Der Golem

“Der Golem - Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz” (Der Golem – Six Yiddish Songs and Dances) is an adaptation of an original film score for clarinet and string orchestra written by Betty Olivero. Olivero wrote the music in 1996 for the silent expressionist film “Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam,” directed by Paul Wegener (1920). Based on a medieval Jewish legend, the film tells the story of Rabbi Low, who foresees tragedy for the Jewish ghetto of Prague. In order to save his people, Low magically brings to life a statue, The Golem, though the Frankenstein-like hero/monster eventually turns on his own master. At the music’s premiere performance, clarinetist Giora Feidman and the Arditti String Quartet played Olivero’s score as live accompaniment to a screening of Wegener’s film at the opening of the Silent Film Festival (Vienna, 1997).
The concert version of the original score is an abridgement intended for performances of the music without the film. Olivero’s concert version retains the primary themes and motives that accompany various characters and scenes in the film: the creation of the Golem by Rabbi Low; the love scenes between the Rabbi’s daughter and a young courtier; the destruction of the emperor’s palace; the apocalyptic fire that consumes the town squares, and the crowd praying for forgiveness and deliverance in Synagogue. Ecstatic klezmer musical sections accompany the village scenes, while the traditional melody “Place Me Under Thy Wing” appears as a motto tune at the film’s two most dramatic, human moments. The first takes place when Rabbi Low succeeds in breathing the spirit of life into the Golem, whereupon the Golem opens its eyes and looks at his creator in surprise. The second moment accompanies the expressions of warmth and longing that the Golem’s face radiates when a young girl approaches, offering him a flower.

(c) Jason Stell