More than a year after requesting digital copies from the Library of Congress, I finally received this set of Simon Adler klezmer scores from the 1890s. I suspect these piano arrangements may be the earliest examples of klezmer music published in the United States, or at least the earliest to be copyrighted with the LOC. They predate the other early klezmer score publishers like Wolff Kostakowsky and the Kammen Brothers by decades, and Herman S. Shapiro’s European Jewish Wedding by a few years.
Irene Heskes (1923–1999), the hard-working music historian and cataloguer of Yiddish music, was already on top of this and listed some of these works by Adler in her catalogue. She gives context to the publication of these early scores in another book:
By 1895, copyrights had begun to appear for Yiddish songs, commencing with selections by Goldfaden, Mogulesco, and Zunser. The earhest Yiddish song publishing house in America was Katzenelenbogen and Rabinowitz, a combined enterprise of two Jewish book printers. In rapid order, others appeared on the scene, some also as book and music stores: Theodore Lohr, Meyer Levin, Hebrew Publishing, S. Goldberg, S. Schenker, and Albert Teres. The Hebrew Publishing Company and another company, Jos. P. Katz, soon incorporated most of the other publishers and their holdings.
Irene Heskes, Passport to Jewish music: its history, traditions, and culture, Greenwood Press, 1994. p.197
Adler published with Theodore Lohr company and was very much in the middle of this first wave of publishing, making simplified piano arrangements of songs from Goldfaden plays, religious melodies, and Jewish wedding pieces. The LOC already had many of his Goldfaden scores on its digital collection as well as one of the klezmer scores. In addition to a Kale Bazetsn piece, there are various dances and processionals. Here are links to the scores (minus the theatre pieces), with my new LOC requests linked to my Google Drive:
The second half of the table lists pieces mentioned on the front pages of the other scores, but the LOC could not locate them for me. It’s possible they were never published, never copyrighted, or all copies were lost.
As for Simon Adler himself, I don’t know much about him. A directory of New York lists a musician by that name living at 242 East Broadway in 1889, but aside from that I haven’t been able to find any trace of him in old records or advertisements. If anyone knows more, let me know.
Thanks to Heather at the Library of Congress Performing Arts division for finding and scanning these scores for me.
As an amateur cimbalom player and klezmer fan, I’ve long had a soft spot for Joseph Moskowitz (1879–1954), a Romanian-born cimbalist, prolific recording artist, and colourful character from old New York. In editing his Wikipedia page years ago, I noted that his obituary credited him with having composed at least a hundred melodies. Searching for other compositions by him kickstarted my project to request klezmer scores from the Library of Congress, as I noted in my first blog post and this one about Moskowitz scores from the LOC. We also have quite a lot of material recorded by him, including the 40 or so 78rpm recordings and the LP Cymbalom Melodies he made late in life. But obviously a lot of his work had been lost.
That’s why I was very pleased when, in Union Square in Manhattan last spring, Pete Rushefsky sat me down and told me how he had just returned from the D.C. area, where he had spent hours photographing scores and photos from a newly rediscovered box of Moskowitz materials found in a relative’s attic. (Pete is Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, in addition to being a fellow cimbalom player and Moskowitz megafan.) Pete was scrolling through images on his phone, showing me Moskowitz as a young man in Europe, newspaper clippings, and old handwritten music manuscripts. Very exciting!
The materials themselves were donated to the Library of Congress, which is entirely appropriate. But their priorities are not the same as ours—I could imagine a scenario in which none of us outside of the D.C. area ever see them or hear about them again—and so I think it is good that Pete has put up a preliminary access version of his photographs here at josephmoskowitz.org. The collection is not organized or catalogued, beyond broad categories of image type. But it contains so much priceless old music and ephemera. Here are some of my takeaways about the music and music history side of it. I won’t even get into the photos or his handwritten memoir.
1. There is a lot of great unknown klezmer in here
So much great new-old klezmer music has been uncovered in the last decade, be it Sherry Mayrent’s amazing 78 rpm finds, old Russian Empire and Soviet klezmer digitized as part of the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky project, the LOC’s Yiddish American Popular Sheet Music collection, family collections published by people like Dave Levitt and Susan Watts, and so on. We really live in a rich age of rediscovery. I’ve tried to do my part by ordering and making available copyright scores of forgotten material from the LOC, too. We now have access to so much rediscovered music that we don’t need to be sticking to the few dozen tunes known to klezmer revivalists in the 1980s and 1990s. Here at the monthly KlezWest sessions over here in Vancouver, I have been adding pieces by Moskowitz, Israel J. Hochman or Herman S. Shapiro to the usual Brandwein and Tarras tunes we love to play.
This Moskowitz archive is yet another new addition to this era of musical rediscovery. In addition to his restaurant “Muzak” and other eclectic materials, we can find around a hundred klezmer/Romanian pieces. It’s hard to get a clear count, because some have been photographed more than once, and others appear several times in the collection in different drafts or arrangements. If I had to estimate, I would say there are about 40 sârbas (sirbas), 30 horas of various kinds, 30 chusids (basically their name for a freylekhs) and 10 bulgars. There are also waltzes, tangos, doinas, and many untitled pieces that would have to be played to be categorized. Some are known to us from his old recordings, but most are not.
For Greenbaum Wedding, a waltz from Moskowitz’s collection.
I tried to make sense of it in this spreadsheet last year, and I’ve gone back to update it a bit recently as the collection has been put online. I will probably continue to add notes as I play the scores and observe new things.
2. Moskowitz’s Jewish repertoire was extremely Romanian
Or should it say Moskowitz’s Romanian repertoire was extremely Jewish?
I’ve been working on a talk about golden age New York klezmer composition and repertoire to give at Klezcadia in June. It made me think once again about the way in which the music industry apparently worked to homogenize old New York klezmer into a common sound. Back in the first decades of the 20th century, New York klezmer musicians from diverse regions of origin played together in orchestras for hire and the idea of klezmer we know from old recordings was created. This sound was brassy, clarinet-centric and tended towards music from Southern Ukraine and Moldova, full of bulgars, freylekhs and zhoks. But other artists seem to have had their niche outside this general trend, and Moskowitz was one of them. Although I’m sure he was familiar with their music and played it, his focus here is above all on sârbas, chusids and horas, music from his home region of Romania, filtered through his eclectic tastes picked up elsewhere in Europe and America. Contributing to the tally of sârbas are pieces by Max Leibowitz (who was also born in Romania) and others.
A husid, followed by a short sârba, signed by Max Leibowitz.
Remember, Moskowitz owned a series of Romanian-style restaurants in New York and could play whatever he wanted to please the customers. (To evoke the scene, here is an uncredited appearance in an old Yiddish film.) Although he clearly played weddings and concert stages as well, his main gig for decades was a place he could cultivate a highly specific niche repertoire.
Moskowitz’s recorded output contains plenty of this Romanian-Jewish crossover repertoire, giving us lots of evidence for how he would have performed these types of pieces, and how he would have had them accompanied by a pianist or orchestra. (DAHR lists 6 pieces titled sirba/sarba, but in a few other places he plays untitled ones following a doina or other melody.) Add to this old Romanian music recordings and the output of other Romanian-Jewish klezmer musicians like Abe Schwartz and Max Leibowitz, or Ukraine-Romania borderlands musicians like Israel J. Hochman and Al Glaser, and we have a lot to work with in bringing these scores back to life.
To step out of the old Lower East Side Jewish world for a bit, all of this repertoire is a reflection of the musical milieu Moskowitz grew up with in turn of the century Romania, where many such pieces were being composed and published. (Take a look at the Romanian National Library’s digital collection, and do a search for sirba, sarba, hora etc.) A few of his recordings, like Nunta Taraneasca (1916) are more straightforward performances of those kinds of published folk music suites. Someone with a finer ear for this music could probably do a fascinating study on Moskowitz’s compositions in this style and what differentiates them, if anything, from the pieces from back home.
