Musical Treasures from Sofia Magid’s Jewish Collection (sheet music)

Volume I. Klezmer Tunes from Belarus and Ukraine, transcribed, annotated, and arranged by Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch (New York, 2024)

In 2024, I have started publshing a series of annotated music transcriptions from the collection of Sofia Magid (1892/93–1954), an eminent Soviet Jewish folklorist – ethnomusicologist and linguist. Volume I contains 40 instrumental (klezmer) tunes from Belarus and Ukraine recorded by the scholar between 1928–38. The book is available in two versions: Concert key (key of C) and key of Bb (B flat), for some transposing instruments, such as Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophone, or Bb trumpet. Click the image below to see the cover and table of contents in full size and read on the abridged version of the introductory article available in the printed edition. ORDER ONLINE HERE.

Introduction

In 2002 and 2004, my mentor, scholarly advisor, and research partner Dr. Nina Stepanskaya (1954–2007) and I spent several weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of our joint research into history of the Jewish musical culture of the North-Eastern European (Litvak) Jewish communities. Among massive number of materials that we discovered on that trip, one stood out prominently: the Jewish part of the sound collection recorded between 1928–1938 by Sofia Magid (pronounced with hard gh) (1892–1954) at the place to which she had dedicated almost two decades of tireless work, Sound Archive (Fonogrammarkhiv) of the Institute of Russian Arts and Letters (IRLI), better known as “Pushkinskiy Dom” (the Pushkin House).

Magid’s fieldwork

In her 1930s expeditions (1930, 1931, 1934, and 1938), Magid recorded Jewish folk singers and instrumentalists in the south-eastern and central regions of Belarus in addition to her extensive work with other ethnic groups all over the Soviet Union. During her time at the Pushkin House, Magid conducted eleven expeditions and eight ethnographic studio recording sessions in different parts of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Five of these expeditions focused on collecting Jewish folklore. According to the IRLI catalog, Sofia Magid recorded 590 phonographic cylinders with 1,742 pieces of folklore collected from the individuals of eighteen ethnic groups, in part collaboratively with other collectors. The forty pieces from Sofia Magid’s Jewish collection selected for this first folio make a small, but representative survey of more than ninety instrumental pieces, out of a total of 528 pieces of all types and genres recorded on 143 phonographic cylinders from 108 Jewish individuals born between 1856—1920. These figures do not account for the lost materials of the 1934 expedition to Minsk and Mazyr.

The method used to create the transcriptions here sets out to balance fidelity to the details of the source recordings while correcting performance errors in the recording artifacts. For the purpose of this volume, I have simplified some rhythmical irregularities. I applied comparative analysis method, juxtaposing these pieces with the variants in other collections. That having been said, I was extremely cautious in making changes to what I heard in the source recording, wary of accidentally obliterating the nuances of individual performance characteristics that represent features of the regional style.

My journey with Magid’s collection

Over the twenty-two years that separate my first encounter with Magid’s collection and this publication, I have had many opportunities to perform, arrange, teach, share this material and really make it part of my musical identity. Having spent many dozens of hours listening to the original recordings, I soon developed a feeling of personal familiarity with the performers. Over the course of these two decades, I have performed this unique material—as what is commonly identified as klezmer music in the modern world—with my bands, Minsker Kapelye (in Minsk, Belarus) and in the United States, with Litvakus in New York City. I have had a privilege of teaching and playing this music for dancing at klezmer workshops in Europe, the United States, Canada, Israel, and across the former Soviet Union.

I also suggested, arranged, and performed material from this collection on camera in the movie “Defiance” (2008, directed by Edward Zwick) based on Nechama Tec’s book telling the story of Bielski brothers’ partisan brigade. I included Magid’s materials in my ethnographic cine-concert, “Traveling the Yiddishland” (“The Wheel” since 2024), interweaving it with the fieldwork footage that Dr. Nina Stepanskaya and I recorded in Belarus in the early 2000’s.

Many other fellow researchers and performing artists contributed to introducing Sofia Magid’s legacy to the world. Among them are Leonid Guralnik, Elvira Grötzinger and Susi Hudak-Lazić, Michael Lukin, Veretski Pass klezmer trio with the clarinetist Joel Rubin, and Dobranotch band. I have included pieces that I have worked with closely for more than twenty years in this volume—the music that has become an integral part of my own musical identity. In this respect, this volume is a continuation of my personal journey with Sofia Magid’s legacy that summarizes the previous steps while setting the scene for the future.

Additional resources:

An 8-minute video of me breaking down the place of Sofia Magid in Jewish music scholarship and the critical importance of her Jewish collection:

2. Litvakus band playing Gute nakht and Karahods suite and me giving a 15-minute talk on Sofia Magid (in English) in New York Klezmer Series, on December 10, 2024.