PERGAMENT, MOSES

PERGAMENT, MOSES (1893–1977), composer and music critic. Born in Helsinki, Finland, Pergament studied the violin in St. Petersburg (and served as violinist for four years in the Helsinki Philharmonic Society) and at the Stern Conservatory, Berlin. He settled in Stockholm, where he worked as music critic on the Svenska Dagbladet and on the Aftontidningen. He also worked as a part-time choral and orchestral conductor. In almost all of his compositions he used motifs traceable to Jewish biblical cantillation and to folk songs of eastern European Jewry. Notable among his works are: Rapsodia ebraica for orchestra (1935), written as a reaction to the massacres of the Jewish people under the Nazis; the choral symphony Den judiska Sangen ("The Jewish Song," 1944); the radio opera Eli (1959); Dibbuk, a fantasy for violin and orchestra (1935); Swedish Rhapsody for orchestra (1940); the ballet Krelantems och Eldeling, Intermezzo for flute and strings (1973), and more than 100 songs. Among his writings are Svenska tonsättare (1943); Vandring med fru musica (1943); Ny vandring med fru musica (1944); and Jenny Lind (1945). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grove online; Larsson, "Moses Pergament and 'The Jewish Song,'" in: Kungl. musikaliska akademien årsskrift (1979), 28–40. (Israela Stein (2nd ed.)