Maurice Goldman is an internationally known composer and conductor. Goldman’s compositions and arrangements are largely in the areas of Yiddish and Hebraic music. However, like his mentors, Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...

 and Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

, Goldman’s music breaks the boundaries of traditional Jewish melodies, employing chordal and harmonic elements found in classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and American folk music

American folk music

American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...

.

Goldman was born on April 20 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. Soon thereafter, his family relocated to Cleveland Ohio, where his father, Marcus Goldman worked as a rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

.

Goldman’s musical talent appeared early in life. He was already singing, playing piano and composing original music at the age of five.

Goldman attended Glenville High School in Cleveland, where he served as head of the Choral Department. At this stage, he worked largely as a singer, lending his rich baritone voice to performances of various pieces, including Handel’s “Invocation To Music” and
“So Fahr Ich Hin,” a motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

 by Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...

.

Goldman went on to study at Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

 in Cleveland. It was at Western Reserve where he met his wife-to-be, Ethel Mann, a gifted flutist who would go on to play with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra

Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra

The Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1938 and its current music director is Victor H...

.

At age 26, Goldman became the youngest person to conduct a concert at Cleveland’s famed Severance Hall

Severance Hall

Severance Hall is a concert hall located in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. The hall has been the home of the Cleveland Orchestra since its opening on February 5, 1931...

. On that first night, Goldman received a standing ovation.

That same year, Goldman won a scholarship to attend a conducting workshop at The Berkshire School Of Music, located in Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

 Massachusetts. Goldman worked under the tutelage of Serge Koussevitzky

Serge Koussevitzky

Serge Koussevitzky , was a Russian-born Jewish conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.-Early career:...

, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...

. While at Tanglewood, Goldman worked alongside several of his heroes, including Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...

, Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

, and Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...

.

During his early years in Cleveland, Goldman served as the director of the Akron Opera Company and the Cleveland Jewish Singing Society. He directed the Opera Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music

Cleveland Institute of Music

The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....

, served as the choral director at Euclid Avenue Temple, and the Vocal Director at the Cleveland Music School Settlement. Goldman also served as the cantor at Fairmont Temple and Temple On The Heights. Additionally, he hosted two highly popular Cleveland radio programs, Operama (WHK radio) and Classics In Wax.

Goldman divided his time between composing, arranging and conducting. While still in his 20’s, he conducted a number of operas, including Die Meistersinger, Rape Of The Lucretia, and Parsifal.

California

In the early 40’s, Goldman traveled to California, where he had been offered a job scoring films. His work in Hollywood ran the gamut of genres, ranging from cowboy movies -- The Old Spanish Trail, (starring Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...

), Wild Heritage, The Bells Of San Angelo, Down Laredo Way -- to dramas. Goldman’s most famous score was written for the Film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 classic, Lady In The Lake, which starred George Montgomery as detective Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...

.

Judaic music

Despite the lure of Hollywood, Goldman’s real love remained in the world of traditional Yiddish music. He moved back to Cleveland in the early Fifties, where he immersed himself in that genre.

The Golden Door

In 1955, Goldman composed his largest work thus far, a cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

 entitled The Golden Door, which was written to celebrate the Jewish Tercentenary (the 300th year of Jewish settlement

Jewish settlement

Jewish settlement may refer to :* Israeli settlement : Jewish communities currently established in the West Bank or in the Golan Heights, between 1967 and 2006 in the Gaza strip or between 1967 and 1981 in the Sinai....

 in the United States). The text to the cantata was written by famed radio biographer Norman Corwin

Norman Corwin

Norman Lewis Corwin was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing...

.

While in Cleveland, Goldman composed a cantata entitled "Al Nahros Bovel" (“By The Waters Of Babylon).” Based on the 137th Psalm, the piece was one of many Goldman works which were rooted in the bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

.

Goldman returned to California in 1957. In Los Angeles, he served as the musical director for The Bureau of Jewish Education. He also headed up the Los Angeles Opera Company and served as the cantor at University Synagogue.

Despite living in a town which lacked the color and spirit of Cleveland, Goldman continued to compose a multitude songs and cantatas. Despite numerous offers, he refused to return to the film industry.

The closest Goldman got to the "entertainment business" was when he composed the music for an event entitled Action For Humanity. The purpose for the evening was to raise funds for Bonds For Israel. The speakers on the program included film stars Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...

, Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...

, Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

, Melvyn Douglas

Melvyn Douglas

Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...

 and Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

. On that evening. which took place at the Hollywood Bowl

Hollywood Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...

, Goldman conducted a 42-piece orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 which was augmented by a 150-voice chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

.

Echoes of Yiddish life

In 1983, Goldman contracted cancer. Despite immense physical pain, he continued to sit at the piano for hours on end, determined to complete what would be his most ambitious composition to date.

Echoes Of Yiddish Life dealt with the trials of the Jews throughout the centuries. The cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

 included 10 original pieces. The most famed of these was “The Machine Song.” The tune depicts the blighted life of a poverty stricken man who works night and day (“I work and I work and I am a machine.”).

Echoes Of Yiddish Life debuted on February, 1984. Though Goldman was too ill to attend the opening nights’ performance, he was able to view a tape of the concert from his hospital bed.

