Alexander Maloof: Guardian and Protector of Syrian Music in America
Alexander R. Maloof
(1884-1956)
This photograph of Alexander Maloof appeared in his 1924
Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs
Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs
From Richard M. Breaux collection.
One
of the most prolific and versatile composers, producers, orchestra leaders, and
business owners in the first five decades of the twentieth century was
Alexander R. Maloof. Collectors of 78 rpm records have written quite a bit about
Maloof. His 78 rpm records are still highly sought after. Much of what has been
published about Maloof’s personal and professional life is filled with
contradictions about birthdate, death date, and place of death, but it’s our
hope to shed some light on the complex life of this father of Arab American
music.
Depending
on what sources one consults, Alexander Maloof was either born in 23 January
1884 or 1885, the second of six children to Abraham and Hanna Maloof in Zahlé,
Greater Syria (now Lebanon). The Maloofs immigrated to the United States around
1894 (though the 1920 Census lists 1892) and settled in the Syrian community in
Brooklyn, New York at 90 Amity Street. Alexander developed an interest in music
early and by 1901 he had composed and published his first piece of sheet music
“Only Mother’s Picture” with words written by George Marguard. Within two years
he composed “The Robin’s Serenade,” he also found work at Henius Studios
alongside Joseph Henius, a former member of the Italian Music Conservatory. Maloof
married Minerva J. Ferris on 15 July 1905. The same year, he and Henius promised
clients instruction with “piano, organ, vocal, harmony and composition.” Anxious
to become a U.S. citizen in the midst of larger political climate where Anglo-American’s
questioned whether Syrians or Lebanese were Asian or white and could become
naturalized citizens, Maloof filed his “first papers” in 1909 and, in the
meantime, by 1910 he composed and published two more pieces “Nowhere” and “The
Empire State Barn Dance.”
One of Alexander Maloof's first pieces of published sheet music "Only Mother's Picture." This copy has a 1901 copyright. Another version of the same song by Maloof has a 1900 copyright. From Richard M. Breaux collection.
Some
budding musicians may have surely rested on their
accomplishments, but not Alexander Maloof. Over the next three years (1912,1913,
and 1914) Maloof’s musical talents catapulted his career into music’s
stratosphere. The ambitious Maloof played piano or organ at gigs he found in
the Syrian immigrant community including regular work at the Damascus Lodge of
the local Free & Accepted Masons in Brooklyn, of which several of the
leading members where immigrant business men from Greater Syria. In 1912,
Maloof adapted and conducted a score to an all-Syrian immigrant cast play at
the called “The Iron Master” held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play
was an adaptation of George Ohnet’s “Le Maître de Forges” except instead of
performing in English or French the cast translated and performed the play in
Arabic. The performance drew the presses attention because reportedly 1,000
people between Syrians in Manhattan and Syrians in Brooklyn saw the production.
Moreover, the press exaggerated the fact that in Greater Syria, such a play
where men and woman actors shared the stage would have tested the boundaries of
gender appropriateness and respectability. Maloof also became a naturalized citizen
in 1912, despite the fact that for most Syrian-Lebanese people in the United States
this would not be a settled issue until the George
Dow case in 1915.
Maloof
worked tirelessly in hopes of getting his big break. He composed and submitted
a song that contended for the national anthem of the United States, recorded
two sides for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1913, and the E.T. Paull
Music Company published two pieces of his sheet music including “Egyptian Glide”
in 1914. Maloof kept one foot in the communities of business-class Syrian
America and the other foot among the middle and upper-middle classes of
Anglo-Americans who presumably appreciated western classical music and the
eastern musical scales that Maloof fused to make an interesting hybrid.
The National Anthem
In 1911,
U.S. President William H. Taft voiced long-felt need for the country to write,
agree upon and select a national anthem. In 1912, the
“Star-Spangled Banner” had not yet become the official national anthem of the
United States, yet a woman by the name of Jennie L. Chadwick, from Park Ridge,
New Jersey, had recently heard a song at a Schumann Club of New York event at
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel that was “the most aspiring tribute” she had “ever
heard.” Chadwick lambasted the “Star-Spangled Banner” as of “foreign make,”
impossible to sing, and the melody was once an old English drinking
song…musically unsuited and from an aesthetic standpoint unfit for patriotic
purposes.”
