Joseph Yasser - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

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Joseph Yasser
Joseph Yasser (April 16, 1893 – September 6, 1981) was a
Joseph Yasser
Russian-American organist, music theorist, author, and
musicologist. An influential figure who established a handful of Born April 16, 1893
musical institutions, Yasser is noted for his 1932 publication, A
Łódź, Poland
Theory of Evolving Tonality. He was active until his death at age Died September 6, 1981
88 in 1981. Yasser was married but had no children. (aged 88)
New York City, New
York, United States

Contents Occupation Musicologist

Years active 1918–1981
Early life and career
Personal life
References
External links

Early life and career

Yasser was born in Łódź, Poland (then part of the Russian
Empire) on April 16, 1893. He studied piano in Moscow with
renowned pianist-cum-composer Jacob Weinberg and from 1912
to 1917 enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating with
honors.[4] In 1918 Yasser succeeded B. Sabaneev as leader of the
Yasser's 19 equal temperament
school's organ department.[5] In 1919 he was named Chief
keyboard layout[1]  Play  Note the
Organist of the Imperial Opera (Bolshoi Theatre), and in 1920 and
twelve white supra-diatonic keys
1921 toured Siberia with a state quartet as a pianist and lecturer.[4] and seven infra-diatonic black keys.
In 1921 Yasser moved to Shanghai, China, directing the "Shanghai
Songsters" choral society and performing in concert, including as
a member of a piano quintet which he formed.[4]

In 1923 he moved to the United States, where he studied musical

tuning and Jewish, and Russian music.[6] Particularly interested in
the Chinese organ, Yasser continued as a Chinese music lecturer
For comparison, a 19 equal
in the United States.[5] He served as organist and choir director at
temperament keyboard, after
Congregation Rodeph Sholom from 1929 to 1960.[4] Woolhouse (1835)[2] and Easley
Blackwood, Jr.[3] with seven white
Yasser was a co-founder, along with Charles Seeger, of the
diatonic keys and twelve black keys
American Library of Musicology in 1931, co-founder of the
American Musicological Society in 1934, and collector and
advocate of Jewish and Jewish-American music.[4] In the 1960s, Yasser published The magrepha of the
Herodian temple: A five-fold hypothesis in which he opined that the mysterious magrepha, an integral part
of ancient Jewish rituals, was "not a musical instrument in the modern sense, and much less an organ" but
instead a digging tool.[7] However, he may be best known as the author of A Theory of Evolving Tonality

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(1932) and advocate of progressive equal temperaments; Yasser wrote music in 19 equal temperament.[8] He
supported the use of the musical interval measurements, namely the decitone, centitone, and millitone.[9][10]

In a series of articles from 1937 to 1938, which were later compiled into a book titled Medieval Quartal
Harmony, published by the American Library of Musicology, he proposed the implementation of a system
"harmonizing pentatonic melodies" based upon the perfect fourth interval.[4] From 1944 till its closure in
1980, Yasser frequently participated in activities organised by the New York-based National Jewish Music
Council, founded to raise awareness on Jewish music.[4] From 1951 to around 1960, he lectured at the Jewish
Theological Seminary's Cantors Institute, specialising in the theory and history of Jewish music. He was
hailed as an "important mentor to younger students".[4] Yasser was a zealous contributor to Novoye Russkoye
Slovo, a Russian daily, and wrote about various topics in music.[4]

Personal life
According to protege Herman Berlinski, in his final years, Joseph Yasser was a "recluse" who avoided
prolonged periods outdoors due to an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp sting which he experienced in the early
1960s.[4] Nonetheless, he was active as a musicologist until his death, although the frequency of activity
decreased. In his old age, he was reportedly still mentally sharp. Married with no children, Yasser died on
September 6, 1981, in New York City at age 88.[4] His spouse Marie died two years later, in 1983.[11]

References
1. "Diagrams from Yasser's A Theory of Evolving Tonality (http://www.musanim.com/Yasser/)",
MusAnim.com.
2. Woolhouse, W. S. B. (1835). Essay on Musical Intervals, Harmonics, and the Temperament of the
Musical Scale, &c. (https://books.google.com/books?id=4VjsjvqMcZgC). J. Souter, London.
3. Myles Leigh Skinner (2007). Toward a Quarter-tone Syntax: Analyses of Selected Works by Blackwood,
Haba, Ives, and Wyschnegradsky, p.52. ISBN 9780542998478.
4. "The Joseph Yasser Collection: Biographical Note" (http://www.jtsa.edu/The_Library/Collections/Archives
/Music_Archives/Yasser.xml#bn). Jewish Theological Seminary. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
5. Goldstein, Jonathan (2015). The Jews of China: V. 1: Historical and Comparative Perspectives
(https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=PcrKBgAAQBAJ). Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 9781317456056.
6. "Joseph Yasser" (http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/joseph-yasser). Jewish Music Research
Center. 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
7. Braun, Joachim (2006). On Jewish music: past and present (https://books.google.com.sg
/books?id=SuE3AQAAIAAJ). P Lang. p. 146. ISBN 9783631539057.
8. Myles Leigh Skinner (2007). Toward a Quarter-tone Syntax: Analyses of Selected Works by Blackwood,
Haba, Ives, and Wyschnegradsky, p. 51n6. ISBN 9780542998478. Cites Leedy, Douglas (1991). "A
Venerable Temperament Rediscovered", Perspectives of New Music 29/2, p. 205.
9. Yasser, Joseph (1932). A Theory of Evolving Tonality, p.14. American Library of Musicology.
10. Farnsworth, Paul Randolph (1969). The Social Psychology of Music, p. 24. ISBN 9780813815473.
11. Social Security Death Master File (http://ssdmf.info/by_number/pages/031454.html). Retrieved February
25, 2016.

External links
"A Theory of Evolving Tonality by Joseph Yasser (https://www.academia.edu/4163545
/A_Theory_of_Evolving_Tonality_by_Joseph_Yasser)", Academia.edu. Google Books

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Joseph Yasser - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Yasser

(https://books.google.com/books/about/A_theory_of_evolving_tonality.html?id=-XUsAAAAMAAJ).
""A Theory of Evolving Tonality" – a review (http://www.seraph.it/blog_files
/623ba37cafa0d91db51fa87296693fff-175.html)", Seraph.it.

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