Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.056 August 27, 1997 1) Literature on Bund (sheine mankovsky) 2) Virtual Ashkenaz (Ari Davidow) 3) idish in bartzelona (Moishe Kijak) 4) JHS bibliographic series (Igor Zlochevsky) 5) Efsher, tomer... (Mendy Fliegler) 6) Ben Ishai's poetry (Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 7) "Yoyvl-lid" OR "Anniversary Song" (Ron Robboy) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 12:13:56 -0400 From: sheine mankovsky Subject: Literature on Bund The Yiddish Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto is looking into featuring the Jewish Labour Bund at the upcoming Jewish Book Fair. However, we do not know what literature, particularly more recent literary work, is availabe to feature, as well as to sell. The material is preferable in English, but Yiddish, Hebrew, French, Russian, and Spanish would be o.k. because of the main languages spoken in the Jewish community. Please let me, and others know what is available on this fascinating organization that was so much a part of pre-Holocaust Jewish life, particularly in Eastern Europe. As always, a sheinem dank. Sheine Mankovsky 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 07:07:32 -0400 From: ari@ivritype.com (Ari Davidow) Subject: Virtual Ashkenaz So, I just wanted to mention that the Ashkenaz Festival starts tonight in Toronto. The "Virtual Ashkenaz" discussions are still sporadic, but covering everything from Jewish genealogy to Yiddish in Alaska. Starting tomorrow, I'll be working on getting images and words about the visual artists up. The festival officially starts tonight, I guess, with John Zorn's first performance. My goal is to ensure that Virtual Ashkenaz represents everything about the festival, and also provides some networking seeds to continue the festival, virtually, beyond the space of a few intense days. The general site is still entered on http://www.ashkenaz.org/, and you can participate in the interactive part, or discuss anything to do with Yiddish culture, at http://www.ashkenaz.org/virtual.html As you browse the schedule and music/comedy artists lists, you'll notice that there are sound samples available in RealAudio 3.0 format available for instant listening for those who have computers that can handle that format. The goal of Virtual Ashkenaz is to extend the reach of the festival to everyone around the world who cares about Yiddish or Yiddish culture. It's an important experiment, and I hope that we can keep it going after the festival, as well. Come join in! Ari Davidow http://www.ivritype.com/ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:42:37 ARG From: "Gustavo Kijak" Subject: idish in bartzelona tayere fraynt, tzvishn dem 27tn iuli un dem 1tn oigust iz forgekumen in bartzelona der 40ter congres fun der internatzionaler psikhoanalitisher bavegung. a dank der initziativ funem bakantn idish-tuer Arnold Richards un main mithilf, iz zikh tzunoifgekumen dinstik, dem 28tn iuli, inem hotel Fira, a grupe idish-idishe psikhoanalitiker, mitn tzil tzu bakenen zikh un farbrengen a por sho. es zenen baigeven di fraynt: Kurt Schlesinger (San Francisco), Moises Lemlij (Peru), Frances Dropkin (Paris), Robert Weinryb (Sweden), Moises Kijak (Buenos Aires), Marcos Caplanski (Peru), David Filc (Buenos Aires), Perel Wilcowicz (Paris), Sara Babiacki de Kijak(Buenos Aires), Lea D. Reizes (Paris), Marta Kreiselman de Mosner (Buenos Aires), Howard Schlossman(New Jersey), Arnold Richards (New York), Ruth Axelrod de Baradon (Mexico), Eve Weil (Paris), Isidoro Berenstein (Buenos Aires), Sara Popovski de Berenstein (Buenos Aires) un Stephanie Kurian Fastlicht (Mexico). es iz shver ibertzugebn in verter di aingenemene svive vos es hot zikh geshafn un vi bagaistert ale zenen geven. es voltn geven gekumen fil merer kolegn, ven es volt in der zelber sho nisht geven forgekumen andrere sesies. es iz geblibn az men vet blaibn in farbindung un tzum kumendikn kongres (Santiago de Chile, 1999) vet men tzugreitn a gresere mesibe. Moishe Kijak 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 16:55:18 From: Jewish Heritage Society Subject: JHS bibliographic series Jewish Heritage Society is an independent scholarly institution for the development and coordination of research in history and culture of the Jewish people in the Russian Empire and the USSR, documenting and preservation of the Jewish historical legacy. Address of JHS: Novocheremushkinskaya ul, 1/14-3-12, Moscow 117449, Russia. Telephone: 7-095-503-7845. E-mail: heritage@glasnet.ru Web site: http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/ The Jewish Heritage Society's bibliographic series was started in 1995 with an issue of the current Ukrainian Judaica. At present the Society works on continuing publication of a bibliographic review of current publications on Judaica in the CIS and the Baltic states. The JHS invites scholars to contribute bibliographic data and publications for inclusion in the bibliographic series. Recently published issues (available on the JHS home page): 1. Current Judaica Ucrainica. January - February 1994. Editor: Alexander Feldman. Vol. 1, No. 1. Kiev - Jerusalem, 1995, in English 2. Catalog of Current Scholarship in Jewish Studies: Publications on Bibliographic and Documentary Sources in East European Jewish History Published in Russian Jewish Scholarly Periodicals in 1993 - 1995. Annotated List, in Russian Igor Zlochevsky, Jewish Heritage Society 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:54:11 -0100 From: emenems@juno.com Subject: Efsher, tomer... Ikh hob a kashe fare unzere Mendlyaners: tsi efsher hot emetzer epes nayes oder informatzye vegn kinder mayselekh fun Odessa... Shames Iosef?? Dakht zikh mir az Isaac Babel iz a shrayber fun dortn... Mendy Fliegler. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:46:00 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Ben Ishai's poetry For the wonderfully woeful words of weltshmerz in the painful plea of "Hot Rakhmones", and the following poems expressing such deep love and joy of learning, my thanks to Alvin Greenberg for his search for his great- grandfather's poetry, and to Esther Goffstein for her work. Sharing such discoveries is, perhaps, what Mendele is all about. The Mloteks might broaden the audience and publish them in the Forverts, or the Forward. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:48:52 -0700 From: rrobboy@cts.com (Ron Robboy) Subject: "Yoyvl-lid" OR "Anniversary Song" Regarding the ongoing discussion of Chaim Tauber's Yiddish version of The Anniversary Waltz (7.048, 7.050-052, 7.054; and 3.134), there is a revealing entry in Irene Heskes, _Yiddish American Popular Songs 1895 to 1950_ (Washington, D.C.: 1992), the Library of Congress' singularly valuable reference work on Yiddish sheet music. Heskes' annotations, "...Based on the Lawrence Marwick Roster of Copyright Entries," present as comprehensive a catalog as we might hope for of Yiddish sheet-music titles registered with the library, organized chronologically by copyright date. (Lawrence Marwick was head of the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress from 1948 to 1980.) Heskes' complete entry for Tauber's published song follows. [entry no.] 3271 _Der khasseneh valse_ Ros. no. PM Copr. no. EP 141871 Feb. 28, 1947 Mus.: Ivan Ivanovici Lyr.: Chaim Tauber/Towber Arr.: Henry Lefkowitch Prop./pub.: Henry Lefkowitch; Metro Music Co. Piano and voice. "The wedding waltz." Sheet music: cover with a photo of Towber; a catalog of Yid. music on back cover; verses in Heb./Yid. char. on inside front cover. "Oh happy time! Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed." Ivanovici's waltz originated in Europe as a Slavic folkstyle piano selection titled _Valurile dundrei_ {"Waves of the Danube"). It was published first in this country in 1896, and again in 1903, by the Theodore Lohr Co. (arr. for piano by Simon Adler) and was called "Waves of the Danube," by which title it soon became generally known here. Subsequently, the following published versions ap- peared: in 1913, by the Hebrew Publishing Co. (arr. for piano by Joseph M. Rumshinsky, also for violin in 1914); in 1917, by the Saul Schenker Co. (arr. for piano by Jack Kam- men); and, in 1919, by the J. and J. Kammen Co. (arr. for piano by Joseph Kammen). All of those piano solo edi- tions were reissued several times during the 1920s. The singer Chaim Tauber/Towber wrote the lyrics for many of the songs which he performed. In particular, Towber penned the Yiddish, as well as English, words for several Russian/Slavic melodies, including this already well-rec- ognized instrumental selection. It fast became one of his favorite encores. By the time that the song was published in this popularized ballad form, it had already entered into the American musical mainstream, and soon was to be known here (and abroad) by its newer English title "The Anniversary Waltz." The Metro Music Co. reissued this par- ticular copyrighted version in 1963. The song continues to be treated as "a perennial standard" into current times. The first thing to notice is the copyright date of 1947. Though Heskes may be read in more than one way here, she seems to be suggesting -- following an unstated assumption -- that Tauber had been singing the song for some time before he copyrighted his lyrics. But Saul Chaplin claims he originated the idea of making Ivanovici's waltz an Anniversary Song in 1946, for use in the film _The Jolson Story_ (see posts by Bob Rothstein [3.134, 7.052] and myself [7.050]). Indeed, the sheet music edition, co-credited to Al Jolson and Chaplin with music by Ivanovici, is copyrighted 1946. (Chaplin's slightly sordid account of Jolson's involvement can be read in his memoir, cited in my 7.050 post.) I would be interested in seeing or hearing any real evidence that Tauber had been singing any kind of Anniversary-related lyrics to the Ivanovici melody before Jolson's English-lyric hit recording appeared. If such evidence exists, it would provide a splendid example of how Yiddish popular culture was filtered and reprocessed in American mass media, not to mention inflecting the sense in which we must read Chaplin's account of how inspirations were (are) supposedly spontaneously generated in Hollywood. So much for scurrilous