Francis Scott Key penned the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” in 1814 and later that year Key’s brother-in-law set the poem to music by English composer John Stafford Smith. By 1831, other songs such as “Hail, Columbia,” and “My Country Tis of Thee” held a place of prominence in the minds of most United States citizens. With its composition in 1895, these same United States citizens elevated Katherine Lee Bates’ “America, the Beautiful,” to the list of songs meant to inspire a sense of patriotism towards the county.
Just six years previously, in 1889, the US Navy formally used “The Star-Spangled Banner” for official use when raising the flag. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson, in 1916 commanded the “Star-Spangled Banner” to be played in all military and special events. Debates about difficulty singing the “Star-Spangled” waged on for weeks in 1916 in the New York Times. Some letters to the editor alluded to the fact that “Dixie,” “America, the Beautiful,” or the “Star-Spangled Banner” were interchangeable as long as people remained respectful when one of these songs was played. Other readers voiced concern about the meaning of certain verses and questioned if “through the perilous fight” or “through the clouds of the night” captured the best essence of the song. A common critique of the "Star-Spangled Banner” mirrored that of John H. Taylor who remarked how difficult the song was to sing and if we could “eliminate the objectionable high notes” by supposing “the melody was written in the key of C.” Still some, like a John Henry Blake from Atlantic City countered, “Always the objection is made that its vocal range is too great, but anyone who can sing at all certainly can sing up to the highest note, which is F.” Readers like Dade Thorton, from New York City, argued for Congress to take stand and make the “Star-Spangled Banner” our official national anthem.
Alexander Maloof, up and coming composer, pianist, music publisher, and orchestra leader with words by Elizabeth Ferber Field, wrote “For Thee, America” in 1912. According to the “Catalog of Copyright Entries in the Library of Congress,” Alexander Maloof submitted the “America Ya Hilwa” for copyright in 1912. In the spring and summer of 1912, the New York, then the national press got word of Maloof’s song. While it gained regional popularity, the discussion continued on.
Francis Scott Key penned the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” in 1814 and later that year Key’s brother-in-law set the poem to music by English composer John Stafford Smith. By 1831, other songs such as “Hail, Columbia,” and “My Country Tis of Thee” held a place of prominence in the minds of most United States citizens. With its composition in 1895, these same United States citizens elevated Katherine Lee Bates’ “America, the Beautiful,” to the list of songs meant to inspire a sense of patriotism towards the county.
Just six years previously, in 1889, the US Navy formally used “The Star-Spangled Banner” for official use when raising the flag. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson, in 1916 commanded the “Star-Spangled Banner” to be played in all military and special events. Debates about difficulty singing the “Star-Spangled” waged on for weeks in 1916 in the New York Times. Some letters to the editor alluded to the fact that “Dixie,” “America, the Beautiful,” or the “Star-Spangled Banner” were interchangeable as long as people remained respectful when one of these songs was played. Other readers voiced concern about the meaning of certain verses and questioned if “through the perilous fight” or “through the clouds of the night” captured the best essence of the song. A common critique of the "Star-Spangled Banner” mirrored that of John H. Taylor who remarked how difficult the song was to sing and if we could “eliminate the objectionable high notes” by supposing “the melody was written in the key of C.” Still some, like a John Henry Blake from Atlantic City countered, “Always the objection is made that its vocal range is too great, but anyone who can sing at all certainly can sing up to the highest note, which is F.” Readers like Dade Thorton, from New York City, argued for Congress to take stand and make the “Star-Spangled Banner” our official national anthem.
Alexander Maloof, up and coming composer, pianist, music publisher, and orchestra leader with words by Elizabeth Ferber Field, wrote “For Thee, America” in 1912. According to the “Catalog of Copyright Entries in the Library of Congress,” Alexander Maloof submitted the “America Ya Hilwa” for copyright in 1912. In the spring and summer of 1912, the New York, then the national press got word of Maloof’s song. While it gained regional popularity, the discussion continued on.
Although the song has a 1912 Copyright, Maloof didn't record "America Ya Hilwa" on record until it was recorded 25 April 1923. Two different versions of this song exist on the Maloof label. It could have been the U.S. national anthem.
