______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.242 February 21, 1994 1) Corrections (Zachary Baker) 2) Jewish-music-in-the-mouths-of (Bob Werman) 3) Job listing, chair in Yiddish (Jules F. Levin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 12:02:34 1994 From: Zachary Baker (bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu) Subject: Corrections regarding previous postings Last week I had a posting bounced back to me during MENDELE's down time, and I am trying to reconstruct it, since I did not save it and do not have ready access to the printout that I made at work (YIVO scrupulously observes President's Day, so I am sitting at home). Anyway, the articles by Dovid Katz on Ludwig Zamenhof's grammar of Yiddish appeared in the January 28th (not the February 4th) and February 11th issues of the "Forverts." Also, as was pointed out by a devoted Esperantist among our MENDELnikes, Zamenhof's grammar was excerpted in "Leben un visenshaft" (Vilna, 1909), and NOT "Dos naye leben" (New York, 1909). Both errors are mine and I apologize. If you are interested in photocopies of the two articles by Dovid Katz, they are available from me at YIVO (1048 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10028). Our minimum charge for photocopies requested by mail is $5.00. There is much more that could be said regarding Yiddish and Esperanto -- I will leave it at this: Aside from the fact that Zamenhof himself translated several Yiddish works into Esperanto (I have a book of Peretz and Sholem Aleichem stories in Esperanto translation, sitting on my shelf at work), Esperanto was at least on one occasion used by a Yiddish author for bibliographical purposes. During the 1920s and 1930s it was common practice for Yiddish books published in Poland to have added title-page information in Polish. The invaluable guidebook, "Toyznt yor Vilne," by Zalmen Shik (Szyk/Sik [with a hacek over the "S"]), published in Vilna in 1939, also has an added title in Esperanto: "1000 jaroj de Wilno" -- for what it's worth. Zachary Baker, YIVO Library 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 13:30:52 1994 From: RWERMAN@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Jewish-music-in-the-mouths-of Bret Werb writes: >I recall seeing in the archives a request for information about a >Yiddish tune sung in Vietnamese. I know nothing of Vietnamese songs but I do have an interesting and related (genre-wise) anecdote to relate. Some 30 years ago a well known musicologist at the famous Indiana University School of Music related the following story, told to him by his son, a musico- ethnologist, also not unknown. At a musico-ethnology conference a paper was presented by one of the members which included the first reports of the indigenous music of an isolated South American (I no longer recall which country) Indian (Native South American?) tribe which had never previously encountered non-Indians, let alone white people. The ethnologist arrived at the home of this isolated tribe after great hardship but succeeded in recording the music of this tribe which he played from tapes made on the scene. From the audience a scream of protest was heard, "This is Polish Jewish Hassidic music!" Consternation broke out. No resolution was attained. A few laters later, at another meeting of the same august body, the original investigator returned, to report that he had revisited the tribe, again after difficulties. In light of the response he had received to his initial presentation, he concentrated on questioning some of the tribal elders. He was finally able to piece together the following story: Many years, about 60, earlier, a white peddler did reach the tribe, just before the beginning of the rainy season. Because of an early start to the rains, he was stuck with the tribe for about 3 months and used to sing to pass away the time. Apparently some of his melodies, Polish Jewish and even Hassidic in origin, were incorporated into the tribal repertoire. __Bob Werman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Feb 21 17:27:04 1994 From: Subject: job listing, chair in Yiddish I just had as lunch guest a colleague from Germany who shares my interest in modelling language change. He informed me that his university is advertising a Chair in Yiddish, and he is on the search committee. When I mentioned Mendele, he asked me to inform you. Here is the university and address: Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf. Contact Professor Dr. Rudi Keller, Germanistisches Seminar, H-H-U D, Universitaetsstrasse 1 D-40225 Duesseldorf. Tel (49)(0)211-311 2945 FAX (49)(0)211-34 22 29. Rudi told me that the chair would be open re language, literature,etc. They do not expect to find anyone qualified in Germany, i.e., they expect to hire a foreigner, most likely an American. While I can't imagine someone on our list wanting this as a lifetime position, a couple of years there might help establish a young scholar as a Germanist/Yiddishist for a comparable job somewhere else. --Jules F. Levin, UC, Riverside ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.242 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. 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