Profession and Faith: A study of the emerging role played by Jews in the musical business represents a welcome riposte to Wagner’s notorious essay, suggests Jonas Karlsson

David Conway has given his book a bold title. Many readers will no doubt recognise in the first three words one possible translation of Wagner’s Das Judentum in der Musik, and the full title immediately reveals that this association is intended. Indeed, Conway is quite explicit that his title ‘derives directly from the Wagner essay’ (p. 9). Yet the bulk of this book is not about Wagner. Instead, its core comprises a long catalogue of Jewish composers and star performers, with an occasional music publisher or librettist thrown in for good measure. Conway devotes about 200 of the book’s 300 pages to a biographical treatment of these figures, divided into five national groups: The Netherlands, England, Austria, Germany and France.