Phantasia Judaica

Boas Bischofswerder was a Cantor in Berlin, who fled the Nazis to London in the early 1930s. Together with his younger son Felix (named after Mendelssohn), he was rounded up by the British on suspicion for being a spy (!), and was sent to Australia with 2000 other Jewish men and boys. These were the famous Dunera Boys cohort. Boas wrote this piece for four singers on HMT Dunera.

Boas wrote this as a wordless “vocalise” (syllables like ‘da’ ‘dai’ etc) with close settings, probably three baritones and a tenor. I revoiced the parts for traditional string quartet, putting one of the parts down an octave for cello. The work was performed for a 2017 festival called Out of the Shadows: rediscovering Jewish music and theatre.