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About the ComposerComposer and violinist JOSEPH ACHRON (1886–1943)belongs to the school of musicians, ethnologists, folklorists,and other intellectuals in Russia who, during thefirst decade of the 20th century, attempted to establish anew Jewish national art music based on ethnic, as well asreligious, heritage. Intrigued and encouraged by both theRussian and the more recent Russo-Jewish national-culturalpursuit of folklore, that coterie formalized itself in 1908 asthe Gesellschaft für Jüdische Volksmusik (The Society forJewish Folk Music) in St. Petersburg. Branches followed inMoscow, Riga, Odessa, and other cities. Its name, however,is misleading. Although the initial phase of its activitiescentered around harmonizing and arranging Jewish folkmusic collected from various parts of the Russian Empire,its long-range purpose was more artistic than ethnological.Its second transitory stage involved shaping such arrangedfolk material for concert rendition, and in its ultimatestage, it aimed at original composition of works—basedon or inspired by that Jewish heritage— which its memberssaw as accumulating eventually to become a nationalJewish art music. Musical publication was therefore animportant part of the Society’s efforts, and it foundedits own press, which in fact published three of Achron’searly works.To some extent, the “Russification” path among Russiancomposers and in the Russian classical music world becamea model for a Jewish counterpart. But the mission espousedby the Gesellschaft composers also had been kindled andbred by a number of deeper forces operating among theJewish intelligentsia in the Russian sphere, including theawakening of a national consciousness, the revival ofHebrew, the interest in a secular Hebrew as well as Yiddishliterature, and, of course, Zionism, with its cultural andhistorical ramifications. Underlying these currents werethe powerful cultural forces of the movement known asthe Haskala—the Jewish “Enlightenment”—which hadsought to implant secular culture and literature, humanisticthought, and western European–style social liberalismwithin eastern European Jewry. Indeed, the middle-classintelligentsia’s very embrace of “the folk” and its musicwas one manifestation of a liberal worldview fostered bythe Haskala.Achron’s brief Gesellschaft experience turned out to be hisguiding inspiration for much of his artistic life. Though arelative latecomer to the group, he was one of the leadingmusical personalities to come out of its milieu.Achron was born in Losdzey (Lozdzieje), in the Suwałkyregion of historic Lithuania (then part of Russian Poland;now Lazdijai, Lithuania), into a comfortable middle-classfamily. His father was an amateur violinist as well as alay ba’al t’filla (amateur precentor or cantor). Joseph’syounger brother, Isidore, was an accomplished pianistwho later became Jascha Heifetz’s accompanist for a timein America. The family moved to Warsaw, where Josephbegan violin lessons at the age of five. He soon emergedas a child prodigy, and at seven years old he wrote his firstknown composition—a lullaby for violin (an unpublishedmanuscript now in the British Museum). He made his debutat the age of nine (reviewed in a St. Petersburg newspaper)and his first tour at thirteen, which took him to manyEuropean parts of the Russian Empire: Kiev, Odessa, Łódź,Białystok, Grodno, and to St. Petersburg, where he playedat the Imperial Palace at a birthday celebration of theczar’s brother, Grand Duke Michael. On that occasion hewas presented with a gold watch by the czar’s mother,Czarina Maria Fedorovna.In 1898 the family relocated again, to St. Petersburg, whereAchron entered the conservatory with monetary assistancefrom the grand duke and joined the class of the legendaryviolin teacher Leopold Auer, whose other students includedJascha Heiftez, Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, NathanMilstein, and Tascha Seidl. Achron also studied compositionwith Anatoly Lyadov, best known today outside of Russiafor his descriptive orchestral pieces and for his rejection ofDiaghilev’s commission for a Firebird ballet score, whichthen went to Stravinsky and launched his brilliant career.By the time Achron graduated from the conservatory,in 1904, he had written a dozen compositions. He demonstratedan affinity for Judaic themes well before hisGesellschaft association. His Variations on Kamarinskaya,op. 12, for example, has a theme and variations (no. 9)marked “Hebraique.” He went to Germany for threeyears, where his concerts met with great success. His performanceof Beethoven’s violin concerto with the LeipzigGewandhaus, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, incorporatedhis own cadenza. On his return to St. Petersburg,he became increasingly interested in composition, and hestudied orchestration with Maximillian Steinberg, Rimsky-Korsakov’s son-in-law. Analysts of Achron’s music have observedthat of all the Russian composers, Scriabin exertedthe most influence on his work. On Scriabin’s death, in1915, Achron wrote an Epitaph (op. 38) in his memory.Achron considered himself primarily a violinist and a composer,hopeful for inclusion in the general mainstream of8.559408 4