Joel Engel (composer)

Joel Engel
Joel Engel
Background information
Born	28 April [O.S. 16 April] 1868 Berdyansk, Russian Empire
Died	11 February 1927(1927-02-11) (aged 58) Tel Aviv, Mandatory 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 Russian^[1][2] music critic, composer and one of the leading figures in the Jewish art music movement. Born in the Russian Empire, and later moving to Berlin and then to Mandatory Palestine, Engel has been called "the true founding father of the modern renaissance of Jewish music."^[3]

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.^[4] 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.