{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/736m03zc5h/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Schiff, David"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eSchiff, David. 2001. Interview by Neil Levin. Milken Archive Oral History Project. 28 January.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Milken Family Foundation"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e© Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Levin, Neil W. (Interviewer)","Schiff, David (Composer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2001-01-28"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["Ann Arbor, MI (Place of Recording)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral history with composer David Schiff, who speaks at length about his opera, \u003cem\u003eGimpel the Fool\u003c/em\u003e (1975). Schiff details the process of creating the libretto from Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, and why he chose this text to begin with, along with some of the musical influences in composing the music. He ends by talking about some recent projects, especially in regard to Jewish music and opera.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["Beta SP"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Oral Histories (genre/form)","Jews — Music (Topical Term)","Opera--20th century. (Topical Term)","Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 1904-1991 (Person or Corporate Body)","Schiff, David (Person or Corporate Body)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Barry Sisters, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Elliott Carter (1908-2012), Epstein Brothers Orchestra, Gertrud Rittmann (1908-2005), Gimpel the Fool (opera), Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Hebrew Union College, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Irving Howe (1920-1993), Isaac Bashevis Singer, Juilliard, klezmer, Lazar Weiner (1897-1982), Manhattan School of Music, Mascha Benya (1908-2007), orchestration, The Klezmorim, The Workers Circle, Warsaw—Poland, Turn of the Screw, Vashti, Yentl (film), Yiddish, Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Zvee Scooler (1899-1985)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral history with composer David Schiff, who speaks at length about his opera, \u003cem\u003eGimpel the Fool\u003c/em\u003e (1975). Schiff details the process of creating the libretto from Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, and why he chose this text to begin with, along with some of the musical influences in composing the music. He ends by talking about some recent projects, especially in regard to Jewish music and opera.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u0026copy; Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/984/small/Schiff.jpg?1621340886","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - B17752_MA_OH_David_Schiff_Master.mp4"]},"duration":1479.91467,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/984/small/Schiff.jpg?1621340886","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-milken.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/111/984/original/B17752_MA_OH_David_Schiff_Master.mp4?1619789650","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1479.91467,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_B17752_MA_OH_David_Schiff_Master.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  I remember I heard this performance, I still can’t remember whether it was the first or the second — I’m pretty sure it was the Yiddish.  So that would have made it the first.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  The, the first or the second.  There were three.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah — in fact, no — I’m not pretty sure.  I know I heard it with Bob Abelson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  So that was the second.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  That was the second.  Who sang that role the first…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Howard Bender.  Who’s now a tenor.  But was then a baritone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.  And who sang the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Will Parker did the third.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  No, in the first…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Oh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …in the very first cast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  The first cast of Gimpel.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=16.0,48.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  Howard Bender, Annie Lynn Borenstein, and Lawrence Avery were the leads.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  All right.  And who were the leads the second — still in Yiddish?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Oh.  Bob… I think it was all the same people, except for Gimpel.  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.  Because I think Avery was in it…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  Avery was in it.  And then, the third time, which was five years later, was Will Parker and Barbara Martin and, and Chick Walker.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=48.0,80.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Uh-huh.  Did you know Isaac Bashevis Singer at all?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  I met him once.  He was giving a reading.  And I went to it, to ask his permission to set the opera.  And he said, “Oh, that sounds like a good idea.  Speak to my publisher.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd that, there was a story after that.  But he, everything was, he was very positive about it.  And he came to the premiere.  Which was nice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, and he said, “I usually don’t like music.  But this, I like.”  Which was a funny compliment.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=80.0,116.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  But didn’t he participate in the writing of the libretto?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  No.  He, he participated, it’s a sort of legal fiction, in that I adapted the libretto from his words.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat I did, when I started Gimpel, it actually began in a, as a project for an opera composition class at Manhattan School of Music, with Nick Flagello.  And we had to develop a libretto.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=116.0,143.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And at that point, I was teaching a literature class at Hebrew Union College, along with music theory.  And I had put Singer’s stories on the reading list for the class, because I had never read them myself before and I wanted an, an excuse to read them.  And I just loved them.  And also, I found that they were revealing things about my family’s background that I didn’t know.  That, that whole world which they never talked about at all.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=143.0,172.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e But then, I had the idea that what could happen in opera that would be different was that I could go back to the Yiddish original.  And so I dug that up.  And, and I started working with that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, and so that’s, it’s all Singer’s words from the original Yiddish, to which we added — I added — a kind of English narration to hold it together.  And then there were a couple of folk texts.  