Keywords:
Petr Semenov, nineteenth-century opera, Slavic Music, nineteenth-century representation of Jewish music, Wagner
Abstract
This study examines Petr Semenov’s opera The Adventure in the Jewish Tavern (St. Petersburg, 1817) and related sources to determine what kind of “Jewish music” a nineteenth- century German composer would have encountered on the European stage, and how it might be distinguished from other national styles, particularly those designated as Slavic. Additionally, a comparison of the “Jewish” music in this and similar compositions reveals nothing in common with Wagner’s music that modern commentators have suggested was intended to represent Jewish music.
Author Biography
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David Joseph Buch
David Joseph Buch studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He received his PhD in Music History from Northwestern University. He had been Professor of Music at Wayne State University and Professor of Music History at the University of Northern Iowa, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Buch was also a visiting professor at the University of Chicago (2008-11). He has published numerous scholarly studies on a range of topics, having explored archives and libraries in major European cities. His research has received international attention owing to the discovery of new attributions to Mozart in Emanuel Schikaneder's collaborative opera Der Stein der Weisen oder Die Zauberinsel (Vienna, 1790). In 1998 he was named UNI Distinguished Scholar and received the Donald N. McKay Research Award. Buch plays the lute, viola da gamba and guitar. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, and as guest soloist with the Eckstein String Quartet (principals, CSO).
