{{Infobox musical artist | name = Sholom Secunda | image = | caption = | image_size = | background = non_performing_personnel | birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|4 September|1894|23 August}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|06|13|1894|09|04}} | origin = Aleksandriya, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire | death_place = New York, United States | instrument = | occupation = Composer | birth_name = Shloyme Abramovich Sekunda }} thumb|Sholom Secunda as a "wonder child" khazn '''Sholom Secunda''' ({{langx|yi|שלום סעקונדאַ}}, {{OldStyleDate|4 September|1894|23 August}}, Alexandria, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire{{spaced ndash}}13 June 1974, New York) was an American composer of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, best known for the tunes of "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" and "Donna Donna".<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news|last1=Freeman|first1=William|title=Sholom Seconda Is Dead; Composer, Song Writer|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/14/archives/sholom-secunda-is-dead-composer-song-writer.html|accessdate=23 September 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=June 14, 1974|page=36}}</ref>
==Biography== {{See also|Bei Mir Bistu Shein}} He was born in 1894 as '''Shloyme Abramovich Sekunda''' ({{langx|ru|Шлойме Абрамович Секунда}}) in Aleksandria city, Kherson Governorate,<ref name=leksi>Zalmen Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater (Volume 2), p. 1515-1518</ref> Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) to the family of Abram Secunda and Anna Nedobeika. In 1897, the family moved to the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv, where they opened an iron bed factory.<ref name=leksi/>
At age 12, Shloyme played Abraham/Avrom in Abraham Goldfaden's ''Akeydes Yitskhok (The Sacrifice of Isaac)'' and Markus in ''The Kishef-Makherin (The Sorceress).''<ref name=leksi/>
In 1907, like many other Jews of the Russian Empire (see History of the Jews in Russia), he and his family emigrated to the United States after a series of pogroms in 1905. In January 1908, the family arrived to New York as steerage passengers on board the ''SS Carmania'' and were inspected and briefly detained on Ellis Island. In New York City (they first lived on East 127th Street where his father had settled before sending for his wife and children), young Sholom became a noted child ''khazn'' (cantor). When his voice changed he studied music and taught piano, then worked in a comedy theater in the chorus until his song "Amerike" was accepted by Jennie Goldstein, who sang it in Kornblum's ''Unzere kinder (Our Children)''.<ref name=leksi/>
In 1913, after studying at the Institute for Musical Arts in New York City (predecessor to the Juilliard School), he worked at the Odeon Theater as chorist and composer; 1914 saw the premier of "Yoysher, music by Sholom Secunda and Solmon Shmulevitsh". He began working in "lyric theater" as choir director, then as director and orchestrator of the old "historic" operetta repertoire; he studied orchestration for a year under Ernest Bloch.<ref name=leksi/> In 1918, he became a naturalized US citizen.<ref>{{cite archive|first=|last=|item-url=|type=|item-id=|date=10 May 1923-11 May 1923|page=|pages=|fonds=|series=|file=|Passport Applications, Jan. 2, 1906 - Mar. 31, 1925=|collection-url=|repository=|United States National Archives=|location=|oclc=|accession=|collection=Passport Applications, Jan. 2, 1906 - Mar. 31, 1925|institution=U.S. National Archives|box=|item=Roll 2254 - Certificates: 284350-284849}}</ref>
In 1919-1920, he earned his first solo composer's credits with S. H. Kon's ''The Rabbi's Daughter'' and ''Free Slaves''. He worked in Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House with director Boris Thomashevsky; in 1921-22 he was director and composer at Clara Young's Liberty Theater. He composed for the musical ''Di Yidishe Shikse'' by Anshel Schorr (1927) and ''A nakht fun libe (A Night of Love)'' by Israel Rosenberg. An exhaustive list of his many works can be found in the ''Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater''.<ref name=leksi/>
In 1932, he wrote the melody for the popular song "Bay mir bistu sheyn" on the lyrics of Jacob Jacobs for the musical performed at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, which later became a major hit for the Andrews Sisters.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-17 |title=Subscribe to the Financial Times |url=https://subs.ft.com/products |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=subs.ft.com |language=en-gb}}</ref> Together with Aaron Zeitlin, he wrote the famous Yiddish song "Dos kelbl (The Calf)" (also known as "Donna Donna") which was covered by many musicians, including Donovan and Joan Baez.
Along with Abraham Ellstein, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky, he was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City's Second Avenue National Theater (Yiddish theatre) scene in the Yiddish Theater District. <ref>Program notes [http://www.jmcla.org/events/images/NightMusicNotes.pdf] (Music of Los Angeles Jewish Composers Aminadav Aloni, Michael Isaacson, Robert Strassburg and Hidden Treasures from Prokofiev, Krejn, Grzegorz Fitelberg and Abe Ellstein), Valley Beth Shalom, November 29, 2005. Accessed online 13 November 2006.</ref> These composers banded together in 1932 to protect their royalties through the Society of Jewish Composers, Publishers and Songwriters. Secunda also worked at another theater founded by Maurice Schwartz (an emigrant from the Russian Empire), Yiddishe Art Theater, earning $75/week for conducting an orchestra. In 1938, he gave an interview to the ''Courier-Post'' about the hit song, "Bei Mir Bistu Shein".
==Personal life== Secunda married the former Betty Almer, and they had two sons, Sheldon and Eugene Secunda. He died on June 13, 1974, in New York City, and was buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens.<ref name=NYTobit/>
== Works == === Filmography === * 1930 : ''Sailor's Sweetheart'' * 1931 : ''A Cantor on Trial'' * 1939 : ''Kol Nidre'' * 1939 : ''Tevya'' * 1940 : ''The Jewish Melody'' * 1940 : ''Her Second Mother'' * 1940 : ''Motel the Operator'' * 1940 : ''Eli, Eli'' * 1950 : ''God, Man and Devil'' * 1950 : ''Catskill Honeymoon''
=== Operas === * ''I Would If I Could'' (1933), musical (associated song: Bei Mir Bistu Shein) * ''Esterke'' (1940), musical (with the song Dos Kelbl (Donna Donna))
=== Autobiography === * ''Sholom Secunda Tells ...''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sholom Secunda Tells...|url=http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/moyt/secunda/autobiography.htm|website=In: Museum of Family History - Museum of the Yiddish Theatre. [English version of his autobiography edited by] Miriam Kressyn and Steven Lasky, accessed January 30, 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/secunda.html Guide to the Sholom Secunda Papers] in the Fales Library of NYU *{{IMDb name|0781214}} *[http://opera.stanford.edu/composers/S.html Opera Glass] * {{YouTube|04WH5ewE2RM|Shlimazl (Shlyoma Sekunda, history of the famous song)}} {{in lang|ru}} ''Let be blessed his memory''. * [http://www.dvrbs.com/swing/SholomSecunda-BeiMirBistDuSchoen.htm Interview of Sholom Secunda to the Camden Courier], January 26, 1938. *{{find a Grave|19768577}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secunda Sholom}} Category:1894 births Category:1974 deaths Category:People from Oleksandriia Category:People from Kherson Governorate Category:Jewish Ukrainian musicians Category:American opera composers Category:American male opera composers Category:Yiddish theatre Category:Jewish American classical composers Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Burials at Montefiore Cemetery Category:20th-century American male composers