But otherwise, the words are all Singer’s.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=172.0,206.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  They’re all Singer’s, but did he approve the libretto before…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Yes.  He approved the libretto.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  But it was not a, it was not a collaborative process.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  So actually, you wrote the libretto?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Based on his, I, I can’t say I wrote it, because it’s his words.  But I arranged his words.  I…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, I’m not sure that that’s not writing the libretto, based upon — because you did the libretto.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  But the structure, the structure was mine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  He approved it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=206.0,229.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  He had to approve it, I assume, by the agreement with the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Because it’s a radical difference from the situation, as you know, with Yentl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Oh, right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Where he became bitterly angry that it was, it ruined the, it just massacred his story.  Which it did.  It was probably the worst film ever made…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …as far as I’m concerned.  That and Titanic — the two worst films in the history of films.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But on the other hand, he had little right to complain, because he sold it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=229.0,259.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  Right, right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  He sold it for the — in your case, he retained the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  That was, that’s his…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  By the way, the stage version of Yentl, on Broadway, which, with Tovah Feldshuh, that was fantastic.  Because he did there, apparently, what he did with you.  He participated, at least to the extent of having to approve it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It was an excellent….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, so then, what brought you to this particular story, as opposed to other….  I mean, how did you decide, or why did you decide to write an opera, A) on a Singer story, and B) on Gimpel?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=259.0,290.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, I think what attracted me to all of Singer’s writings was this sense of, of getting back to the past.  And about especially in terms of my family, the buried past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey came from Poland.  They never spoke of it.  And it was always a kind of mystery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd what I found out, the way I studied the story, my grandfather was in a extended-care part of New Rochelle Hospital.  And on Saturday, my uncle would come up to visit him.  And we, and my uncle read him the story in Yiddish.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=290.0,325.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And it turned out that my grandfather, who came to this country when he was 15 or so, had been a baker’s apprentice.  And Gimpel is about a baker.  And that came in very handy, because there were words in the story which are not in any Yiddish dictionary.  Because they’re baker words.  There was something — a bucket for dough and a rolling pin, and things like that.  But that also, my grandfather had a personality that was not unlike Gimpel’s.  So I, I think that that also attracted me to the story.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=325.0,357.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  But also, when you think about it — and people have said this — in some ways, although it’s a very Jewish story, it’s also a very typical opera story.  And especially a religious kind of story — you know, the true believer who appears foolish in the eyes of, of the world.  That’s a, not just a Jewish theme.  So that was another attraction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yes, I think I agree with you.  I mean, there are very few stories, I think, of Singer that lend themselves to opera.  Unless you would have to take the whole thing apart all…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=357.0,394.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And I was just curious to hear what you said, because I think probably, this is the most, of all the stories.  Maybe one or two of the others that were made into film.  But some don’t even lend themselves to stage or film.  They’re just too internal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But this one, I think you’ve hit it on the head.  I think it does.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo what was your process?  I mean, musically?  This is an interesting conglomerate of elements.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=394.0,418.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, part of what was going on with Gimpel is when I started writing it, which was really ’74 and ’75, it was just the beginnings — or at least to my consciousness it was just the beginnings — of a klezmer revival.  And I was, I didn’t really know much about it.  And one of my students was playing me some of that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I was, I’d like that music.  I had grown up with that music, listening to, to WEVD in New York then.  My family listened to that every Sunday.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=418.0,451.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And so, we never called it klezmer music.  We just called it Jewish music.  But I had the sound of that in my head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut what I found when I heard, I think it was The Klezmorim, the first time, I said, you know, that sounds too American.  And that’s not really helpful for this story, and I want something that sounds more European.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd today, I would have had the great resources.  There are all these recordings of old klezmer bands and stuff like that.  And I could have been very ethno-musicological about it.  But I wasn’t.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=451.0,479.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And so what I decided, to get to the sound of klezmer bands without this American element, the music I would listen to was Mahler and Weill and Stravinsky.  And especially, I thought, in — there are obvious places in Mahler, but I thought the Stravinsky of Renard was so — Stravinsky’s version of, of a klezmer sound.  And also, the original orchestration of Les Nus.  I had the qualities to it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=479.0,508.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And the ensemble that I ended up with was suggested by those pieces.  I don’t think the music is suggested by those pieces.  But those were, that’s how I, I thought about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd in terms of the idiom of the piece and the style of the piece, of, it was also influenced by those people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=508.0,531.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e But I made, to achieve some kind of unity, I, I made two decisions, one, which I violated just once.  I think Lazar Weiner told me not to use borrowed tunes.  He says, write your own folk songs.  So I did that.  And with one exception.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the other thing I did, I used a lot of cantorial ideas in the music and cantorial scales and cantorial figures.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=531.0,560.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And one of the reasons for that is because I think the most powerful influence on me in Jewish music is Lawrence Avery.  Because I grew up in his congregation.  And his style and the sound of his voice was something I just know inside out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd so in a lot of ways, the opera comes out of his whole approach to Jewish music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=560.0,583.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Do you know his music, by the way?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Avery’s?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Do you know his…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Oh, yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …symphony?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  I, oh, yeah, we, we know, my wife sings a lot of his music.  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Later, over dinner, remind me to ask you to tell me, suggest a couple of things that you think are his best choral pieces.  Because I need to record some things.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And I haven’t….  I could ask him.  I see him every week.  But sometimes, it’s better to ask….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Was this a commission, actually, from the Y?  Or did you write it independently, and just… I mean, how did…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=583.0,617.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e What happened, I, I actually started it for a course at Manhattan School.  And then it just sort of sat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, Bethel Synagogue in New Rochelle had a Yiddish weekend, including — Irving Howe came to speak.  And so we decided to put on a version of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd at that point, it was just like a little cabaret.  It was about a half an hour long.  Just a piano accompaniment.  And the cast sang Yiddish songs as well, to make up a whole program.  So that was the ur-Gimpel in ’75.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen two years later, Temple Israel in Boston wanted to put it on.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=617.0,667.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Just stop here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You see, but you didn’t yet have any orchestration for it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  No, no.  That was just with piano.  And, and actually, that was in November of ’75.  And then January of ’76, we did it at Hebrew Union College.  So we, just the same, in the same format.  I think it was two years later we did it at Temple Israel in Boston.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd because the cast had to drive all the way to Boston, I wanted to make it worth their while.  I added numbers for the chorus to sing.  Sort of solo numbers.  So I started stretching it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, I think it was, must have been in ’78, a bunch of us helped Hadassah Markson put on her father’s opera at the Y, Goat’s Milk.  And — yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=667.0,716.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Was that the first of the series of annual operas at the Y, do you know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, that was the predecessor.  And at the party after Goat’s Milk, Avery said to Hadassah, “Jewish opera at that Y.”  And that was, that’s where it was born.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd essentially, she, the next offering that they had was Gimpel.  And at that point, I orchestrated, I started orchestrating it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd at that point, I was in the doctoral program at Juilliard.  And the complete Gimpel became my dissertation.  And I was working on it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=716.0,756.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  I was studying under Elliott Carter at the time.  You wouldn’t think he’d be much, much help, in this kind of music, but he actually was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd he also sent me out to work on the orchestration with Trudy Rittman.  I don’t know if you know that name.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Sure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Who is an old friend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Is she still around?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  I don’t think so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, she was a few years ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Oh, really?  She might be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  She wrote a Dayyenu or something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Really?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=756.0,777.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And she was amazing.  And I, I’d take the bus out to Fort Lee, where she lived.  And she’d give me cookies and tea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I, and but she was helpful, and I, I learned a lot of sort of Broadway tricks for orchestration, which was very nice, from her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, I think, the, the ’79 Gimpel — that was with Zvee Schooler as the Narrator — that was much shorter than it grew to be.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=777.0,811.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And, and I had this wonderful luxury that few opera composers have these days, and but nobody had back then — of having three productions, so that I could fix things and, and gradually — here I, I’m not a man of the theater.  I hadn’t had a lot of experience there.  And it was just wonderful to have the opportunity of three performances and then to come back the next year and say, you know, the second act needs work, or, or things like that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=811.0,840.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And especially because the opera had grown in this funny way.  That even after the last production, I still tinkered with it, because I felt that some parts of it, the scale still reflected the early scale of the work, and they weren’t, they didn’t, weren’t on the same scale as, as other pieces.  So now I think it’s perfect.  But it, it’s taken, it took some time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=840.0,864.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  But and the other thing that happened between the second and third productions was I, I decided to put it in English.  And that was my own translation.  And that was largely because of problems you’re familiar with, of getting people to sing Yiddish correctly is, is very difficult, even with a Jewish cast, because nobody can agree on, on how to do it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, even if you can, I mean, you can do it arbitrarily.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Decide what region it is.  It’s not so much a question of that.  Once it’s, it’s, but for example, when you did the first one, which is, did Masha Benya conduct that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Yes.  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=864.0,901.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Yeah.  So okay…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  And so that was when, that was her Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You had people who know the language a little bit, at least.  You had — and Avery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  And, and Ben, and Harold Bender…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, him, I don’t know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  …was, was, was very fluent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut what I found is, in the theater, the, the front three rows were occupied by people from Workmen’s Circle, and they were having the time of their lives.  And the rest of the audience felt, you know, cut off.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=901.0,928.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  The most scandalous line in the story is when Gimpel says, “After all, Jesus didn’t have a father, either.”  And it’s very interesting.  Bela left that out of the translation.  And when you say, “Yossel,” in the 92nd Street Y, people just went nuts with that.  And so…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I, I forget.  How do you translate, how do you handle that in the English version?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=928.0,951.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e I just — Jesus.  He says that, and I’ll tell you a story about that in a second.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut what I found is the people who know Yiddish just were very excited about that, but the rest of the audience was not getting it.  And so there was a kind of tension in the hall, between segments of the audience.  And also, there was just this hassle about getting everyone in the cast to do the Yiddish right.  So I did an English version.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I thought someday, I’d like to hear it, I’d like to perform it in Warsaw in Yiddish.  That’s the dream.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=951.0,981.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  In Warsaw in Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Take it back to the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah, but this is…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  site…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I don’t understand Warsaw.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, there’s a lot of, they do a lot, back there.  I’m going to…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I know, but I don’t think that, I, I don’t think so.  Because the, the Polish-Yiddish theater troupe is not Jewish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  I know.  I…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And there are no Jews left in Warsaw to speak of, and what…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, it’s just, it’s a poetic idea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  It’s not a realistic idea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I mean, the thing is, you could, you know, you could keep certain words for, even in a totally English production, you could still say Yossel if you wanted, instead of Jesus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=981.0,1010.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And it might be the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, the funny thing that happened was when Will Parker came to that line…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Or Yoske.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  …he said, “Jesus.”  And then we all cracked up, because, and somebody said in the cast, “You’re a Baptist, aren’t you?”  And he said it in this kind of real Southern Baptist way, which was completely wrong for the show.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I was, I was actually happy with the way the English worked.  It made it more theatrical and it, it, it eliminated a barrier that was there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  What about the orchestration, now?  I mean, you, were you, was it prescribed, because of the Y funds and so forth, that, you could have X number of instruments or…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Um…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1010.0,1051.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Because later, later it was, I think.  I mean, after you.  \u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  It may have been.  I, I started with this, the idea of a 12-piece orchestra.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd actually, Elliot Carter gave me the very good suggestion.  He said, suggested that I start with an unusual ensemble, so that I didn’t have to sort of work hard to produce unusual sounds.  That they were kind of built in to the group.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd at the Y, we actually used a special electric harpsichord — amplified harpsichord — that Carroll’s had.  At that point, it was used in pop music.  And that’s a, gave this sort of cimbalom sound.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1051.0,1087.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And I used, in addition to the clarinet, which you would expect to hear, I used a lot of soprano sax and, and a different sax.  A lot of percussion.  Trumpet and tuba.  So the, it had a, the ensemble had a special sound to it.  And I was very happy with that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOo:","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1087.0,1108.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  I, I studied, I didn’t study Jewish music.  But I, I studied Turn of the Screw of Benjamin Britten, which uses a similar size orchestra, to wonderful effect.  And I looked at that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I, I guess I had a sense that, it wasn’t a financial limitation for the Y, because when we started this thing, Hadassah and all of us, we had no idea what we were doing.  You know, what we were getting into, from a, a practical point of view.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, because they don’t have a big pit, anyway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It’s also a…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1108.0,1137.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  But I think the size, nobody said no more than 15.  But I think I knew that.  That it had to be small.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, and so it’s 12 in the pit, and then we had, in the wedding scene, there’s an accordion and…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  …a, a mandolin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Onstage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Onstage, yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  This is onstage?  Yeah.  Now, how many performances have there been of the English one?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  There was just that production in ’85.  There was, and it hasn’t been performed since then.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It hasn’t?  