Aspects of Jewish contributions to musical life in Britain, 1770-1820*

Some music historians would argue that the most significant event of 1770 was the birth of Beethoven, but the purpose of this presentation is to focus attention on aspects of the Jewish contribution to musical life in Britain between that year and 1820. By 1770 George III had been king for ten years, and although Hannah Norsa was still alive, it was more than thirty years since the celebrated singer actress, possibly the most famous English Jew of her day, creator of the role of Polly Peachum in ‘The Beggars Opera’ and erstwhile mistress of Robert Walpole, had made her last stage appearance.

Our point of departure is Meir ben Judah Meir Lyon, otherwise known as Myer or Michael Leoni, to whom the famous Friday-night Yigdal tune is attributed, and who was both an opera singer and synagogue singer (m ‘shorrer) of great significance. He made his debut at the

Written by

Berry Weinberg

Published in

Volume 34

1994

Other articles within the volume

• Aspects of Jewish contributions to musical life in Britain, 1770-1820*
• Two papal letters on the wearing of the Jewish badge, 1221 and 1229
• A Hospitaller and the Jews: Brother Joseph de Chauncy and English Jewry in the 1270s*
• Rabbi Elias Menahem: a late-13th-century English entrepreneur*
• A quest for a grandfather: Sir Philip Magnus, ist Bart., Victorian educationalist*
• Debt in Elizabethan England: the adventures of Dr Hector Nunez, physician and merchant
• Genealogy and Jewish history1
• The ritual-child-murder accusation: its dissemination and Harold of Gloucester*
• Bukharan Jews, ancient and modern*
• Samuel Montagu and Zionism*
• A Hospitaller and the Jews: Brother Joseph de Chauncy and English Jewry in the 127os*
• In Memoriam: Dorothy Stone (1908—1995)
• In Memoriam: Robert Nunes Carvalho (1907—1996)
• The young Cecil Roth, 1899-1924*
• Preface