Home >
Current Exhibitions > Composers
> Alexander Olshanetsky
Alexander
Olshanetsky
Young Alexander with his Parents,
perhaps taken in Odessa, c. 1905.
ALEXANDER OLSHANETSKY AND HIS BAND
FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY OF JEWISH
COMPOSERS
date unknown
Seated, left to right: Alexander Olshanetsky, Joseph Rumshinsky and
Sholom Secunda.
Standing, left to right: Abe
Ellstein, Joseph Brody, lawyer Joseph Steinberg, Harry Lubin, and
the lawyer A.E. Moskowitz.
-♪-
Here is a translation of
Olshanetsky's (early) biography, as found in Zalmen Zylbercweig's
"Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre," Vol. 1 (biography covers his life
until approximately 1930):
Born on 23 October 1892 in
Odessa, Ukraine. His father was a merchant. He learned
in a cheder, Yiddish school and in a gymnasium. As a
six-year-old child, he manifested an ability to play the
violin, and his father enrolled him in the Odessa
imperial musical school, where he remained for nine
years, and he learned to play various instruments.
Due to his desire to wander,
he left his home against the wishes of his parents, and
in 1917 went away with the orchestra of the Odessa Opera
as a violinist. Thus he wandered across Southern Russia
and Siberia, where he entered into a Russian operetta
troupe as a choral director. Meanwhile, during wartime,
he was taken in as a soldier and he became the
bandmaster of his regiment. With his regiment he turned
up in Kharbin, where he encountered a Yiddish troupe
under the direction of Fiszon, and when Sandler
suddenly left the troupe and went away to America, Olshanetsky ,with the permission of the regimental commander, became
the conductor of the Yiddish troupe.
Here he began to write music
for Yiddish operettas. His first composition was for
Isidore Kaplan's operetta "Going Back Home to Zion," then for Fogelnest's "Aronchik
and Solomonchik."
The conditions in Kharbin,
however, became difficult for Yiddish theatre, and Olshanetsky
joined a Russian operetta troupe, with whom he toured
for several years across Japan, China and India.
In 1921 he returned to
Kharbin; however, he no longer encountered Yiddish
troupes, and [so] he went off to America, where in
1922 he arrived at his uncle's, the actor Hyman
Meisel.
Here he felt for the
first time the true sense of a "greenhorn"
until Schwartz got him the opportunity to write music
for Andreyev's "Anathema," Sackler's "Yizkor" and
Zhulavsky's drama "Shabtai tsvi"; however,
this didn't change his situation much. He thence
went to Cuba as the conductor of an itinerant opera
troupe, and when he first returned he wrote music
for Isidore Lash's operetta "The Jolly Pauper,"
which was performed at the Lenox Theatre, and he
became engaged as the conductor and composer for
that theatre. There he composed music for "Gypsy
Prince" by William Siegel and for "Palestine Love" by
Isidore Lillian. A
season later, he was engaged by Rolland for the
Liberty Theatre, where he composed music for the
successful operettas "Sweet Love,"
"Student Love," and "The
Golden Soldier" by Louis Freiman.
Since 1927 he was engaged at
the National Theatre, where he composed music
for many operettas and melodramas, from which he had a special success: "In the Garden of Love" by
Harry Kalmanowitz and William Siegel; "A
Paradise for Two"
by Siegel, and "Itsikl the Rake" and "The Litwack
Yankee" by Isidore Lash.
For the season 1929-30,
Olshanetsky wrote
music for the operetta "The Only Night" by
Abraham Blum and "Lucky in Love" by Meyer Schwartz
(both staged at the National Theatre.)
On 24 February 1929,
Olshanetsky
staged for the first time on the radio in New York
his adapted orchestration of Goldfaden's "Bar kokhba."
-♪-
Here is a partial list
(eighty-eight
plays) in which Olshanetsky is listed as being the sole or
co-composer:
(Note than the translation of the titles into English are
approximate when ending with a question mark)
3 farlibte (3 in Love)
A dorfishe khasene (A Country
Wedding?)
A gan eydn far tsvey (A Paradise
for Two)
A khasene in kuba (A Wedding in
Cuba)
A leson in libe (A Lesson in Love)
A nakht in kalifornye (A Night in
California)
A nakht in pariz (A Night in
Paris)
A tumel in shtetl (A Riot in Town)
A yom-tov in shtetl (A Holiday in
Town)
Ale viln khasene hobn (They All
Want to Get Married)
Der ershte kizh (The First Kiss) (as "His First Kiss")
Der goldener soldat (The Golden
Soldier)
Der katerinshtshik (The Organ
Grinder)
Der kavkazer gelibter (The
Caucasian Lover?)
Der klezmer (The Musician)
Der letster tants (The Last Dance)
Der letster yid (The Last Jew)
Der litvisher yenki (The Yankee
Litvack)
Der mazl'diger bokher (Lucky Boy)
Der narisher khosn (The Foolish
Bridegroom?)
Der nayer mentsh (The New Man)
Der poylisher rebe (The Polish
Rabbi)
Der sud fun libe (The Secret of
Love?)
Der tsigayner prints (The Gypsy
Prince)
Der vaser-treger (The Water
Carrier)
Der yidisher general (The Jewish
General)
Di eyntsike nakht (The Only Night)
Di farshemte kale (The Embarassed
Bride?)
Di freylekhe kaptosnim (The Jolly
Pauper?)
Di froy batsolt (The Frau Besault)
Di goldene medina (The Golden
Land)
Di neshome fun a froy (The Soul of
a Woman)
Di ungarishe khasene (The
Hungarian Wedding)
Dos goldene land (The Golden Land)
Dos yidl fun der saut (The Jew
From the South)
Dos lid fun der geto (The Song of
the Ghetto)
Dos ungarishe meydl (The Hungarian
Girl)
Farlangt a man (Husband Wanted?)
Flamen fun libe (Flames of Love)
Frelikhe yugend (Happy Youth?)
Freylekhe kaptsonim (Jolly
Paupers)
Freylekhe teg (Happy Days)
Gedemejter man (The Damaged Man)
Gefalene malokhim (Fallen Angels)
Girl Wanted
Goldene teg (Golden Days)
Grine yenkis (Green Yankees)
Hayntike meydlekh (Girls of Today)
Helou mame (Hello Mama)
Hepi deys (Happy Days)
In gortn fun libe (Garden of Love)
Itche Mayer from Kentucky
Itskil sholtik
Khosn kale mazl tov
Kleyner mazik (Little Devil)
Kluge khasanim (Wise Bridegrooms?)
Kol ya'akov (Voice of Jacob)
Lebn zol amerika (Long Live
America)
Lebn zol moskva (Long Live Moscow)
Leybele der griner
Libe is shtarker fun gezets (Love
is Stronger than Law)
Mayn harts iz dayn (My Heart is
Yours)
Mayn meydls khasene (My Baby's
Wedding)
Mayn shtetele belz (My Little Town
Belz)
Mazl un libe (Lucky in Love)
Mini fun sigel strit (Minnie From
Siegel Street)
Mirele fun belz (Mirele From Belz)
Mit oyfene oygn (With Open Eyes)
Motke fun slobotke (Motke from
Slobotke)
Motkes khasene (Motke's Wedding)
Oyf der 7ter evenyu (On Seventh
Avenue)
Palestiner libe (Palestine Love)
Sabatai Zvi
Sadie vu krikhtstu?
Shlekhte khaverim (Evil Companions)
Studentn libe (Student Love)
Tsurik aheym keyn tsion (Coming
Back to Zion?)
Vos meydlekh tuen (What Girls Do)
Yankele litwack (as "Yankel
litwack")
Yosel der bolshevik (Yosel the
Bolshevik)
Yosel der klezmer (Yosel the
Musician)
Zayn groyse libe (His Great Love)
Zayn kales tokhter (His Bride's
Daughter)
Zise libe (Sweet Love)
-♪-
Here is the obituary that appeared
in the Yiddish Forward (Forverts) newspaper on June 5, 1946,
two days after his passing in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, hospital
after a short illness:
(apologies for the lack of clarity of the article--hopefully you can
still translate it if you'd like)
"FAMOUS THEATRE MUSICIAN, ALEXANDER
OLSHANETSKY,
DIED THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY IN HIS 55TH YEAR"
Alexander Olshanetsky, the
famous Yiddish theatre musician, died the day before
yesterday after a short illness in the Atlantic City
hospital.
Initially, a few days before,
Olshanetsky was in the New York Cafe Royal (a theatre
hangout)--and
he had brought many of his friends from the theatre world,
and he manifested [good] health and was cheerful. The entire
Yiddish theatrical world became divided by Olshanetsky's
sudden death.
The funeral will begin on
Friday at twelve noon at the Sigmund Schwartz Funeral
Parlor. The funeral will be organized by the Yiddish
Theatrical Alliance, the Society of Jewish Composers, the
Yiddish [Hebrew] Theatrical Union, and also by the Vilna
Branch 367 of the Arbeiter Ring, in which the deceased was a
member.
Olshanetsky was fifty-four
years old. He was born on 23 October 1892 in Odessa. His
father was a businessman. As a young man Olshanetsky
manifested musical abilities, and his father sent him away
to learn in the Odessa Imperial Music School. He studied
composition and also learned how to play various
instruments. He became a violinist in the orchestra of the
Odessa Opera. He played with the orchestra for a long time,
and he also traveled around, across many cities.
During the time of the First
World War, he was drafted into the army, and he performed in
a "muzikantske komande" (military band), and he later
became Kapellmeister for his people.
After the revolution of 1917,
Olshanetsky's people were sent to Kharbin. At this time he
had been rejected by [Misha] Fiszon's troupe. Peretz Sandler
was the musician, however amidst all of this he
received an offer to go to America and become the musician for the National Theatre.
Peretz Sandler left Kharbin,
and the troupe remained without a musician.
Olshanetsky, who had been a daily attendee of the Yiddish
theatre there, offered to be the musician. Up until
then he had served in the army, and he had to fight for
permission to do this, and this then was Olshanetsky's first
connection with Yiddish theatre.
The first music that he
composed for Yiddish Theatre was for Itzhak Kaplan's
operetta, "Tsurik a heym," and Fogelnest's "Aronchik and
Solomonchik," which the Yiddish troupe had staged in Kharbin.
In those years, Kharbin had a
significant Jewish population, and the theatre did fine
business.
Then Olshanetsky became the
musician for a Russian operetta troupe, which guest-starred
in the Far East and had put on productions in China, Japan
and India.
Olshanetsky arrived in America
in 1922. His uncle, the deceased actor, Hyman Meisel, had
brought him over, and a few years later he married the prima
donna, Bella Mysell, whom he later left.
-♪-
About the funeral service, the procession
and the gravesite activity,
there was a Forverts article which appeared on June 8,
1946:
"LARGE AUDIENCE AT THE FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER OLSHANETSKY;
SPEAKERS PRAISE HIS TALENT AND HIS WORK"
Alexander Olshanetsky, the
deceased Yiddish theatre musician, was brought to his
eternal rest yesterday afternoon at Mount Hebron
Cemetery. He was interred in the plot of the Yiddish
Theatrical Association.
A large audience of many
thousands of people came to give the last honors to the
deceased. Many thousands of people followed the
deceased's casket from the Gramercy Park funeral
parlor at Second Avenue and Tenth Street to the club of
the Yiddish [Hebrew] Actors' Union at 31 E. 7th
Street, from where the procession continued on to the
cemetery.
Representatives of the
entire theatre profession, of al the branches of the
Yiddish theatre, held a mournful cemetery, which
occurred at the casket of the deceased musician at the
Gramercy Memorial Chapel.
Charlie Cohan, the
secretary of the [Yiddish] Theatrical Alliance, was the
first speaker; then Chazn Moshe Ganchoff and a large
chorus under the direction of theatre musician Joseph
Rumshinsky, sang suitable prayers, "Shvisi, elohim,
lenigdi tomid,"
a chapter of psalms, and also sang "Shiru shir
leadonoy
kodesh" from the first play for which the deceased had
composed music for, which was put on by the Yiddish Art
Theatre.
Zvi Scooler read aloud Ch.
N. Bialik's poem, "Acharei Moti" (After My Death.)
Sholom Secunda, president
of the Jewish Composers' Society, spoke in the name of
the organization.
Reuben Guskin, the manager
of the Yiddish Actors' union, portrayed the life of the
deceased musician. He said that Olshanetsky was one of
the talent-filled musicians, filled with an effervescent
temperament, and that he had brought a fresh spirit to
the Yiddish theatre music.
Sam Kulok, president of
the Theatrical Alliance, read out the names from his
organization, and Rabbi Charles Shay Abeles.
At the cemetery
representatives of many organizations that Olshanetsky
had belonged to spoke. Also among the speakers was a
representative of Branch 367 of the Arbeiter Ring, to
which he had belonged.
Many organizations had
sent wreaths of flowers, and the funeral chapel was
filled with flowers.
The public [in attendance,
at the chapel] was so large in number, that the police
had to hold up traffic across Second Avenue, between
Ninth and Tenth Street for a significant time.
-♪-
"Mazel in liebe" (Lucky in
Love)
Fox Trot
1929
Alexander Olshanetsky and his Orchestra
(Vocalion Records)
"Ein kik af dir, eyn kik
oyf dir" (One Glance at You)
Fox Trot
1929
Alexander Olshanetsky and his Orchestra
(Vocalion Records)
-♪-
Photographs courtesy of Mrs. Anita
Willens (daughter of Alexander Olshanetsky and Bella Mysell, and the
stepdaughter of Herman Yablokoff)
and the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance Archives.