Joseph Achron was born in Lozdzieje, Lithuania, on May 13, 1886. He
attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied the violin
with Leopold Auer and theory with Anatol Liadov, graduating in 1904.
After teaching at the Kharkov Conservatory for three years, he toured
Russia, Europe and the Near East as a concert violinist for about six
years, and settled permanently in the United States in 1925. Some of his
most ambitious and significant compositions were written in this
country. Among these were three violin concertos, two violin sonatas,
the _Golem Suite_ for orchestra and the _Stempenyu Suite_ for violin and
piano. Achron died in Hollywood, California, on April 29, 1943.
When Achron was twenty-five years old, and still living in Russia, he
became a member of the music committee of the Hebrew Folk Music Society
of St. Petersburg. Its aim was twofold: to encourage research in Hebrew
music, and to direct the enthusiasm of gifted Russian composers toward
the writing of Hebrew music. It was as a direct result of this
association, and the stimulus derived from the achievements of this
society, that in 1911 Achron wrote a popular composition in a Hebraic
vein which to this day is his most famous piece of music. It is the
_Hebrew Melody_, Op. 33, for violin and orchestra. The melodic germ of
this composition is an actual synagogical chant, amplified by Achron
into a spacious melody following several introductory measures of
descending, brooding phrases. This melody is first given in a lower
register, but when repeated several octaves higher it receives
embellishments similar to those provided a synagogical chant by a
cantor. The composition ends with the same descending minor-key phrases
with which it opened. This _Hebrew Melody_, in a transcription for
violin and piano by Leopold Auer, has been performed by many of the
world’s leading violin virtuosos.