supposition. The salient fact remains that Tauber's copyright followed that of Jolson-Chaplin, and in the absence of contrary evidence, it would appear that Tauber took his inspiration from the Jolson film and/or hit record. What I find so exceedingly interesting about all this is that even as careful an annotator as Heskes seems to have fallen into the assumption that the Anniversary-ness of the song had been around for many years, and that there was a kind of folk status accorded to it. I am using the word folk here in the somewhat incendiary sense that what working musicians call a standard in urban commercial music ("perennial standard," Heskes says inside quotation marks) suggests the same kind of collective ownership by performers that one allows in the repertories of so-called primitive and pre-modern societies. (I know this is liable to ignite some controversy among professional ethnographers and ethnomusicologists -- to say nothing of copyright attorneys and licensing agents -- and I look forward to reading about the error of my ways.) There is no question that the melody -- Ivanovici's "Waves of the Danube" -- had become such a standard, a tune every working musician knew. What I had not included in my earlier post about Chaplin's account is that he also said he knew the tune from at least as far back as his own bar mitzvah (he was born in 1912), when he played it on the mandolin. This is not in the least surprising in light of Heskes' (Jewish) history of published popular arrangements that suggests a vigorous market for the sheet music within Yiddish-oriented communities. The houses she mentions -- Lohr, Schenker, Hebrew Publishing, Metro, and Kammen -- were all publishing large inventories of Yiddish folk and theatrical sheet music. With the exception of the Kammen brothers, who began in Brooklyn (if I am not mistaken), all were Lower East Side firms. Ivanovici's melody, meanwhile, has also been recorded many, many times. Its pre-Anniversary Song discography would include arrangements and marketing profiles in the categories of (light) classical, popular, and "race." Of those on "race" labels, however, there are surprisingly few Jewish (=Yiddish) versions, given its abundant sheet music history on the Lower East Side. I found thirteen recordings of Ivanovici's melody listed in Richard Spottswood's magisterial _Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942_ (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990); Mendelistn will appreciate reading, incidentally, that Henry Sapoznik and Bob Rothstein are acknowledged for their contributions to this monumental reference work. Of those recordings, only one is listed as being on a Jewish disc. The complete statistics are: four Polish; two each of "Scandinavian" and "Spanish"; and one each of Bohemian (i.e., Czech), Danish, German, Hungarian, and Russian. The astute reader will note that this comes to thirteen recordings, which is the total number I said I found, and yet where is the Jewish disc? One of the Scandinavian titles, recorded in New York in 1919 for Victor by accordionist John Lager with Eric Olson (also accordion?), was also released in Jewish, Lithuanian, German, Croatian, Dutch, and Polish versions. The very same recording, in other words, was marketed with titles and labels retranslated in six more languages after the Swedish original. Spottswood gives the titles of the Jewish and German pressings (two different discs) as "Donauwellen," and adds that even the names of the artists remained the same for all seven versions, with no evident attempt at creating new ethnic identities for the Scandinavian accordionists. So the Jan Peerce-Abe Ellstein collaboration on Vanguard hardly represents the first Yiddish effort at recording Ivanovici's melody. That distinction probably goes to the Swedes John Lager and Eric Olson! I've now also seen a catalog entry for another Yiddish recording Abe Ellstein made of the "Anniversary Waltz," by the way, with the Feder Sisters performing the song on the album "Some Like It Yiddish" (United Artists Records UAL 3160, 1959). The bibliographic record indicates some confusion about the date, suggesting it may have been from 1950 and/or 1959. It's worth noting, however, that Billy Wilder's film "Some Like It Hot" was also released by United Artists in 1959, and it seems doubtful that, of the two, it was the film (about two female-impersonating club musicians) that was the spin-off, capitalizing on some wild success the Feder Sisters had enjoyed nine years previously. But you never know. Lastly, I must remark on Ivanovici's first name. Heskes records that his name is given as Ivan in the Tauber sheet music. That would appear to be consistent with Ion, as reported by Bob Rothstein (3.134, 7.052), which I take to be the Rumanian form of the same name. The overwhelming majority of sources with which I am familiar, however, give the composer's name as Iosif Ivanovici (if they include any first name at all). Citing the _New Grove's Dictionary_ as my source (7.050), I carelessly spelled it as Jospeh, which was inaccurate. Ron Robboy ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.056