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Composers of Classical Music of Jewish Descent.

Article Excerpt
Composers of Classical Music of Jewish Descent. By Lewis Stevens. London; Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2003. [xxiii, 384 p. ISBN 0-85303-486-6. $62.95.] Illustrations, index.

Few would question the propriety of a work of this nature: fewer still would question its potential usefulness. A reference work largely devoted to biographical sketches of "composers of classical music of Jewish descent" has to address three fairly prickly issues at the outset, however: What is classical music?; Who should be considered a composer of classical music?; and Who should be considered Jewish? The author, Lewis Stevens, has the perspicacity to answer all three questions at the outset, and while one may not be wholly satisfied with the answers, one must at least admire the clarity with which Stevens demarcates his territory. Classical music is "music that has sprung broadly from the European musical tradition, and is generally included in standard works on classical music" (p. 2)--yes to the motet, no to jazz and klezmer. He defines composers to the extent that musicians best known as performers or scholars are included if they composed within the classical music tradition. As for the matter of who is a Jew--certainly the question most likely to arouse passionate discussion--Stevens respectfully rejects Jewish law as too restrictive, and includes those with at least one Jewish grandparent, regardless of their religious practice or sense of Jewishness. Although he does not say so, this does strengthen his work considerably by allowing readers to compare the relationship of composers to their cultures and matters of faith in a given place or time.

The book divides into two parts: a series of introductory essays running just shy of a hundred pages, and the biographical sketches themselves. The essays are well-meaning but otherwise have little to recommend them. Already the second sentence of chapter 1, in which the author feels compelled to footnote his observation that neumes were in use before the tenth century, raises the suspicion that Stevens is neither comfortable writing about music, not especially equipped to do so. This is in fact one of the book's two fatal weaknesses; confirmation of the suspicion is delivered repeatedly in the next few pages. With regard to the relationship of notation and polyphony, he writes:

An important change that occurred from the time of...