Arnold Perlmutter

Arnold Perlmutter (from Klangen fun mayn lebn by Zalmen Zylbercweig.

Arnold Perlmutter (, 1859–1953) was a composer for Yiddish theatre, born in Zolochiv, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. He moved to Lemberg where he received both a religious and a secular education in Polish, Ukrainian, and German. He sang with then-famous hazzan Borekh Shor's chorus until his voice changed, then became a klezmer, playing bass and then violin and directing and composing for the Harmonia orchestra, which in 1889 was taken into I. B. Gimpel's Yiddish theater in Lemberg; he wrote the music for the operetta Rabbi Akiva and his students. and Der Spanisher Tsigayner (The Spanish Gypsy).

In 1891 Abraham Goldfaden came to Lemberg to stage his Meshiakh tsaytn (Messiah times) and Dos tsente gebot (The Tenth Commandment); Perlmutter orchestrated and reworked Goldfaden's collected musical numbers and composed new ones for his productions. He then toured with the Treytler and Yuvelir troupes throughout Galitsia, Romania (1893-1895) and Russia (1899). From Chernovitz, Bukovina, in 1900 Professor Moyshe Horvitz (Hurwitz) took the whole troupe to America.

After the partnership dissolved Perlmutter worked alone, composing for Maurice Schwartz's production in 1920 of I. L. Peretz's Di goldene keyt (The golden chain). In 1922 he contracted with the Lennox Theater in the Bronx (directors Nathan Goldberg and Jacob Jacobs). He wrote the music for dozens of productions until he retired from theater in 1930.