And the Yiddish one also hasn’t been…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  And it hasn’t been performed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  New?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Since then.  And in ’82, I made an instrumental suite from the opera, called A Divertimento.  And that’s played all over the place.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1137.0,1176.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  But that’s solely instrumental.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  That’s just instrumental.  And it’s not the orchestration.  It’s just clarinet, violin, cello and piano.  So it has a much more conventional sound to it.  But it gets played.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Have you done, you haven’t written any other operas, have you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  I, I started on two opera projects.  Very different from Gimpel.  And they haven’t come to anything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1176.0,1202.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e I was working on an opera based on Dubliners, of James Joyce.  And last season, there was, there was a Broadway show with the same idea.  So I’ll never, I’ll never do that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, I, I’ve been working with a playwright on an opera about Charles Ives and Wallace Stephens.  And that’s still going on.  And, and that won’t have any klezmer.  That’s a, a different kind of opera.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1202.0,1226.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Well, I liked what you said.  How when you heard a small band, a freylich dance or background music, or at least certain types of sounds, when, in your radio, when your family heard it, they didn’t call it klezmer, they called it Jewish music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Because you know what klezmer means?  It means musician.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  So the whole thing is kind of silly.  Because klezmer music means musician music.  It doesn’t, and, and actually, the Epstein Brothers, if you remember the Epstein Brothers…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …probably what you are talking about, is very specifically, was, 50 percent of the time, probably the Epstein Brothers that you were hearing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1226.0,1265.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  And the Barry Sisters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.  Well, I don’t know about that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But the Epstein Brothers, you know.  And they told us, in one of, one of our film interviews, one of our video interviews, you know, on the — two, two of the three brothers have now passed away.  There’s only one left.  But the three brothers were living just three, a couple, a few years ago.  And they said, “We don’t accept that term.  There’s no such thing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Huh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And of course, it struck.  Because it’s true, really.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBecause you know, you have many different elements here.  And you have, you have, you have a, you have nusaḥ hat'filla, don’t you?  You have…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …modalities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Right.  Exactly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1265.0,1302.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  And the modalities are not necessarily the same.  So you have a lot of elements here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAre you looking at any other Jewish projects, musically?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, I’ve done a lot of Jewish projects.  And actually, I, I forgot my other Jewish opera.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have a, a short Jewish opera.  My opera, Vashti, with my Purim piece, which is just for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano.  It’s a…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I know.  But that’s not really an opera.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, I think it is.  It was staged…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Is it staged?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  …it was staged last year in, in Portland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Oh, I didn’t know it was a staged piece.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1302.0,1335.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSCHIFF:\u003c/strong\u003e And I was very pleased.  The mezzo decided to stage it.  And she just did a beautiful job with it.  And so that’s, that’s the other project.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had, I also wrote a Friday evening service.  And that was very gratifying, because I wanted to write something that would be practical and that wasn’t, I think, that’s not like the Bloch service.  It’s not a symphonic work.  It’s, it’s separate pieces.  And the, they’ve, the pieces have gotten out.  And they’re, they’re performed a lot, and they’re, they’re used in services, which, that’s what I wrote it for.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1335.0,1369.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  But I had a, a visionary idea, if anybody ever, ever wanted this, of a, a completely different kind of Friday night service.  A very symphonic service, which would use the liturgy plus American Jewish literary texts and, and inter, interweave them.  So someday, if anyone is interested, I, I will get to that piece.  But that would be a different kind of project.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  This Friday night service that you wrote, the, was this — now, this is the one that’s recorded?  Your, your wife has…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1369.0,1400.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SCHIFF:  She recorded the suite from it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Tell me about, about her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Well, I, Judy is the cantor at Congregation Beth Israel in Portland.  And she’s, we, we’ve been there 20 years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the congregation is actually older than the state of Oregon.  It, it’s 140-something years old.  And to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the founding, they commissioned me to write this service.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I think it was — I always say this, so I hope it’s true — it was the first service explicitly written for a soprano cantor.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1400.0,1440.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984/transcript/25011/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  I think you’re right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I, I think it was.  And I don’t know of another one of any quality by any serious composer written since.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCHIFF:  And I really did it, aside from the fact that I was writing for my wife, the soprano voice lies differently from the tenor voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd one of the great frustrations my wife always has is she’s singing music written for tenors, and it doesn’t go.  So she wanted me to really have a body of music there that would lie well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40319/file/111984#t=1440.0,1479.91467"}]}]}]}