Jerzy Petersburski
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
pianist and composer of popular music, renowned mostly for his Tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
s, some of which (such as To ostatnia niedziela, Już nigdy and Tango Milonga) were milestones in popularization of the musical genre in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and are still widely known today, more than half a century after their creation.
Jerzy Petersburski was born April 20, 1895, into the well-known Warsaw family of Jewish musicians, Melodysta. He graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, where his professor was Antoni Sygietyński. Afterwards he moved to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where he continued his studies of conducting and at the faculty of piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
of the local Music Academy. A talented pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, he was persuaded by his friend Imré Kálmán to devote himself to popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
rather than classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. In Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
he also debuted as a composer for Alexander Vertinsky
Alexander Vertinsky
Alexander Nikolayevich Vertinsky was a Russian and Soviet artist, poet, singer, composer, cabaret artist and actor who exerted seminal influence on the Russian tradition of artistic singing.-Early years:...
, a renowned Russian poet and songwriter, famous for his romances.
Upon his return to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, with his cousin Artur Gold
Artur Gold
Artur Gold was a Polish Jewish violinist and dance-music composer. He was the second son of Michał Gold, a musician in the Warsaw Opera; when Michał died an uncle took him to England, where he received his musical education. He later returned to Warsaw and played there in various nightclubs...
, he co-founded the Petersburski & Gold Orchestra, which performed at the fashionable nightspot Adria. He became well known for music for cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and theaters in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Among them was Julian Tuwim
Julian Tuwim
Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...
's and Marian Hemar
Marian Hemar
Marian Hemar , born Jan Maria Hescheles, also Jan Mariański , Marian Wallenrod, was a Polish Jewish poet, journalist, playwright, comedy writer, and songwriter: he himself said that before the outbreak of World War II he had written 1200 songs including hits like Może kiedyś innym razem and Upić...
's Qui Pro Quo, one of the most famous Polish cabarets of the interbellum. In late 1920s and 1930s, Petersburski became one of the most popular Polish composers as several of his songs became hits on Polish Radio and in music theatres throughout the country. Apart from Marian Hemar, the list of lyricists for his songs included some of the most renown of their times: Andrzej Włast, Ludwik Szmaragd and Artur Tur. Also the performers of Petersburski's songs added to his popularity: Wera Bobrowska (Już nigdy), Hanka Ordonówna
Hanna Ordonówna
Hanna Ordonówna also known as 'Ordonka', was a Polish singer, dancer and actress...
(Sam mi mówiłeś), Tola Mańkiewiczówna (Ty, miłość i wiosna), Ludwik Sempoliński (Cała przyjemność), Chór Dana and Mieczysław Fogg (Bez śladu) and Adolf Dymsza (Ja i żonka ma).
Despite being the writer of numerous waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es and foxtrot
Foxtrot (Dance)
The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
s, as well as two operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s (Kochanka z ekranu and Robert i Bertram), Petersburski is best known for his tangos
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
. In 1928 he composed a song for Stanisława Nowicka titled Tango Milonga in Polish. The song became a major hit and was almost instantly translated to several languages, gaining much popularity abroad, both in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
(the English and German title being Oh, Donna Clara. The song was sung by many foreign artists, including Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
, Henry Varny and Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
.
"Another of his tango compositions that attained international recognition was To Ostatnia Niedziela (The Last Sunday) (1933) with lyric by Zenon FriedwaldZenon FriedwaldLudwig Zenon Friedwald . Polish Jewish writer, artist, lyricist...
describing the final meeting of former lovers who are parting. In Poland, To ostatnia niedziela is commonly and erroneously called the Suicide Tango - although the true Suicide Tango was the Hungarian art song Smutna niedziela (Gloomy Sunday). During the 1930s [Peterburski's tango] became an enormous evergreen in the Soviet Union, where it was played on virtually every street corner. It was so popular, that it was considered their own Russian tune."
Petersburski also wrote music for four Polish films in the 1930s, including Eugeniusz Bodo
Eugeniusz Bodo
Eugeniusz Bodo was a film director, producer and one of the most popular Polish actors and comedians of the inter-war period. He starred in some of the most popular Polish film productions of the 1930s, including His Excellency, The Shop Assistant, Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna? and Pieśniarz Warszawy...
's successful Królowa przedmieścia of 1938.
During the September campaign (Polish Defensive War)
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
of 1939 Petersburski served with the Polish Air Force
Polish Air Force
The Polish Air Force is the military Air Force wing of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
. After the country was overrun, he moved to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland. In 1940 he was allowed to continue his career and became the leader of the Belarusian Jazz Orchestra band. He performed many of his pre-war hits with new, Russian language lyrics. Among the original compositions of that time was the very popular tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
Sinii Platochek (The Blue Handkerchief, Polish title Blekitna chusteczka) performed by Klavdiya Shulzhenko
Klavdiya Shulzhenko
Klavdiya Ivanovna Shulzhenko was a popular female singer of the Soviet Union.- Professional biography :Shulzhenko started singing with jazz and pop bands in the late 1920s. She rose to fame in the late 1930s with her version of Sebastian Yradier's La Paloma...
