HESKES, IRENE

HESKES, IRENE (1923–1999), U.S. music historian, bibliographer, compiler, and editor who specialized in Jewish music. Her work was published in milestone books such as The Resource Book of Jewish Music (1985) and Passport to Jewish Music (1994). In addition she wrote numerous articles and reviews for musicological and general publication on the subject of Jewish and Israeli music. She also edited The Cantorial Art (New York, 1966) and Studies in Jewish Music: The Collected Writings of A.W. Binder (New York, 1971). Her latest compilation of the catalog Yiddish American Popular Songs 1895–1950 (1992), which presents 3,427 Yiddish song titles, highlights material from the Library of Congress collection of Judaic music and tells the story of struggles of migration, settlement, hope and acculturation through a catalogue of sheet music that had been deposited in the Library of Congress for copyright registration, but was virtually unknown to scholars. This book is important for an understanding of the roots of the American musical theater. (Gila Flam (2nd ed.)