and consumed.

A survey first published in 1949 covering Jewish music from patriarch Abraham to contemporary Israeli composers. Its main aim is to reassert the Jewish presence in the narrative of Western music history. As others of its kind, this book presents a compilation of data devoid of theoretical or critical concerns.