Jacob Schaefer (composer)

Jacob Schaefer ( yi, יעקב שײפער, 1888–1936) was a Russian-born Jewish American composer, political activist and choir director whose career ran from the 1910s to the 1930s. A committed Communist for the last two decades of his life, he founded and operated a number of workers' orchestras and choirs in Chicago and New York, including most famously the Freiheit Gezang Farein. He composed a number of cantatas, oratorios and song arrangements which were performed by the ensembles he directed, as well as by their affiliated performing groups around the United States.

Biography

Early life

Schaefer was born in Kremenets, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire (now located in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine) on October 13, 1888. Jacob was born into a Jewish family of carpenters; his father, Moishe-Dovid, was a follower of Hasidic Judaism who knew many traditional songs and niguns, and his mother was named Hania-Chava. (His father spelled the family name Soifer (), which Jacob occasionally did as well even after emigrating.) Jacob had a traditional Jewish education, studying in a Cheder. Being immersed in the local Hasidic music world, Jacob became interested in famous cantors and in particular the idea of piano accompaniment to singing, but had no outlet for his newfound interest. When he was 10 a new cantor Yankl Drohobitch arrived in town; Jacob's mother convinced him to take on Jacob as a student and assistant, and he soon became the soloist in Drohobitch's choir. Jacob learned the basics of music notation, composition and vocal technique from him. When Drohobitch left to become rabbi in a synagogue in Brody, Austria-Hungary, Jacob followed him as his assistant, against his parents' wishes who had been told he was only going briefly to perform at a wedding. In addition, Drohobitch did not allow him to leave, telling him that he would not be able to cross the border back to Russia on his own. Nonetheless, during the three years he was living there, Jacob received an informal education in history, math and German from fellow boys who were enrolled in school there. It was there that he was exposed to socialist politics for the first time. After three years, when it came out that Jacob had been brought to Brody under false pretenses and forced to stay by Drohobitch, he was allowed to return home to Kremenetz. When he returned he was sixteen years old and felt out of place; he rejected an offer to become a butcher's apprentice, preferring to work in his father's carpentry workshop and study music, Russian and politics on his own time.

In around 1905 he tried to found a choir in Krememets, but did not have much success. In 1908 he joined the General Jewish Labour Bund. He entered into a relationship with a local girl Sonia Efrat against the wishes of her family, who were from a higher social class; she encouraged him to pursue his musical interests. Finding Kremenets an unsatisfactory environment for that, and not being able to get away from the hostility of her family, they traveled to Bremen and from there emigrated to the United States in 1910. After a brief stay in Baltimore, they settled in Chicago, where Jacob started working as a carpenter once again. He met a man named Kerish in the carpentry workshop who shared his interest in music and who helped him get his first music gigs. Jacob soon started working as a substitute singer and part time synagogue choir director, and continued to study music theory under a local musician named Samuel Epstein. It was through his new higher-paying music jobs that in 1911 he was able to purchase his own piano for the first time in his life.

Music career

In his first few years in Chicago he made a few unsuccessful attempts to found secular choirs. One of them in late 1911 was funded by the Hebrew Institute, which at that time was trying to attract a younger membership. However, the Institute reacted poorly to the workers' songs the choir was rehearsing and withdrew their support. A later workers' choir he conducted, which was affiliated with Poale Zion, likewise fell apart before long. Nonetheless, he became increasingly popular during this time as a piano accompanist, emerging composer, and synagogue choir director who could be relied upon to give good results.

It was in 1914 that Schaefer decided to leave carpentry behind and devote himself completely to music. During the summer of 1914 there were extensive discussions among Jewish socialists in Chicago about the idea of founding a politically active singing society ( yi, סאָציאַליסטישן געזאַנג-פאַראײן ). Despite some misgivings, when the Arbeter Ring made its intentions known to found its own choir, the socialists did indeed found their singing society, inviting a long list of singers from various synagogue choirs. Schaefer, as both a left-wing working man and a reliable conductor, was recruited to lead it. That was how he ended up helping to found one of the first Jewish folk choirs in the United States.

The financial backers of the singing society were initially nervous when he brought his own compositions for the group to sing; however, as his arrangements proved skillful and popular they soon began to support it. He soon founded an affiliated mandolin orchestra, and dedicated himself to composing and arranging music for both of these ensembles. It was in April 1915 that the singing society performed his first oratorio, (Martyr's blood), which was based on poems by the Belarusian socialist poet Avrom Lesin. The concert was sold out, exceeding expectations. It was followed in November of the same year by his next work, . He stayed in Chicago during World War I. His next project was to arrange 18 Yiddish folk songs, which the choir performed in February 1916 along with The Internationale, La Marseillaise and other staples of socialist gatherings. After that, he entered into an ideological dispute with the choir's backers and did not compose any major works again until 1920. The gap in composition during that time is also sometimes attributed to the unexpected death in January 1917 of his wife Sonia, who passed away during a minor operation. He also heard about his own father's death later in the same year.

Despite his family misfortunes, he continued to throw himself into his work. In December 1917 he met Moissaye Joseph Olgin who was visiting from New York to speak at a Bund event. Olgin was very impressed by the singing association and would later lend his support to help Schaefer and others found similar singing groups in other cities. After this time he started traveling between Chicago, New York City and New Jersey, conducting various different choirs, including the choir in New York and another in Paterson, New Jersey

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases