Moses Beregovsky

Moses Beregovsky (Yiddish: משה אהרון בערעגאווסקי, Russian: Береговский Моисей Яковлевич, 1892 – 1961) was a Soviet ethnomusicologist, known for his extensive collection and research in the field of musical folklore of Eastern-European Jewry.

Biography

Beregovsky was born into a family of a Jewish parochial elementary school teacher in the village of Termakhovka, province of Kiev, Russian Empire. As a child he participated as a boy-chorister in a local synagogue. He studied in the conservatories of Kiev (composition and cello in 1915–1920) and Petrograd (1922–1924). He also worked as a vocal coach in Jewish orphanages in Petrograd and Moscow under Joel Engel. In 1928–1936 he was the head of Musical Folklore section of the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Arts of the Sciences Academy of Ukrainian SSR. In 1936–1949 he was a researcher in the Institute for Language and Literature, head of the Office of Folklore of Jewish Arts Section of Sciences Academy of Ukrainian SSR, head of the Office for musical Ethnography. He was a teacher in the Kiev Conservatory from 1947 (sections of music theory and folklore). Beregovsky was arrested and inprisoned in 1950 on false charges at the height of Joseph Stalin’s anti-Semitic campaign; he was released and rehabilitated in 1956. He died in 1961 in Kiev, USSR (now Kyiv, Ukraine).

Works (published)

• Jewish Musical Folklore (in Yiddish and Russian), USSR, 1934
• Jewish folksongs (in Yiddish) (in collaboration with Itzik Feffer), Kiev, USSR, 1938
• Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (in Russian) (edited by Max Goldin, translation and transliteration by Velvl Chernin), "Muzyka" Publishing, Moscow, USSR, 1987
• Jewish wordless tunes (in Russian), "Kompozitor" Publishing, Russia, 1999
• Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (edited by Mark Slobin, Robert Rothstein, Michael Alpert) Syracuse University Press, USA, 2001
• Purimshpils (in Russian) (compiled by E. Beregovska), "Dukh i litera" Publishing, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2001

Recordings

• Beregovsky’s wedding, CD (by Joel Rubin’s ensemble), Schott Wergo Publishing, Germany, 1997

References

• Eda Beregovska. Harps hanging off the willows (in Russian), Gesharim Publishing, Jerusalem, Israel - Moscow, Russia, 1994
• Dr.Tobias Shklover. "Resurrection of Moses Beregovsky’s heritage" (in Yiddish), Forverts newspaper, No. 31, 181, April 24, 1998

Persondata
Name	Beregovsky,Moses
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1892
Place of birth
Date of death	1961
Place of death