Large and impressive collection of approximately 300 items, related to the life and work of composer Arie "Ben Erez" Abrahamson (1904-1992): handwritten musical scores of original compositions, family photographs, documents, books and an embroidered kippah. Europe, USA and Israel. 1930s(?) to the 1980s. Hebrew, English, German and Yiddish.
The main body of the collection comprises original musical scores (over 200 leaves, most of them handwritten) of Abrahamson's compositions for liturgical texts, Hebrew and Yiddish poems, and children's songs. These are accompanied by several pages of information tables, listing Abrahamson's various compositions, gathered in an envelope addressed to musicologist Bathia Churgin (Hebrew, Yiddish, German and English; some of the tables were prepared for ACUM – association of Israeli composers, writers and music publishers.)
Additional items in the collection:
• Nine staff paper notebooks, containing handwritten scores and lyrics for dozens of liturgical texts and poems, including compositions by Abrahamson himself, or his contemporaries. • Approx. 60 photographs, mostly family photographs, depicting among others, Abrahamson himself, and his cousin, the prominent Viennese cantor, Gerson Margolies (see additional items from Margolies' estate in the present auction;) Some of the photographs are hand-captioned on verso; some bear dedications (several are dedicated to Gerson Margolies by family members.) Most photographs are uncaptioned and undated. • Three books of musical notes – Yiddish songbook and two Shabbat song books. • Three certificates of registration, issued to Abrahamson by the American Library of Congress for his compositions: "The Clouds", "Beawiw", and "Unter Die Grininke Baumelach" (1944). • Additional items.
Enclosed: an embroidered (cantor's?) kippah, in Central European style.

Arie "Ben Erez" Abrahamson, born in Topoľčany, in the Austro-Hungarian empire (today part of Slovakia), descended from a long line of cantors. He gained his musical education from his father, the cantor Aharon Ben Ze'ev Abrahamson. Composed music for many modern Hebrew and Yiddish poems by poets such as Bialik, Tchernichovsky, and Sutzkever, and many liturgical poems. His compositions were performed by well known cantors in Europe and the USA. Until the Second World War Abrahamson lived and worked in Bratislava, Paris and Antwerp. During the holocaust, he was deported to Saint Cyprien concentration camp, from where he managed to escape, and ca. 1944 arrived in the USA with his family. In 1973 he immigrated to Israel.
His cousin was the acclaimed cantor Gerson Herz Margolies.
Abrahamson's work generally remains undocumented, and most of it was never published.
For further reading, see: Hanna Abrahamson, "Yiddish and Hebrew Art Songs by Arie Ben Erez Abrahamson (1904-1992) — Music in the Shadow of the Shoah", in: Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online, Vol. 13, 2015-16. Pp. 167-193.

Size and condition vary. Good overall condition.