EDITOR: Joseph A.

Levine

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Richard Berlin

EDITORIAL BOARD
Rona Black, Shoshana Brown, Gershon Freidlin, Geoffrey Goldberg,
Charles Heller, Kimberly Komrad, Sheldon Levin, Laurence Loeb,
Judy Meyersberg, Ruth Ross, Anita Schubert, Neil Schwartz, David Sislen,
Sam Weiss, Yosef Zucker
The Journal of Synagogue Music is published annually by the Cantors Assembly. It offers articles and music of broad interest to the hazzan and other
Jewish professionals. Submissions of any length from 1,000 to 10,000 words
will be considered.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING MATERIAL

All contributions and communications should be sent to the Editor, Dr. Joseph A. [email protected] a Miscrosoft
Word document, with a brief biography of the author appended.
Musical and/or graphic material should be formatted and inserted
within the Word document.
Footnotes are used rather than endnotes, and should conform to the following style:
A - Abraham Idelsohn, Jewish Liturgy (New York: Henry Holt), 1932: 244.
B - Samuel Rosenbaum, Congregational Singing; Proceedings of the
Cantors Assembly Convention (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary),
February 22, 1949: 9-11.

Layout by Prose & Con Spirito, Inc., Design by Replica.

Copyright 2010 by the Cantors Assembly. ISSN 0449-5128

FROM THE EDITOR

The Issue of Yiddish Song: A Trade-off for the Decline of

Spoken Yiddish?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

THE MANY FACES OF YIDDISH SONG

The Music of the Synagogue as a Source of the Yiddish

Folk Song

Max Wohlberg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Cantorial Elements in Rumshinskys Early Songs

Bret Werb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Yiddish Dance Songs

Joseph A. Levine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Folk Songs and the Fragments of Common

Ashkenazic Culture

Philip V. Bohlman and Otto Holzapfel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Provisions for the JourneyA Rarity from the Lost World

of Yiddish Religious Song

Janet B. Leuchter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Why Sidor Belarsky Was Popular among American Jews

Joel Colman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

She Who Seeks Shall Find: The Role of Song in a Hasidic

Womans Life Cycle

Ester-Basya (Asya) Vaisman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Som Fon Iz Shlekht?! In Praise of a Cutting-edge Cat

Gershon Freidlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

NUTS AND BOLTS

Breathmaster: An Insight into the Biomechanics of

Great Singing

Michael Trimble. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Contrafaction

Joshua R. Jacobson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

MAIL BOX

Remembering Johanna L. Spector (1915-2008)

Edward W. Berman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Austin Synagogues Increasingly Choose Cantors as

Spiritual Leaders

Tonyia Cone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Re: Hasidim and Mitnagdim Between the Wars in

Northeast Poland

Helen Winkler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Re: The Glantz/Pinchik Conundrum

w

Barry Serota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232.

Re: Jewish Music as Midrash: What Makes Music Jewish?

Michael Isaacson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

A Song Treasury Worth Researching

Beny Maissner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

REVIEWS

Louis Dantos 4-CD Retrospective Albumand his Music

Collection

Charles Heller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Lomir ZingenA CD of Yiddish Songs Performed by Children

at the Bialik Hebrew Day School of Toronto

Erroll Helfman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

The New British Siddur

Victor Tunkel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Richard Kaplans CD: Khei HaolamimLife of the Worlds

Journeys in Sacred Music

Ira S. Bigeleisen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Zamru Lo IIIThe Next Generationfor Hallel, Shalosh

Rgalim, and the Weekdays

Sam Weiss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

IN MEMORIAM
Isaac Goodfriend (1924-2009).................................................... 257
Barry Serota (1948-2009)............................................................ 260
Samuel Fordis (1921-2010) ....................................................263

Vol. 35 Fall 2010

FROM THE EDITOR

The Issue of Yiddish Song: A Trade-Off for the
Decline of Spoken Yiddish?

Despite the fact that everyday spoken Yiddish may be facing an uphill battle in
the United States, Yiddish song has provided the musical sound track for the
construction of a new progressive, secular, Yiddishist youth culture, writes
Alicia Svigals,1 noted klezmer violinist and teacher. Elements of Yiddish folk,
theater, and art song have been extensively appropriated by Klezmer, the
musical expression of todays hip Jewish youth. The starting point for that
genre was the style of Yiddish folk song, posits trumpeter Frank London,2
founding member of several klezmer ensembles. That borrowing put PAID
to an old debt, for Yiddish song had initially found its musical origins in the
modes of Hebrew prayer.
In THE MANY FACES OF YIDDISH SONG Max Wohlberg examines
the symbiotic relationship between songs of the synagogue and Yiddish folk
songs, and Bret Werb shows how composer Joseph Rumshinskys early Yiddish
theatre hits set the pattern for American Yiddish pop music. Joseph Levine
documents the improvisation of music and lyrics in Yiddish dance songs
early days, while Philip Bohlman and Otto Holzapfel find common cultural
elements in the folk songs of Eastern and Western Ashkenazic Jewry. Janet
Leuchter focuses on a surviving prototype of Yiddish religious song, and Joel
Colman explains why the recordings of bass-baritone Sidor Belarsky remain
popular among American Jewish audiences. Asya Vaisman unveils the hidden
song repertoire of modern Hasidic women, and Gershon Freidlin praises the
raucous Yiddish-English mixture that was Mickey Katzs trademark.
NUTS AND BOLTS presents essays by two authorities in their respective
fields: veteran voice teacher Michael Trimble writes on the breath-based biomechanics of great singing; and musician/scholar Joshua Jacobson surveys
the never-ending battle for supremacy between words and music.
MAIL BOX recalls longtime JTS Professor of Ethnomusicology Johanna L.
Spector, and pinpoints a growing trend in congregations to employ cantors
1
Alicia Svigals, Why Do We Do This Anyway? American KlezmerIts Roots
and Offshoots, Mark Slobin, ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press), 2002: 213.
2
Frank London, An Insiders View, American Klezmer, op. cit., p. 207.

as spiritual leaders. It then offers readers comments on recent JSM articles

concerning a shifting attitude towards Hasidism between the two World Wars,
the differing approaches of Cantors Leib Glantz and Pierre Pinchik, and how
Jewish Music can best function as midrash. Our final communication gives
notice of a remarkable Yiddish and Hebrew song-script-and-book collection
just made available by the University of Toronto.
REVIEWS cover Louis Dantos 4-CD Commemorative Album and Music Collection, a CD of Yiddish songs performed during regular classes by
students of a Toronto Hebrew Day School, the new Daily Prayer Book of the
British Commonwealth, translated by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, Richard
Kaplans CD Life of the Worldssongs of longing for God arranged in Middle
Eastern/Andalusia/Eastern European/Central Asian style, and the Cantors
Assemblys new publicationZamru Lo IIIcongregational melodies for
Hallel, Shalosh Rgalim, and Weekdaysedited by Jeffrey Shiovitz.

In the REVIEWS section of last years Journal, measure seven of Aaron

Blumenfelds Niggun Waltz #1 was incorrectly transcribed, and the composers
name was misspelled several times. Here are the corrected second staff and
subtitle of that composition, along with our sincere apologies.

Dm

Gm

Dm

A7

Dm

Corrected excerpt from Aaron Blumenfelds Nigun Waltz #1 (JSM FALL 2008: 235)

Editors Note: As this issue went to press, we were saddened by the untimely
passing at age 46 of our beloved colleague, Deborah J. Togut, Ritual Director
at Bnai Israel Congregation in Rockville, MD. We had the privilege of editing
a review she contributed to the 2007 Journal, on Hazzan Hans Cohns 2005
memoir, Risen from the Ashes. In re-reading her description of the author, one
is struck by how aptly it applies to Deborah as well, particularly to her personal
courage and professional integrity in the face of a long and debilitating illness:
a survivor and optimist by nature,... he harbors no resentment against God
or man, serving his community with grace and compassion.
Deborah thought that her own storyin comparison with Hans Cohns life
had been a privileged one. Yet, to cite the final words of her Journal review,
Deborahs actions were resourceful and persevering, [her] commitment to
survival unwavering and [her] love for her cantorial craft, passionate and
inventive... [she] was a credit to [her] profession. May her memory be an
eternal blessing to all who walked with her even a little way along the path of
her all-too-brief life.
JAL

The Music of the Synagogue as a Source of Yiddish

Folk Song1
By Max Wohlberg

In assessing the music of the Eastern European Jews one can say that the
features distinguishing sacred from secular song are not always well defined.
For example, Eastern European Jews have an abundance of zmiros (table
songs), Hasidic and liturgical tunes which may properly be assigned to both
categories. One can say, too, that it is equally difficult to ascribe primordial
status to either one or the other category or to derive ultimate conclusions
concerning melodic influence and cross-fertilization. Therefore, in addressing
myself to this distinction I subscribe to the popular view that liturgical music
is sung mainly in the synagogue (in Hebrew) while folksongs, as a rule, are
sung at social gatherings (primarily in Yiddish).
The study of Eastern European Jewish music is not strictly analogous to the
study of other music cultures. Its dissimilarity becomes most apparent when
examined in the context of religious history. When early Christianity with its
evolving liturgy reached Europe it encountered a variety of local folk traditions. Conversely, when Yiddish folk song began to flourish in Central Europe
and later in Eastern Europe, Jewish liturgical music was already established in
those locales. Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1932b) drew our attention to a limited
influence of the synagogue upon Yiddish folksongs. Of the 758 songs included,
only thirty-two are singeled out as being based on synagogue motifs.
The aim of my study is to point out the existence of an infinitely larger and
more intimate melodic relationship between the songs of the synagogue and
Yiddish folk songs. Even without thorough analysis of the entire folksong
1 Because the material here is essentially of Eastern European Jewish origin I
have transliterated Hebrew words according to Ashkenazic pronunciation utilizing a
system adopted by the Library of Congress. For Yiddish orthography and transliteration I have followed a standardized system devised by the Yiddish Scientific Institute
(YIVO), New York. Translations from Hebrew are reprinted with permission from the
Daily Prayer Book ( 1947, 1977) and the High Holiday Prayer Book ( 1951) by Philip
Birnbaum. Translations marked A.W. are by friend and colleague, Albert Weisser; all
other translations are my own.

literature, there exists sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the influence

of the synagogue on Yiddish folksongs was not confined to occasional stray
motifs, but that entire melodies are traceable to the synagogue service. In addition to the Thirty-odd songs in which Idelsohn found traces of synagogue
influence, I have discovered in his Volume IX (1932b) almost sixty additional
songs that were in part borrowed from synagogue traditions. Furthermore, I
have found literally hundreds of other songs that incorporated similar musical motifs.
In comparing folk songs to synagogue melodies one must bear in mind two
fundamental differences: 1) while the former are for the most part metrical
and rhythmical, the latter are generally without meter, displaying an improvisational and rhythmically free character; 2) while the folksong texts have
for the most part been associated with a definite tune, a synagogue motif may
be applied to numerous texts, freely used by the hazzan-improviser wherever
and whenever it is deemed appropriate.
Thus, whenever we cite a given motif for a particular text, numerous other
texts could be substituted for it. Even though experienced hazzanim may vary
their improvisations from week to week by employing different modes for the
same texts, this does not diminish nor invalidate the liturgical authenticity
of the modes employed.
Essentially, the Yiddish folksongs that Ive chosen are based upon biblical
cantillation, synagogue prayer modes, and so-called Mi-Sinai tunes.2 All
Sources used in this investigation are listed at the end under References Cited.
Unattributed liturgical examples denote the oral tradition of chants that are
the common tradition of Eastern European hazzanut.
Cantillation motifs
To begin, we clearly hear Ashkenazic High Holiday Pentateuch cantillation
motifs (Ex. 1a.) in the following Hebrew-Polish folk song (Ex 1b.).
2 Mi-Sinai tunes (literally from Mount Sinai), a term affixed to a group of
sacralized melodic phrases that originated along the Rhineland of Southwestern Germany (specifically the towns of Worms, Mayence and Speyer) during the 11th to 13th
centuries. Since the 15th century, rabbis have have attributed Sinaitic origin to these
snatches of melody in order to emphasize their importance. See J. Wistinetzky, ed.,
Sefer Hasidim (Berlin, 1891) No. 817, and Jakob Freimanns second edition (Frankfurt,
1924). For historical and stylistic analysis of the Mi-Sinai tunes see A.Z. Idelsohn (1933:
xxiv-xxxvi) and Eric Werner (1976: 26-45).

Zo - kef

ko - ton

Mer - kho tip - kho

Sof po - suk

Example 1a. Idelsohn 1951: 494-495.

Ya - a - mod

ti

Dia - tshe - go

Reb

Dia - tshe - go

ti

Ye - hu -

nye

nye

de

Ya

nye

pu - dzesh? Bo

Ya - nye

um - yesh? Bo

Dia - tshe - go tshi nye

u - tsil? Bo - on

pu -

de

um - yem.

oy tshots mnye nye

u - tshil.

sam -

krenk um - yal.

Arise to the Torah, Reb Yehudah! / I will not go. / And why will you not go? / Because I
dont know how/ / And why do you not know how? / My father never taught me. / And
why did he not teach you? / He was as ignorant as I. / 3
Example 1b. Cahan 1912: II, 149-150, No. 73; Cahan 1957: 426, No. 505; Idelsohn
1932b: 10, No. 23.

Motifs from the Ashkenazic High Holiday Torah cantillation (Ex. 2a.) appear in a charming song (Ex. 2b.) concerning Rabbi Meir ben Isaac (11th century), legendary author of the mystical poem Akdomus (Before), written in
Aramaic and chanted on the first day of Shavuos before the Torah reading.

Po - zer

Dar - goh

Example 2a. Idelsohn 1941: 496-497

3
The text refers to the rite of Aliyot, practiced during public reading from the
Torah on Sabbaths, holidays and certain weekdays. Honored individuals are called to
the reading desk to pronounce benedictions before and after a portion is read from
the scroll.

Es

iz

ge - ven

a Re - be Me - ir kha - zn

Hot

er

ge - volt

zo - gn

a shvakh tzu Got

hot

er moy - re ge - hat

di

mal - o - khim

zo - ln im nisht me - ka - ne zayn

Hot er ge- zogt dem loyb oyf Tar-gum lo - shn Vaylmal - o- khim far- shtey- n nisht keyn Tar- gum lo - shn

un

un - ter ge - khas - met hot

yag - dil Toy - re

er zikh:

Re - be Me - ir b-Re - be Yitz- khok

kha - zak, kha - zak

v - ya - dir

v - e

matz.

There once lived a precentor, Rabbi Meir, who was inspired to chant a song of praise to
God, but he feared that the angels would envy him. So he chanted his song in Aramaic,
a language that angels do not understand, and fixed his signature thusly: Rabbi Meir,
son of Rabbi Isaac, may he grow in Torah and in good deeds / and be strong and of
good courage4 (A.W.)
Example 2b. Shtern: 1948: 58.

The fall of Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855; Ex. 3a.) finds appropriate expression
in cantillation motifs from the Book of Lamentations (Ex. 3b.).

stroy- ert Mosk - ve

troy - rig

zin - gen zey

Syo - mert Pe - ter - burg,

ya

zind

Ka

der Tzar is oyf

tza - pen zogt

tso

res

bo - zhe Tzar

oyf

ay - e - re

Ki - nos

sblu - tigt der

hint.

There is lamentation in St. Petersburg / There is mourning in Moscow / Sadly they sing,
God save the Tsar. / You peasants sing lamentations for your sins, / That dog, the Tsar,
is bloodied. /
Example 3a. Idelsohn 1932b: 11, No. 31.
4
The final section is derived from acrostic lines in the poems latter section.
See Birnbaum Daily Prayer Book (1949: 647-654).

Ma - pakh Pash- to

Tlishoh gdo loh

Mer - kho

tip - kho

sof po - suk

Example 3b. Idelsohn 1951: 501.

MiSinai tunes
The traditional Ashkenazic tune for chanting the aforementioned Akdomus
poem (Ex. 4a.) is undisguised in the following two examples, the first, a
humorous alphabet song.