One of the many sârbas in the Romanian National Library’s digital collection.
3. The collection is a total mess
This is not a knock on Pete, who graciously photographed and made available this collection for all of us to access. But there’s no denying that, from an archival or casual use standpoint, the archive is still in a relatively unstructured and cluttered state. Contents have not been fully assessed, listed, or even cleaned up from the original photographing session. There are duplicates and junk files. We just have to work with that for now. Hopefully over time an effort will be made to catalogue and structure this archive into something a bit more usable, especially now that a professional archive (the LOC) holds the originals.
But there is another way in which it is a beautiful mess: they are just things Moskowitz collected over the years and threw into a box. Compare Dave Tarras’ intentionally curated collection he donated to YIVO. That collection does not contain messy drafts, notes to himself, abandoned materials and so on. In Moskowitz’s messy box of scores we can see on the page just how he developed some of his pieces, either by taking a snippet and expanding it into a hora, or by writing and rewriting a piece, or by the way his favourite compositions appear several times in different arrangements.
A piece, maybe a sârba, written and rewritten by Moskowitz.
4. We can see Moskowitz’s musical community
As someone trying to do historical research into the relatively closed, undocumented and forgotten world of old New York klezmer, these papers are a great glimpse into who Moskowitz was playing with and for, who he hired and who hired him. We see signatures by other musicians, instructions for them by Moskowitz, and his notes to his copyists. We see performance instructions for himself or his pianists, including occasionally customer requests for a particular piece.
Compare it to the Tarras archive at YIVO which I mentioned above. That collection is relatively tidy, donated by Tarras who curated it to say “this is who I was, this was my music.” We see almost nothing of the many other people involved in his musicmaking, and the scores are the final product of a process of drafting and refinement. Not so for Moskowitz’s accidental archive.
And then there are the names of old New York klezmer people, known and unknown. The biggest set is this booklet sent to him by Chaim “Hymie” Millrad (1882–1971), a klezmer bassist & composer born in Mogilev. This set of 10 bulgars and chosids contains most of the pieces Millrad copyrighted with the LOC, but also a few others.
Cover of a booklet of original tunes sent by klezmer bassist Chaim “Hymie” Millrad to Moskowitz, with a dedication.Two bulgars by Hymie Millrad in Moskowitz’s archive.
The next most common name is Max Leibowitz, who I’ve mentioned above a few times already, fellow Romanian immigrant musician and recording artist who himself tried to get into the Romanian-Jewish steakhouse restaurant business as well. A few pieces initialed M.L. in the collection might be him too. And we find pieces by minor figures from that era, like the Galician-born violinist-bandleaders Sigmund Goldring (1888–1947) and Beresh Katz (1879–1964), or Polish-born vaudeville musician Nat Kornspan (1878–1949). Other names on klezmer pieces are unknown to me: Hershkowitz, Schuster, Himmelbrand and Gold. Even the point of the names is not always clear, is it saying this person composed it, or he was playing it with this person, or the person requested it? And so on.
The unknown musician Isidore Moscovitz, who I wrote a blog post about before, is also in here with some of the same pieces he copyrighted with the LOC, including a published version I hadn’t seen before.
A published score of Romanian-style dances by Isidore Moscovitz.
Some of the scores involve people Joseph recorded with, like his longtime pianist Max Yussim, who has an arrangement of Kol Nidre in here, or the well-known bandleader Alexander Olshanetsky (1892–1946) who Moskowitz recorded with in the late 1920s. There’s an arrangement by him of one of Moskowitz’s compositions, a waltz titled Salika.
Finally, I haven’t mentioned them yet, but there are 3 booklets containing 40 of Moskowitz’s compositions arranged for piano late in his life by a guy called Tony Charuha. They were clearly intended for publication. They are titled Rumanian Dances, Folk Dances, and Israeli Dances, although really this is just all Moskowitz’s typical Romanian-Jewish stuff he had been performing and composing for decades. We find a few of his greatest hits as well as many pieces which don’t appear anywhere else.
One of Moskowitz’s dances I’ve heard him play on a radio appearance, rebranded here as an Israeli Dance for Purim.
5. Even the corny restaurant music arrangements are fun
The last thing I wanted to mention is that a lot of the scores are his arrangements of popular or cosmopolitan pieces he was playing for a broader audience than Romanian-Jewish immigrants. This isn’t a surprise to anyone who has been listening to his old recordings for a while now; some of his best recordings are things like Operatic Rag and Argentine Dance (both from 1916).
His written arrangements here may be more interesting for cimbalom players like me, but I encourage people to take a look at them and try them out too. They contain Russian, American, German, etc. compositions which he was clearly having fun with while appealing to a broad audience.
Moskowitz’s cimbalom and piano arrangement of Ivan Vasiliev’s famous Russian song Two Guitars, complete with cues to switch cimbalom sticks.
Thanks for reading to the end, and feel free to tag me or get in touch if you end up performing or recording materials from this archive. I would love to hear about it.
Orchard Street near Delancey, c. 1928. Close to the office of the First Independent Brichaner Society at 133 Orchard. Source: P. L. Sperr / New York Public Library.
This summer, I’ve been continuing to research the small-time immigrant Jewish bandleaders who played for landsmanshaftn in New York City in the early 20th century. This is a topic which I was researching at YIVO this past spring, and I photographed a lot of names in archival documents which I still haven’t done a deep dive into. Many of these bandleaders only appear one or two landsmanshaft anniversary journals, in an advertisement or musical programme; if I’m lucky enough to have a full name and home address, it’s enough to go and find out more about their lives in old directories and newspapers. In those documents I often notice family or professional ties to other old musicians.
It’s through this process that I was looking into the Greenspans, who showed up a few times in the papers of Joseph Kessler (1891-1979), a businessman and notable in the Britshaner diaspora, who led the Britshaner Bessarabian Relief Association in New York for years. Through the Greenspans, I got interested in other music events for this community and decided to write a post about it. Be forewarned, this is a long post with a lot of old newspaper advertisements in Yiddish!
Portrait of Joseph Kessler from the Britshan memorial book published in Tel Aviv in 1963. I believe his family name is misprinted. Source: Yiddish Book Center.
Briceni and the Greenspans
Briceni, or בריטשאַן (Britshan) in Yiddish, is today in the northern tip of Moldova, on the Ukrainian border. 125 years ago, it was in the Bessarabia governorate of the Russian Empire and had under 8000 Jewish residents. Although it was small, it was right in the middle of the Ukraine-Moldova border region where many of our favourite New York klezmers came from. After the First World War, like the rest of Bessarabia, it became part of Greater Romania.
Dave Tarras, who lived in the area for a time before emigrating to the United States, released a track in 1941 called Britshaner Bulgar, which you can stream here on the Mayrent Collection, or here on YouTube. Although it was probably his own composition dedicated to the place, rather than one he heard there.
An undated street scene from Briceni from the 1963 Yizkor book. Source: Yiddish Book Center.
As more and more Jewish immigrants from Bricani arrived in New York City, they established mutual aid societies to support one another. The KehilaLinks page for Brichany lists a healthy number of these Britshaner landsmanshaftn in New York which were founded before World War 1. Among these are the First Britschaner Benevolent Association (1898), the First Independent Brichaner Society (1900), the Erster Independent Brichaner Unterstutzungs Verein (1901), and the Independent Britchoner Bessarabian Benevolent Association (1911). To this we can add relief associations founded to help refugees from the First and Second World Wars, various ladies’ auxiliaries, political and cultural clubs, and so on. A prominent later addition was the Bessarabier Britshaner Branch no. 608 of the Arbeter Ring (1917).
An anniversary journal from YIVO’s archive, in this case from the Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association, January 1939. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
In going through the handful of Britshaner anniversary journals I could find at YIVO, I found two advertisements which I initially thought were for the same musician. This first one is from 1937:
Ad for Greenspan’s Royal Jazz Band in Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association jubilee journal, 1937. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
The second is in the 1941 version of the same journal, complete with pencil marks from Mr. Kessler, who was presumably collecting the money for the ads:
Ad for Jack R. Greenspan and Orchestra in Britchaner Bessarabier Relief Association Jubelium Journal, February 1941. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
It was only after I looked up their addresses in the local 802 directory that I realized these two ads were probably not for the same guy, but for father and son: Aaron Greenspan (born Briceni c. 1881, died Bronx 1938) and Jack Ramon Greenspan (born Briceni c. 1903, died Jefferson, Kentucky 1988). My guess is that Jack, who does not seem to have been a full-time musician, took over his father’s “duties” in the years after his death.
Portrait of Jack R. Greenspan from his 1936 naturalization application. Source: FamilySearch.
A look back at earlier Britshaner music events in NYC
Before I get to the Greenspans, who were prominent in a later era of Britshaner music in New York City, I’ll rewind to the earliest evidence I could find.
If you’ve read some of my recent posts, or know about landsmanshaftn, you probably know about the rich culture of social events they created in New York City in the early 20th century. Per Daniel Soyer in his excellent Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939:
Landslayt of all ages enjoyed themselves at the hometown association balls. These functions gave married and older immigrants a chance to indulge in the era’s passion for dancing even after they had outgrown New York’s many commercial dance halls. The affairs had something for everyone, mixing contemporary European and American dance styles with old-fashioned Jewish steps. […] the presence of several generations and the close acquaintance of many of the revelers made the society affairs settings at which young women in particular could safely enjoy themselves and meet other people their age.
[…] The functions helped boost each society’s sense of organizational elan and also attracted new members. The affairs usually featured an imposing members’ or “couples’ march,” which demonstrated ceremoniously the sponsoring group’s strength and unity. Landslayt who were not already members might attend and find inspiration to join. The balls of the Satanover Society barely covered expenses, but the “results” as reported by the arrangement committee included the number of candidates nominated, as many as twenty-two in 1913.
p.105–6.
It is in this context that you should think of these ads, which became more plentiful during periods of abundance and growth in membership. This ad from 1907 was the earliest for a Britshaner ball I found on jpress. Put on by the Britshaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club, it cost 15 cents for ladies, 25 cents for men, featured an unnamed union orchestra, and was held in New Stanton Hall on the site of what is now the Stanton Street Synagogue.
Advertisement for a Concert and Ball put on by the Britchaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club, printined in Di Varhayt, 3 May 1907. Source: jpress.
Since the earliest Britshaner associations in New York were founded in the 1890s, I assume they held informal musical events which were not advertised or described anywhere. Perhaps after a decade of developing their organizations, and as their members became more numerous and established in America, they were able to stage larger events which advertised tickets to non-members.
A number of other ads from around 1907–8 are similar to the one above. Here’s a longer one advertising an event put on by the Britshaner Young Men’s Benevolent Association in October 1908 at the New Clinton Hall, at Clinton and Grand in the Lower East Side. It boasts that one will be sure to meet Britshaner young men and ladies, in addition to Bessarabier, Chotiner, and Yedinetser young men and ladies—Khotyn and Edineț being neighboring towns back in Bessarabia—and to reconnect with friends one hasn’t seen in some time.
Advertisement for a ball put on by the Britshaner Y.M.B.A. in Di Varhayt, 10 Oct 1908. Source: jpress.
The first ad I found with a named musician was this one for the Full Dress and Civic Ball put on by the same Ladies’ Progressive Club mentioned above. Again taking place at New Clinton Hall in December 1908, it promises “music by Prof. Fiedlman’s Union Orchestra.” (Fidelman was such a common name among musicians that I can’t say who he was.)
