LibGuides: Diversity in Classical Music: Jewish

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Jewish Composers

Here are just a few of many Jewish composers. Click to see a list of their music in our library.

Salamone de Rossi (1570-1630)
Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Julia Wolfe (b. 1958)
Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960)

Discover More Composers

Use the resources below to discover other Jewish composers. Then, search their name in our catalog to find their music in the library.

If we don't own a piece you want, search for it in WorldCat and click "ILL this with ILLiad" to borrow a copy from another library. Or, contact Tracey Rudnick (rudnick@hartford.edu, 860.768.4404) to suggest we buy a copy.

Repertoire Guides Online

Jewish American classical composers (Wikipedia list)
Jewish Music WebCenter
See especially their biographies page, or other pages under "People in Music."
Underrepresented Composer Database (Viola)
Over 1500 solo and chamber works for viola by underrepresented composers. Choose Jewish under the "Ethnicity" drop-down menu.

Repertoire Guides in the Library

Composers of Classical Music of Jewish Descent by Lewis Stevens
Call Number: ML390 S84 C65 [Allen shelves]
Publication Date: 2003
Describes the high number of composers of Jewish descent, particularly during the last 200 years. Contains brief biographies and bibliographies of over 250 composers of Jewish descent.

Research

Books (selections)

Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy by Lynette Bowring, Rebecca Cypess, Liza Malamut (Editors)
Call Number: ML3776 M875 2022 [Allen shelves]
Evaluates the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious circumstances that shaped musical culture in Jewish communities in early modern Italy.
Sara Levy's World by Rebecca Cypess, Nancy Sinkoff (Editors)
Call Number: ML417 L48 S272 2018 [Allen shelves]
An interdisciplinary exploration of the world of Sara Levy, a Jewish salonnière and musician in late 18th-century Berlin, and her impact on the Bach revival, German-Jewish life, and Enlightenment culture.

Find more books on Jewish people in music

Click to see the newest Judaica books in the Allen Library

Search subjects in the catalog:
Composers, Jewish
Holocaust [and] Music
Jewish musicians
Jews > Music
Jews in the performing arts
Klezmer music
Songs, Hebrew
Songs, Yiddish
Synagogue music

...or search specific names, for example:
George Gershwin
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Arnold Schoenberg

Music Reference Databases

Grove/Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Music encyclopedia with works lists and citations. Search a particular person's name or terms, for example, Jewish music in the United States.
Oxford Bibliographies - Music This link opens in a new window
Citation lists on many music subjects and people. Search a particular name or keyword. See especially Jewish Music.

Journals (selections)

Search articles online or browse the Allen Library current periodicals (near the Allen entrance).
See especially:

Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy
Online only.
Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online
Online only.
Not all articles relate to Jews or Jewish music, but many do.
Yuval: Studies of the Jewish Music Research Centre
Open-access journal, available online.

Find more articles about Jewish people in music

Search one of the following databases for specific names, work titles, or keywords such as jewish, judaism, hebrew, yiddish, etc.

Music Index Online This link opens in a new window
Article citations from over 700 music journals.
Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Article citations from over 400 music journals.
RILM This link opens in a new window
Citations for scholarly music and dance books, articles, dissertations, and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from almost 100 scholarly music, dance, and theatre journals, plus other subjects. Excludes recent years.

Support an Organization

Organizations

American Society for Jewish Music
Presents concerts and lectures, and publishes the Musica Judaica journal.
Los Angeles Jewish Symphony
Dedicated to performing works of distinction that explore Jewish culture, heritage and experience.