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Editors’ Introduction
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xv EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION Jascha Heifetz was famously reticent when questioned about his childhood, and he made no attempt to write an autobiography . It is not surprising, therefore, that Heifetz’s earliest years have long been considered something of an uncharted and mysterious period in the lifeof thegreat violinist.With this editionof Galina Kopytova’sbiographical narrative about Heifetz’s childhood, an important chapter in music history is presented to the English-speaking world. Galina Kopytova’s original book was published in Russia in 2004 by the Kompozitor publishing house in St. Petersburg. The book brought the story of Heifetz’s remarkable childhood to a Russian audience proud of the prodigy who spent his formative years in Russia. It received positive reviews, and a second printing appeared two years later. The present edition in English is more than a translation of the original . With the support and approval of the author, it has been updated with new research and sources and has been adapted to an English-speaking audience. Additional photographs have been discovered, the maps of St. Petersburg and Vilnius have been redrawn, and the family tree has been expanded.Alldocumentarysourceshavebeentranslateddirectlyfromthe originals(French,German,Yiddish,andNorwegian),andthoseinEnglish xvi Editors’ Introduction have been transcribed directly. Wherever possible, references to accessible English-language sources have been provided. To maintain the focus on Heifetz’s childhood, a chapter on Heifetz’s 1934 tour of the Soviet Union in the original biography was omitted. Inthereferencenotesandselectedsources,wehavegenerallyfollowed the system of transliteration endorsed by the Library of Congress and the British Library, but without the superscript arcs above the letters for those Cyrillic characters represented by two Latin letters in the strict Library of Congress/British Library system. In the body of the text, however, we have been more flexible, opting to simplify some additional aspects of the Library of Congress transliteration system and to use familiar spellings of well-known Russian names. For example, we use Tchaikovsky rather than Chaikovskii, and Koussevitzky rather than Kusevitskii. The Russian Empire of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries encompassed a variety of nations and ethnicities. Consequently, this work includes names of Polish, Lithuanian, Yiddish, Georgian, and other linguistic origins. Many of the characters in this book moved between countries and eventually became known by names that differed from the original versions. Wherever possible we have spelled common names in familiar variants, or according to how the individual was known; in some cases, we have transliterated names of various ethnic origins from their Russian versions. Heifetz’s parents named him Joseph, which would have been pronounced Yosif in Russian. In various personal documents from the 1920s, Heifetz wrote his name as “Joseph,” and this same variant appears in the English-language literature; we also use that spelling. The name Jascha (pronounced Yasha) was used as a diminutive of the name Joseph, and it is with this diminutive that the violinist became known. Among family and friends in Russia, however, other diminutives were also used, including Jaschenka, Jasinka, and Josifka. ThenamesoftheimmediateHeifetzfamilymembershavebeenkeptin the forms they themselves adopted after immigrating to the United States: Ruvin, Anna, Pauline, and Elza. An exception to this rule is in quoted materials where diminutives are often used—Elza becomes Elinka, Elzinka, [54.89.70.161] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:31 GMT) xvii Editors’ Introduction Elzutka, and Elzochka; Pauline becomes Polinka, Polya, Pesya, and, in the hands of her musical brother, she is Polka-mazurka. ThecityofSt.Petersburg,thesettingformuchofthisbook,underwent manypoliticalandsocialupheavalsduringtheearlytwentiethcentury,and as a result, the name of the city changed to Petrograd in 1914 and Leningrad in 1924. The correct name has been given according to the historical context. In relation to towns, cities, and other geographic locations that formed part of the former Russian Empire, we have opted in the majority of cases to use commonly known or current names (for example, Vilnius instead of Vilna), except in quoted material. In February 1918 the Bolshevik government implemented a calendar reform that brought Russia in line with the West at a cost of thirteen days. Events in Russia before the reform are dated according to the Julian calendar (Old Style, or OS); events outside of Russia are dated according to the Gregorian calendar (New Style, or NS). Where there is potential for confusion, both dates are provided. We wish to thank Carolyn Brown, Mary Lou Reker, and the entire John W. Kluge Center staff at the Library of Congress for providing an environment conducive to this project. Since then many people have assisted in the...