Osias Abrass

Osias Abrass (also Joshua Abrass, called Pitzi, Pitzele, Pitsche, Pitshe or Pitze Abress; * around 1820 in Berdychiv , † after 1884 in Odessa , 1896) was Chasan , cantor and composer . He was the chief cantor of the Israelite religious community in Odessa.

Life

Osias Abrass was seen as a child prodigy and studied with Bezalel Schulsinger in Odessa, in whose choir he attracted attention as a soprano soloist. Since then he has also been called Pitzele, the little one. He also studied with Solomon Sulzer in Vienna. From 1840 to 1842 cantor in Tarnopol , from 1842 to 1858 in Lemberg and from 1858 to 188 chief cantor at the Or-Sameach synagogue . His singing and his contributions to synagogue choral music set new standards in Eastern European liturgical singing. His virtuosity has been compared to that of the soprano Adelina Patti . Examples of this virtuosity and its ornamentation are numbers 27 and 32 in Simrat-Jah. His daughter was a singer. One of his students was Isaak Lachmann.

Works

Osias Abrass composed hymns and worship chants for the Sabbath and Jewish festivals.

• Simrat-Jah [My hymn of praise is God], chants for worship by the Israelites for cantor and choir. published by Zamarsky in Vienna, 1873 and in Odessa, 1874. It contains 39 songs.

His compositions are seen as a further attempt to combine the traditional Meshorerim style with Western choral music.

In the film Solomon and the Queen of Sheba , the composition El malei rachamim [God full of mercy] is intoned by the high priests during a morning prayer.

literature

• Abrass, Osias. In: Chayim David Lippe: Ch. D. Lippe's bibliographical lexicon of the entire Jewish literature of the present and address anzeiger, D. Löwy, Vienna, 1881
• Abrass, Joshua (Osias). In: Jewish Encyclopädia , 1906
• Abrass, Osias. In: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin, 18th to 20th centuries . Walter de Gruyter, 2002, p. 4

Web links

• Abrass, Osias: Simrat-Jah., [Odessa], 1874 , worship chants of the Israelites. Digitization of the digital collections of the University of Augsburg . Contains Sabbath chants, chants for the three great feasts, chants for the New Year and the Day of Atonement.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Joshua (Osias) Abrass | Jewish Music Research Center. Retrieved September 13, 2017 (English). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Austrian National Library Vienna: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin: 18th to 20th centuries . Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 3-11-094900-8 ( google.de [accessed on September 13, 2017]).
3. ^ ^{A b c d} Abraham Zebi Idelsohn: Jewish Music: Its Historical Development . Courier Corporation, 1992, ISBN 0-486-27147-1 ( google.de [accessed September 13, 2017]).
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chayim David Lippe: Abrass, Osias . In: Ch. D. Lippe's bibliographical lexicon of all contemporary Jewish literature and address display . D. Löwy, Vienna 1881, p. 565 ( archive.org [accessed September 13, 2017]).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} ABRASS, JOSHUA (OSIAS) - JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved September 12, 2017 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Title information on Abrass, Osias: Simrat-Joh. (PDF) (No longer available online.) University of Augsburg, formerly in the original ; accessed on September 12, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Hanoch Avenary: Abrass, Osias. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Retrieved September 13, 2017 (English). 
8. ^ ^{A b} Günther Grünsteudel: MUSIC FOR THE SYNAGOGUE Jewish composers of the 19th century . Augsburg 2008 ( alemannia-judaica.de [PDF]).
9. ↑ Jack Gottlieb: Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: Comparative Studies of Domestic Labor and Self-Employment . SUNY Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7914-8502-6 , pp. 102 ( google.de [accessed on September 13, 2017]).