From the Richard M. Breaux collection.
Early twentieth century musician and music scholar, Frank R. Rix, who served as Director of Music for the City of New York, and authored “The Assembly Song Book,” “The High School Assembly Song Book,” “Voice Training for Children,” (1923) and “The Junior Assembly Song Book” included Maloof’s “For Thee, America” in “Patriotic Songs” section of the “The Junior Assembly Song Book”(1914) along with “My Maryland!”, “Dixie,” “Hail, Columbia,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Flag of Freedom” and other songs.
According to the 1917 Annual Report of the Public Schools Department of Newport, Rhode Island, “For Thee America” along with “The Star-Spangled Banner” held a prominent place in grammar school graduations for the city. Maloof, himself, included the sheet music to “America Ya Hilwa” in several of his published music books including Syrian Popular Song in 1924. The song was recorded on Maloof's label in April 1923. Finally, on March 3, 1931, Congress passed a resolution, later signed by President Herbert Hoover, declaring “The Star-Spangled Banner” the US national anthem. Few people, American or otherwise, know the story of how we decided on our national anthem, fewer are aware of Alexander Maloof’s efforts as far back as 1912 to contribute to our nation’s cultural traditions.
Recorded
and live Performances and Record Label
Just a year after composing “For Thee, America,” Alexander
Maloof recorded two sides for the Victor Taking Machine Company – “A Trip to
Syria” (recorded 16 September 1913) and “Al-Ja-Za-Yer” (recorded 24 July 1913) as Victor #17443 and #65830 for two separate series. While
“A Trip to Syria” is an original composition. “Al-Ja-Za-Yer” appears to have
been an Ottoman march that references Algeria that spread across the Near East
and had possibly been previously recorded in the United States. Sales for this
disc were horrid, Maloof continued to work as a music teacher and by 1918 as
Director of Music for Mason & Hamlin Piano Company at 313 Fifth Avenue.
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| Al-Ja-Za-Yer #17443-B and A Trip to Syria #17443-A were released as Alexander Maloof's first recorded piano solos. From Richard M. Breaux collection. |
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| Alexander Maloof. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection |
Alexander Maloof's World War I draft registration card, includes the 1884 birthdate. He and his wife lived in Brooklyn. He was a music director at Mason and Hamlin Piano Company. Note he is listed as naturalized by 1918. Courtesy of Ancestry.com
The Maloofs, however, continued to reside in Brooklyn and
although the recording of “A Trip to Syria” was not a hit, Maloof provided piano
accompaniments and performances for a host of events and occasions. First, Adolph
Bolm arranged to have Maloof perform live as a part of Bolm’s Ballet Intime on
9, 10, 11 of August 1917 at the Belasco Theater in Washington, DC. Bolm had
heard the side a few years earlier, choreographed a dance to it, and contacted
Maloof to play live while the dancers performed. The ballet was a benefit for
the American Ambulance in Russia. Maloof joined Rabbi Stephen Wise, Henry
Morganthau, S. Parkes Cadman, and the Billy Sunday Choir, as music director of
the Armenian and Syrian Relief Mass Meeting at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in
November of the same year. One month later, as the year came to an end, the
Calcutta-born, Anglo-Indian dancer Roshanara (Olive Katherine Craddock)
employed Maloof to compose and play music for her performance “The Moon Flower”
at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. Subsequently, silent film, turned stage actor,
Alice Brady performed Maloof’s song “Moon Flower” during Act I of “Anna Ascends”
at the Playhouse Theater in October 1920 (She later starred in the film
adaptation of the same play in 1922). Maloof also played on the same bill as a
number of other musicians from Spain, Russia, and France as part of the YWCA’s
International Christmas concert in December 1918.
For whatever reason, Alexander Maloof could neither
reconcile his growing notoriety nor the demand for his compositions and music
with the poor sales of his Victor recordings. Perhaps Maloof’s most ambitious
project yet, came in 1920 when he launched the Maloof Phonograph & Music
Company. According to the Mainspring
Press music blog, the Siemon Hard Rubber Company likely pressed early Maloof
De Luxe Oriental Records recordings until 1922 when Maloof took his business to
the Starr Piano Company’s Gennett Records. Maloof also changed business
addresses from 76 Court Street in Brooklyn to 662 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan to 32 Rector Street in Lower
Manhattan. Both were in the heart of their respective borough’s Little Syria
neighborhoods. By 1930, the Maloof Phonograph & Music Company relocated once
more to 92 Washington Street.
