"The Wheel Has Come Full Circle": Musicologist Peter Gradenwitz and the Establishment of a Zionist History of Jewish Music

The first comprehensive History of Jewish Music printed in Palestine was published in 1945, authored by musicologist and recent immigrant Peter Emanuel Gradenwitz. It was also the first music history to be told from a Zionist point of view, in following with historiographical trends cultivated in the Jewish Yishuv at the time. This modest-length book, written in Hebrew, was the basis for a much expanded English edition published in 1949. In this later version Gradenwitz further developed his teleological narrative of exile and return, through which a synthesis of Eastern and Western music would eventually be achieved as a result of the encounter of European trained composers with the Palestinian surroundings. The book’s Zionist outlook set it apart from similar histories written abroad. Some of Gradenwitz`s ideas, such as the emphasis on the Land of Israel and of oriental music as the ultimate sources for Jewish musical regeneration and his doubts about Jewish composers’ ability to be genuinely creative in exile (reflecting anti-Semitic stereotypes) drew criticism from contemporary reviewers. Yet for various reasons, among them Gradenwitz’s position as a prolific writer and music publisher, the influence of this and subsequent publications was considerable, both in Israel and abroad.

I will examine Gradenwitz’s narrative, its sources and influence, as well as the possible impact of the author’s experience as an émigré who had fled Nazi Germany in the preceding decade.