Advertisement for Britshaner Young Ladies’ Progressive Club Full Dress and Civic Ball with prof. Fidelman’s orchestra. In the Forverts, 25 December 1908. Source: jpress.
Here is presumably the same Fidelman playing for the club’s May Flower Ball in 1909 at the Lennox Assembly Rooms on East 2nd Street:
Advertisement for a Britshaner May Flower Ball with prof. Fidelman’s Orchestra in Di Vahrhayt, 15 May 1909. Source: jpress.1940 tax photo of the Lennox Assembly building at 252–56 East 2nd Street. I believe this was the same building which existed in 1908, a former German Methodist church. In the 1980s it became a hip nightclub called The World and was demolished in 2002. Source: New York City Municipal Archives.
From 1910 to 1915 there were still regular notices in the NY Yiddish press for Britshaner events, but far fewer ads for balls, and none that were particularly interesting. Here are two that showed up in 1916 with new bandleaders, the Fiedler Brothers. This Full Dress and Civic Ball was put on in September by the Independent Britshaner Besarabier Benevolent Association. It took place at Beethoven Hall on East 5th Street, a common venue for Jewish events in that era. The other Fiedler Brothers civic ball two months later was put on by the Britshaner Bessarabier Progressive Young Folks, apparently a lesser-known landsmanshaft or cultural club, at the Progress Casino on Avenue A.
Advertisement for the Full Dress and Civic Ball of the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association, Fiedler Brothers Union Orchestra. From the Forverts, 16 Sept 1916. Source: jpress. Ad for the Full Dress and Civic Ball put on by the Britshaner Bessarabier Progressive Young Folks with Fiedler Brothers Union Orchestra. In the Forverts, 4 Nov 1916. Source: jpress.
Working our way through the whole range of violinist family names, the next events I found in 1917 was played by the Fiedel Brothers Union Double Brass Band. I believe this was probably the family of Isaac Fiedel (clarinet, born c.1858) whose sons were all active in New York at the time: Morris (saxophone, b.1879) Max (trumpet, b.1884), Alex (cornet, b.1886), and Frank (violin, b.1898). The family moved around between southern Ukraine and northern Moldova, but several of the sons were born in Edineţ, close to Briceni, where Isaac lived until he emigrated to New York in 1912. Alex recorded a cornet solo piece for Columbia Records in 1917; you can listen to it on the Mayrent Collection. He shows up on some other klezmer albums and on some Pawlo Humeniuk Ukrainian discs decades later.
This full Dress and Civic Ball also took place at Beethoven Hall, and promised that a portion of the profits from tickets sold would go to the People’s Council, an anti-war movement at the time.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Bessarabier Y.M.&Y.L.B.A. ball with Fidel brothers orchestra in the Forverts, 22 Sept 1917. Source: jpress.
Another ball put on by the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association the following year featured the music of S. Brownstein. It’s just a guess, but it could have been Sam Braunstein (clarinet/saxophone, b.1891 in Dunayivtsi, Podolia), who was active in New York at that time.
Advertisement for the Independent Britshaner Bessarabier Benevolent Association Full Dress and Civic Ball, with music by prof. S. Brownstein. In the Forverts, 25 August 1918. Source: jpress.
The Greenspan era
During the years after the First World War, and during the Russian Civil War, new waves of Jewish immigrants and refugees arrived in New York. A number of notable klezmer musicians, composers and Yiddish theatre bandleaders arrived during the years 1919–22, including Hirsch Gross, Dave Tarras, Joseph Cherniavsky, Morris Drutin, and Al Glaser. Aaron Greenspan also arrived from Briceni in 1920, possibly fleeing the poor conditions of early period of Romanian rule in Bessarabia. His wife Dinah and five children, including Janchel (Jack Ramon, then a teenager) followed in November and they settled in the Lower East Side.