A rare Maloof Records sleeve. The record in the sleeve is Maloof # 6795A and # 6796A, Louis Wardini, "Hakeeni Bil Telephone Pt #1 and Pt #2" recorded October 1924.
From the Richard M. Breaux Collection.
Music
historian Anne K. Rasmussen contends that “Alexander Maloof recorded scores of
traditional Syrian songs, his own compositions, and even Christian Hymns,
either as a solo pianist, with a small traditional Arab ensemble,” and Middle
Eastern orchestra. She goes on to argue that Maloof composed music that was “a
conspicuous musical hybrid hardly representative of that which immigrants
brought with them or that which was created here in the United States.” It was
perhaps this hybridity that appealed to the Syrian Democratic Club of King
County to ask Maloof to furnish music for their first annual dinner in 1923 and
this same crossover appeal that led Republican Alf Landon’s campaign to seek
out Maloof to compose his music to his 1936 presidential campaign song, “Let’s
Land Landon in the White House.”
Those who recorded on the Maloof label included lesser known
artists like Lateefy Abdou, and others like cellist and oudist Prince Mohammed Mohiuddin,
Edward Abdo, Anthony Shaptini, Midhat Serbagi, Fadwa Fedora Kurban, Marie Bashian Bedikian, Wadeeh Bagdady, Fr. George Aziz, Samy Attaya, Mosa Kalooky, and the multi-label
singer and oudist Louis Wardini. While many of these musicians were well known
in Syrian-Lebanese communities across the United States, few people of Lebanese
or Syrian descent today know their names. Taken as a whole they recorded on the
Maloof label mostly from 1920 to 1927. Only Maloof or Fadwa Kurban recorded much
of the material produced for funeral parlors and skating rinks in 1930 and 1931
as discussed in the Mainspring Press
blog.
Interestingly, at the peak of his label’s tenure Maloof and
His Oriental Orchestra recorded #5192 “Pharaoh” and “Egyptian Glide” on the
Gennett label in October 1923 and “Call of the Sphinx,” “The Desert Wail,” “Egyptiana,”
“On the Beautiful Nile,” and “Kurdistan” for Victor on 15 February 1926. The dates
of recording and sale of Maloof’s three or four records on the Music of the Orient
label are difficult to determine. These are noted for their intricately detailed label design. However, sometime in the 1930s, he at least released
one disc under the Orient label for Maloof Music Company of Englewood, New
Jersey (visually similar to the Maloof Record label except the name and color) and
Continental Records release a four-disc set “Music of the Orient” by the Maloof
Oriental Orchestra in November 1944.
In October 1923, Maloof and His Oriental Orchestra recorded "Pharaoh" and "Egyptian Glide" on Gennett.
From Richard M. Breaux collection.
In
addition to phonograph records, Maloof released a number of piano rolls which
he noted in many of his advertisements. These included Oriental Special #4 “M’t
Lebanon March,” “A Trip to Syria,” and “America Ya Hilwa” released my Maloof
Studios and Maloof Phonograph & Music Company. His “Berceuse
Orientale” piano role was released by Aeolian Company.
A rare Maloof piano roll of Berceuse Orientale. From the Richard M. Breaux collection.
Ironically, Maloof’s most consistent
work involved he and/or his orchestra playing on the radio, the industry that
nearly destroyed the phonograph record business. As early as October 1925 and
through 1926, listeners could tune-in to hear Alexander Maloof’s Orchestra
during WEAF New York’s “Oriental Hour” at 10:00 pm. In 1927, the station moved Maloof
to the 7:30 pm slot. Maloof or he and his group gave regular solo and group performances
on WGBS in 1928 and in 1929 and 1930 audiences could catch Maloof on WOR where he
directed the Bamberger Salon Orchestra. Maloof and Fadwa Kurban were also a
part of a one-hour block of Arabic music and dialogue from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm on
WBBR in 1929.
