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:
| Adler’s Number | Yiddish Title | English Title / Subtitle | Date | Link to Score |
| – | כּל נדרי | Coll Nidrey | 1889 | Petrucci Library |
| Op. 299 | חתן כּלה’ס טאנץ | Hebrew National Bride and Bridegroom’s Dance | 1896 | Google Drive |
| – | דיא כּלה באזעטצינס | Coll Nidrey | 1898 | Library of Congress |
| – | א װאללאח | Roumanian Dance | 1902 | Library of Congress |
| Op. 319 | שיר ציון | The Song from Zijon / Hebräische Melodie | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 305 | דיא כּלה באזעטצינס | Hebrew National Wedding – Polonaise | 1896 | Library of Congress |
| Op. 84 | חסיד | Hebrew National Wedding – Dance | 1895 | Google Drive |
| Op. 300 | דיא כּלה באזעטצינס | Hebrew National Wedding – The Ceremony | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 208 | דיא כּלה באזעטצינס | Hebrew National Wedding – At The Ceremony | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 349 | דיא כּלה באזעטצינס | Hebrew National Wedding – Dobridin Dance | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 301 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Walz, or Waves of the Danube | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 145 | אחסידיס בײגילע | Hebrew National – The Chossed Round Dance No. 2 | 1896 | Google Drive |
| Op. 98 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Ahasahl Dance | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 507 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – March No. 1 | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 503 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Waltz No. 2 | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 301 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Wedding Waltz No. 1 | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 508 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Polka | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 463 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – March No. 2 | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 92 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Schir Dance | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| Op. 509 | – | Hebrew National Wedding – Concert Waltz No. 3 | ? | Have Not Seen Yet |
| – | – | Adieux, Polka Mazurka. | 1896 | Have Not Seen Yet |
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.