It seems to me from the advertisements that Greenspan mostly took over the business of playing for Britshaner events for the following decades. I found a good number of them on jpress, and not all for the one he was a member of (the Independent Britshaner Bessarabian Benevolent Association). Here’s the earliest one I could find, a May Flower Ball which was put on at Beethoven Hall by the Britshaner Bessarabier Y.M.&Y.L.B.A.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball, with prof. Greenspan’s Union Double Brass Band. In the Forverts, 24 April 1920. Source: jpress.
He continued to play many of these May Flower Balls, as in this one put on in 1922 by the Britshaner Bessarabier branch 608 of the Arbeter Ring.
Advertisement for Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball with prof. Greenspans Union Orchestra in Forverts, 29 april 1922. Source: jpress.Advertisement for Britchaner Bessarabier May Flower Ball with Aharon Greenspan’s Union Orchestra. In Morgn Frayhayt, 28 April 1923. Source: jpress.
This one for the 1924 iteration of the same May ball doesn’t mention him, but I like the bowtie design. Maybe he played for it too.
Advertisement for a Bessarabier Britshaner ball in Der Tog, 10 May 1924. Source: jpress.
This next advertisement is one of my favourites. It was the Britshaner-Bessarabier Colour-Light Ball put on by branch 608. (Per Daniel Soyer’s book, colour-light balls were pretty much what they sound like: a ball with the extra novelty of coloured lanterns.) The advertisements lists all types of dances old and new, which is rare in a newspaper ad:
Today! Today!
In the evening all the Bessarabiers will meet for the long-awaited Britshaner Bessararabian Colour Light Ball
Given by the Britshaner Branch 608, Workers Circle in the large Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street.
Waltz, polka, foxtrot, tango, hora [hoyra!], krakowiak, fatapapa [?], Romanian sirbas, bulgars, shers, kozatskes, mazurkas, quadrilles, everything your heart desires. Don’t forget tonight, Shabbos, October 2.
Advertisement for the Britchaner Besarabier Colour Light Ball in Morgn Frayhayt, 2 October 1926. Source: jpress.
Greenspan also played for the 10th anniversary banquet of Branch 608, the following march at Astoria Mansion on East 4th.
Ad for the 10th anniversary Britchaner Branch 608 Dinner and Ball with music by Greenspan. In Morgn Frayhayt, 19 March 1927. Source: jpress.The Astoria Hall in 1940, at 62 East 4th Street. Source: NYC Department of Records.
A blurb printed in the Morgn Frayhayt in April of the following year gives some more contexts for Branch 608’s politics:
Britshaner Ball for the coming year will take place Shabbos, April 21
The annual ball of the Britshaner Bessarabier Branch 608 Arbeter Ring will take place Shabbos, 21 April, in Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street. It is to be expected that everyone Yedinetser, Chotiner, Rishkaner, Lipkaner, Noviselitser and Britshaner will come enjoy a jolly evening. The left-inclined public, which supports all left-wing and progressive organizations, will also not forget to come to the colour-light ball, which the branch has arranged, as Branch 608 of the Workers’ Circle is one of the most active branches in the country. A good Russian music band will play Russian and American dances.
Britshaner branch 608 ball description in the Morgn Frayhayt, 13 April 1928. Source: jpress.
Another blurb the next week explains that Greenspan’s is the Russian band which will be playing the event:
Britshaner Ball
This Shabbos evening, April 21 will be the 11th annual Color Light Ball at Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street. It is to be expected that all chaverim, friends and landslayt from Bessarabia will come have a nice, jolly evening. You’ll also receive greetings from those who have come not long ago from Britshan. Music by Professor Aharon Greenspan. Tickets 75 cents, to be obtained by members of Branch 608, A.R.
Blurb mentioning the Branch 608 Colour Light Ball with music by prof. Aaron Greenspan in Morgn Frayhayt, 18 april 1928. Source: jpress.