Alexander
Maloof seemingly worked non-stop in the 1920s and early 1930s and it should
come as no surprise that he collaborated with many of the musicians that
recorded on his labels for live performances. For example, in 1923 Maloof and
Midhat Serbagi gave a joint recital at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He and
Fadwa Kurban teamed up to perform at the Academy of Music in May 1929 for a
Syrian Orphanage benefit and the Poughkeepsie Lebanon American Club annual fundraiser
in August 1929. He and Kurban performed again at two separate concerts on 7 December
for Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore and 14 December for physicist
Albert Einstein in 1930.
The Carnegie School and
Music Books
According
to 1935 interview with Alexander Maloof, he planted the seeds for the Carnegie
School of Music in Englewood, New Jersey back in 1920 when he maintained a
studio in Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. The studios atop Carnegie Hall were built
in 1896 with the intention of providing working and/or living space for active
artists. Maloof maintained a workspace there off and on from 1920 to 1938. In
addition to all he had done, Maloof worked with up and coming musicians and provided
guidance and support to some.
Sometime
after 1930, Alexander and Minerva Maloof either divorced or Minerva died (the
records are unclear). Minerva appears in the 1930 Census with Alexander, but on
the 19 June 1935, Alexander Maloof married Edith Jane Johnston an emigrant from
Belfast, Ireland.
Alexander
Maloof established the Carnegie School of Music in Englewood, New Jersey in 1934
and in three years’ time the school boasted five faculty members who
specialized in piano, voice, and violin. The school targeted primarily young adults
and adolescents interested in performing for “public appearances.” In addition
to Maloof, Nana Genoevesa (opera singer), Vera Wanamaker (Julliard pianist and
organist), Georges Melville Vignetti (National Conservatory of Paris), and
Randall Hargreaves (British baritone) made up the faculty. One of the most fascinating resources
available to students was that the school was “equipped with a recording machine for the
purposes of making a permanent phonograph record of the student playing or singing
as they advance in their studies.”
Alexander Maloof's World War II, Draft Registration Card. Note his employment as "Self" employed as founder and director of the Carnegie School of Music. Courtesy of Ancestry.com
The
Carnegie School grew in faculty size and resources and eventually formed a
partnership with the Bergen Junior College in Teaneck, New Jersey in 1951. Alexander
Maloof directed the Carnegie School of Music and led a special music
department separate from the College’s music department at Bergen. Carnegie
teachers and students could use all Bergen facilities. The school housed “six studios”
and the college had an additional “seven studios.” Students had access to 15
pianos and a Hammond Organ. Faculty at
the Carnegie School increased to 14 by 1950 and just over 150 students.
As
he aged, Maloof performed less and less for the public, but continued to play
for small benefits, art events, and Carnegie concerts with his students. Most
importantly to him, he continued the process of composing and publishing music.
Maloof’s book publishing exploits began around the same time he started his
phonograph record label. In 1924, he published Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs
with 35 originally composed songs. He had already published two other books on
music one with 63 songs called “Music of the Orient for the Piano” and a much smaller
book with 15 songs. In total, Maloof had five books of music in print by 1931
and by 1950 he’d published an additional seven volumes for a total of twelve
including Songs from Norway, Chopin in Miniature, and Master Melodies in Miniature. Know Your Music a collection of 26 original
compositions in over 160 pages was Maloof’s last published work.
Front and back cover of Maloof's
Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs, 1924.
Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs, 1924.
From the Richard M. Breaux collection.
Alexander
Maloof worked as composer and director of the Carnegie School of Music in
Englewood, New Jersey for twenty years having stepped down from his post in
1954. He died after a long illness at the age of 72 years old on 29 February 1956. All five of his siblings (Julia, Mary Emma, Emil, and Adele) and his second wife were still living. The
obituary in the Bergen Evening Record
reminded its readers that Maloof not only composed original compositions, he
was a Syrian music preservationist because, like Jelly Roll Morton had done for
jazz, Maloof “transcribed many Oriental folk songs and dances which had never
been set down as written music.”
Alexander Maloof, 1953. From The Record, 11 April 1953. Courtesy of newspapers.com
Richard
M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
© Midwest Mahjar
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