![Portrait of Abraham Moskowitz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Portrait_of_Abraham_Moskowitz.jpg)
Abraham Moskowitz (born c. 1880 in
Slobozia
Slobozia () is the capital city of Ialomița County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 48,241 in 2011.
Etymology
Its name is from the Romanian "slobozie", which meant a recently colonized village which was free of taxation. The word its ...
,
Ialomița County
Ialomița County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Slobozia.
Demographics
In 2011, the county had a population of 258,669 and the population density was 58.08/km2.
Romanians make up 95.6% of the popula ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, died 1956 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) was a
Yiddish language
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
and
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
,
Yiddish theater
Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revu ...
actor and recording artist of the early twentieth century who recorded mainly between 1917 and 1927. His most successful recordings were made in collaboration with the
klezmer
Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...
bandleader and composer
Abe Schwartz.
Biography
Early life and family
Little has been written about Moskowitz's early life, although he was apparently born outside of
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
around 1880. The exact date is unclear; on his First World War draft registration card he stated he was born on May 15, 1878,
but based on the age he gave in different census years, he could also have been born between 1880 and 1885.
His father was born in Romania but that his mother was born in Russia.
Although some sources states that he emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in 1913, in census and immigration documents he gave various years including 1905 and 1906
He married his wife Sadie (née Raden), a Russian Jewish immigrant, in around 1910.
They had two children: Rebecca (Bettie), born around 1913, and Nathan, born around 1918.
Music career
Abraham worked as a tailor, and that is the occupation he gave on the US censuses during his entire life. However, he was also a talented
Yiddish language
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
singer and became involved in the booming "ethnic" recording industry in the 1910s. After spending time working at some smaller labels, he signed to
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
as a recording artist. His collaboration with fellow Columbia artist Abe Schwartz saw their first success in 1919, when he recorded Schwartz's ''Dos Zekele mit Koilen''. In 1922 Moskowitz was one of the first to record the hit Yiddish song ''Di Grine Kuzine'', another piece Schwartz had written or at least copyrighted; other recordings of the song were soon made by
Joseph Feldman,
Morris Goldstein and others. Moskowitz continued to record Yiddish folk and comic songs for Columbia, and to a lesser degree
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s.
Early years
The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé, ...
and
Okeh Records
Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...
, in the early 1920s. After that, his pace of recording slowed and essentially ended by the late 1920s. In 1927, he did record with a fellow Romanian Jewish immigrant, the cymbalist
Joseph Moskowitz
Joseph Moskowitz ( yi, יאָסעלע מאָשקאָװיטש, 1879 – 1954) was a Romanian-born American cimbalom player, composer, restaurant owner and recording artist in New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. A desce ...
, in what may be the only recording from that era of a Yiddish singer accompanied by a concert cimbalom. During his recording career he is estimated to have recorded roughly 44 sides; these are now archived at
YIVO
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...
in New York.
Moskowitz died on February 14, 1956, in New York City.
In the 1990s and 2000s, there was some renewed interest in Moskowitz's recordings, and they started to appear on a number of reissue CDs, such as ''Yiddish : New York-Paris-Varsovie 1910-1940'' (1994), ''From Avenue A to the Great White Way'' (2002) and ''Cantors, klezmorim, and crooners, 1905-1953 : classic Yiddish 78s from the Mayrent Collection'' (2009).
Selected Discography
*Der tag was geht avek/Die heimath (
Columbia 1917)
*Oi, die meidelach/Der reisender (Columbia 1921)
*Dos Zekele Koilen/S'is nit dos (Columbia 1921)
*Di Grine Kuzine/Nit di hagada, nor di kneidlach (Columbia 1922, with Abe Schwartz)
*Yashke fuhrt avek/Mameniu Liubeniu (Columbia 1922, with Abe Schwartz)
*Dos frehliche liedele/Mein thaiere Kishinev
(Columbia 1923, with Abe Schwartz)
*Vie iz dos gessele/Huliet Huliet kinderlach (Columbia 1927, with
Joseph Moskowitz
Joseph Moskowitz ( yi, יאָסעלע מאָשקאָװיטש, 1879 – 1954) was a Romanian-born American cimbalom player, composer, restaurant owner and recording artist in New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. A desce ...
).
External links
Abraham Moskowitzlisting at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
Abraham Moskowitz 78rpm recordingsat the
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...
Judaica collection
Abraham Moskowitz 78rpm recordingsin the
Mayrent Collection
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moskowitz, Abraham
19th-century Romanian Jews
Yiddish theatre performers
Romanian emigrants to the United States
Yiddish-language singers
Jewish singers
Musicians from Bucharest
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent