Josima’s notebook

Deciphering composition which we have heard but never played is an interesting experience for a performer. Here is something that we have heard many times but  are now discovering it under our fingers, physically touching the tissue the piece is made from. However, these activities usually contain elements of routine: it is simply the first stage of work, whose finale  will be the presentation of the effects of that work, which means: the fluent rendition of a piece.

Still, discovering  unknown compositions found among  handwritten notes of a forgotten person, is a moving experience. It is all the more so if we know that the composer of these works was a teenage girl swept away by the history of 1939-1945, or rather 1939-1943.

Josima Feldschuh spread her musical wings mainly under the guidance of her pianist and musicologist mother - Perla Feldschuh. From her early age she was curious and eager to compose. She kept repeating that she wanted to be the first outstanding female composer, she resented the closed, male circle of composers, and did not understand why women could not measure up to men in this field.

Although Josima's surviving music notebook dates from 1940 (all of her compositions are dated as such), it is likely that the young pianist had created them for 2- 3 years. We know that her mother helped her transcribe them. When composing, Josima made notes, kept a kind of "musical rough draft" and afterward, together with her mother, transcribed the compositions "cleanly".

Josima composed very freely, and this feature of her works, still untamed by the "classical" rules of music, is delightful. They show the courage of a child, who builds a bridge out of building blocks and does not restrain her imagination, even though the structure is sometimes at times shaky. The themes of her miniatures sometimes begin on a strong bar value, the next time she begins them on the last, as if - between them - she would really let herself be carried away by what the piece brings. The transformations and even the metrum are sometimes irregular, often led by harmony or the need to emphasize or even doubled some tension or temporary finale. That is why in Josima's work even a classical theme - sometimes it ends may end or begins in the middle of a bar, covers two bars, the next time two and a half or three. It is as if Josima (herself) wanted to see and accepted what would come, or rather, where a given melody would lead her.

It is a very interesting experience to get to know the compositions of someone so young, someone who, in principle, was still an amateur (despite her extraordinary skills) in the world of composition. Some clumsiness, more or less successful attempts at choosing harmonies, searching for chords that sound interesting, even a bit rough, but nevertheless emphasizing the drama of a given extract, add character to this music; the author's character personality emerges above all from such places, and not from smooth, polite melodies.

I must admit that on several occasions I was unsure whether the harmony written down by the young composer was correct or if it was a mistake made during the transcription of an already completed work. Especially, since that there are quite a few errors in the extant notebook. So I mooted between these shortcomings, not knowing whether Josima deliberately created the minor modus in one voice and the major in the other, whether it was a mistake or the experiments of a curious, gifted teenager, or maybe just forgetting about an extra chromatic sign and not emphasizing the clef change?

Just as various transcription glitches occurred, I decided on took on different methods to handle a given uncertainty. Sometimes I decided for the young author, sometimes I underlined her strange-sounding harmonies, sometimes I allowed myself to use different moduses modi when the theme was repeated several times and the notation was inaccurate. 

It is very interesting that Josima composed in three manners. She seems to be inspired by, or even consciously, also for educational purposes, copies the classical, romantic and impressionistic styles. There is an excellent Sonata, which sounds classical, virtuosic and brilliant. There is a cycle of Mazurkas, Waltzes and Nocturnes, which refers to the Chopin style in a beautiful and conscious way. The last, and for me the most interesting, collection is made up of several compositions that contain, either in their entirety or in larger fragments, more modern textures and harmonies drawn from the achievements of the 20th century. There are also references to Debussy, e.g. in the beautiful composition "Murmuring of a stream", where Josima not only creates a rich, extended form of accompaniment, but boldly abandons classical harmony in favour of chromatics, or e.g. “Rhapsody”, in which she draws inspiration from oriental scales, creating from them more of an impression than a real presentation of folklore.

We know from the preserved records, that her parents attached great importance to a well-chosen repertoire - so the classical one prevailed. Josima's mother could be strict, she did not like it when her daughter played light hits or songs popular in those days, so we can assume that she introduced her to a wide, but nonetheless purely piano repertoire. She was certainly familiar with Mozart's style, having played his Concerto in E flat major, so we may conclude that her path to Mozart also led through his sonatas. Even if Josima had not yet played some of these pieces - Debussy's or Chopin's more difficult compositions - she may have had the opportunity to look at the scores in the pre-war times, or maybe her mother played these compositions to her?

Josima had all the predispositions to become an outstanding pianist; her fluency and musicality gained particular fame after her concert with the Jewish Symphony Orchestra on 21 March 1941, when she performed W. A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major. Above all, however, she wanted to compose. From her family memoirs we know that she was hard-working, had a great temperament, was curious and courageous in her explorations.

There is not only a musical aspect in playing such unrecognized pieces. Of course, it is up to the listener to judge her compositions, but preserving and archiving such works has elements of museum works. I have in mind sound "archiving". In the case of the history of music, what matters is not only taking care of the preserved autographs, but also ensuring the existence of the sounds inholded in them. After all, is it better to look at Josima's scores or just listen to her compositions?

Josima died of tuberculosis outside the ghetto walls on April 21, 1943.

The young composer's notebook survived, protected by her father as the most precious keepsake of his talented daughter.