Paul Schoenfield, whose music is widely performed and who moves with what has been described as “wizardly ease” from jazz to vaudeville and klezmer to ragtime and Broadway–sometimes in a single composition–combines exuberance and seriousness, familiarity and originality, lightness and depth. His work is inspired by the whole range of musical experience, popular styles both American and foreign, vernacular and folk traditions, as exemplified in Café Music, his runaway classical hit. The new Shaatnez (which translates most readily from the Hebrew or Coptic–the origins of the term are obscure–as “linsey-woolsey”) weaves together not only the bawdy Viennese melody adopted by Beethoven, but also the famous Russian song, “Dark Eyes,” to astonishing effect.
The post appeared first on Brook Farm Inn (Lenox, Massachusetts Berkshires).
