Ancora su musica ed ebraismo a Napoli, fino all’avvento del fascismo (II)

This is the second part of our systematic research on the Jews of Naples and their relationship with music. The crucial decades of the early twentieth century are carefully examined here, with special attention paid to the local music patronage, in which some of the Jews, as well as several non-Jewish people from the educated classes, considered music as a means of social and spiritual promotion, especially in relation to the popular mass of the Neapolitans. Some individual personalities of musicians of Jewish origin are also focused. The essay concludes with a review of music composed for a Jewish wedding and preserved in the historical archives of the Jewish community of Naples.