Rachel Calloway, Musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival - Engel: Chamber Music & Folksongs
Classical, Vocal | WEB FLAC (tracks) & d. booklet | 58:31 min | 243 MB
Label: Toccata Classics | Tracks: 19 | Rls.date: 2017
The Russian composer Joel Engel (18681927) is unofficially considered the father of Jewish music. He paved the way for a nationalist movement that used Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs as the basis of a serious art-form. Well before Kodály and Bartók in Hungary, Engel went out to the shtetls of eastern Europe, writing down the villagers songs and then composed music inspired by his excursions. This first-ever album of his music reveals the melodic immediacy of these songs and instrumental pieces, capturing the soul of a people and a centuries-old vanished culture.