Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Rumshinsky, Joseph
- Abstract:
- Joseph Rumshinsky was known as one of the founders of the American Yiddish musical stage. The collection predominantly consists of original and reproduced manuscripts of scores and parts of stage shows and operettas, songs, dance music, and religious pieces. Additionally there are clippings and typescript materials, including synopses, scripts, obituaries, and testimonials.
- Extent:
- 23.5 Linear Feet (47 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Joseph Rumshinsky Papers (Collection PASC-M 27). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of material related to the career of Yiddish theater composer Joseph Rumshinsky. The bulk of the collection is original and reproduced manuscripts of scores and parts of stage shows and operettas, songs, dance music, and religious pieces. Also includes clippings and typescript materials, including synopses, scripts, obituaries, and testimonials related to Rumshinsky's career.
Titles romanized as in the originals; YIVO-style transcription followed for Yiddish only titles. English titles (in brackets) are as given.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Joseph Rumshinsky was born in Vina, Luthuania in 1881. He was a child prodigy cantorial meshoyrer (apprentice) and by the age of 17 had conducted his first Yiddish theater production. He moved to America in 1904. After being invited to New York by the theater impresario and star Boris Thomashefsky in 1908, Rumshinsky helped upgrade the structure of Yiddish musical theater from a series of vaudeville-type skits linked by songs into a true operetta form. His first solo production, Dem Rebins Nigun (the rabbis melody), in 1920 established him as Yiddish Americas preeminent theater composer.
He was a partner in production with Molly Picon from 1922to 1931 and also worked with Menasha Skulnik. During his career he wrote more than 100 operettas for the Yiddish stage and also composed cantorial hymns and concert and specialty numbers. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance and a president of the Society of Jewish Composers and Song Writers. His opera in Hebrew titled, Ruth, was to have been produced in Israel, but Rumshinsky died in Kew Gardens, NY, February 6, 1956.
(from Oxford Music Online)
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Murray Rumshinsky, 1974.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection is arranged in the following series:
- Series 1. Operettas
- Series 2. Religious works and arrangements
- Series 3. Orchestral and other works
- Series 4. Libretti and radio scripts
- Series 5. Published songs
- Series 6. Manuscript songs
- Series 7. Rumshinskiana
- Series 8. Added material
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Joseph Rumshinsky Papers (Collection PASC-M 27). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988