Shloyme Prizament
Encyclopedia
Shloyme Prizament (also Shlomo or Szlojme Prizament or Szlomo Prizment), Jewish composer, actor in the Yiddish theater, and badkhn, son of Moyshe Prizament (a famous badchen
known as "Moyshe Hibiner / Hibnever)."
) as a child. When he was 16 his father died and he then supported the other 12 children in the family by becoming a badkhn himself, using his father's writings (scripts). Prizament wrote for Gershom Bader's Der yidisher folks-kalendar and began writing songs and instrumental music for Yiddish theatre
.
He is known as a transitional figure since he also wrote for the last of the broder-zingers
- Salcia Weinberg, Jule Glantz, Helena Geshpas and Pepi Litman (1874–1930), characterized as "a Jewish chanteuse in Hasidic trousers", for whom he wrote Lomir beyde davenen fun eyn makhzer (Let’s Both Pray from One Prayer Book). He later collected and arranged songs from other surviving Broder Singers. Bin ikh mir a klezmerl (I’m a Little Musician) was also written in that genre.
He wrote music for operettas, his first being Joseph Lateiner
's Khosn-Kale (Groom and Bride), a show which played in Krakow with Yidl Gutman and in New York with couplets
by Sigmund Mogulesko
and music by Louis Friedsell. His first acting role was in Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin's Yiddish King Lear and he stuck with acting, spending less time directing orchestras.
In 1910 he was made director of the Ukrainska Besida Theater but soon left again to travel Galitsia with wandering theater troupes, thence to Argentina where he wrote in Yidisher Soykher (Jewish Merchant) In 1912 he played as a comic and directed under Meltzer in Romania and worked with Zigmund Faynman in Gordin's repertory company. During the Romanian Bulgarian war
foreigners were expelled from Romania; Prizament went back to Galitsia and traveled with the Glimer troup and his brother, Jacob Prizament, until the outbreak of the first World War.
He was a soldier on the Italian and Russian fronts and arrived in Vienna in 1918 where he opened a Yiddish theater called "Bemishn Hof" - but after losing a permit to play he moved on to Budapest and joined the troup "Shtramer, Rabinovitsh, Vayts, Sheyn" and played until Miklós Horthy
's regime forbade Yiddish theater. He went back to Vienna and opened a Miniature-Theater and composed, with Avish Meysels, a version of the Golem of Prague.
In 1923 he began touring Bratislava
, Czechoslovakia
and Poland
, working in the HaOr troupe. He met and married Gizi Hajdn and worked in Galitsia. In 1925 he starred in Warsaw's Kaminski Theater for a season, at the same time writing music and lyrics for the operetta Di Galitsianer Mume and for Moyshe Rikhter's Di tsvey shvigers.
He worked at the Sambatiyon revi-teater in 1927, writing music for several shows. In 1928 he worked in the Azazel-Sambatiyon ensemble as music director, and then worked in Romania, where he played in theaters and kleynkunst productions, then going back to Vienna and then Poland. He was Yitskhok Nozhik's closest collaborator. Some of the songs he wrote for these revues are often now presumed to be folk songs, e.g. Dire-gelt (Rent Money), Der rebbe hot geheysn freylekh zayn (The Rabbi calls us to be merry)" and "Dos redl dreyt zikh (The Wheel Turns).
He wrote a piece called In Hitler-Land in 1933; it played in Warsaw's Kaminski Theater. In 1938 he played in Lemberg's summer theater's production of Shray, Israel (Cry out, Israel) and worked with VYKT for which he wrote a musical score to Abraham Goldfaden
's Shulamis in Zygmunt Turkow's production, and to Israel Ashendorf's Broder Zinger. Some of his other works were Lemberg far der milkhome (Lemberg before the war), A moyd fun provints (A Girl from the Sticks) and many works translated from other languages.
Prizament also wrote a few hundred songs and couplets
. He survived the second World War by escaping to the Soviet Union. After 1949 he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Badchen
A badchen or badkhn is a Jewish comedian with scholarly overtones who entertained guests at weddings among the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe...
known as "Moyshe Hibiner / Hibnever)."
Early years
Born in Uhanov (Hibinev) Galitsia (a town between Lemberg and Belz), Prizament moved to Lemberg (LvivLviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
) as a child. When he was 16 his father died and he then supported the other 12 children in the family by becoming a badkhn himself, using his father's writings (scripts). Prizament wrote for Gershom Bader's Der yidisher folks-kalendar and began writing songs and instrumental music for Yiddish theatre
Yiddish theatre
Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and...
.
He is known as a transitional figure since he also wrote for the last of the broder-zingers
Broder singer
The Brodersänger or Broder singers, from Brody in Ukraine, were Jewish itinerant performers in Austrian Galicia, Romania, and Russia, professional or semiprofessional songwriters and performers, who from at least the early 19th century sang and danced, often in comic disguises, and who performed...
