Henryk Gold (19029 January 1977 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 ...

, United States) was a Polish-born American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

, and orchestra director. He was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

to a musical family: his mother

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * H ...

was of the famous Warsaw

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 ...

Melodysta family, and his father

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

was a flautist in the Warsaw Opera Orchestra. He was the brother of

Artur Gold Artur (Arthur) Gold (born 17 March 1897, Warsaw, died 1943 in Treblinka) was a Polish Jewish violinist and dance-music composer during the Interbellum. He closely collaborated with his brother Henryk Gold and with Jerzy Petersburski with whom he ...

. He studied in Warsaw, his teachers including Stanisław Barcewicz (violin). When

silent movie ''Silent Movie'' is a 1976 American satirical comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in the summer of 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and Sid ...

s in Poland lost popularity following the arrival of

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

's ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

'', (known in

Yiddish 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 ve ...

as ''The Singing Buffoon''), thousands of Polish musicians who'd played in the movie theaters lost their livelihood; they began to create large and small orchestras playing

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

Artur Artur is a cognate to the common male given name Arthur, meaning "bear-like," which is believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the Celtic word ''artos'' ("bear"). O ...

and Henryk Gold, the brothers

Jerzy Jerzy is the Polish language, Polish version of the masculine given name George (given name), George. The most common nickname for Jerzy is Jurek (given name), Jurek (), which may also be used as an official first name. Occasionally the nickname Je ...

and Stanislaw Petersburski, Zygmunt Karasinski and Szymon Kataszek, Kazimierz Englard, Julian Halicki were the pioneers; Henryk Gold was chief among them, giving concerts at the famous Ziemiańska Cafe on Kredytowa Street and the revue theater "Morskie-Oko" on Sienkiewicz Street. He ran the nightclub "

Adria Adria is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige and Po. The remains of the Etruscan city of Atria or Hatria are to be found below the modern cit ...

" with his brother on Moniuszki Street.Dawid Eisenstadt and A. Prager: "Algemeyner muzik-leksikon", Warsaw, 1936 (p. 150) Gold wrote hundreds of

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

polka Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The te ...

foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...

s, and

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

es, interpolating Jewish motifs. His hits included ''Tęsknota'' (''Nostalgia'', in Yiddish ''Benkshaft''); ''Jaśminy'' (Jasmine); ''Jak ja się dziś upiję'' (''When I Get Drunk Today'', in Yiddish ''Az 'Khvel Mikh Haynt Onshikirn''); ''Moja pierswsza i ostatnia'' (''My First and Last'', Yiddish ''Mayn Ershte Un Letste''); ''Szkoda twoich łez'' (''Too bad about your tears'', Yiddish ''A Shod Dayne Trern''), and others.J. Radlinski: Obywatel Jan., Kraków, 1967, (p.p. 95, 103, 225) During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he and fellow composer Jerzy Petersburski toured the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

with a large jazz orchestra. In 1942 he left the Soviet Union with the Polish

Anders Army Anders' Army was the informal yet common name of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the 1941–42 period, in recognition of its commander Władysław Anders. The army was created in the Soviet Union but, in March 1942, based on an understand ...

, went to Israel, where he wrote songs "Arcenu ha-ktantonet", "Ruakh", "Shalom" and lastly emigrated to

, United States.

References

External links

sztetl.org.pl

Polish Tangos: The Unique Inter-War Soundtrack to Poland’s Independence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Henryk 1902 births 1977 deaths Jewish cabaret performers Polish composers Polish cabaret performers Jewish American composers American people of Polish-Jewish descent Musicians from Warsaw Polish emigrants to the United States 20th-century American composers 20th-century comedians 20th-century American Jews