This Ladies’ Auxiliary of the 1st Britshaner Farayn Grand Annual Reception and Ball at Stuyvesant Casino a few months later doesn’t specify which musician is playing:
Advertisement for the 1st Britshaner Ladies Auxiliary ball in the Morgn Zhurnal, 28 Oct 1928. Source: jpress.
With the start of the Great Depression, Britshaner ball advertisements largely disappeared from the Yiddish press once again. We know that they continued their activities during that era, and that musicians continued to play, but landsmanshaftn in general struggled to maintain many of the services and programming they had at the height of the 1920s. I know from anniversary journals at YIVO and NYPL that landsmanshaftn continued to celebrate each 5-year anniversary during the Great Depression with a banquet, but they did noticeably decline in the Yiddish press.
Joseph Kessler, the businessman I mentioned above, contributed a chapter to the Britshaner Yizkor (memorial) book, published in Tel Aviv in 1963. The book has been translated to English, and his chapter is available here. He notes that the Britshaner Relief organization in New York was founded in 1931 and at that time had a hard time getting donations from Britshaners in New York to send charitable support back home.
It doesn’t relate to music, but here is a blurb about one of the landsmanshaftn from December 1933 which describes how it was doing during the depression:
First Britshaner Association
The “First Britshaner Aid Association” has existed for 29 years and has a membership of 290 families. It provides 10 weeks of sick benefits and not much support for needy members. It provides annual contributions to various institutions such as: Moyshev Zkeynim Bnei and Benat Moyshe, Jewish National Orphanage, and others. Participates in “Britshaner Relief.” Contributed to the American Jewish Congress. The association also has a women’s auxiliary.
Blurb about Ershter Britshaner Farayn in Der Tog, 22 December 1933. Source: jpress.
In general the ads for balls during this period tended to be fairly basic and to emphasize charity rather than partying and extravagance. This Britshaner Ball at Webster Hall on March 10 1934 says: “Come en masse and help to make the ball a success, as Peysach is very near and our poor and needy in the old home—Britshan—need our help. -The Arrangement Committee.”
Ad for a Britshaner Ball in Forverts, 10 March 1934. Source: jpress.
This annual ball held at Irving Plaza in May 1936, put on by Britshaner Relief of New York, similarly begs one to think of the poor and needy in the old home:
Ad for a Britshaner charity ball in Morgn Frayhayt, 9 May 1936. Source: jpress.
This last ad I could find for a Ball for Britshaner Relief in February 1937 promises music by an unnamed large double-band:
Advertisement for a Britshaner Relief Ball in the Forverts, 5 February 1937. Source: jpress.
That last ad corresponds to a journal from YIVO’s collection, the one with the single advertisement I found for Greenspan’s Orchestra.
Cover of Jubilee Journal of the Britshaner Bessarabier Relief Association, February 1937. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
After the war, I couldn’t find any advertisements for Britshaner balls, concerts, etc. on jpress. I wouldn’t be surprised if the landsmanshaftn continued to hire bands for their events, but they probably became more modest productions. This follows the general trend I saw in countless landsmanshaftn documents at YIVO. In a few cases I found advertisements for Britshaner musical events where one or two Yiddish singers were performing. The Britshaner Relief organization in New York continued to be very active in raising funds; per Kessler, their annual banquets in the late 1940s usually raised about 4 or 5 thousand dollars, which after the destruction of Britshan’s Jewish population during the war, often went to displaced Britshaners in Israel, or to a monument erected for the memory of those who died in New York.
Cover of Britshaner Relief event from 1946 dedicated to Isaac Malester. Source: RG 1001 Joseph Kessler papers, YIVO.
From the 1950s onwards, Britshaner notices in the Yiddish press turned more and more to death notices for prominent members from an earlier era. In the Yizkor book published in ’63, Kessler noted that there were only three Britshaner landsmanshaftn left in New York: the First Britshaner Society, the Britshaner Women’s Society and the Independent Britshaner Society, which Kessler judged to be the largest of the three. Although they probably carried on for some years as benefit and burial societies, their glory days of holding extravagant balls were behind them.
