Joel Engel (composer)
| Joel Engel | |
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Joel Engel
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| Background information | |
| Born | 28 April [O.S. 16 April] 1868 Berdyansk, Russian Empire |
| Died | February 11, 1927 (aged 58) Tel Aviv, Palestine |
| Genres | Jewish art music |
| Occupation(s) | composer, critic, teacher, impresario. Founder of the Jewish art music movement |
| Years active | 1900 - 1927 |
Joel (or Yoel) Engel (Russian: Юлий Дмитриевич (Йоэль) Энгель; Yuliy Dmitrievich (Yoel) Engel, 1868—1927) was a music critic, composer and one of the leading figures in the Jewish art music movement. Born in Russia, and later moving to Berlin and then to Palestine, Engel has been called "the true founding father of the modern renaissance of Jewish music."
As a composer, teacher, and organizer, Engel inspired a generation of Jewish classical musicians to rediscover their ethnic roots and create a new style of nationalist Jewish music, modelled after the national music movements of Russia, Slovakia, Hungary and elsewhere in Europe. This style - developed by composers Alexander Krein, Lazare Saminsky, Mikhail Gnesin, Solomon Rosowsky, and others - was an important influence on the music of many twentieth-century composers, as well as on the folk music of Israel. His work in preserving the musical tradition of the shtetl - the 19th-century Jewish village of eastern Europe - made possible the revival of klezmer music today.
Engel was born, (and named Yuliy Dmitrievich Engel) in Berdyansk, now in Ukraine. Unlike most Jewish families of the period, he grew up outside of the Pale of Settlement, the area designated by the Czar as legal for Jewish residence. His parents were secular Jews. Engel studied law at the Kharkiv National University, and later, at the urging of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who heard his compositions, entered the Moscow Conservatory.
After graduating the conservatory, Engel worked as the music critic of the influential Russian newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti. He became an influential figure in Russian musical life, supporting composers who wrote in the increasingly popular Russian nationalist style.
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