Surrounded by friends and family, Goldman died on February 4, 1984. He left behind him his wife Ethel, his son Stuart Goldman

Stuart Goldman

Stuart Goldman is a highly controversial journalist, author and screenwriter. A former critic for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News. He later penned an acid-tinged column for the Los Angeles Reader which earned him the moniker "the journalistic hitman."Goldman's curmudgeonly...

and his daughter Althea.

Some 24 years since his passing, Goldman’s works continue to be performed throughout the world. Like his mentors Ernest Bloch and Aaron Copland, Goldman is regarded as a man who created a new form in the world of Yiddish Music.

Compositions

Film Scores

• Bells Of San Angelo
• On The Old Spanish Trail
• Wild Heritage
• Down Laredo Way
• Lady In The Lake

Television Scores

• Witchcraft In Salem (Omnibus)

Musical Comedy

• “Two In Love” (from the musical comedy, Are You Ticklish

Theatre

• The Dybbuk

Songs, Arrangements, choral works, Cantatas, Liturgical music

• "Song Of Ruth" (Entreat Me Not To Leave Thee)
• "Song Of The Palmach"
• "Al Naaros Bovel"
• "Y’sham Ru"
• "Kaddish"
• "O Mighty Hand" ("Dor Nifla")
• I Am My Beloved’s
• "Kol Dodi"
• "The Rich And The Poor"
• "In Days Of Awe"
• "Lecha Dodi"
• "Hymn Of Praise"(Psalm 117)
• "Let The Word Go Forth"
• "Eitz Chayim"
• "Haskivenu"
• "Almighty And Everlasting God"
• "Anachnu"
• "Sabbath Eve Service"
• "Tower In The Sky"
• "Unto Thee O Lord Do I Call"
• "Lament S’Arriana"
• Friday Evening Service
• "The Lord Is My Light"
• "Dos Maie Lied"
• "Little Boy Lost"
• "Little Boy Found"
• "The Machine Song"
• "Strange Happenings"("Holiday Calamities Of Avrymele Melamed")
• "Ha Va Nagila"
• "Christmas Lullaby"
• "Kalenka"
• "Ma Tai Yavo"
• "Hava Nevtzey B’Machol "("Come And Join In Dance")
• "Zum Gali"
• "Night And Dreams"
• "La Danza"
• "How Good It Is"
• "Golden Slumbers"
• "Ya Ya Bom "("There Shall Be Peace")
• "Lasciatmei Morire"
• "Merry Christmas Song"
• "O’ May The Words"
• "Thanks Be To Thee"
• "Tchum Be Ri Tchum"
• "Forever Blessed Be Thy Name"
• "Ode Of Thanksgiving"
• "A Jubilant Christmas Carol"
• "Turn Ye To Me"
• "O Lord Hear Thou My Prayer"
• "Lullaby To The Christ Child"
• "Zum Gali" ("Dance The Hora")
• "Lameedbar" ("To The Desert")
• "Matai Yavo" ("When Will He Come")
• "Simple Gifts"
• "Mary’s Cradle Song"
• "The Little Sandman"
• "O Lord, Give Ear"
• "I Love Thee"
• "Forever Blessed Be Thy Name"
• "Cradle Song To The Holy Infant"
• "Prayer"
• "The Virgin Mary Wandered"
• "Sweet Shepardess, Addio"
• "Beside The Golden Door"
• "Sleep, Little Jesus, Sleep"
• "A Choral Etude"
• "Song Of The Little Fairies"
• "For Jefferson And Liberty"
• "Turn Ye To Me"
• "Great Is Jehovah"
• "On Christmas Night"
• "Almighty And Everlasting God"
• "O Sleep Thou Heavenly Child"
• "Christmas Lullaby"
• "How Good It Is" ("He-Nay-Ma-Tov")
• "Song Without Words"
• "Kol Nidre"
• "Forever Blessed Be Thy Name"
• "Matai Yavo"
• "The Virgin Mary Wandered"
• "The Girl With The Flaxen Hair"
• "Thanks Be To Thee"
• "Night And Dreams"
• "Avot Olam"
• "R’Tzay Veem Bi Cha Taynu"
• "The Miller’s Tears"
• "Near The Tiny Hearth"
• "The Poet’s Soliloquy"
• "Our Farewell"
• "Pick The Christmas Ripe"
• "Lasciatmei Mi Morire" ("O Leave Me Here")
• "O Wondrous Harmony"
• "O Tschum Biri Tschum"
• "Sandannchen"
• "Christmas Lullaby"
• "Ma Tovu"
• "Jerusalem" ("A Rejoicing Unto Nations")
• "Hava Netzy B’Machol"
• "Natasyavo"
• "La Midbar "
• "A Dudele"
• "Yankele"

Compositions in the Roger Wagner Chorale Series

• "Echoes Of Yiddish Life"
• "Beside The Golden Door"
• "O Wondrous Harmony
• "Seep Little Jesus Sleep"
• "Song To The Moon"
• "Tchum Bi Ri Tchum"
• "The Virgin Mary Wandered"
• "Avot "(excerpt from Friday Night Service)
• "R’Tzeh Vim Nu Cha Te Nu" (excerpt from Shabbat Service)
• "Kol Nidre"
• "Great Is Jehovah"
• "Night And Dreams"