, which became a popular folk song under the name The 22 June
The 22 June song
The 22 June song was a Soviet folk song during World War II based on the melody of the pre-war waltz The Blue Kerchief composed by Jerzy Petersburski.There are a number of versions of this song...
. Other of his popular Russian songs (performed by, among others, the Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky was the biggest Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who achieved huge success in music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film director Grigori Aleksandrov...
's Orchestra) was Utomliennoye solntse (Weary sun), in fact a Russian version of his pre-war To ostatnia niedziela. See also Burnt by the Sun
Burnt by the Sun
Burnt by the Sun is a 1994 film by Russian director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov. The film depicts the story of a senior Red Army officer and his family during the Great Purge of the late 1930s in the Stalinist Soviet Union...
. He also reorganized the Petersburski & Gold orchestra, this time together with Artur's brother Henryk Gold
Henryk Gold
Henryk Gold was a Polish Jewish composer, arranger, and orchestra director born in Warsaw to a musical family...
.
After the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement
Sikorski-Mayski Agreement
The Sikorski–Mayski Agreement was a treaty between the Soviet Union and Poland signed in London on 30 July 1941. Its name was coined after the two most notable signatories: Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ivan Mayski.- Details :After signing...
of 1941 he joined the Polish II Corps
Polish II Corps
Polish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by the end of 1945 it had grown to well over 100,000 soldiers....
under Władysław Anders. Evacuated with the rest of the Polish Army to Persia, he moved to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
where he started working for the Polish Radio.
In 1947 he traveled, via Palestine, to Brasil, where he had a piano duo with his friend from pre-war Poland, also a Jewish composer, Alfred Schuetz. From 1948 to 1968 he lived in Argentina, working with 'Radio El Mondo' in Buenos Aires. During this time, he composed the hit song All Roads Lead to Buenos Aires, part of which became a famous radio jingle. He also co-led the El National theatre orchestra with the famous Polish-Jewish cabaret actor Lopek (Kazimierz Krukowski
Kazimierz Krukowski
Kazimierz Krukowski born 1901 Lodz, died 1984 in Warsaw, stage name Lopek, was a Jewish cabaret performer and writer, revue and film actor, Master of Ceremonies...
). After the death of his wife Maria Minkowska during the earthquake in 1967, Petersburski moved to Caracas, Venezuela and in 1968 returned to Poland. In 1968, after resettling in his beloved Warsaw, he married again with an opera singer Sylwia Klejdysz. He died in Warsaw in 1979. His son Jerzy Petersburski Jr. was born in 1969.
Jerzy Petersburski died October 7, 1979 in Warsaw and is buried in Powązki Cemetery
Powazki Cemetery
Powązki Cemetery , also known as the Stare Powązki is a historic cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city, and one of the oldest...
.
External links
- Petersburski's Wanda Artur GoldArtur GoldArtur Gold was a Polish Jewish violinist and dance-music composer. He was the second son of Michał Gold, a musician in the Warsaw Opera; when Michał died an uncle took him to England, where he received his musical education. He later returned to Warsaw and played there in various nightclubs...
orchestra - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J3VIPwmGDsTadeusz FaliszewskiTadeusz FaliszewskiTadeusz Faliszewski , Polish singer, cabaret actor, director of revues and operettas. Husband of actress Halina Kidawskiej. Spent his childhood in Lviv. Served in the army in World War II. Made his debut as actor in 1922, played in Cracow, Radom, Kalisz, and Czestochowa...
sings Ty i moja gitara (You And My Guitar)] music Jerzy Petersburski, lyrics Andrzej WłastAndrzej WłastAndrzej Włast was a Polish Jewish songwriter. He wrote the lyrics for the 1929 hit song "Tango Milonga". He died in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.-Biography:... - Cztery nogi (Four Legs) From movie Co mój mąż robi w nocy? (What Does My Husband Do at Night?) music by Jerzy PetersburskiJerzy PetersburskiJerzy Petersburski was a Polish pianist and composer of popular music, renowned mostly for his Tangos, some of which were milestones in popularization of the musical genre in Poland and are still widely known today, more than half a century after their creation.Jerzy Petersburski was born April...
lyrics Emanuel SchlechterEmanuel SchlechterSchlechter, Emanuel was a Polish-Jewish artist.Schlechter was born and died in Lviv. He was a Polish Jewish lyricist, librettist, writer, satirist, translator, composer and director. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov and worked briefly at a law firm... - Czy pani gra w zielone...? lyrics by Andrzej WłastAndrzej WłastAndrzej Włast was a Polish Jewish songwriter. He wrote the lyrics for the 1929 hit song "Tango Milonga". He died in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.-Biography:...
, sung by Tadeusz OlszaTadeusz OlszaTadeusz Olsza , born Tadeusz Blomberg, was a Polish film and stage actor, cabaret singer, dancer and director. From 1915 to 1917, he taught vocal classes at Warsaw Conservatory...
Ty albo zadna sung by Stefan WitasStefan WitasStefan Witas - was a Polish actor and singer. In 1933 he began performing at places of entertainment in Warsaw, then in theatrical stages in many Polish cities. In 1937 he won the Polish Radio competition for the most popular singer...
Tango in Poland Dust jacket article on Polish tango List of some of the Polish tangos Argentine Tango in Poland - BlauTango portal