- Salcia Weinberg, Jule Glantz, Helena Geshpas and Pepi Litman (1874–1930), characterized as "a Jewish chanteuse in Hasidic trousers", for whom he wrote Lomir beyde davenen fun eyn makhzer (Let’s Both Pray from One Prayer Book). He later collected and arranged songs from other surviving Broder Singers. Bin ikh mir a klezmerl (I’m a Little Musician) was also written in that genre.
Later career
Prizament also acted, directed, and wrote plays and song, both music and lyrics. He began directing for Ber Hart's traveling troupe. Two of his famous operettas are Di blumen-kenign (The Flower Queen) and Di tsigaynerin (The Gypsy Girl).He wrote music for operettas, his first being Joseph Lateiner
Joseph Lateiner
Joseph Lateiner was a playwright in the early years of Yiddish theater, first in Bucharest, Romania and later in New York City, where he was a co-founder in 1903 with Sophia Karp of the Grand Theater, New York's first purpose-built Yiddish language theater building.Lateiner got his start writing...
's Khosn-Kale (Groom and Bride), a show which played in Krakow with Yidl Gutman and in New York with couplets
Coupletist
A coupletist is a poet, singer, or actor who specializes in couplets - wittily ambiguous, political, or satirical songs, usually in cabaret settings, usually with refrains, generally used as a transition between two cabaret numbers....
by Sigmund Mogulesko
Sigmund Mogulesko
Sigmund Mogulesko — Yiddish: זעליק מאָגולעסקאָ Zelik Mogulesko, first name also sometimes given as Zigmund, Siegmund, Zelig, or Selig, last name sometimes spelled Mogulescu — was a singer, actor, and composer in the Yiddish theater, originally from Kalarash, Bessarabia Sigmund...
and music by Louis Friedsell. His first acting role was in Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin's Yiddish King Lear and he stuck with acting, spending less time directing orchestras.
In 1910 he was made director of the Ukrainska Besida Theater but soon left again to travel Galitsia with wandering theater troupes, thence to Argentina where he wrote in Yidisher Soykher (Jewish Merchant) In 1912 he played as a comic and directed under Meltzer in Romania and worked with Zigmund Faynman in Gordin's repertory company. During the Romanian Bulgarian war
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
foreigners were expelled from Romania; Prizament went back to Galitsia and traveled with the Glimer troup and his brother, Jacob Prizament, until the outbreak of the first World War.
He was a soldier on the Italian and Russian fronts and arrived in Vienna in 1918 where he opened a Yiddish theater called "Bemishn Hof" - but after losing a permit to play he moved on to Budapest and joined the troup "Shtramer, Rabinovitsh, Vayts, Sheyn" and played until Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
's regime forbade Yiddish theater. He went back to Vienna and opened a Miniature-Theater and composed, with Avish Meysels, a version of the Golem of Prague.
In 1923 he began touring Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and 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...
, working in the HaOr troupe. He met and married Gizi Hajdn and worked in Galitsia. In 1925 he starred in Warsaw's Kaminski Theater for a season, at the same time writing music and lyrics for the operetta Di Galitsianer Mume and for Moyshe Rikhter's Di tsvey shvigers.
He worked at the Sambatiyon revi-teater in 1927, writing music for several shows. In 1928 he worked in the Azazel-Sambatiyon ensemble as music director, and then worked in Romania, where he played in theaters and kleynkunst productions, then going back to Vienna and then Poland. He was Yitskhok Nozhik's closest collaborator. Some of the songs he wrote for these revues are often now presumed to be folk songs, e.g. Dire-gelt (Rent Money), Der rebbe hot geheysn freylekh zayn (The Rabbi calls us to be merry)" and "Dos redl dreyt zikh (The Wheel Turns).
He wrote a piece called In Hitler-Land in 1933; it played in Warsaw's Kaminski Theater. In 1938 he played in Lemberg's summer theater's production of Shray, Israel (Cry out, Israel) and worked with VYKT for which he wrote a musical score to Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden ; was an Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays.Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre.In 1876 he founded in...
's Shulamis in Zygmunt Turkow's production, and to Israel Ashendorf's Broder Zinger. Some of his other works were Lemberg far der milkhome (Lemberg before the war), A moyd fun provints (A Girl from the Sticks) and many works translated from other languages.
Prizament also wrote a few hundred songs and couplets
Coupletist
A coupletist is a poet, singer, or actor who specializes in couplets - wittily ambiguous, political, or satirical songs, usually in cabaret settings, usually with refrains, generally used as a transition between two cabaret numbers....
. He survived the second World War by escaping to the Soviet Union. After 1949 he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
See Also
- Yiddish Forverts of Nov. 28 - Dec. 4, 2008: article by Chana Mlotek, Shlomo Prizament - A Yerushe Fun Di Broder-Zinger - Tsu Zayn 35stn Yortseyt (A legacy of the Broder-Zingers - on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his death). Includes a version of his "Itsikl Hot Chasene Gehat" sung by the Broder Singers.