Abraham Ellstein
Encyclopedia
Abraham "Abe" Ellstein ' onMouseout='HidePop("47079")' href="/topics/New_York">New York
- March 22, 1963) was an American composer
for Yiddish entertainments. Along with Shalom Secunda
, Joseph Rumshinsky
, and Alexander Olshanetsky
, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City
's Second Avenue (Manhattan)
Yiddish theatre
scene. His musical Yidl Mitn Fidl
became one of the greatest hits of Yiddish-language cinema.
He was born on the Lower East Side
, Manhattan
, at that time an Eastern Europe
an Jewish immigrant area.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
- March 22, 1963) was an American composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
for Yiddish entertainments. Along with Shalom Secunda
Shalom Secunda
Sholom Secunda was a Jewish composer.-Biography:He was born in 1894 as Shloyme Sekunda in Kherson Gubernia, part of the Russian Empire which later would become Ukraine, in the city of Alexandria, which had a population of over 10,000...
, Joseph Rumshinsky
Joseph Rumshinsky
Joseph Rumshinsky , Jewish composer born near Vilna in Lithuania . Rumshinsky - with Sholom Secunda, Alexander Olshanetsky, and Abraham Ellstein - is considered one of the "big four" of American Yiddish theater....
, and Alexander Olshanetsky
Alexander Olshanetsky
Alexander Olshanetsky was a Jewish-American composer, conductor, and violinist of Russian Jewish descent. He was a major figure within the Yiddish theatre scene in New York City from the mid 1920s until his death in 1946.-Life and career:...
, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Second Avenue (Manhattan)
Second Avenue (Manhattan)
Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...
Yiddish theatre
Yiddish theatre
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 revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and...
scene. His musical Yidl Mitn Fidl
Yidl Mitn Fidl
-History:After the success of Joseph in the Land of Egypt, a silent film dubbed into the Yiddish language by Joseph Green, met with success, he decided to create an entirely Yiddish film, and returned to his native Poland to do so...
became one of the greatest hits of Yiddish-language cinema.
He was born on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, at that time an Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an Jewish immigrant area.
Works
- Mamele: Kid Mother (by Edmund Zayenda, 1938, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
: Yiddish filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
)- Abi Gezunt (So Long As You're Healthy); lyrics: Molly PiconMolly PiconMolly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
- Ikh Zing (For You I Sing); lyrics: Molly PiconMolly PiconMolly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
- Mazl (Good Fortune); lyrics: Molly PiconMolly PiconMolly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
- Abi Gezunt (So Long As You're Healthy); lyrics: Molly Picon
- Der Nayer Sher (The New Sher, 1940)
- Eyns un a rekhts (One in a Million: by Anschel Schorr, 1934: musical comedy)
- Oygn (Eyes); lyrics: Molly PiconMolly PiconMolly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
- Oygn (Eyes); lyrics: Molly Picon
- Ikh bin farlibt (I'm in Love: by William Siegel, 1946: romantic musical comedy)
- Ikh Vil Es Hern Nokh Amol (I Want to Hear it Again); lyrics: Molly PiconMolly PiconMolly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
- Ikh Vil Es Hern Nokh Amol (I Want to Hear it Again); lyrics: Molly Picon
- Der berditshever khosn (The Bridegroom from Berditchev: by Israel GoldsteinIsrael GoldsteinIsrael Goldstein was an American rabbi, author and Zionist leader. He was one of the founders of Brandeis University.Goldstein was the rabbi of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York, the second oldest synagogue in the city, from 1918 until his immigration to Israel in 1960...
, 1930, operettaOperettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
)- Zog Es Mir Nokh Amol (Tell Me Again); lyrics: Jacob JacobsJacob JacobsJacob Jacobs , Yiddish theater and vaudeville director, producer, lyricist, songwriter, coupletist, character actor, comic born in Risk, Hungary...
- Zog Es Mir Nokh Amol (Tell Me Again); lyrics: Jacob Jacobs
- Yidl Mitn FidlYidl Mitn Fidl-History:After the success of Joseph in the Land of Egypt, a silent film dubbed into the Yiddish language by Joseph Green, met with success, he decided to create an entirely Yiddish film, and returned to his native Poland to do so...
(Joseph GreenJoseph Green (actor)Joseph Green , born Yoysef Grinberg, a.k.a. Josef Grünberg, Joseph Greenberg and Joseph Greene, a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1924, was an actor in Yiddish theater and one of the few directors of Yiddish language films; he made four films including A brivele der mamen and...
or Josef Grünberg, 1936, romantic musical comedy film)- Oy Mame, Bin Ikh Farlibt (Oh, Mama, I am in Love)
- Vos Iz Gevorn Fun Mayn Shtetele? (Whatever Became of My ShtetlShtetlA shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
?: by Menashe Skulnik, 1970s, operettaOperettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
); lyrics: Isidore Lillian
- Bublitshki (Little BagelBagelA bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...
s: 1938, operetta)- Der Alter Tsigayner (The Old Gypsy); lyrics: Jacob JacobsJacob JacobsJacob Jacobs , Yiddish theater and vaudeville director, producer, lyricist, songwriter, coupletist, character actor, comic born in Risk, Hungary...
- Der Alter Tsigayner (The Old Gypsy); lyrics: Jacob Jacobs
- A Heymisher BulgarBulgarsThe Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
(1947)
- Great to Be Alive! (1950), musical comedy on Broadway
- "Hassidic Dance"