Wolff Kostakowsky

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Wolff N. Kostakowsky, klezmer violinist

Wolff N. Kostakowsky (1879–1944) was a Russian-born klezmer violinist known mostly for his publication of a book of klezmer dance tunes titled International Hebrew Wedding Music, published in New York City in 1916.[1][2] That book was one of the earliest collections of klezmer repertoire published in the United States.[3]

Biography

Kostakowsky was born on June 11, 1879, in

Lyons in December and arriving in New York City later that month.[4][6] He married his wife Ida (née Shapiro) in Manhattan in June 1896.[7] It seems that his parents followed him to America; although his father died in New York in 1901, his mother was listed as still living with Wolff and his family in the 1910 census.[8][9]

In the 1900 census he was listed as a Musician living in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[10] In 1908 he was working as a master violin instructor at the New York School of Music and Arts on West 97th Street.[11]

In the 1910s, aside from his only full-length work International Hebrew Wedding Music (1916), Kostakowsky arranged and printed a handful of shorter piano scores of Jewish or other Eastern European music. These included Palestiner March, Sher, and Free Russia March (all published with Sam Bederson music in 1918).[12][13]

Wolf Kostakowsky Palestiner March 1918

Kostakowsky died on October 6, 1944, at age 69.[5] He was buried in the Mount Richmond Cemetery in Staten Island.[14]

International Hebrew Wedding Music (1916)

Kostakowsky is mainly remembered today for his 1916 publication International Hebrew Wedding Music, a large collection of violin lead sheets published by his son Nathan. It is one of the only commercially-published large collections of klezmer tunes from its era; some others include European Jewish Wedding publisher by Herman S. Shapiro in 1902[3] and the Kammen International Dance Folio series published by the Kammen Brothers from the 1920s onwards.[15] Among those handful of publications, the Kammen books were by far the most well-known and widely distributed.[16]

The klezmer researcher Walter Zev Feldman describes International Hebrew Wedding Music as the "earliest substantial American printed collection of klezmer music" with a particularly Romanian repertoire (notably Bulgars and Sirbas).[17] He described its contents as such: "He divided the substance of his book between a klezmer dance repertoire (i.e., “Rumanian” hora, sirba, and bulgar), followed by hongas and a large group of freylekhs. The remainder of the book is comprised of various non- Jewish dance forms, such as csardas, tarantella, polka, mazurka, “Russian” selections, and waltzes. [...] The book closes with several Zionist songs and assorted American wedding staples, such as the Lohengrin march."[3]

The book was not as widely circulated as the Kammen klezmer folios, but it was nonetheless still circulating in the 1970s at the beginning of the

klezmer revival. A copy made its way into the hands of the musicians in The Klezmorim in 1977.[18] Since then, melodies from the book have been performed by many other revival musicians, including Giora Feidman, Veretski Pass, Khevrisa, Yale Strom
, and others.

Out of print for most of the twentieth century, the book was finally republished in a new edition by Tara Publications in 2001, with editing and annotation by Joshua Horowitz.[19][20]

References

  1. ISBN 1561592390
    .
  2. ISBN 9780028645742
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780190244514
    .
  4. ^ a b c "Wolf Kostakowsky. Migration • United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925". FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Wolf Kostakowsky. Death • New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949". FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  6. ^ "Wolf Kostokowsky in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957". Ancestry Library. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Wolff Kostakowsky in the New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937". Ancestry Library. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  8. ^ "Wm W Kostakowsky. Census • United States Census, 1910". FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  9. ^ "Nathan Kostakowsky. Death • New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949". FamilySearch. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  10. ^ "Wolff Kostakowsky. Census • United States Census, 1900". FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  11. ^ "New York School of Music and Arts". The Musical Courier. LVII (27): 17. December 30, 1908.
  12. ^ "Available Online: Kostakowsky, W. N." Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  13. ^ "Svoboda Rossīi : marsh = Free Russia : march". Northern Illinois University Digital Library. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  14. ^ "Wolf Kostakowsky (1879-1944) - Find A Grave..." Find a Grave. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  15. ISBN 0520227174
    .
  16. ISBN 9781580465984.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  17. ISBN 0520227174
    .
  18. ^ "THE KLEZMORIM > Bio > Support > Richard Hadlock". klezmo.com. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  19. ^ ""The Ultimate Klezmer", Klezmer book review by Pete Rushefsky". KlezmerShack. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  20. OCLC 55856388
    . Retrieved 1 May 2021 – via WorldCat.

External links
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