Hebrew Dance

The violinist and composer Joseph Achron was a child prodigy violinist. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1898 where he studied with Leopold Auer, and composition with Liadov. After making his Berlin debut in 1904 and touring throughout Europe, Achron returned to the St. Petersburg Conservatory for further study in composition. He became active in the Society of Jewish Folk Music, and in the years immediately following the First World War, also composed for the Hebrew Chamber Theatre. Achron spent several years in Berlin and Palestine, before emigrating in 1925 to the U.S., where he became an American citizen in 1930. He eventually settled in Hollywood, where he earned his living primarily as a film studio violinist. He deeply loved composing, however, and began to explore atonal and polytonal techniques. Arnold Schoenberg, who greatly admired Achron, described him as “one of the most underestimated of modern composers, [whose] originality and profound elaboration of his ideas guarantee that his works will last.”
Achron wrote three violin concertos, two violin sonatas, a piano concerto, songs, choral works, and chamber music as well as an orchestral suite Golem. He also made a number of superb transcriptions of short pieces by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Grieg, but is best remembered for his concert arrangements of traditional Hebrew melodies. The colorful Hebrew Dance derives from a tune first transcribed by H. Kopit, another member of the Society for Jewish Folk Music in his native Russia. This piece is dedicated to them, “his brothers” in Jewish music. The melody which forms the basis for the haunting Hebrew Lullaby was originally transcribed by Susman Kisselgof, who included it in his important collection of Jewish melodies published in 1911 by the Society for Jewish Folk Music. The sorrowful Hebrew Melody, the best known of his short pieces for violin, is based on a tune contributed to the Society by Achron himself. Achron credited his father for teaching him this brooding theme, which he had first heard in a synagogue in his native Poland. When the legendary Jascha Heifetz first came to the United States, he would often play Hebrew Melody in his concerts. He also included it in his earliest recordings. It was an important showpiece for him in his early career. By far, the most enduring of these three songs is the Hebrew Melody which remains the most popular of Achron's compositions.