Orchestra Bass Clarinet,
Bass Trombone, Bassoon 1,
Bassoon 2, Cello,
Clarinet in Bb 1,
Clarinet in Bb 2,
Clarinet in Bb 3,
Contrabassoon, Double
Bass, English Horn, Flute
1, Flute 2, Flute 3,
Harp, Horn 1, Horn 3,
Horn 4, Oboe 1, Oboe 2,
Percussion 1 and more.
SKU: PR.11642143L
Composed by Stacy Garrop.
Spiral. Large Score. 68
pages. Duration 20
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #116-42143L.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.11642143L).
UPC:
680160693320. 11 x 17
inches.
For most of
my life, I never knew
where my father’s
family came from, beyond
a few broad strokes: they
had emigrated in the
early 1900s from Eastern
Europe and altered the
family name along the
way. This radically
changed in the summer of
2021 when my mother and
sister came across a
folder in our family
filing cabinet and made
an astounding discovery
of documents that
revealed when, where, and
how my great-grandfather
came to America. The
information I had been
seeking was at home all
along, waiting over forty
years to be
discovered.Berko
Gorobzoff, my
great-grandfather, left
Ekaterinoslav in 1904. At
that time, this city was
in the southern Russian
area of modern-day
Ukraine; as his family
was Jewish, he and his
siblings were attempting
to escape the ongoing
religious persecution and
pogroms instigated by
Tzar Nicholas II to root
out Jewish people from
Russia. Berko’s older
brother Jakob had already
emigrated to Illinois,
and Berko was traveling
with Chaje, Jakob’s
wife, to join him. Their
timing was fortuitous, as
the following year saw a
series of massive, brutal
pogroms in the region.
After arriving in
Illinois, Berko went on
to Omaha, Nebraska, where
he married my
great-grandmother Anna
about eighteen months
later. They remained in
Omaha for the rest of
their lives.There is one
more intriguing part to
this historical account:
I have a great-aunt in
Texas who, as it turns
out, is the youngest
daughter of Berko and
Anna. Through a series of
phone calls, my
great-aunt and I
discussed what she could
remember: her parents
spoke Yiddish at home,
her mother didn’t learn
to read or write in
English so my great-aunt
was tasked with writing
letters to family
members, Berko ran a
grocery store followed by
a small hotel, and her
parents enjoyed playing
poker with friends. Above
all else, neither of her
parents ever spoke a word
about their past or how
they got to America. This
was a common trait among
Eastern European Jewish
immigrants whose goal was
to “blend in” within
their new communities and
country.To
craft Berko’s
Journey, I melded the
facts I uncovered about
Berko with my own
research into methods of
transportation in the
early 1900s. Also, to
represent his heritage, I
wove two Yiddish songs
and one Klezmer tune into
the work. In movement
1, Leaving
Ekaterinoslav, we hear
Berko packing his
belongings, saying his
goodbyes to family and
friends, and walking to
the train station.
Included in this movement
is a snippet of the
Yiddish song “The
Miller’s Tears” which
references how the Jews
were driven out of their
villages by the Russian
army. In movement 2, In
Transit, we follow Berko
as he boards a train and
then a steamship, sails
across the Atlantic
Ocean, arrives at Ellis
Island and anxiously
waits in line for
immigration, jubilantly
steps foot into New York
City, and finally boards
a train that will take
him to Chicago. While
he’s on the steamship,
we hear a group of fellow
steerage musicians play a
klezmer tune
(“Freylachs in d
minor”). In movement
3, At Home in Omaha, we
hear Berko court and
marry Anna. Their
courtship is represented
by “Tumbalalaika,” a
Yiddish puzzle folksong
in which a man asks a
woman a series of riddles
in order to get better
acquainted with each
other and to test her
intellect.On a final
note, I crafted a musical
motive to represent Berko
throughout the piece.
This motive is heard at
the beginning of the
first movement; its first
pitches are B and E,
which represent the first
two letters of Berko’s
name. I scatter this
theme throughout the
piece as Berko travels
towards a new world and
life. As the piece
concludes, we hear
Berko’s theme
repeatedly and in close
succession, representing
the descendants of the
Garrop line that came
from Berko and
Anna.
For most of my
life, I never knew where
my father’s family came
from, beyond a few broad
strokes: they had
emigrated in the early
1900s from Eastern Europe
and altered the family
name along the way. This
radically changed in the
summer of 2021 when my
mother and sister came
across a folder in our
family filing cabinet and
made an astounding
discovery of documents
that revealed when,
where, and how my
great-grandfather came to
America. The information
I had been seeking was at
home all along, waiting
over forty years to be
discovered.Berko
Gorobzoff, my
great-grandfather, left
Ekaterinoslav in 1904. At
that time, this city was
in the southern Russian
area of modern-day
Ukraine; as his family
was Jewish, he and his
siblings were attempting
to escape the ongoing
religious persecution and
pogroms instigated by
Tzar Nicholas II to root
out Jewish people from
Russia. Berko’s older
brother Jakob had already
emigrated to Illinois,
and Berko was traveling
with Chaje, Jakob’s
wife, to join him. Their
timing was fortuitous, as
the following year saw a
series of massive, brutal
pogroms in the region.
After arriving in
Illinois, Berko went on
to Omaha, Nebraska, where
he married my
great-grandmother Anna
about eighteen months
later. They remained in
Omaha for the rest of
their lives.There is one
more intriguing part to
this historical account:
I have a great-aunt in
Texas who, as it turns
out, is the youngest
daughter of Berko and
Anna. Through a series of
phone calls, my
great-aunt and I
discussed what she could
remember: her parents
spoke Yiddish at home,
her mother didn’t learn
to read or write in
English so my great-aunt
was tasked with writing
letters to family
members, Berko ran a
grocery store followed by
a small hotel, and her
parents enjoyed playing
poker with friends. Above
all else, neither of her
parents ever spoke a word
about their past or how
they got to America. This
was a common trait among
Eastern European Jewish
immigrants whose goal was
to “blend in” within
their new communities and
country.To
craftxa0Berko’s
Journey,xa0I melded the
facts I uncovered about
Berko with my own
research into methods of
transportation in the
early 1900s. Also, to
represent his heritage, I
wove two Yiddish songs
and one Klezmer tune into
the work. In movement
1,xa0Leaving
Ekaterinoslav,xa0we hear
Berko packing his
belongings, saying his
goodbyes to family and
friends, and walking to
the train station.
Included in this movement
is a snippet of the
Yiddish song “The
Miller’s Tears” which
references how the Jews
were driven out of their
villages by the Russian
army. In movement 2,xa0In
Transit,xa0we follow
Berko as he boards a
train and then a
steamship, sails across
the Atlantic Ocean,
arrives at Ellis Island
and anxiously waits in
line for immigration,
jubilantly steps foot
into New York City, and
finally boards a train
that will take him to
Chicago. While he’s on
the steamship, we hear a
group of fellow steerage
musicians play a klezmer
tune (“Freylachs in d
minor”). In movement
3,xa0At Home in
Omaha,xa0we hear Berko
court and marry Anna.
Their courtship is
represented by
“Tumbalalaika,” a
Yiddish puzzle folksong
in which a man asks a
woman a series of riddles
in order to get better
acquainted with each
other and to test her
intellect.On a final
note, I crafted a musical
motive to represent Berko
throughout the piece.
This motive is heard at
the beginning of the
first movement; its first
pitches are B and E,
which represent the first
two letters of Berko’s
name. I scatter this
theme throughout the
piece as Berko travels
towards a new world and
life. As the piece
concludes, we hear
Berko’s theme
repeatedly and in close
succession, representing
the descendants of the
Garrop line that came
from Berko and Anna.
The Way We Were Bass
