Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.235 December 14, 1994 1) _Found Treasures_ (Stephen Dowling) 2) Leo Fuld's language (Rick Gildemeister) 3) Yiddish specialty recordings (Rick Gildemeister) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 23:18:00 GMT From: stephen.dowling@weiser.com (Stephen Dowling) Subject: _Found Treasures_ The book _Found Treasures_ is available at The Jewish Book Center of The Workmen's Circle. It costs $14.95 each + $4.50 for shipping and handling. The price will go up to $16.95 in January. Within the Yiddish Immersion Weekend that Workmen's Circle Branch 105 is planning, we are going to try to arrange something in honor of this book. Of further interest, starting December 20th, a group dedicated to the reading of Yiddish women writers in Yiddish will start meeting in our store at 7:30pm. It will meet monthly. For more information, call 212-889-6800 ext.285 or write to Jewish Book Center 45 East 33rd street, NY NY 10016. Stephen Dowling 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 94 08:33:17 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Leo Fuld's language There is a singer named Leo Fuld who has put out many records over the years. I can't make out his dialect, because it shifts with every song, and even within a song. He even uses German in some songs, and though he sounds foreign-born, he sometimes articulates the "r" in the General American way. There's a song he has, called "Ein Polnisch Yidl" which seems to fall into the same category as Mein Kind, musst beten, but it may be some dialect I'm unaware of. Nat aykh a por lidlekh: Vayt vayt in Polen, anuver (?) dem Dniester, Dort var ikh tsu hauz Dort het ikh mayn vayp, un mayn tokhterl di Ester (next two sentences unintelligible) Un gab tsu a sude a huukhtsayt (next unintelligible) Ikh bin nur ayn polnish yidl, Mit mayne lidl, fardin ikh mir a shtikl broyt Mayn raykhtum iz mayn fidl Mayn gantses glik vart of der vanen (?) Un mayn Ester a bisl royt (?) another moshl: Der tsigoyner lid iz fray Eybig yung un eybig noy Very mysterious. Anyone have any ideas about this language use? Rick Gildemeister 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 08:45:54 EST From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Yiddish specialty recordings I like to browse through old record shops and pick up little gems. A few months ago I was at the House of Oldies, in NY, and there on the wall was an album called _Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites_. I checked OCLC, a bibliographic database used in libraries for cataloging, and the library that created the cataloging record for the item estimated it was made in 1960. I also discovered that it's been re-released in 1994 on CD. Poor Connie, she gets treated like a joke, but I have to say she did very well on this record. She sang all the standards, like Mayn Yidishe Mame, Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib, etc. Her pronunciation was virtually flawless, and that gets explained in the liner notes; she early on in her career did the Borsht Belt circuit and picked up the language from the guests and from other musicians. My only quibble was the sounding of final ayen as "ah". But maybe there were regions where it was pronounced that way. I know the penultimate e as in brivele gets pronounced by some speakers as brivale. I myself favor, for final ayen what some linguists refer to as the "Balkan 6th vowel", which is the Turkish i without the dot, and the Romanian i with the circumflex. It's pretty much like the Polish y, which is maybe why Solomon Birnbaum romanized it that way. It's not a shwa, it's in between i and eh. Another terrific singer, Dusty Springfield, gets short-shrift by people, though several critics say she is the best pop singer England ever produced. I just bought her boxed-set CD's for a pretty penny, mind you. Many of her Italian and French renditions are on there, and again, we have the case of a singer regarded as eccentrically buffoonish, with her huge beehive hairdo, ping pong paddle eyelashes, and white lipstick, who really mastered the subtleties of two important languages. I think it would be terrific to hear her do some Ize Kremer favorites like "Amol iz Geven a Mayse", "Vos Bisti, Ketsele, Broyges?" One of my favorite Kremer songs is "Oyfn Pripetshik". The final stanza is chilling, she sings "Az ir vet kinderlakh elter veiern" "dem gules shlepn" and ends with "Koylem gimel goy". I like that frankness at the end, implying why the gules shlepn exists. Hey, me, take anything personally? :-) Anyway, Dusty has finished a project called "Dusty in Nashville" (she recorded "Dusty in Memphis" in the late sixties, which was panned, but is now not only considered her best work, but has been reissued and is mentioned in reference sources as a very important, classic record) If the Nashville project succeeds, maybe she'll feel secure enough to give us Nye Platsh Mama. Or Dusty in Minsk? Dusty is a stickler for authenticity, so maybe she'll record it in sabesdiker losn. You don't have to say you love me, dzust be close at hand! I know, sabesdiker losn was on its way out years ago. But Molly Picon had a routine where she talked about a lady in the audience whom they nicknamed "The Yankee" because "I don't know Dzuis" but her "Minsker accent" said otherwise. So to come back to the topic of Yiddish specialty albums, have any other Mendelyarn come across interesting "Jewish-interest" records by mainstream singers? It would be interesting to look at choice of songs, date of performance, pronunciation, and the challenge of interpreting that elusive yidishn tam correctly. Rick Gildemeister ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.235 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. 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