Ak - do - mus

av - lo

lin

Vsho - ro - us

mil

har - mon

ur

sho - kel - no

shu

so.

shu

so.

Before reciting the Ten Commandments, / I first ask permission and approval /
Example 4a. Idelsohn 1925: 156.

lef

in

Beys,

di

kes

est

der

no

beyn - de - lakh

gri - zhet der

gid

o - re - man

A) The rich man eats turkey, / B) the poor man nibbles on little bones / (A.W.)
Example
4b. Kipnis 1925: 119, No. 55.
1

Ven

un

fun

fun

a - le

le

tay - khn

boy - mer

volt

volt

ge - vo - r n eyn

ge

taykh

vo - r n eyn

boym

If all rivers were to become one river / And all trees were to become one tree /
(A.W.)
Example 4c. Idelsohn 1932a: 5, No.12.

10

Characteristic musical motifs of the Ashkenazic version (Ex. 5a.) of Kol

Nidre (All Vows)5 also appear in a humorous Hebrew-Ukranian song (Ex.
5b.).

3
3

D - in - dar - no

ha

bo

u - d ish - ta - ba

u - sh - vu - o - so

no

l - to

le - nu

lo

sh - vu

no

vo

os

wherewith we have vowed, sworn / may it come to us for good / and our
oaths shall not be oaths / (A.W.)
Example 5a. Idelsohn 1932a: 52-53, No. 172.

D - in - dar - no

ot kroi me - nye dul - ru

ya te - bye

pri - ne - su na pras - nik

i - bo me - nye

ho - ril - ku tre - ba

a-

be - lo - ho

per - ti - cha

na - pras - nik

Do please open the door. / Ive no more whiskey / Not a drop, no more. / And for the
holy day I promise, in lieu, / A beautiful white rooster / To bring to you. /
Example 5b. Kipnis 1925: 156-157, No. 73.

The autumn prayer for rain Geshem6 (Ex. 6a.), signaling as it does the arrival of cold weather in Eastern Europe, aptly serves for the lament of one
ill-prepared for the approaching winters rigors. Its motifs are also found in
a folk song (Ex. 6b.).
5
Kol Nidre, an Aramaic formula for the annulment of inadvertent vows to God,
chanted to open the Yom Kippur Eve service, is considered a treasure-trove of MiSinai Tunes; for further information see A.Z. Idelsohn (1931-32: 493-509), Johanna L.
Spector (1950: 3-4), Max Wohlberg (1971: 99-112), and Eric Werner (1976: 35-38).
6
Chanted on the eighth day of Sukkos (Festival of Booths) when normal
rainfall begins in the Near East; see P. Birnbaum (1949: 697-702).

11

A -

to - gi - bor

A - do -

to

l - o - lom,

noi,

rav

m kha - ye

me - sim

l -ho shi

Lord, You are mighty forever; You revive the dead; Your powers to save are immense
Example 6a. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).
1

Af

b-ri

siz ni - to vos tsu ge - bn

zu - mer geyt a - vek

un der vin - ter kumt tsu - rik

e - sn

di

kuh

un kayn gelt

iz

der

ni - to

Oh Angel of Rain, / There is no fodder for the cow, / The summer has passed, / Winter
will soon be upon us, / And of moneythere is none. /
Example 6b. Cahan 1912: II, 269-270, No. 14; Cahan 1957: 432-433, No. 511;
Idelsohn 1932b: 6, No. 14; Beregovsky-Fefer 1938: 12.

It should come as no surprise to any student of Jewish history that there

exists an abundance of tragic Yiddish songs and ballads. With little effort
one can find in the following moving example (Ex. 7a.) the melodic outline
of Eli tsiyon7 (Lament, O Zion from the Tishah BAv liturgy; Ex. 7b).

7
The text of Eli Tsiyon is by the great Spanish Jewish poet, philosopher and
physician Judah Halevi of the late-11th and early-12th centuries. Tishah BAv (Fast of
the Ninth of Av) commemorates the destruction of both Temples and other historic
national calamities. On the Eli Tsiyon tune, see A.Z. Idelsohn (1929: 171) and Eric
Werner (1976: 93-95).

12

Tsvelf a zey - ger bay der nakht ven a - le ment - shn shlo - fn

12

fents - te - rl

bet

dort

iz

zi - tsn

tir un toy- er tsu ge - makht nor a

o - fen

fay - e - rl zikh brent

tsvey

al - te

layt

un

kran - ker ligt in

bre - khn zikh di

hent.

Twelve oclock midnightall are asleep, / All is shut tight. / Somewhere a small window is open, / A
dim fire burns. / An invalid lies on a bed, / As two old people sit by, / And ring their hands / (A.W.)
Example 7a. Cahan 1912: I, 234-235; Cahan 1957: 30-31, No. 16.

1

E - li

tzi - yon

vkhiv - su - lo

vo - re

ho

kmo - i - sho

btsi - re

ho.

kha - gu - ras

sak

al

ba - al

nu - re

ho.

Lament, O Zion and its cities, / As a woman in childbirth, / As a young maiden in

sackcloth / That mourns the husband of her youth / (A.W.).
Example 7b. Baer 1930: 64, No. 213.

Prayer modes
The Lern shtayger (Study mode) in major, as it appears in the traditional
Haggadah chant Mah Nishtanah,8 is well known. In addition, the Study mode
in minor appears frequently in the Jewish liturgy as witnessed in the following
examples (Exs. 8a, 8b and 8c).9

Sho - khen

ad

mo - rom

v - ko -

dosh

sh - mo

You Who abide eternity, exalted and holy is Your name

Example 8a. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).
8
See Abraham Baer (1930: 171, No. 764).
9
Examine also the excellent recitative Eilu Dvorim by Hazzan/composer Jacob
Rapoport (1890-1943) and the impressive art song Tanhum (1921) by Solomon Golub
(1887-1952).

13

A - do - noy oz l - a - mo yi - ten

A -do -noy y- vo - rekh es a - mo va - sho - lom.

The Lord will give strength to His people, / The Lord will bless His people with peace /
Example 8b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Ha -

yom

shi - sho yo - mim

lo

mer

This is the sixth day of the Omer Counting.

Example 8c. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Now observe how these motifs are applied to a naively idyllic folksong
(Ex. 9.).
1

Un - ter

kleyn

re - dn

fun

bey - me - le

zi - tsn

mey - de - le

keyn zakh

ying - lekh

kim - mert

tsvey

zey

zey

Under a little tree, / Sit two young men. / They talk of a young maid. / Nothing else
concerns them / (A.W.).
Example 9. Kipnis 1925: 100, No. 46; Idelsohn 1932b: 39, No. 144; Beregovski-Fefer
1938: 169.

Motifs of this mode, which would normally accompany the study of the
Talmudic disputations of Abbaye and Rava and the arguments of Rav and
Shmuel,10 also served such liturgical texts as Omar rabi elozor, Ba-meh
madlikin and Eilu dvorim (Ex. 10a.). They were also deemed suitable for
describing the tribulations of a maiden seeking a proper marriage partner
(Ex. 10b.).

10 Abbaye (c. 278-338 C.E.) was head of the academy in Pumbedita. He and his
colleague Rava (Abba bar Yosef bar Homa, c. 299-352) engaged in halakhic discussions
which are of major importance in the Babylonian Talmud. The same may be said of Rav
(Abba Arikha, c. 175-247), founder of the academy in Sura, and Shmuel (c. 180-250),
head of the academy in Nehardea.

14

E - lu d - vo - rim she - en lo - hem shi - ur

v - ho - r - a - yon

ha - pe - oh

v - ha - bi - ku - rim

ug- mi - lus kha - so - dim

v - sal - mud to - rah k- ne - ged ku - lom

These are the things for which no limit is prescribed: the corner of the field, the first
fruits, the pilgrimage offerings, the practice of kindness; and the study of Torah excels
them all.
Example 10a. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Vos- zhe vilst du, vos - zhe vilst du a shnay - der far

vil ikh nit

a shnay - ders tokh - ter

a man,

bin ikh nit

shnay - der far

zitz ikh oy - fn

a man

shteyn

shti-ler - heyt un veyn

a - le mey - de - lakh ho - bn kha - se - ne nor ikh blayb a - leyn.

What will you have, what will you have? / A tailor for a husband? / I will not have a
tailor for a husband. / I am not a tailors daughter. / All young girls are easily married. /
Only I remain alone / (A.W.)
Example 10b. Cahan 1957: 252-254, No. 268.

Distantly related to the Study mode though possessing a distinct quality

of its own, including characteristic modulatory tendencies, is the so-called
Slihah mode in which much of the High Holiday service is chanted.11 Frequent pauses on the third and fourth degrees as well as an occasional transitory excursion to the relative major are typical. Lowering of the penultimate
11 There now exists quite a sizable and valuable literature on the synagogue
prayer modes which reflects both accord and differences of opinion among scholars
as to the structure and nomenclature of these modes. See A.Z. Idelsohn (1929: 72-89);
Idem (1932a: xi-xvii); Baruch J. Cohon (1950: 17-32); Leib Glantz (1952: 16-25); Max
Wohlberg (1954: 36-43); Joseph Yasser (1956: 33-35); Hanoch Avenary (1971: 11-21);
and Eric Werner (1976: 46-61).

15

second from a whole to a half-tone interval was a device frequently favored

by Eastern European hazzanim.
The melodic line of the following folksong (Ex. 11a.), depicting the harsh
and joyless life of the Yeshivah student, is practically identical with that used
to chant the Amidah of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy (Ex. 11b.).12

Vos- zhe klog tu bay der gemo - re

kloyz - nik bla - ser kloyz - nik

vey - nen - dig - er nig - n

12

faykht

in mayn hartz - n

ge - vo - rn

klyoz - nit bla - ser kloyz - nik

mit

geyt

a - ri - ber

te - rets

dos

lib - er

Dayn

far - lo

oyg

iz

fn

zog vos hot mit dir

lib - er

Dayn

ge - tro - fn.

Why do you lament so at your Talmudic studies / Oh pale and dear theological student?
/ Your tragic song rends my heart. / There is a reason for your moist eye. / Tell me pale
and dear theological student, / What has befallen you? / (A.W.)
Example 11a. Idelsohn 1932b: 139, No. 489.

hon
peh
La - m - ya -
ha - lim lokh
sim -
ho
l - ar - tze - kho

4
3

3
v - so - son l - i - re - kho
utz - mi -
has ke - ren l - do - vid av - de
5

U - v khen ten ko - vod A - do - noi l a - me - kho t hi - lo li - re - e - kho v sik - vo l dor she - kho u - fis

kho

va - a - ri -khas ner l - ven yi - shai m shi - khe - kho

bim - he- ro v -yo - me - nu.

Now, oh Lord, give honor to Your people, glory to those who revere You, hope to those who seek You,
free speech to those who yearn for You, joy to Your land and gladness to Your city, rising strength to
David Your servant , a shining light to the son of Jesse, Your chosen one, speedily in our days.
Example 11b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).
12

Amidah is the Standing Devotion, central feature of every service.

16

With only a slight adjustment, the following folksong (Ex. 12a.) shares its
musical setting with a chant heard customarily during the Sabbath Morning
service (Ex. 12b.).
1

E - li - yo - hu ha - no - vi

on

ge - ton.

nemt

makht

bro - khe

zitst oy - bn on

dem

in

gold un in zil - ber

be - kher in der rekh

bro - khe

i - bern gants

ter hant

un

en

land.

Elijah the Prophet / Sits at the head of the table, / Bedecked in gold and silver. / With his
right hand he raises a goblet / And blesses the whole land. / (A.W.)
Example 12a. Idelsohn 1932b: 39, No. 146.

3 3
3
B - fi y sho - rim tis - ha - lol
uv - div - re tza - di - kim tis - bo-rakh
u vil - shon ha
-si3

dim tis - ro - mom

uv - ke - rev k - do

shim

tis

- ka - dosh

By the mouth of the upright You are praised; / By the words of the righteous You are
blessed; / By the tongue of the faithful You are extolled; / And among the holy You are
sanctified. /
Example 12b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Another liturgically motivated folksong expresses resignation to Gods

will with unmistakable Sabbath Amidah motifs. The two sets of texts are
reproduced here concurrently (Ex. 13.).

17

Tsu
ken
L - dor

fre - gn
ne - tzakh

a
-

darf
shiv

s - ken
pi - nu

bay
Gott
ntzo- - khim

oyf
lo

geyn

in
na

zoy
zayn
ha - kho,

es
E

der
velt
yo - mush

muz
lo

dokh
gor
l - o -

hi - ml
a - rayn
gid
kho
god - le

un
ul -

tsi
darf
k-du-shos - kho

a - royf
vo - dor

men

a
-

zayn,
a - zoy
nak - dish

zoy
he -

an - dersh
lom

Es
v -

zayn

nu,

mi-

nit
zayn.
vo - ed.

Can one ascend unto heaven and ask God, / Do things have to be as they are? / Yes,
things need to be as they are, / They must be as they are. / In the whole wide world / It
cannot be otherwise. / (A.W.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Through all generations we will declare Your greatness; to all eternity we will proclaim
Your holiness; Your praise, our God, shall not depart from our mouth
Example 13. Idelsohn 1932b: 164, No. 571; Cahan 1957: 411, No. 498.

Lullabies
Of numerous Eastern European Jewish lullabies I have selected two in an attempt to indicate their obvious affinity with melodies of the synagogue. Once
again the two sets of texts are reproduced concurrently in the first example
(Exs. 14a.-14b.-and-14c.).

18

Ay le lyu le shlof
mayn li - bes kind
makh - zhe tsu di
Ti - kan - to shab - bos ro - tzi - so kor - b- no - se - ho tzi - vi - so pe - ru

12

un shtey oyf
ge - zint
si - du - re n - so - khe - ho

makh
man-ge - ho

ge - zun - tin - ker - heyt

to - a - me
ho
-

o - fn
kho - lu

ey - ge - lekh
she - ho im
3

zey tsu
lo - lom

un
ko -

zol khay -

stu
yim

makh zey
vod
yin -

shlo - fn.
zo - khu.

Ai leh lyu leh / Sleep my dearest child, / Close your little eyes / And awaken in perfect
health. / Close and open your eyes / In perfect health. / (A.W.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have instituted the Sabbath and favorably accepted its offerings. You have
prescribed its special duties and the order of its libations. Those who observe it with joy
will forever possess glory. Those who enjoy its happiness merit eternal life.
Example 14a. Idelsohn 1932b: 149, No. 521.

Dos

kind

ligt

in

vig - e - le

mit

oys - ge - veyn - te

ma - me ligt oyf di erd

ma

me

di

fis

ni - to

oys - ge - tsoy - gn

ni - to

ni - to

oi - gn

di

ni - to

kayn ne - kho

kayn

me.

The child lies in its crib / Its eyes have no more tears. / The mother, with outstretched
feet / lies prostrate on the ground. / No mother / No solace . / (A.W.)
Example 14b. Kipnis 1910: 123-124, No. 54; Idelsohn 1932b: 134, No. 473;
Beregovsky-Fefer 1938: 290-291.

19

3 3 3

Va - ti - ten

lo - nu, A - do - noi

kol a - vo - no - se - nu

v lis- li -kho ul-kha -po - ro v -lim -khol bo es

mik - ro

b - a - ha - vo

es yom ha - kip - pu - rim ha-ze lim - khi - lo

E - lo - he - nu,
3

ko - desh

ze - kher li - tzi - as mitz - ro - yim

You, Lord our God, have graciously given us this Day of Atonement wherein all our
iniquities are to be pardoned and forgiven, a holy festival in remembrance of the exodus
from Egypt.
Example 14c. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

The sheltered child, now in the Tsars army, recalls with nostalgia the
comforts of home. He intones the basic motifs he probably heard from an
old precentor during the Yom Kippur Morning service (Ex. 15.).

Di
mam - me tmikh ge
L - vo - khen
l - vo
4

pu - ter
din

ho vos

de - vet

un
fon - iet mir ge - ge - bn a
l - go - leh a - mu - kos

oyf
b -

milkh
yom

biks
ba

far
-

a
-

un

oyf

mu - ter.
din.

My mother brought me up on milk and butter but the Russian army suppliied me with
a gun to be my mother. (A.W.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who tests the heart on the Day of Judgement and brings to light profound things in
judgement
Example 15. Cahan 1938: 340.

20

Love songs
Among prayer modes in the Eastern European synagogues is one often referred to as Ukranian-Dorian (whose scalar outline is: G-A-Bb-C#-D-E-F).
It is applied to such texts as Mi shebeirakh, ov horahamim, Kevakoras and
Havein yakir li (He Who Blessed, Father of Mercy, As A Shepherd, and
My Precious Son). Both the reluctant soldier drafted into the Tsars army
and the love-struck maiden used this mode, recalled from synagogue chants,
to express their sentiments (Exs 16a.-16b.).
1

Dos fer - tsen - te yor
Ha - ven
ya

iz
ya

on - ge - ku kir
li ef - ra -

nu - men oy vey
shu - im ki mi

men
nu

oy oy oy oy oy oy
ra
yim,
-

men
yim

mikh ge - nu
ez - k - re

oy
ef

mikh ge sha
-

on - ge - ku - men
kir
li

fer - tsen - te yor

ven

12

iz
-

oy
od

oy oy oy oy
de
dab - ri

oy

oy

in
im

za

in
zo

oy
bo

oy

oy

Dos
Ha -

pas hot men

ye - led

oy

za - pas hot men

khor

oy

When I turned fourteen, oy, oy, oy / I was taken into the reserves, / oy, oy, oy /
(A.W.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it because Ephraim is my favorite son, my beloved child? As often as I speak of him, I

remember him fondly
Example 16a. Beregovski-Fefer 1938: 122.

21

Di mam - me hot mir ge - shikt

K - va
ko - ras
-

13

koy - fn a yash - tshik

ro - eh
ed - ro

kash - tshik
shiv - to,

mir far
vsif
-

oy iz
ken

zay - ne
kod

dos a
a
bokh - e - rl
ta - a - vir v - sis - por

hot zikh in mir far - libt a bokh - er a prima - a - vir tzo - no

ta - khas

beyn - de - lakh
fesh
ne
-

sheyns
v
-

un a
sim
-

kets - e - le
kol

fayns
ne

du mayns.
khai.

My mother sent me to buy a box. / Thereupon the sales clerk, a young lad, / Fell in love
with me. / Oh what a fine, handsome lad is he. / Dear to me is his every little bone / Oh
my little kitten. (A.W.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a shepherd seeks out his flock, making each sheep pass under his rod, so do You
make all living souls pass before You.
Example 16b. Idelsohn 1932b: 170, no. 594; Kipnis 1918: 38-39, No. 18.

The melodic pattern of the following love song (Ex. 17a.) has with negligible
alterations a likely source, or counterpart, in the Tfillas Shaharis (Weekday
Morning Service), as heard in many a Hasidic shtibl (prayer and study hall;
Ex. 17b.).
1

Trayb

di

ve

ln shnel - er

taykh

trayb durkh barg durkh tol

tsu mayn lib

ster gi

- kher kum un

gris

ir

toy

zend mol

Drive these waves, oh swift river / Past mountain and valley, / Speedily come to my
beloved / And greet her a thousand times. / (A.W.)
Example 17a. Idelsohn 1932b: 68, no. 253.

22

Va - a - ni b - khas - d - kho vo - takh - ti

yo - gel li - bi bi - shu - o - se - kho

ossia:

o - shi - ro - la - do - noi

ki go - mal o - loi

ki go - mal o - loi

I have trusted in Your kindness; may my heart rejoice in Your salvation; I will sing to the
Lord, because he has treated me kindly.
Example 17b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

The bulk of Yiddish folksongs are in a synagogue mode commonly designated as Mogein Ovos (Our Forebears Shield). In its Ashkenazic Eastern
European form its scalar outline can be charted as D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C-D, a
mode that resembles natural minor. A characteristic of its motivic patterns
is its frequent turns to the relative major and prompt return to its original
minor. The following folksong (Ex. 18.), whichin free rhythmcould easily
serve as a setting for the Sabbath and Festival Morning prayer Eil hahodoos
(God Crowned with Adoration), exemplifies this predilection.

Pa - pir iz dokh vays

13

harts

un

tint iz dokh shvartz tsu dir mayn zis

khvolt shten - dik

ku - shn dayn sheyn

ge - ze - sn

po - nim

un

tsu

dray tog nokh

hal - tn

dayn

le - bn

tsit dokh mayn

a - nand

tsu

hant.

Paper is white and ink is black, / Sweet life, it is for you that my heart yearns, / I could
sit for three days / And constantly kiss your lovely face, / And hold your hand. / (A.W.)
Example 18. Cahan 1912: I, 78-79, No. 47; Cahan 1957: 109-110, No.100;
Beregovsky-Fefer 1938: 148.

While, admittedly, numerous Yiddish folksongs can be traced to non-Jewish
sources, a great many exhibit structural peculiarities that are embedded
in the fabric of synagogue music. To cite an example, one of the most well

23

known Eastern European zmiros is the traditional tune for Kol mkadeish
shvii (Ex. 19a.).
1

Kol

kol

m - ka - desh

ko

s - kho - ro

ka

har - be - m - od

al

ma - kha - ne

hu

- ro

ui

lo

me - kha - l - lo

[5]

[3]

dos

al

sh - vi - i

sho - mer shab - bos

ish

pi

[5]

[3]

fo - o - lo
[4]

al

dig - lo

v - ish

[4]

[1]

Whoever duly observes the Sabbath, / Whoever keeps the Sabbath unprofaned, / Shall
be greatly rewarded for his deed, / Each in his own camp, each in his own house. /
Example 19a. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

This tune, which is frequently sung to such Sabbath Morning prayer

texts as Ein kerkkho and Eil odon (None Compare to You and Lord, God
over All), consists of four phrases which end on modal degrees 5, 3, 4 and 1,
respectively. These notes represent a cantillation motif (Lithuanian tradition)
that signals the conclusion of each section of the Pentateuch read publicly
(Ex. 19b).

mer-kho

tip

[5]

[3]

kho

sof

[4]

[1]

po - suk

Example 19b. Idelsohn 1951: 491.

When encountering a Yiddish folksong that adheres to this pattern, one

may be justified in claiming for it a kinship to synagogue chant rather than
to a remote source (Ex. 19c.).

24

Ikh dayn mu - ter

mu - tik

kref - tig

13

mu - tik

kref - tig

vintsh ikh dir

zols - tu

un for - akh - tung

has

vig dikh kind

Ay - le

lyu

shtay - gn mayn kind fun

zols - tu

[5]

makh day - ne ey - ge - lekh

a - tsind

tsay - gn

tsu
[3]

lyu

yetst

shi
[4]

on
[1]

tsu

dem

vil - dn

ti - ran

I, your mother, rock you to sleep, / Close your little eyes. / Courage and strength I wish
you now / Ai le lyu lyu shi, / For from here on, my child, / You must strive to show /
Hatred and contempt for the wild tyrant. / (A.W.)
Example 19c. Idelsohn 1932b: 138, No. 487.

An examination of the Ahavoh Rabboh mode whose scalar form can be

written as G-Ab-B-C-D-Eb-F# will reveal a tendency, particularly with longer
texts, to move to the subtonic in the penultimate phrase. If a modulation occurs in this mode, as a rule it is to the fourth degree. Some of these intrinsic
characteristics are clearly illustrated in the following example (Ex. 20a.).

Ver shot nor ge - kent mayn Yan- ke - le dem ge - vi - sn

13

mi - tn he - ln tog

ver shot im - ge - khapt

klep mit di

ku - la - kes

shli - se - le ge - ri - sn

hot dokh im - ge - klapt

hot er

oys - ge - khapt

tay - er Yan -

ke - le

tay - er yan

ke - le

tay - er yan

tay - er yan

in

oy

ke - le

ke - le.

Whosoever knew my Yankele, that particularly dear Yankele, / One day he picked a
lock, my dear Yankele, / Oh whosoever caught him, beat him up, dear Yankele, / They
beat him with their fists, oh dear Yankele. / (A.W.)
Example 20a. Idelsohn 1932: 168, No. 586.

25

A popular love song finds natural affinity with Ahavoh Rabboh motifs
frequently heard in various prayers of the Sabbath Amidah (Ex. 20b.).

Tif
in vel - de - le shteyt a bey - me - le
Ki she - shes yo - mim o - so A - do - noi

un di tsvay - ge - lakh bli

en
es ha- sho-ma - yim v - es ho - o - rets

un
bay mir
u - va - yom

o - rem shnay - de - rl tut mayn harts - e - le tsi ha - sh - vi - i sho - vas va - yi - no - fash

en.

Deep in a little forest, / Stands a little tree, / Its branches are blooming / And in me,
poor little tailor / Something tugs at my heart. / (A.W.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He
ceased from work and rested.
Example 20b. Cahan 1912: I, 22, No. 13; Cahan 1957: 75-76, No/61; Idelsohn
1932b: 153, no. 536; Beregovski-Fefer 1938: 142.

The tragic ballad of Brayndele (Ex. 20c.) finds its appropriate vehicle in
the same musical and liturgical source (Ex. 20c.).
A misfortune has befallen Brayndele / Alas, there is pain for her mother now. / In all the
streets they say / Brayndele has given birth to a child. / (A.W.)

Shot Brayn - de - len an um - glik ge - tro - fn

tsind

men redt shoyn in a - le

ga - sn

oy

vey

iz

ir

ma - men a -

az Brayn - de- le

hot shoyn a

Example 20c. Cahan 1912: I, 204-205, No. 7; Cahan 1957: 60, No. 44.

26

kind

V - se - khe - ze - no

yon

ha

b - ra - kha - mim.
3

ma

- kha - zir

ne - nu

sh - khi - no

b - shuv - kho

Bo - rukh
3

so

to

l - tsi -

A - do

noi,

tzi -

yon.

May our eyes behold Your return in mercy to Zion. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who
restores Your divine presence to Zion.
Example 20d. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

A motif (Ex. 21a.), reminiscent of the High Holiday Musaf Kaddish,13 appears in the following song of unrequited love (Ex. 21b.).

Yis - ga - dal

vi - yis - ka - dash

sh -

me

ra - bo

Glorified and sanctified be Gods great name.

Example 21a. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

rn

Und - zer li - be iz ge - shlo - sn ge - vo -

itst mayn tay - e - rer

lib - ster

a - zoy vi an ay - ze - ner

iz

gor - nisht ge - vo - rn fun

brik

un

glik

Our love was as strong as an iron bridge, and now my love, nothing remains of our
happiness. (A.W.)
Example 21b. Idelsohn 1932b: 152, No. 530; Beregovski-Fefer 1938: 188.
13 Musaf (Additional), service following the Torah reading on Sabbaths and
holy days. Kaddish (Sanctification), doxology almost entirely in Aramaic and recited
with congregational responses, it has five different liturgical forms. For the variety of
its traditional musical settings in the synagogue see Abraham Baer (1930: passim) and
Aron Friedmann (1901: passim).

27

Wedding songs
Until the early part of the 20th century the services of a Badkhn (or Marshelik)
were considered indispensable at a proper Eastern European Jewish wedding.14
His various tasks were not merely to entertain the guests with witticisms and
humorously sentimental semi-improvised rhymes, but also to impress upon
the bride the religious significance of marriage, the sanctity of a Jewish home
and the marital obligations of a pious Jewish wife. At the badekns (veiling of
the bride before the wedding rite) one could hear him intone the following
sermon in song (Ex. 22a.).
1

Du

Bald

du

vet men di khu - pe

na - ye velt

veys

bist dem kho - sn ge - fe - ln vo - rn

3

ves - tu

shte - ln

der - zen

e - pes

nit

du darfst zikh frey - en

tsi

bald

bist

a - zoy sheyn un fayn

vet

di

kha - se - ne

zayn

oy

zogt men az
3

zi

iz zeyr sheyn nor ikh

ka - le - nyu veyn - zhe veyn.

You have pleased the bridegroom, / For you are beautiful and fine. / Soon the wedding
canopy will be raised, / Soon the wedding will take place. / You will see a new world
/ One hears that it is very beautiful. / Yet, its not certain whether you ought to be
happy. / So weep dear bride, oh weep. / (A.W.)
Example 22a. Idelsohn 1932b: 69, No. 258; Beregovski-Fefer 1938: 254.

Humming this simple chant, I recalled an old baal tfillah (literally, master
of prayer, frequently denoting an amateur or lay precentor in contrast to the
more artistic professional hazzan) who prefaced the chanting of the Yom
Kippur Eve prayer Kol Nidre in the following manner (Ex. 22b.).15
14 Badkhn (Hebrew Badhan, Yiddish: merrymaker ); Marshelik (Yiddish: jester).
For further selected literature see S. Weissenburg (1905: 59-74), Jacob Zismor (1923),
Ezekiel Lifschutz (1952: 40-43) and Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett (1974).
15 This chant, in fact, was quite well known in both Eastern and Central European
Jewish communities. The distinguished American Jewish composer Hugo Weisgall
relates that his father, Hazzan Abba Yosef Weisgal, habitually chanted the Kol Nidre
introduction Biyshivoh in this manner.

28

3

Bi - y shi - vo shel ma - lo

u - vi - y - shi - vo shel ma - to

v al da - as ha - ko - hol

al da - as ha - mo - kom

nu ma - ti - rin

l his - pa - lel im ho - a - var - yo - nim.

By authority of the heavenly court / And by authority of the earthly court / With the
consent of the Omnipresent One / and with the consent of this congregation / We
declare it lawful to pray with sinners. /
Example 22b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Another Badkhn song addressed to the bride before the wedding proper
occurs during the bazetsns ceremonial (traditional seating of the bride on a
chair in her home, during which her hair is braided prior to being cut; Ex.
22c.). It is clearly based on a concluding motif from the Sabbath morning
service (Ex. 22d.).
1

Shey - ne

li - be

ma - zl

zol

dir

ka - le

her

ikh

shay - nen

vi

di

zog

dir

for

zun

iz

dayn

klor

Beautiful, lovely bride, / Hear now I command you. / May your good fortune / Shine as
clearly as the sun. / (A.W.)
Example 22c. Cahan 1912: II, 53, No. 37; Idelsohn 1932b: 156, No. 547; Cahan
1957: 271-272, No. 301.
3

Bo - rukh

a - to A - do - noi,

ha - tov

shim - kho

ul - kho no - e

l- ho - dos.

Blessed are You, O Lord, Beneficent One, to Whom it is fitting to give thanks.
Example 22d. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

29

Drinking song
The following humorous drinking song (the opening of a longer childrens
rhyming song; Ex. 23a.) reveals pentatonic-like motifs of the Weekday Amidah (Ex. 23b.).
1

Ei - le

tol - dos

gle - ze - le

vayn

noy - ekh

iz der

fun

i - ker

bran - fn

fun

krigt men

bron - fn

vert men

koy - ekh

shi - ker.

These are Noahs generations, / There is a power in strong libations. / Without measure
pour each glass, / Sing heigh-ho, in vino veritas. / (A.W.)
Example 23a. Cahan 1912: II, 153-154, No. 78; Idelsohn 1932b: 12, No. 32,
Variant 3; Cahan 1957: 355-356, No. 448.
1

Slakh lo - nu

o - vi - nu ki kho - to - nu

mkhal lo - nu mal - ke - nu ki fo - sho - nu

3

3

ki mo - khel v so - le -akh o - to.

Bo -rukh a - to A - do - noi,

3
3

kha - nun ha - mar - be lis - lo - akh.

Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned; / Pardon us, our King, for we have
transgressed, / For You do pardon and forgive. / Blessed are You, O Lord, / Who are
gracious and ever forgiving. /
Example 23b. Oral tradition (Eastern Europe).

Conclusion
To sum up: Jewish liturgical music extended beyond the walls of the synagogue
and entered the homes, workshops and social gatherings of young and old,
male and female. As literary proof of this contention let me cite brief passages
from the so-called founding fathers of Yiddish literature: Mendele MoykherSforim (Sh. Y. Abramovitsh, 1852-1915); Isaac Leib Peretz (1836-1917); and
Sholem Aleichem (Sholom Rabinovitsh, 1859-1916).

30

In his novella Dos kleine mentshele (The Little Man; 1864) Mendele
describes the unbridled excitement that prevailed whenever a guest khazn
arrived for the Sabbath (Mendele 1928: ii).

The press of the crowd was frightful. People jostled and stepped on each
other as I squeezed in toward the khazn because like all Jews I love to
sing Shabbos afternoon everyone was busy. This one screamed, others
screeched. One rumbled like a bass, a second attempted to imitate a
falsetto, while a third grimaced and forced his vocal chords, and a fourth
one tried to sound like a flute. Then the whole gang ran up to the womens
gallery where we attempted to reconstruct the tune to which the khazn
sang Mi Shebeirakh.

In one of his Yokhanan Melamed stories, Di kloleh (The Curse; 1897),

Peretz has a poor tailor relating his life story to his rich patroness (Peretz
1947: iv).

And the tailor told her that he knew by heart practically all khazonishe
compositions, even those of great cantors who officiated at services where
admission was charged. How? He managed to sneak in through the window
in order to hear the music.

Sholem Aleichem, who evinced an exceptional sympathy for music in

general and Jewish music in particular, wrote in his novel Stempenyu (1888;
Sholem Aleichem 1925: xxi-xxii).

Until her fifteenth-sixteenth year Rokhele sang like a free little bird
whether a khazonishe Nakdishkho or Kvakoras, a Hasidic niggun or all
sorts of band music, Rokhele sang everything in her lovely voice that was
a delight to hear.

The creators of Yiddish folk songs often imitated, borrowed or transformed the melodies of their non-Jewish neighbors. In most cases,
however, especially in those songs where a mood of sadness, loneliness,
pain and despair prevail, they preferred a melodic style more intimately
related to their own folk spirit. Such a melodic repertoire was readily available in the synagogue. The musical material they adopted (or
adapted) was not limited to stray motifs but substantially incorporated
complete tunes from the liturgical repertoire.

31

References Cited
Avenary, Hanoch

1971

The Concept of Mode in European Synagogue Chant, Yuval, Jerusalem

2: 11-21.

Baer, Abraham

1930

Baal Tfillah oder der practischer Vorbeter, Fifth edition, Nuremberg:

J. Bulka.

Beregovski, Moshe and Itsik Fefer

1938

Yidishe Folkslider, Kiev: Melukhe-Farlag far di natsyonale minderheyten

USSR.

Birnbaum, Philip

1949

Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem (Daily Prayer Book) New York: Hebrew Publishing Company.

1950

Ha-Mahazor Ha-Shalem (High Holiday Prayer Book) New York:

Hebrew Publishing Company.

Cahan, Yehude-Leyb,

1912-20 Yidishe Folkslider mit Melodyen, oysdem Folksmoyl, two volumes, New
York-Warsaw: Di internatsyonale bibliotek Farlag Co.

1938

Yidishe Folklor in Shriften fun Yiddisher Visnshaftlikher Institut, Vol.

IX Philol. Ser., Vol. V, Vilna.

1957

Yidishe folkslider mit melodyes, ed., Max Weinreich, New York: Yiddish
Scientific Institute (YIVO).

Cohon, Baruch Joseph

1951

The Structure of the Synagogue Prayer Chant, Journal of the American

Musicological Society 3 (1): 17-32.

Freimann, Jakob

1891

Sefer Hasidim, Second edition, Frankfurt (Based on an edition by J.

Wistinetzky, Berlin, 1891).

Friedmann, Aron

1901

Schir Lischlaumau: Chasonus (vor allem nach dem traditionellen

Weisen) fr das ganze Liturgische Jahr, Berlin: Deutsch-Israelitischen
Gemeindebunde.

Glantz, Leib

1952

The Musical Basis of Nusah, Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference Convention of the Cantors Assembly (Kiamesha Lake, NY);
16-25.

32

Idelsohn, Abraham Zvi

1929

Jewish Music in its Historical Development, New York: Henry Holt,

Inc.

1931-32 The Kol Nidre Tune, Hebrew Union College Annual 8-9: 493-
509.

1932a, The Synagogue Song of the East European Jews, Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister (Vol. VIII of the Thesaurus of Oriental-Hebrew Melodies).

1932b, The Folk Song of the East European Jews, Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister
(Vol. IX of the Thesaurus of Oriental-Hebrew Melodies).

1933,

The Traditional Songs of the South German Jews, Leipzig: Friedrich

Hofmeister (Vol. VII of the Thesaurus of Oriental-Hebrew Melodies).

1951

The Jewish Song Book (Sefer Shirat Yisrael), Third edition, enlarged and
revised by Baruch J. Cohon, Cincinnati: Publications for Judaism.

Kipnis, Menahem

1918

60 Folks-lider, Warsaw: Farlag A. Gitlin.

1925

80 Folks-lider, Warsaw: Farlag A. Gitlin.

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara

1974

Jewish Wedding in Eastern Europe: The Role of Music in a Ritual Event,

unpublished paper delivered at the Jewish Liturgical Music Society of
America, New York, Jan. 22, 1974.

Lehman, Shmuel

1921,

Arbayt un Frayheyt, Warsaw: Folklor Bibliotek.

1928

Ganovim-Lider, Warsaw: Farlag Pinkes Gravbard.

Lifschutz, Ezekiel

1952

Merry Makers and Jesters among Jews: Materials for a Lexicon, Yivo
Annual for Jewish Social Science (New York) 7: 43-48 (originally published as Badkhonim un Leytsim bay Yidn, Arkhiv far der Geshikhte
fun yidishn Teater un Drama, Vilna: 1930, 1: 38-74).

Mendele Moykher Sforim

1928

Collected Works, Vol. II, Warsaw: Farlag Mendele.

Peretz, Y. L.

1947

Collected Works, Vol. IV, New York: CYCO.

Rubin, Ruth

1973,

Voices of a People: The Story of Yiddish Folksong, Second edition, New

York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Company.

33

Sholem Aleichem

1925

Collected Works, Vols. XXI-XXII, New York: Sholem Aleichem Folksfond Oysgabe.

Shtern, Yekhiel

1948

Kheyder un Beys Medresh, Yivo Bleter (New York) 31/32: 37-130.

Spector, Johanna L.

1950

The Kol Nidreat least 1200 years Old, Jewish Music Notes, JWB
Circle (New York, October): 3-4.

Weissenberg, S.

1905

Eine Jdische Hochzeit in Sudenrussland, Mitteilungen zur Jdischen

Volkskunde, Berlin, 15 (1): 59-74.

Werner, Eric

1976

A Voice Still Heard: The Sacred Songs of the Ashkenazic Jews, University
Park and London: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Wohlberg, Max

1953

The History of the Musical Modes of the Ashkenazic Synagogue and

their Usage, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Conference Convention
of the Cantors Assembly Highmount, NY: 36-43.

1971

The Music of the Yom Kippur Liturgy, Philip Goodman, ed., The
Yom Kippur Anthology, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society
of America, pp. 99-112.

Yasser, Joseph, 1956

1956

The Structural Aspect of Jewish Modality, The JewishMusic Forum

Bulletin, New York, 10: 33-35.

Zismor, Jacob

1923

Fun mayne Zikhroynes vegn batkhonim, Pinkes, Vilna.

Hazzan Max Wohlberg (1907-1996) helped found the Cantors Assembly of America
and the Jewish Theological Seminarys Cantors Institute. He spent a lifetime
researching and collecting synagogue melodies and was a beloved teacher of nusah to
almost two generations of cantorial students until his death. He was a prolific composer
of recitatives and settings for sections of the liturgy, as well as the author of numerous
articles and a regular columnPirkei Hazzanut for the Cantors Voice Newsletter
from 1951 to 1963. This article first appeared in Musica Judaica 2, 1, 1977-78, and
is reprinted here with the Editors kind permission.

34

Cantorial Elements in Rumshinskys Early Songs

(1910-1919)
By Bret Charles Werb

Introduction
Joseph Moshe Rumshinsky (1881-1956) composed more than a hundred
operettas for the Yiddish theatre,1 each with a dozen or more dramaturgically
relevant pop songsnot to mention overtures and interludes.
As a youngster in Lithuania, his singing was already noticed by a series
of local cantors to whom he was apprenticed, followed by a brief engagement
with the troupe of famed Yiddish actress Esther Rokhl Kaminski. He received
formal instruction in piano and theory from a private academy in Vilna, and
later studied conducting at the Warsaw Conservatory.
At 18 he founded the Hazomir (Nightingales) of Lodz, the worlds first
Jewish choral society. Facing conscription into the Russian army, he opted to
leave Poland and settle in London. There he became convinced that his future
as a composer lay with the Yiddish theatre, and that the Theatres future lay in
America. He arrived in New York City, then world center of Jewish culture,
in 1904.
By the mid-teens of the 20th century he was generally acknowledged
as the leading composer for the Yiddish stage. The period stretching from
just before the First World War to the mid-1920s marked the creative high
point of Rumshinskys career. By then, however, the Yiddish theatre faced
a serious crisis. A new generation of theatergoers, largely composed of the
native-born children of immigrants, demanded an entertainment reflecting
their own ideals and aspirations. Rumshinsky responded by entering into
an artistic collaboration with the American-born comedienne Molly Picon.
Spotlighting Picons farcical, new world persona, a subsequent string of
musical comedies set the tone for the long final phase of Yiddish-American
music theatre, during which Rumshinsky maintained a steady rate of production.
During his lifetime Rumshinsky was hailed as the creator of the modern Yiddish operetta, and praised both for his musical artistry, which was
likened to that of prominent mainstream composers Jerome Kern and Victor
Herbert, and for his decisive role in creating a Yiddish light opera equal to the
1
Macy Nulman, Concise Encyclopedia of Jewish Music (New York: McGrawHill), 1975: 210.

35

best products of the Euopean and American schools. Significantly, from the
standpoint of the evolution of the Yiddish popular song, he is credited with
being the first to infuse traditional Jewish music with American rhythms.2
The music of five early theatre hits
When Cole Porter wrote a brief, quasi-cantorial quasi-wail into the chorus
of his 1938 show tune My Heart Belongs to Daddy, he took for granted that
the allusionto Jewish music and to American Jewswould not be lost on
the mainstream Broadway crowd. Porter, as an outsider to Yiddish popular
music, seized on its most conspicuous features for his passing comment on
the Jewish manner; his outsiders insight makes an effective starting point
for an overall description of the musical style:

G7

heart be - longs

to Dad - dy

Da - da. da - da - da. da - da - da - ad!

3
3

So I

Example 1. My Heart Belongs to Daddy, Refrain, mm 21-24

Within the confines of this passage, Daddy touches upon the three most
salient and stereotypical affects of Yiddish popular music: minor modality;
melodic use of the augmented-second interval; and emulation of liturgical
chant. Of these, minor modality is the most fundamental, as basic to Yiddish
pop as use of the major mode was to contemporary mainstream popular
music. In fact, Alec Wilder, whose large-scale analytic study of American
popular music is a model of its kind, more than once in his commentary
presumes an ethnic cast to a Jewish piece simply because it is in the minor
mode.3 Minor modality was less pointedly ethnic in the Old Country. As
Beregovski4 observed, the Ashkenazic Jews shared minor-mode predilections
2
Zalmen Zylbercweig, Dos Rumshinsky-bukh, 1931: 40.
3
Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 (New
York: Oxford University Press), 1972: 244, 246, 251, etc.
4
Moshe Beregovsky, Old Jewish Folk Music, ed. & tr. Mark Slobin (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press), 1982: 294. Implied here is the subtle (even subliminal)

36

with their medieval Rhineland neighbors, and later and eastward, the various
Slavic peoples among whom they settled.
More tellingly an unambiguously Yiddish, however, is Yiddish pops
fondness for the melodic augmented second, an interval that, barring
conscious exoticisms such as Porters three-note motif, was unknown to
American popular music. In his important article The Evolution of a Musical Symbol in Yiddish Culture (1980), Mark Slobin traces the history of
the augmented second from its likely origin in the liturgical modes Ahavah
Rabbah and Mi SheBeirakh to its apotheosis as the Jewish national interval.
Traditional Jewish music of two augmented-second scales: the freygishalso
called frigishbecause of its lowered-second degree suggested the Gregorian Phrygian mode; and the altered Dorian (also called Ukranian-Dorian
or raised-fourth) variety, where the augmented interval appears between
the third and fourth steps of the scale. Ashkenazic cantors have historically
proclaimed the Jewishness of the augmented seconddespite the fact
that, as with minor modality, the feature is clearly characteristic of several
east European music cultures.5 Yet, as Slobin makes plain, provenance and
pedigree are beside the point; the heart of the importance of the augmented
second to Yiddish culture lies in its symbolic content, in the commingling of
melody-type and (at least aspects of ) self-identity.6
Porters lyric to the cited passage of My Heart Belongs to Daddy
supplies the third stereotypic feature of Yiddish pop (also the slipperiest to
isolate and detail): liturgical chant or khazonus. Every major composer for
influence Yiddish theatre music may have had on Tin Pan Alleys Golden Agea
separate study from the overt, acknowledged influences. Composers in both idioms
were close colleagues, geographically (New York City was the creative locus), culturally
(often sharing a common Yiddish-speaking immigrant background) and sometimes
socially (Rumshinsky associated with Gershwin and Berlin, among others).
5
Mark Slobin, The Evolution of a Musical Symbol in Yiddish Culture, Studies
in Jewish Folklore, F. Talmage, ed. (Cambridge, MA: Association for Jewish Studies),
1980, p. 319.
6
The mode has longstanding Semitic connotations at either periphery of the
former Islamic empire, i.e., India as well as Europe; and if, as Eric Werner (A Voice Still
Heard... The Sacred Songs of the Ashkenazic Jews, University Park and London, The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976: 56 -58; cited om Slobins Evolution article,
p. 316) suggests, its European presence derived from multiple Asiatic infiltrations. The
Ashkenazic cantorsSemites themselves for whom the mode was an item of culture
borne in exilewere quite justified in claiming primacy over their neigbors, who had
absorbed the style from intermediaries.

37

the Yiddish stage was well-versed in liturgical music, most having served
apprenticeships in the choirs of renowned touring cantors. At that time,
Rumshinsky remarked concerning the days of his own apprenticeship, the
shul (synagogue) and the khazn (cantor) were, for the Jews, the opera, the
operetta and the symphony.7 The composer might have added that for many
Jewish musicians, the synagogue choir served as conservatory as well. Khazonus was emebedded in the personal and collective music-consciousness of
these composers, and the liturgical style, including that of semi-devotional
Hasidic niggunim (textless melodies), inevitably redounded to the secular
Jewish music they were to create. The khazonus idea turns up on occasion
in Yiddish pop as citation or parody, but most often in an allusive manner,
as a suggestion of the liturgical style; hence the present terms khazonus (in
quotes) or the khazonus idea used in reference to this style. Although not
so easily reduced to music tangibles as other components of Yiddish pop, the
liturgical influence may be recognized in repeated-note (parlando or quasirecitative) or melismatic passages, most often over a suspended metric pulse,
and sustained or slowly changing harmonies.
Wilder disliked Porters burlesque of synagogue chant, admitting
that he found the inside humor of this song in poor taste. In his view, the
parodic trope Da-da, dada-da, da-da-da (-ad) was an uncouth reference
to Daddys Jewishness.8 Yet the same echo of the liturgy served the world
of Yiddish pop where, with its parochial and pious referents, khazonus offered no less obvious a clue to yiddishkayt than the symbol-laden augmented
second.
Abraham Goldfaden, the founding father of the Yiddish theatre, had explored the symbology of khazonus and the augmented second while forging a
popular Jewish style in his European Yiddish operettas. Yiddish pop reached
its definite shape, however, only in the New World, where, estranged from
its native sphere, it could be defined by what it was not. The transplanted
Jewish composer, explains Slobin,

... worked in an environment in which the local folk and popular materials
presented a radical disjuncture, both in language and tonal material, with
the Yiddish tradition. Anglo-American song simply does not make use of
the augmented second, and is not predominantly cast in the minor mode,
the favorite tonality of Yiddish and much East European folksong, but
rather stresses the major mode, along with the pentatonic, Dorian, and

7
Translated from Zylbercweig by Mark Slobin, Tenement Songs (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press), 1982: 32.
8 Wilder, American... , 1972: 246.

38

Mixolydian modes of England and Scotland. Thus, using the augmentedsecond melody-types has a new meaning in the New World.9

Entering its American phase, then, the style of Yiddish popular music coalesced around those traits most distinct from the music mainstream.
While its musical components were being assessed and renewed in the
light of turn-of-the-century America, Yiddish pop first became allied with
the formal scheme of the Tin Pan Alley tune; the prevailing pop idiom of the
mainstream. The Alley style, of course, evolved over time, and did not attain its
modern standard aspect until the mid-to-late teens of the 20th century, with
its second generation of composers. In form, however, it has remained stable,
the basic structure being verse/refrain, with the verse serving an essentially
introductory function to the refrains burden of the memorable music and
text. A quintessential formula refrain linked eight-measure phrases (melodically dominated by the initial phrase) to yield an overall AABB, 32-measure
song form.
Rumshinsky arrived on the scene at a time of transition in mainstream
music, and the style he adopted reflects both the early Alley and the later,
more mature pop idiom. To investigate the various factors (traditional as well
as New World) affecting his music, it is best to turn to the songs themselves.
In the following pages, five Rumshinsky hit songs selected from Zybercweig10
will be examined from a musical-analytical point of view.

SONG I

Mamenyu (1910)
E minor
Mamenyu, the Triangle Fire elegy, is cast in a conventional early Yiddish
pop form, with a brief instrumental introduction based on the refrain, and
verse and refrain built on four-measure phrases. Charles Hamm11 would have
considered the piece distinctly outmoded even by contemporary mainstream
standards 40 years ago. The verse carries the burden of the text, and verse and
refrain bear equal melodic interest; Hamm lists both traits as characteristic
of the post-Civil War-to-early Tin Pan Alley period of American song.
9
10
11
360.

Slobin, Evolution... , 1980: 324.

Rumshinsky-bukh, 1931.
Yesterdays: Popular Song in America (New York: W. W. Norton), 1979: 294,

39

 Unlike their mainstream colleagues, composers for the Yiddish stage

were generally expected to orchestrate the music they wrote. This aspect of
the Yiddish stage composers profession, though of secondary importance
to the style overall, was not without its effect on the music. As a representative early work of Rumshinskys, Mamenyu can serve as a platfrom for the
discussion of this tributary to the Yiddish pop style.
Evidence of orchestral conception is first apparent in the outward appearance of the music. The piano accompanimenta simplified reduction
of the score for stage orchestrais frequently unpianistic; there are, as well,
occasional instrumental cues:

wen
es
es
seht
sjdi - she

starbt
aus
Volk

wen sis
wie der
inbrecht die

yng
todt
hent

dima - me - niu.
blas
in
mied
klugt
in
weint

es
Mit
Es

ken
ge - wein
brecht

Example 2. Verse, mm 5-8

Orchestral rhetoric determines the melodic (and textual) high point of

the verse. There, in the final eight measures, the steady waltz rhythm suddenly
dissipates as chords meant originally for sustaining instruments are artlessly
converted to piano music. A two-measure unison passage follows (single line
of accompaniment doubling the voice an octave lower) at the lyric:
darf men nur dos vort yusim heren / zol men beser nit geboren veren
(rather than hear the word orphan / its better to have never been born)

The effect of the ensemble unison is poignant in the orchestral setting, much
more so than the piano version which seems precariously thin-textured. Full
block chords appear at the end of this passage, again suspending the threequarter pulse, and over a tolling minor triad appropriate to the funereal content

40

of the text, the solo melody reaches to an antecedent phrase, the consequent
of which will be the first line of the refrain:

sol men be
ser
wen es wolt
kein
hu - ben spring-en - dig

mhot
a soi
men

kein
zwek
gesh - wind
wert shir - dil

nit ge - bo - ren we - ren mlait

ju - sem nit ge - we - sen wolt
sei - er todt ge - fi - nen der morg

a
dus
is

wen
de
ma - me shtarbt a
nit aus ge - strekt die hend
a
wei a ma-me klugt dort
in
der

wek
zind
still

rit.

shrek
kind
fil

Example 3. Verse, mm 19-24

Orchestral conception can be considered an important non-ethnic constituent of Rumshinskys songs, particulalrly those originating in the large-scale
operettas. In this regard, Rumshinsky remained steadfastly in the European
tradition. Fellow emigr operetta composer Victor Herbert, for example,
always wrote with the orchestra in mind; Rumshinskys Broadway contemporaries never scored their own shows.12
Suspension of pulse, reiterative harmony, and unison melodiesqualities
noted in the passage cited aboveare baldly evidenced by virtue of their orchestral origin. Yet those same qualities are intrinsic features of Yiddish pop
in their own right: orientalisms, such as the ornamental shake (Examples
3 and 4) that plainly controvert mainstream ideals (which dictate that the
accompaniment remain on-beat, the harmony unambiguous, and the proscription of melody/accompaniment unisons). Rumshinsky trades on these
qualities in Mamenyu; he also makes conspicuous use of the seemingly
endless augmented second, playing on both its symbolic and functional aspects. In what will become a favorite device of the composers, the augmented
second is introduced in a symbolic context, stated obliquely, in this instance,
at the Yiddish phrase mamme shtarbt avek (Mother is dying; Example 2, m
23). The symbolic bow of the augmented second at the very end of the verse
12
Even Gershwin, who eventually mastered the art, left the orchestration of his
Broadway musicals to hired professionals.

41

(which otherwise makes no use of the motif ) sets the stage for its functional,
or thematic use in the refrain:

1-2 Oi
3. Oi

weh
weh

ma - me niu
kin - de niu

Example 4a. Refrain, m 1-4

Lastly, the pervasiveness of the augmented-second idea in Yiddish popular

music is such that it can penetrate to the harmonic structure of a given song.
Example 4b outlines the very characteristic i-V-iv harmonic retrogression
of the first phrase of the refrain, where the harmonies trace the melodic
augmented second through the bass accompaniment:

Example 4b.

SONG II

Tsurik keyn tsiyon (1915)

D Minor

Somebody once handed Rumshinsky a book of Yiddish folksongs.

He wanted to ask him about, and also to tell him about, the fact that
Rumshinskys composition Veyiten Lekho had been included as an
authorless folk melody. This information seemed to please Rumshinsky.
I am proud, he said. Very few composers have the honor during their
lifetimes to see a work of theirs being taken for a folksong. And shaking
the mans hand, Rumshinsky said, I thank you!13

The style of Yiddish pop is best perceived by marking its deviations from
mainstream practices. Granted the major points in common: functional
harmony from the European classics and formal structure from Tin Pan Alley. Underlying these, however, is an aesthetic at odds with the mainstream
ideal, one which comes into play is Tsurik keyn tsiyon. Rumshinsky, as the
cited anecdote attests, measured his success in part by the degree to which
his work remained faithful to the anonymous folk style. By way of contrast,
the notion of anonymity as an artistic aim was inimical to the mainstream
composer (no matter how derivative his work might actually be).
13

Mendel Osherowitz, cited in Zylbercweig, Rumshinsky... , 1931: 38.

42

Zylbercweig14 noted in his chronology that Tsurik keyn tsiyon was adopted
into the anonymous Zionist repertoire not long after publication; the piece
was presumably sung at partisan gatherings throughout the United States and
Canada.15 Thus, before considering the relationship of Yiddish pop to Jewish
folk music through the context of Tsurik keyn tsiyon, the folk-Zionist connection requires some explication. Aron Marko Ruthmller has touched on this
subject, when dealing with Zionist songs in connection with folk music.16 He
traces the folkstyle of Zionist songs to the sudden popularity of the movement
at the time of the First World War. The number of partisan singing societies
(important social adjuncts to Zionist politicizing) had multiplied apace, and
the ensuing demand for choral music led to the rapid creation of a body of
works in an assimilable style, particularly folksong arrangements and original
works cast in a folk-like idiom. Perhaps the only clear-cut distinction between
the two repertoires is that Zionist songs were created to be sung en masse,
whereas, according to Beregovski,17 Jewish folk songs, in general, are solo,
performed by an individual. As a conscientious effort to remain true-to-folk
in a consciously folk-rooted style, then, Tsurik keyn tsiyon doubly qualifies
as a touchstone for the discussion of folk elements in Yiddish pop.
The folk quality of Tsurik keyn tsiyon is not evident in the verse, upholding
Sigmund Spaeths Tin Pan Alley axiom18 that only the chorus really matters
in a popular song. Here, rather, the art aspect, particularly Rumshinskys
sense of theatre, makes itself felt. The lyrics to the verse, a recitativein waltztime, toy with, but never directly state, the subject of Zion (i.e., the Jewish
national homeland, Palestine); that declaration is naturally reserved for the
refrain. Yet to underpin the plangent cry nur dort, nur dort... (only there,
only there... ), the composer allows the music to upstage the poetry, ringing
out the home and theme just prior to its first full verbal statement wth a
fragment of the Zionist anthem, Hatikvah, (Our Hope):
14 Rumshinsky-bukh, 1931: 40.
15 The songs American context is discussed with regard to the lyrics. The first
page of the sheet music bears the superscription original music by Joseph Rumshisky
(sicmy emphasis; Rumshinsky added the n to his native Rumshisky, according
to his son Murray, for ease of pronunciation)a formula not met with elsewhere.
Slobin mentions a Zionist hymn of the same name in his discussion of the Shapiro
broadsides (Tenement Songs, 1982: 100).
16 A. M. Rothmller, The Music of the Jews (New York: Thomas Yoseloff ), 1967:
137.
17 Old Jewish... , 1982: 292.
18 Quoted in Slobin, Evolution... , 1982: 121.

43

koi - mes
sho - lem

nur dort
nur dort

nur dort
nur dort

Example 5. Verse, mm 17-20

Moshe Beregovskis thoughts on the interpenetration of contiguous music

cultures can benefit an understanding of the hybrid style of Yiddish pop. In
considering the elements of Ukranian folk music adopted into Jewish tradition, and as important, pondering why these particular elements (rather than
others) were seized upon by the Jews, Beregovski touches on matters that also
apply to the case of a culture drawing on different aspects of itself:

Among the older forms of expression, those elements survive that are
most suitable to the new demands and their corresponding new ideology.
Parallel to those internal new means of expression are those taken from
the external sound environment. Naturally these borrowings are not
mechanical. Not everything that resonates in the environment is
simply adopted, and remains as foreign matter. The borrowings enter
the repertoire transformed, in accordance with the ideology of the social
stratum that borrows. Finally, not all strata and groups with folkloric
demands borrow the same folkloric elements. Each group tends to adopt
what is consonant with its new content.19

Within the formal confines of its Tin Pan Alley structure, Tsurik keyn
tsiyon shares some telling points with the folk idiom. Rothmullers general
description of the Jewish folksong style, a simple melody, with a plain harmonic foundation, not particularly rich in modulations, and clear, definite
rhythm,20 comfortably delineates the Rumshinsky tune (and, not incidentally,
much European and North American folk and popular music). The tunes
first suggestion of folklore, then, is the singability of the refrain, much less
evident in the soloistic, quasi-recitative verse.
Phrase structure accounts for another semblance to the Jewish and Greater
European folkstyle. The melodies of Jewish folk songs, as well as textless
instrumental pieces, are symmetrical, Beregovski tells us,21 also stating that
in the overwhelming majority of cases, the melodies of Jewish folk songs
are divided into periods consisting of two parts, each of which is subdivided
19 Beregovski, Old Jewish... , 1982: 25.
20 Rothmuller, The Music..., 1967: 130.
21 Old Jewish..., 1982: 293.

44

into two musical phrases... Beregovski reports that the predominant phrasal
scheme in Jewish folksong is an ABCB quatrain structure. The archetypal Tin
Pan Alley tune is formulated in eight-bar phrases, the typical refrain scheme
being AABA, yielding an overall 32-measure structure. Within its ABCD
quatrain scheme and four-bar phrase structure, Tsurik keyn tsiyon exhibits
the legacy of both its Tin Pan Alley and Yiddish folk sources.
The Beregovskian concept of adaptive consonance is important to two
other, more categorically Jewish, folklike elements of Yiddish pop. Beregovski22
noted both of these characteristics in the Introduction to his posthumously
published collection of folk melodies. First, it is a not infrequent tendency of
tunes to juxtapose an initial minor phrase with a subsequent phrase in the
relative major (Beregovski took care to distinguish between juxtaposition of
modes and modulation to another key). In this respect, the harmonic scheme
of Tsurik keyn tsiyon, with its episode in the relative major, follows the folk
convention, juxtaposing a phrase rather than effecting a modulation:
Harmonic scheme of Tsurik keyn tsiyon
A4 B4 C4 D4
i-V V-i VI-V7/VI-VI-V i-iv-V-(i)
Stemming from folkloric notions of motivic contrast, the harmonic behavior of this tune (and a great many Rumshinsky pieces) differs sharply from
the often elaborate, classically-rooted modulatory schemes of mainstream
standards.
Another folk element consonant to Yiddish pop is the tendency to invoke the augmented-second sound. Folk practice, according to Beregovsky,23
typically called for the lowered-second scale degree at cadential points, or for
the raised fourth for heightened emphasis. Beregovski believed (with regard
to the altered Dorian mode) that folk musical practice was well aware of
the expressive qualities of melodies in this scale.24 The augmented-second
idea (whether Doric or frigish) was patently seized upon by pop composers,
and for similar ends as the folk. Rumshinsky upholds both its cadential and
expressive connotations in Tsurik keyn tsiyon, where the augmented interval
(representing the lowered II of V) is used to define the works major caesura;
22
23
24

Ibid., p. 294.
Ibid., pp. 294, 296.
Ibid., p. 296.

45

it also does service as the expressive or symbolic raised fourth (reckoned

by the scale of the underlying tonic harmony).25

dort

hos

tu

dein

chay - lek

kein

Example 6. Refrain, mm 14-16

The jargon style of Yiddish pop, though distinct from the folk idiom,
clung to its source in traditional music much closer than mainstream popular
music held to the tenets of the European classics. Statements by Rumshinsky,
his mentor Abraham Goldfaden and other composers, attest to a near-filial
devotion to their mothers song, one which paralleled their professional allegiance to the mother tongue, Yiddish. For Rumshinsky and other popular
composers, the folkstimme was (to paraphrase Eric Werners phrase out of
context) the voice still heard,26 an inspiration, and a resource.
SONG III

A grus fun der heym

G minor
Until World War I, according to the New Grove, operetta at its most distinguished still verged on opera. Grand opera rhetoric suffuses (though
modestly) the present song, drawn from one of the grandest RumshinskyThomashefsky27 collaborations, Di tsubrokhene fidele. The theatrical presence
is felt immediately, in fact, in the orchestral Intrit that prefaces the piece:

25 Just as the echo of Hatikvah was reserved for a critical transitional phrase,
so the augmented second is held in theatrical reserve until the penultimate measure
of the refrains first statement (where it is repeated).
26 After the title of Werners 1976 book on the sacred songs of the Ashkenazic
Jews: A Voice Still Heard.
27 Boris Thomashefsky (1869-1939), Yiddish actor and producer, gifted with
both a magnificent voice and stage presence.

46

ten.

3 3

Example 7. Intrit

Unlike the Introductions to mainstream and most Yiddish popular songs,

the present Intrit is unrelated thematically to the rest of the piece, instead
serving the larger-scaled unity of the operetta. The triplet figure is a leitmotif
that appears in various guises throughout the production (numbers 1, 2, 3,
6 and 9 in the published Music Album of the show). As with Mamenyu
and other early Rumshinsky songs, orchestral conception is integral to the
work as a whole; here instrumental sections anticipate and elaborate the vocal part throughout the verse (mm 9-11 and 41-46). The augmented second
makes a dramatic bow as well, at the verse phrase vus zapt blut fun uns nor
aleyn (that sapped blood from us alone; verse, m 10).
Still more pointedly operatic in origin is the melodramatic passage signaling the transition from the verse to the refrain, though the grandiloquence
of the music does not quite equal the bombast of the text. A quasi-recitative
scatters the accents of waltz-time at the words valgern zikh meysim iberal
(corpses lying everywhere), and orchestra and vocalist trade motives at vi
tog azoy nakht (where day is as night). The final measures, sung to a shreklikhe shlakht (a hideous slaughter), elicit that most melodramatic of stage
affects, tremolo:

wie tog

a - soi

nacht.

a shrek - li - che shlacht.

Example 8. Verse, mm 43-48

The refrain, a plaintive memento mori, introduces a favorite Rumshinskian

device, a melody moving in parallel octaves with added thirds or sixths. This
not particularly pianisitic configuration probably derived from the attempt to
transfer orchestral (or choral) sonorities to the keyboard, and keenly evokes
the dirge-like character of the text:

47




Yid

di - she

kin

der

in

land

in

dem,

Example 9. Chorus, mm 1-4

A similarity of approach unites A grus fun der heym with the two previously discussed songs, Mamenyu and Tsurik keyn tsiyon. Each piece
precedes a metrically pronounced, cut-time refrain with a quasi-recitative
verse in three-quarter time. Each is constructed of four-bar phrases, the third
of which moves, by way of contrast, to the relative major.28 And each makes
telling use of the augmented-second idea. More clearly than the earlier works,
however, A grus fun der heym avows its provenance in grand operetta, in
the lavish and elaborate style that typified the Yiddish theatre at the time of
the songs debut. Ambitious productions were yet to come, but the War (as the
Groves author notes) signalled a new direction for light opera, as composers
began abandoning high art notions of technique and formal coherence to
embrace the forms of popular music.
SONG IV

Shema yisroel
D minor
Shema yisroel, another well-received tune from Thomashefskys 1918 hit
show Di khazente, adds to and elaborates the list of grand operetta elements discussed so far. Di khazentes Old World setting29 may explain its
retrospective musical style in contrast to a song like Fifty-Fifty, from the
chronologically earlier but determinedly American Up Town and Down
Town. Rumshinsky, at this stage of his career, evidently affected a European
manner and an American manner, depending on the plot and setting of his
various productions.30
28 This occurs in the verse of Mamenyu, in the refrain of the other two,
29 The plot of Di Khazente involved the temporary ascension of a shtetl rabbis
wife to her late husbands rabbinic throne. Their son (played by Thomashefsky) arrives for a visit from America, and by plays end has persuade the entire community
to emigrate back with him to New York City. Di Khazente was the operetta revived
for Broadway in English during the mid-1930s.
30 On the sheet music cover page, Up Town and Down Town is specifically called

48

Orchestration is integral to the outward form of this piece, according to

Henry Sapoznik and Pete Sokolows anthology,31 the rhythm of the verse
resembles that of the traditional Jewish Hora, whose [3/8] rhythm is distinctive because of the lack of a second beat. Shema yisroel adheres to no pop
formula, instead creating its own form, in this case a seven-part structure
balancing vocal and instrumental sections, as in the following example (headings for the internal divisions are editorial):
section Intro Invocation Verse Intro Verse

Transition Refrain Coda

style

inst vocal

inst

vocal vocal/inst vocal

vocal

vocal/inst

bars

4 4

16

12

Instrumental passages carry the burden of Shemas thematic and symbolic

substance. In the concluding Coda section, horn-calls play a particularly suggestive role, drawing on the implications of the opening Hebraic invocation,
shema (hear, heed, or listen):
Music

Voice

Shma

Music

Example 10. Coda, mm 1-3

Also noteworthy are the Mendelssohnian32 barcarolle device of the verse

intro, and in the transition section, the dramatic unison passage in running
sixteenths that set, respectively, the moods of the verse and refrain.
Two further elements come to the fore in Shema yisroel : khazonus and
the musical symbolism of the augmented second. Shema Yisrael is the single
most well-known prayer in Jewish liturgy; Rumshinsky respects the pious
a musical comedy (as opposed to an Operetta), the earliest use of this genre to come
to my attention.
31 The Compleat Klezmer (New York: Hal Leonard Corp.), 1987: 19.
32 Jewish composers of Rumshinskys generation (as had the Berlin synagogue
composer Louis Lewandowsky, 1813-1882, before them) embraced Felix Mendelssohn
as a model Jewish artist, and his influence in the present instance is quite clear-cut.
Rumshinsky particularly cites the oratorios of Mendelssohn as comprising an important
part of his Warsaw Conservatory repertoire, and that of his choral group, the Lodz
Hazomir, as well; Zylbercweig, 1931: 39).

49

connotations of the title by incorporating certain aspects of cantorial chant

into the music. Nulman,33 writing on Jewish liturgical recitative, recognizes
two basic styles of cantorial melisma: syllabic and ornamental. Both styles
appear in Shema yisroel. Syllabic treatment characterizes the Invocation,
where sustained or slowly changing harmonies support a melody that is
periodically restrained (by fermatas) on important notes:

Sh'ma yis - ro - el
her mich aus

Example 11a. Invocation, mm 1-4

e - lo - him
sha - dai

dein welt is

grois

The Coda offers the flashy complement to this soulful, deliberate style,
the hyperexpressive, ornamental melisma:

yis - ro - el

Shma

Sh-ma

Example 11b. Coda, mm 4-6

A final aspect of cantorial influence is the improvisatory break occurring midway (m 8) through the verse. The break, in pop and jazz parlance,
is a spontaneous (or pseudo-spontaneous) melodic filler sometimes interpolated at phrase endings. Rumshinskys use of the break can be traced, or
at least related, to cantorial practice. According to Nulman,34 spontaneous
improvisatory elaboration of the prayer modes had long been part of the
cantorial stock-in-trade, cultivated by numerous khazonim. Of course, major distinctions separate cantorial improvisation and the breaks of popular
songs. For example, popular-song breaks characteristically maintain the
ongoing pulse, while cantorial improvisations typically suspend the beat
(Rumshinskys break employs a written ritard and fermata, making it more
cantorial than most). Here as elsewhere, however, the operating principle is
stylistic consonance rather than arrogation of styles. The framework of the
33 Nulman, Encyclopedia... , 1975: 168, 203-204.
34 Ibid., p. 117.

50

pop song, as conceived by Rumshinsky and his colleagues, allowed for the
fusing of such seeming disparaties.35
rit.

ch shrei un

ruf

shma

yis - ro

el

Example 12. Verse, mm 7-8

The Rumshinskian trait of reserving the symbolic sound of the augmented

second for a musically ripe moment is evident in this song. As with other
songs, the composer takes advantage of a transition section to introduce the
pregnant interval.36 In Shema yisroel, however, the augmented second does
not appear as part of the sung melody; instead, it is introduced as an instrumental leitmotif, sounding sturdy octaves in the untexted bass. Recalling
that the Shema would be, ideally, the pious Jews last earthly utterance, the
interjection of the augmented interval into Shema yisroel was inevitable,
and particularly compelling following the lyric, Shema yisroel shrayt der yid
farn toyt (Shema Yisroel, cries the Jew just before he dies). This is, of course,
precisely the point Rumshinsky chooses to bring in.

Shma yis-ro - el

shrayt der yd

fa - ren Toidt

ch ruf zu

dir a zind

Example 13. Verse, mm 15-18Transition, mm 1-2

35 Rumshinsky makes highly effective use of the break in some later, much more
pop-oriented tunes, notably Eyshes khayil (1938).
36 This typical placement also incidentally points out the harmonic function
of the augmented second in much of Yiddish pop, where it commonly facilitates the
harmonic movement from the penultimate verse phrase to the dominant half-cadence
traditionally preceding the refrain. In the present instance, the augmented second
serves to move the harmony from the submediant, Bb, to the dominant, A.

51

SONG 5

Ikh benk aheym

E-altered frigish
Wilder waffles when confronting Porgy and Bess in the Gershwin chapter of
his book on American popular song. Because [Porgy and Bess] is universally
accepted as, and treated as, an opera, it should be... measured against operatic
criteria, a procedure that certainly lies outside the scope of this book.37 The
critics criteria, though they have not been retained, have some pertinence
to the song under present consideration, the thoroughly operatic Ikh benk
aheym. This song stems from the acknowledged high-point of the composers
career,38 and will receive a somewhat more detailed consideration than the
other pieces discussed in this study. Rumshinsky even wrote a small essay on
Gershwin (cited in Zylbercweig, 1931); it offers first-hand information on the
connection between the composer of Ikh benk aheym and the composer
of Porgy and Bess:

...he, the Jewish-American boy, captured the sounds of Broadway and

dragged them into Carnegie Hall... There were American composers
writing serious music before Gershwin,... but he was the first to transform
the rhythms of the American street into a symphonic form... From the very
first sounding of the clarinet in his Rhapsody in Blue, we feel the American
spirit, American tempo, and the singular harmonies which the Americans
call Blues chords... How, basically, does one differentiate American music
from the European? The difference lies in tempo, rhythm, and in the
nervous vitality... Gershwins tempo is not merely a street tempo... it is a
melting pot, the fusing together of many different peoples. Through the
center flits an Oriental or a Russian cry... in the opinion of our musicians,
Gershwin often shows himself to be a Jew... Take a dance of Gershwins
[Porgy and Bess], play it slowly; it is transformed into a lullaby... not...
because he intended it thus. No, this is, purely and simply, the cry of the
Semite within... Jewish melody is in his bones.39

Rumshinskys Ikh benk aheym is a pop song in the sense that it enjoyed
wide popularity for a stretch of time. In structure and compositional style,
however, it more closely resembles an opera aria than a hit tune from the
Yiddish theatre. Yet, the aria it hypothetically resembles is also removed from
the conventional mold. In terms of its form, Ikh benk aheym remains sui
generis as both classical and pop music.
37 Wilder, American... , 1972: 155.
38 Zylbercweig, Rumshinsky-bukh , 1931, passim.
39 First published by Rumshinsky in The Daily Forward (Yiddish), 1927.

52

Its form may be termed a modified rondo. The composition comprises

several recitative passages which serve to introduce and illuminate the
seminal central melody, here called the ritornello. Each recitative presents
an episode from the protagonists reveried past, depicting beloved characters
whom he impersonates in song. Although many of these passages recall the
style of operatic recitative and carry such appelatives as parlando and recitando, the resemblance to cantorial chant is equally persuasive and equally
significant. Other passages, though labeled recitative in the structural
scheme below and serving a parallel function to them, are hardly recitando
in style; most, in fact, bear orchestral leitmotifs or secondary melodic ideas.
Together with the stylistic cohesion provided by the khazonus/recitation,
this substrate of themes and motives undergirds the quasi-rondo structure
of Ikh benk aheym.
Structural Scheme of Ikh benk aheym
section: intro/recit I
segu/intro/recit/ II
34
bars: 8 4 2 4 2
charac: father mother

ritorn I

intro/recit III interlude ritorn II

3
10 6 17
choir unser rebbenyu

segu/intro/recit IV interlude ritorn III

14
534
18

grandfather uns reb

Perhaps the only clear impression to be gained from this rather woolly
outline is that the piece lacks formal clarity. Absent are the lucid formulations of the classic aria or rondo and the unambiguous profile of the Tin Pan
Alley tune. At the core of the work lies the ritornello, a Yiddish pop tune
in folk dance style.40 The intractability of the piece as a whole is reflected by
the anomalous tonality of the ritornellofrigish with a raised flat-second
degreea mode unknown and unnamed.41 Rumshinsky is emphatic about
40 A 32-bar form, with the somewhat unusual phrasal configuration AAAA ||
BBAA; the ritornello is played through in its entirety the first time only; subsequent
appearances are truncated.
41 It was standard practice for Rumshinsky and his Yiddish pop composer
colleagues to notate frigish songs in A minor, with the tonal center on E. Thus the
scale of a typical Rumshinsky frigish tune such as Eyshes khayil (1938) would be
E-F-G#-A-B-C-D. Ikh benk aheym is his only work I know of to use a mode with a

53

this mode, however, purposefully neutering the E minor signature of the

Introduction: so as to have to affirm the F-sharp anew at every occurrence.
The interjection of this altered-frigish scaleat the all-important word
heym (home)has a transmigratory effect on the course of the aria. It is
as if the strength of the exiles home-longing has, for the moment, physically
repatriated him.

rit.

Allegro

al dos guts in un - ser hois

Pno.

Ich beink

heim

mp

Allegro

Example 14. Recitative II, m 4Ritornello, mm 1-4

Later in the work, Rumshinsky again shifts mode to work a similar transmutation of mood. Recreating the singers grandfathers Hasidic ecstasy (over
the prayers for Roysh khoydesh), the composer adjusts the prevailing modality
from minor to a rapturous Mixolydian (Adonai Malakh).

raised second, major third and minor sixth. The ethnomusicologically appropriate
notation for a frigish piece (without the raised second) would be a solitary G-sharp in
the signatureunusual by Western standards.

54

Moderato

3
3


Moderato

koi - desh sein kdu - she is ge - wen gor a chi - dush

(Mezzo Voce ad Libitum)

mf

Kei-voi - doi

mo

a - lim se - lo - se

lei

oi - lom

a - yei mei - koim

ke - voi

doi

mei - shor - sov

ff

shoi -

lei

Example 15. Introduction and Recitative IV

Reiterative accompaniment figurations that express basic harmonies

punctuate the dance character of the ritornello. Special attention might be
drawn to the klezmer-like inflections (rendered as appoggiaturas) in the accompaniment to the bridge:

55

vi
git

oi wie voil

sein a
yid
is tzu

Example 16. Ritornello I, mm 17-24

The symbolic content of the songs second subject (labeled interlude

in the structural scheme) was apparent to the audience in attendance. This
melody is, in fact, Unzer rebbenyu (Our Dear Rabbi), a tune presented
earlier in the operetta to mark the sons accession to his late fathers rabbinic
throne (recall that the son rashly relinquishes this throne in order to emigrate
to America). Rumshinsky harks to Unzer rebbenyu twice in the course of
Ikh benk aheym; first, in the orchestra over which a textured countermelody
has been spun, and second, as a bare intimation of the tunestated in open
octavesto usher in the full-voiced and plangent finale:
1

p Piena Voce (Full Voice)

dolce

Ich beink a-heim noch mei - ne kroi - vim

Example 17. Interlude, mm 1-4

56

Ich beink

Rumshinskys pervasive use of khazonus in Ikh benk aheym is less the

result of general stylistic factors than a consequence of the songs peculiar
internal requirements. In his narrative, the rabbis son impersonates the
suppliances of his father, mother, grandfather, and the synagogue choir boys.
Rumshinsky does not disdain close emulation in his score. Kol mekadeysh,
the table blessing recited by the father toward the beginning of the piece,
provides one such evocation of the Hebrew ritual:
3
3
6

Kol me- ka - deish she - vi - i ko - ro - u loi

3
3
3

Kol shoi - mer sha bos ka - dos me - cha - le - loi.

3 3 3 3 3 3

Scho - roi har - be me - oid al pi - fo - o - loi

al

dig - loi

ish al mach - nei - hu we - ish

Example 18. Recitative I, m 1-4

The source play for this songDem rebns nign (The Rabbis Melody)
was billed as a Hasidic Operetta, and Ikh benk aheym draws on elements
of the Hasidic style for part of its musical and emotive substance. Niggunim
were sacred to the Hasidim, who considered song to be a means of communion with the Creator. Perhaps the most distinctive quality of Hasidic song
is the subordination of text; many niggunim lack lyrics and are sung to filler
syllables such as ya-bam-bam or ay-ay-ay. The Hasidic movement, flourishing since the 18th century, had gone into decline by the end of the 19th, and
become an object of common ridicule among the so-called European and
otherwise enlightened Jews. Nulman42 states that the caricaturing of Hasidic
song became extremely popular in the 19th century among groups antagonistic
to the sect, giving rise to a considerable and influential musical repertoire.
42

Concise Encyclopedia... 1975: 19.

57

By utilizing humorous texts and devices such as change of rhythm, tempo,

dynamics and other musical elements, they developed a body of folksong
that became part of Yiddish folk song literature. Many, perhaps most, Jewish
comedic folk songs known today originated as parodies of the Hasidic style,
though their provenance as such has been generally forgotten.43
Scenarist Gershon Bader, who would later publish a Yiddish version of Dem
rebns niggun, recalled voicing serious reservations at Rumshinskys suggestion that he draw up a libretto based on real Hasidic life:

I told him, A real Hasidic type will not suit your theatrethey can
only treat the subject as caricature, and I will not give my name to that.
Rumshinsky said, I will not bring caricatures of Hasidim on stageI will
depict an idealization of Hasidic life. The characters will be presented in
a more elevated manner than that which is now in the public mind.44

Rumshinsky kept his pledge to Bader; Ikh benk aheym successfully imparts a sense of Hasidisms mystical-ecstatic approach to song through the
singers intense, unaffected piety, and his implacable faith in the transcendent
power of melody.
Bret Werb is Director of Music at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, DC. This article is excerpted with permission from his Masters thesis,
Rumshinskys Greatest Hits, the University of California in Los Angeles, 1987.

43 My own conjecture is that the Hasidic connection provides the missing link
between dance and comedy on the Yiddish stage.
44 Dem rebns niggun, Vilna, 1931: 26.

58

Yiddish Dance Songs (Tantslieder)

by Joseph A. Levine1

A Polka, a Hopke, a stately Quadrille

Let every person dance what they will...

For me, the Sher that my father danced

In childhood will do...

Or, in step with both generations,

Even a Freylekhs or two!
(after Motl Talalyevski)2

Dance, music, and song

Behind all music of an instrumental nature lies the dance, and behind the
symphony lies the dance suite, wrote self-taught contemporary composer/
critic, Anthony Burgess. The bodily movements that dancers engage in when
performing a gigue or a gavotte or a sarabande (orwe might adda Freylekhs, a Kazatske or a Sher), do not directly relate to biological or utilitarian
action, he observed. Instead, they demand from the human body sets of
stylized movements.3 One result of this disconnect between dance steps
and the way we normally move in our daily life is the difficulty we encounter
in singing while dancingand in trying to do justice to both activities at
the same time. The obvious solution: For dance, play lively. For song play
in moderate tempo. So state the publishers instructions under a Freylekhs
that appears with song lyrics in the Kammen International Dance Folio No.
1

The music examples come from the following collections:

Bar-Ilan University, Members of the Department of Musicology, Variations
on Chabad Themes, Cassette B-059, 1992;
Cahan, Y. L., Yiddish Folksongs with Melodies (transcribed by Henry Russotto),
edited by Max Weinreich (New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research),
1957;
Beregovski, Moshe, Old Jewish Folk Music, transcribed and edited by Mark
Slobin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), 1982;
Kammen, J. and J. Music Company, Kammen International Dance Folios: No.
1, 1924; & No. 9, 1937.
Mlotek, Eleanor Gordon & Mlotek, Joseph, editors, Mir Trogn A Gezang,
editor (New York: Workmens Circle Education Department), 1972; Songs of
Generations, Eleanor (New York: Workmens Circle), 1997.

Rubin, Ruth, Jewish Folk Songs (New York: Oak Publications), 1965;
2 Mayn Freylekhs un Mayn Sher, Chana Mlotek, Concerning a Convicted
Soviet-Jewish Poet, Forverts, Sept. 19-25, 2008, tr. JAL.
3
Anthony Burgess, This Man and Music (London: Hutchinson), 1982: 74.

59

1, 1924.4 That is the first thing to keep in mind when discussing tantslieder.
When performance-oriented musicians play for dancing, it is a whole new
experience for them and we have to remind them to slow down, comments
dance instructor and researcher Helen Winkler.5
The second consideration is that dance existed as a widespread human
activity as early as the 9th millennium BCE. From hundreds of recently discovered scenes painted on pottery or carved on stone throughout the Balkans
and Middle East, Dr. Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University in Jerusalem has
developed an illustrated record of dancing from 9,000 to 5,000 years ago.
That was when humankind gradually made the transition from hunting to
farming,6 andthe theory goeshad the leisure time and settled place to
express itself through group dancing. This seems probable, since flutes and
pipes made of little marrow-bones dating back a millennium earlierfrom
the Late Paleolithic Agehave turned up in caves like the Grotte des TroisFrres at Arige in Southern France. There, a drawing of a man was discovered,
dressed as a bison and playing a kind of flute. Where music exists, dancing
is not far away, observed the English classical scholar Cecil Maurice Bowra
(1898-1971), and scenes of it are not uncommon in the art of the time.7
Concerning the evolution of song, musicologist Curt Sachs observed
that, no language proceeds in an absolute monotone. He was alluding to
speakers universal use of vocal inflectionchanges of tone in the speaking
voicesometimes from bass rumble to soprano whistle and back again, and
rises or falls in pitch of up to two octaves or more.

In languages such as Chinese or Yoruba [spoken in Southwestern Nigeria],

the tone is absolutely essential to identify the meaning of a syllable which
might have a quite different sense according to whether it is high or low in
pitch, rising or descending Tones are more significant than syllables
as a consequence, speech can often be understood without words. 8

Sachs posited a three-phase progression between words and instrumental sounds, in which a) primitive song gave way to b) instrumental playing,
which then evolved into c) a more advanced type of singing that imitated
4
Song No. 11, Shpilt Mir Klezmorimlakh.
5
Personal communication, Jan. 20, 2008.
6
John Noble Wilford, In Dawn of Society, Dance Was Center Stage, The New
York Times, 2/27/01.
7
C. M. Bowra, Primitive Song (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 1962: 1-2.
8
Curt Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music, Jaap Kunst, ed. (New York: Dover), 1962:
35-37.

60

the pitches of various instruments found in nature (the wood or reed pipe,
for example).

Dance, songs, and ritual

Notwithstanding this and other theories, no one knows for sure just how song
and dance originated. Still, there is apparently something in our psyche that
gravitates towards action. Whenever we try to connect with a divine power
greater than ourselves, we channel that innate kinetic urge into a ritual act.
To ritualize is to make ourselves present, explains theologian Tom F. Driver,9
and thereby to simultaneously invoke the presence of that god or force whom
it is necessary for us to confront and relate to, if we are to make any sense of
why we were put on earth in a particular locale and during a specific time
frame. Song and danceseparately or singlyenable us to reconcile ourselves
with our experience of an environment that is, as Tennyson maintained, red
in tooth and claw.10 Earlier generations idealized that relationship; recent
generations have tried to neutralize it through creativeoften artistically
refined rituals that involve stylized dance.11 In a world of suicide bombers
and crying children, asks choreographer Jaamil Kosoko, why am I dancing?
To help us forget, if only for a moment, that we are dying.12
Ritual acts impart meaning to normal events. They sacralize moments which
at first glance appear to be mundane because they are in fact so universal,
so predictable and so cyclical. Among the most common of these recurring
moments is the event of young people meeting and courting one another
through social dancing. Jewish folksong anthologist Ruth Rubin reported that
Central and Western Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries saw hundreds
of men and women in every communityincluding those predominantly
Jewishdance themselves to exhaustion in the local Tanzhaus,13 following
the Black death that began in 1348.
9
Tom F. Driver, The Magic of Ritual (HarperSanFrancisco), 1991: 37.
10 Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 1850: 61.
11 Jamake Highwater,
(Pennington, NJ: Dance
Horizons), 1985: 28).
12 Jaamil Kosoko, The Power of Dance, Broad Street Review, Philadelphia,
1/2/08.
13 Ruth Rubin, Voices of a PeopleThe Story of Yiddish Folksong (Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press), 2000: 182-185, 196: The Tanzhaus was a type of hall where
weddings took place and where, during the holidays, Christian bandsmen were permitted
to play and the dancing of Jews to their music was tolerated. However much the rabbis
in Germany were not in favor of these practices, the dancing halls nevertheless spread
throughout France and Germany, until most of the Jewish communities had one.

61

Dance also offered younger people a respite from the rabbinical strictures
that forbade almost every other pleasurable experience in their lives. In the
Tanzhaus they were able to indulge their social instinct even on the Sabbath,
and later on Festivals as wellto musical accompaniment.14 Historian Alfred
Sendrey15 catalogues known instances where Jews engaged in recreational
dancing during the Renaissance in Italy: Palermo (1469) and Pisa (1524). They
conducted schools of music and dance in Venice (1443), Parma (1466) and
Ancona (1575). A century later a French JewIsaac of Orleansconducted
a school of dance in Paris.
With their enclosure in secluded ghettos beginning in 1516 (Venice),
Europes Jews were peremptorily excluded from the musical growth that
would continue all around them over the next few centuries: the flowering
of Polyphony, the Baroque and Classicism. The ghetto-Jews desire for entertainment found an outlet in dancing that featured leaps and bounds hopping in a circle and vigorous movements of the arms.16 To Christian eyes
it was more athletic than aesthetic, a travesty of folk dance encased in weird
rhythms and cacophonous harmonies. It earned the sobriquet, Judentanz
(Jewish Dance), which featured, among other specialties, a Totentanz. The
celebrated woman entrepreneur Glckel of Hameln (1648-1724) mentions in
her memoirs that at a relatives wedding celebration, guests concluded their
performance with a splendid Dance of Death.17
Walter Zev Feldman, a researcher into Ottoman Turkish and Eastern European music, informs that, on the basis of musical material, Yiddish dance
is referenced in a 1674 document [as existing] in Poland, but then almost
nothing appears in writing until the 19th century.18 At that time, observed
Ruth Rubin:

dance songs sprang up as the wild flowers in the field among young
men and women, in the main the working youth, of the cities and towns
of the Jewish Pale. The secular atmosphere of the Tanzhaus was perhaps
carried over, but the formality was gone and the environment was
markedly changed, as were already many patterns of life and mores in

14 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society), 1958: 381.
15 Alfred Sendrey, The Music of the Jews in the Diaspora (New York: Thomas
Yoseloff ), 1970: 250-252.
16 Ibid. page 323.
17 The Memoirs of Glckel of Hameln, translated by Marvin Lowenthal (New
York: Schocken Books), 1977: 99.
18 Defining Yiddish Dance, Internet Proceedings of Yiddish Dance Symposium,
Transcribed and edited by Ari Davidow, New York, Dec. 9, 2007, p. 2.

62

19th-century Eastern European Jewish communities, every town or city

had one or more dance halls, where young men and women gathered to
dance for their enjoyment.

The rise of Hasidism with its espousal of unfettered joy, had meanwhile
led to a renewed interest in dance among the unlettered masses. Hasidic
dance assumed the form of a circle, writes Dvorah Lapson,19 symbolic of
the hasidic philosophy that every one of us is equal, each one being a link in
the chain, the circle having no front or rear, no beginning or ending. Built
on a strong rhythmic underpinning, the early hasidic dances began slowly
and accelerated very gradually until the music attained such a level of velocity, volume and pitch that the dancers reached a state of ecstatic exhaustion.
When this sort of religious fervorexpressed through song and dancewas
experienced by outsiders invited to hasidic weddings or circumcisions, it
could not fail to leave a lasting impression.
Perhaps the protracted struggle between emotionally driven Hasidim and
their rational-minded opponents (Mitnagdim) engendered a dampening
of enthusiasm for the development of dance as a pursuit unto itself. In the
minds of many Jews, frenzied dancing became identified with a fanatical
kind of Orthodoxy, something to be satirized or even ridiculed. Books of
Hasidic teachings were burned and adherents of Hasidic belief had been
excommunicated in the 18th century upon orders issued by Rabbi Elijah ben
Solomon Zalman (1720-1797), the acknowledged religious authority (Gaon)
of intellectually oriented Lithuanian Jewry, centered in Vilna.
By the time these internecine fires died out on both sides of the divide,
irreparable damage had been done. Hasidism had peaked temporarily, and
any chance for social dancing to keep pace with the innovations that had
spread across Europe during the 19th century was squelched by a rabbinic
misinterpretation of Proverbs 11: 21 that made it read: Though they walk
hand in hand [i.e., dancing], the wicked shall not go unpunished).20 This
reactionary rabbinic stance made it that much more difficult for Yiddish
folk dancing to find its own way among the many pan-European forms that
suddenly confronted it.
How did the borrowed terpsichorian garments fit their new wearers? We
cite three written accounts of that era, all from memoirs that have now been
placed online.21 The earliest report concerns a women-only affair that was
19 Dvorah Lapson, s.v., DanceHasidism, Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem:
Keter), 1972, 5: 1268.
20 Sendrey, op. cit., 1970: 326.
21 JewishGen.org/ [plus name of town or country, in this case,] Litvak.

63

given on a Saturday for single girls about to be married in a small Lithuanian

town at the beginning of the 19th century.22

It lasted all day: eating, playing games, asking riddles, staging contests
and congratulating the bride-elect and the rest of the family. Some of the
games were very comical, requiring each losing player to forfeit a personal
possession such as a fine ring or handkerchief that could only be redeemed
by doing something comical: kissing the bride or anyone else, or confessing
to something funny about herself. The worst was for a young girl to have
to admit to being in love with a certain young man They also danced a
lot: Squares, Polkas and Kazatskes. The last was something like a Jig, with
two girls dancing towards each other. The dancers themselves furnished
the music by singing a different tune for each dance, as on the Sabbath it
is not permitted to play instruments.

The second and third references come from post-Holocaust Yizkor Books
that have been placed online, concerning the communities of Bobruisk in
Belarus23 and Borkhov (Borsczow) in the Ukraine.24

Bobruisk: In 1892 they brought two dance teachers from afar, and
Jewish Daughters learned to lift their legs and hop as one must. They
taught song and dance an hour a day, for a small price. With them stood
together some two or three single young men. The sessions were held
even during the Nine Days of semi-mourning preceding Tisha BAv
Also on the fast day itself they danced, and not only young women by
themselves, but with the single men, together.

Borkhov: In the years before World War I young people started to perform.
Around 1910 the first play put on, Moshe Richters comedy, Moshe
the Tailor, was performed to great success. The boys and girls acted no
worse than the professional troupes that used to come to Borkhov The
admission monies from such plays were given to a worthy cause. In
order to increase the income they would arrange a dance evening where
boys and girls used to dance well into the dawn. Orthodox Jews were
not particularly inspired by this new activity. Nevertheless, the forwardlooking ladies used to attend these performances and dance evenings as
guards for their growing daughters. Up to that time, girls would dance
only among themselves They hired a dance teacher and every mother
considered it her duty that her daughter learn the new steps because

22 Life in the Shtetl of Shnurel, The Memoirs of Mary Hellen Herr Bernard
(1886-1942; describing in 1938 the life and times of her great grandmother who had
been born in 1785 and died in 1893).
23 Memorial Book of the Community of Bobruisk and Its Surroundings, Y. Slutsky,
ed. (Tel-Aviv: Former Residents of Bobruisk in Israel and the USA), 1967.
24 The Book of Borkhov, Shlomo Reibel, How They Spent Their Leisure Time,
Miriam Beckerman, tr., Myrna Neuberger Levy, ed. (Tel-Aviv: n.p.), 1960.

64

shortly there would be another dance evening and the daughter might,
God forbid, remain at home.

The songs that were used to accompany or to teach dancing mitigated the
difficulty that young people had in trying to impress the opposite sex while
attempting to execute steps they had never before encountered. Its not that
these dances were routinely employed as a cure for emotional disorders,
explains social commentator Barbara Ehrenreich.25 Nor were they used by
our great-great-grandparents to vent frustrations over their poverty-ridden
existence. Instead, the transformational relief that these dance songs provided
were on a more humble level. It was consistent with an attitude towards unattainable artistry which centuries of enforced ghetto living had inevitably
instilled in their ancestors. Jewish folkdance dance instructor Steve Weintraub
sums it up:26

The calls [embodied in these song lyrics] seem to combine actual

instruction with funny/nonsensical rhymes and formulas. Its interesting
that the lyrics make fun of the dancers and expect them to mess up. This
might be because dancing a kadril [Yiddish for Quadrille] was putting
on airs in a way, and was made more acceptable by being made fun of
(were Jews, we dont take this dancing thing too seriously).

Yehudeh-Leyb Cahan, an ethnographic researcher of Yiddish dance songs,

elaborated on the conditions under which that particular genre emerged,
including the attitudes of first-time dance instructors towards their uneasy
pupils and vice versa.

Klezmorim were not needed when young male and female friends of a
newly married couple met in their tiny apartment on a Friday night or
Saturday afternoonthose heymishe surroundings generally had no room
for both dancing and instruments. Instead, the young folk sang and danced
spontaneously, in complete release from the pressure of daily work and
troubles. The tunes they sang were plentiful, picked up from the dance
accompaniments of traveling Klezmorim at wedding or circumcision
celebrations. And just like the tunes, all sorts of dances were in the airan
international assortment to choose from.

The only thing lacking was a knowledge of the art of dancing, how to
execute the actual steps. From out of the resulting chaosof which all
participants were painfully awarecame an endless supply of satirical
songs next to which traditional folksongs seem pale indeed. 27

25 Barbara Ehrenreich, I Am, Therefore I Need to Dance, International Herald

Tribune, 6/5/07.
26 Steve Weintraub, in an Internet posting to Helen Winklers Yiddish Dance
website, Dances of the Jews of Eastern Europe, 1/15/06.
27 Y. L. Cahan, Notes on the Emergence of Yiddish Dance Songs (in Yiddish,

65

It was obvious to the young folk that they needed instruction, preferably
from one of their own.
Who, then, were their instructors? Anyone who could sing and dance well,
had the eye of a hawk, and could improvise a running commentarypreferably
in rhymewhile maintaining the rhythm! Assuming the honorific of tantsmayster (dancing master), this talented self-crowned expert had nothing to
go on but his own quick wits in getting dance novices to shape up. Hence,
such on-the-spot insults to grammar, rhyme and offending individuals as: Gey
azoysetdrey zikh oyset! (Go to the outerdont stand and pouter!).
Hence, also, an inevitable disconnect between the gallant form of address used in pan-European ballroom dancing and the desperate attempts
of tantsmaysters to maintain both their composure and the illusion of high
society comportment: Damen un Herrena klog tsu aykh! (Gentlemen and
Ladiesdamn your Zeydies!).
Under these surreal conditions, the Gentlemen and Ladies gave their
tormentor tit for tat (but politely, of course):

Please dont be insulted, Seor

When our clodhoppers drag on the floor,
If it seems like were all shlepping rocks
Thats because of the holes in our socks!

This was improvised folk poetry, and all parties took the liberty of a certain
license.

Ritual dance and ceremonial dance

Some of the asides stage-whispered by the 19th-and-early-20th-century

dance callers in Cahans Tantslieder section still suggest a stern prophetic
sense of justice catching up with Jewish missteps. Number 217, for instance,
captures both the shouted instruction and its mumbled death-wish: Why
wont you twirl (or break a leg!)Honor your partner (or catch the plague!),
a modern take on the ancient calling down of Heavens wrath upon wrongdoers.
What Eastern European Jewish callers and dancers produced may not have
risen to the level of high art, yet it worked extremely well in context of the
celebratory occasion for which it was ultimately intended, most often a wedding banquet. These dances, largely improvised and using gestures from life
itself, were ultimately performed during a reception that followed the religious
YIVO Bleter Vol. I, 1931: 28-39), republished in Studies on Jewish Folk Creativity, Max
Weinreich, ed. (New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research), 1952: 88-98.

66

ceremony under the nuptial canopy known as a Khuppeh.28 The caller on

this occasion was a Badkhn (rhymester) who acted as master of ceremonies,
preacher, stand-up comedian and evoker of tears, all in one.
Luckily for Jews worldwide who are striving to recapture this vanished
communal tradition, the magic of Yiddish dance did not forsake its original
realm of ritual for that of the ceremonial. It stubbornly retained its expressive
form, never becoming commonplace. That is why its meaning is still felt by
Jewsold, young and-in-betweenwho are avidly pursuing its practice 100
years after its heyday. Yiddish dancesand the Yiddish songs that accompany
themnever allowed themselves to become self-conscious. One detects
that immediately when looking at the earnest-yet-smiling faces of dancers
being put through their paces in a candid photo posted on researcher and
dance instructor Helen Winklers web site.29 She is pictured leading a chain
of dancers, with arms intertwined, at the Ashkenaz Festival held on Torontos
Harbourfront Centre in September of 2004. The participants are white, black,
and intervening shades. Their expressions range from smiling to ecstatic. But
their body language speaks loudest of allpeople enjoying themselves in the
pursuit of a higher goalrescuing a culture that had been all but obliterated!
As Winkler cautions in her introductory page:

If you read about shtetl30 dances or watch old Yiddish movies, you will come
to realize that the dances usually involved a good deal of improvisation,
i. e., they werent choreographed dances. You will also notice that the
dance descriptions in all of the old folk dance books are choreographed
to suit the recreational dance setting. The dances now being taught at
the klezmer dance workshops tend to be more like the shtetl versions.
Hopefully, there will soon be videos and books that reflect this.

Then there is the pervasive influence of what Ari Davidow terms Modern
Israeli Orthodox, at a Brooklyn wedding he recently attended, which revealed
a striking absence of Klezmer style.31

Almost all of the music included singingsacred textsas though to

ensure That it was inseparable from holy intent. Often the dancers sang
along I suspect that some of the dance steps did come from eastern
Europe There were many Kazatskes and similar dances; this community

28 (Yiddish for the Hebrew Huppah), Beregovsky, Old Jewish Folk Music, 1982:
192.
29 Helens Jewish Dance PageDances of the Jews of Eastern Europe.
30 Shtetl is the generic Yiddish designation for any small, out-of-the-way mostlyJewish hamlet in Eastern Europe.
31 Internet Proceedings of Yiddish Dance Symposium, Transcribed and edited by
Ari Davidow, New York, Dec. 9, 2007, p. 24.

67

now pays some attention to footwork (although the steps were not
sophisticated the theatrics and efforts were intense). Most of the action
still appeared to take place above the waist, as is traditional.

Davidows conclusion: Yiddish dancing has been largely replaced by a

new Israeli style. Todays Jewish bandseven at frum (religiously observant)
affairsnow introduce each dance set with heavy-metal riffs (one might call
it Frum Pop). This massive dose of Future Shockwhere the pace of change
far outruns our ability to keep pacemakes it even more imperative to study
and preserve that which once was.

Dance-types

The following descriptions are for dance-types pertaining to the songs cited
later in this article. Their number, limited by the need to present only as many
Yiddish dance songs as space permits, regrettably precludes such favorites
as the Israeli Hora, along with the standard Freylekhs variationThreading
the Needlewhose execution lies beyond the scope of this music-oriented
survey. The expositional material derives principally from the Dance Descriptions section of Helen Winklers Dance Page, a comprehensive and
ever-growing website recommended to researchers of all levels. Contributors were webmaster Winkler and those listed in bold type below, whom she
credits throughout:
Michael Alpert et al,32
Erik Bendix et al,33
Fred Berk,34
Milton Blackstone,35
Jacob Bloom,36

32 Michael Alpert, Freylekhs on Film: The Portrayal of Jewish traditional Dance

in Yiddish Cinema , Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Newsletter, 1986;

Michael Alpert, Fr. Bohulan Hladio & Erik Bendix, Internet site Kolomeyke,
danced to, Brave Old World: Klezmer Music, CD FF70560, 1993.
33 Erik Bendix, Helene Domergue-Zilberberg, Andreas Schmitges and Jill Gellerman, Yiddish DancingJiddische Taenze, video of a dance workshop held in Weimar
July 28-31, 2007.
34 Fred Berk, The Chasidic Dance (New York: Union of American Hebrew
Congregations), 1975.
35 Milton Blackstone, e-mail to the website, 9/23/02.
36 Jacob Bloom, informant for various dances taught by Michael Alpert at KlezKamp in 1994.

68

Walter Zev Feldman,37

Florence Freehof,38
Zvi Friedhaber,39
Troy Gawlak,40
Lori Heikkila,41
Josh Horowitz,42
Judith Brin Ingber,43
Klezmer Music:,44
Jack Kugelmass et al,45
Dvorah Lapson,46
Poland.com!47
Isaac Rivkind,48
George Routledge,49
37 Walter Zev Feldman, Bulgareasca/Bulgarish/BulgarThe Transformation
of a Klezmer Dance Genre, Ethnomusicology 38: 1, 1994.
38 Florence Freehof, Jews Are a Dancing People (San Francisco: Stark-Rath
Printing Co.), 1954.
39 Zvi Friedhaber, The Dance with the Separating Kerchief, Dance Research
Journal, 1985-86.
40 Troy Gawlak, On the Polka and Other Polish Dances, posted on the website
of alt.music.polkas July 20, 2007.
41 Lori Heikkila, Polka, s.v. History of Dance, 1996, on website of Centralhome.
com Company, Inc., 2008.
42 Josh Horowitz, Ultimate Klezmer (New York: Tara), 2001.
43 Judith Brin Ingber, Dancing into Marriage: Jewish Wedding Dances, video
of a workshop that included Yemenite, Persian and Eastern European dance sessions,
1982; available at http://www.jbrinigber.com
44 Klezmer Music: A Marriage of Heaven and Earth, compilation book and CD
by various artists, Ellipsis Arts, 1996.
45 Jack Kugelmass, Jonathan Boyaran & Zachary M. Baker, eds., From a Ruined
Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry (Bloomimgton, IN: Indiana University
Press), 1998.
46 Dvorah Lapson, Dances of the Jewish People (New York: Board of Jewish
Education), 1954.
47 Poland.com! website, Five National Dances of Poland, 2005.
48 Isaac Rivkind, KlezmorimJewish Folk MusiciansA Study in Cultural History (New York: Futuro press), 1960.
49 Routledges Manual of Etiquette (Project GutenbergOnline Book Catalog),
2004, part 3, section 6.

69

Henry Sapoznik,50
Lillian Shapero,51
Myron Shatulsky,52
Maja Trochimczyk,53
Nathan Vizonsky,54
Sonny Watson,55
Steve Weintraub,56

Steven Zeitlin et al.57

Every dance-type description that follows lists one or more songs that can
be sung to the dance. In each case, the song title in bold type is given with
music later on, mostly from Cahans collection. The other songs listed with
it are equally suitableif a bit less accessible to researchers.

1. Broyges (Angry) Dance

It was customary at a shtetl wedding for two individuals who had perfected
the characterizations and habitually used the Broyges Dance as a vehicle
for entertaining those gathered, to dance a pantomime of fighting and then
making up, a life lesson for the newly married couple. To underscore the
point, the music was played slowly as the couple danced away from each
other. When they forgave each other and embraced, the music became more
lively. Quite frequently, the designated couple turned out to be the two
mothers-in-law.
Nathan Vizonsky, Florence Freehof and Dvorah Lapson all offer varying
choreographed versions. Jack Kugelmass cites a descriptive excerpt from a
Holocaust Yizkor book, while several artists in the CD compilation, Klezmer
Music: A Marriage of Heaven and Earth, provide relevant narratives. In
50 Henry Sapoznik, Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World (New
York: Macmillan,), 1999.
51 Lillian Shapero, The Patsh Tants, in Lapson, Dances of the Jewish People
(1954).
52 Myron Shatulsky, The Ukranian Folk Dance (London: Kobzar), 1980.
53 Maja Trochimczyk, Mazur (Mazurka), Polish Dance website.
54 Nathan Vizonsky, Ten Jewish Folk Dances, a Manual for Teachers and Leaders
(Chicago: American-Hebrew Theatrical League), 1942.
55 Sonny Watsons website, Streetswing.com.
56 Steve Weintraub, Winnipeg Klezmer Dance Workshop, November 2001.
57 Steven Zeitlin, A.M.J. Kotkin & Holly Cutting Baker, The Wedding Dance,
A Celebration of Family Folklore Tales & Traditions from the Smithsonian Collection
(New York: Panteon Books), 1982.

70

Kugelmasss shtetl scenario, a mother believes her son is marrying beneath

his status. She performs this dance at the wedding with the grandmother of
the bride, just before the bedekn (veiling) ceremony. By the end of the dance,
the grooms mother and the brides grandmother have kissed and made up.
Another account, provided by Milton Blackstone, has the Broyges Dance
starting out with a disagreement as the male courts the female, followed by
the male seeking her forgiveness. In a reverse switch during the dance the
indignant female pursues the offending male, after which they get together
and the celebration begins as they dance off.
Only one Yiddish song was composed to accompany the Broyges Dance
(the first of two listed here); yet others will work equally well, so long as their
music matches the gliding motions of the dance (and its improvised pantomimes, of course!).
Bistu mit mir broygesWords: Rubin, p. 42; Music: Kammen 1937, no. 50
Di zeydes mit di bubbesBeregovski, no. 59

Efsher farlangstuWords: Cahan, no. 223; Music: Bar-Ilan, 1992, A:1

1. BROYGES TANTSBistu mit mir broyges

Youre angry with me now
And I havent got a clue
Please wipe that wrinkle from your brow
And tell me what to do!
((: Dai dai-da, dai-dai-dai :))
Please wipe that wrinkle from your brow
And tell me what to do.

Bistu mit mir broyges,

Veys ikh nit farvos,
Geyst arum a gantsn tog
Aropgelost di noz!
((:Day day-day, day-day-day:))
Geyst arum a gantsn tog
Aropgelost di noz.

Perhaps we should seek

Some professional advice
I am free all week,
Next Friday would be nice!
((: Dai dai-da, dai-dai-dai :))
I am free all week,
Next Friday would be nice!

Ive got a better thought:

Why dont we just admit
That the two of us ought
To make a perfect fit!
((: Dai dai-dai, dai-dai-dai :))
That the two of us ought
To make a perfect fit!

Un efsher vilstu visn

Az ikh hob dikh lieb,
Lomir beyde ariberforn
Tsu dem gutn Yid!
((:Day day-day, day-day-day:))
Lomir beyde ariberforn
Tsu dem gutn Yid!
Tsu dem gutn Yidn,
A pidyen im opgegebn,
Vet er far unz Gott betn
Far a gutn lebn!
((:Day day-day, day-day-day:))
Vet er far unz Gott betn
Far a gutn lebn!

71

Yiddish WordsRuth Rubin (1965: 22)

English Words Joseph Levine (2008)

MusicKammen (1937, no. 50)

With Attitude

Verse: Bis - tu mit mir broy - ges

4

rop - ge - lozt

di

day day - day day - day day,

veys ikh nit far vos,

noz.

Refrain:

Day

geyst a - rum a gant - sn

day - day

geyst a - rum a gant - zn

day - day

tog

day,

tog - a - rop - ge - lozt di noz.

2. Bulgar
Zev Feldman asserts that the Bulgar will be familiar to anyone who has experience with dances of the Balkans, where it appears under different names
in the various countries (e.g., Sarba in Romania). The Bulgar became the
predominant dance in the early 20th-century American Jewish community,
due to a perception that it was a secular danceBulgareascapicked up by
European Jews from the surrounding community of Moldavia. The fact that
it did not have a strong association with Orthodox Jewish weddings gave it
an additional appeal to many. In subsequent American-born generations the
Bulgar did not survive, due to the overall decline of Klezmer music and dance
in the United States. Jacob Bloom describes a Bulgar as taught by Michael
Alpert at KlezKamp in 1994:
Formation: Shoulder hold, circle or line, revolving either right or left, or
snaking around the room; if a circle, some people can move into the center
and show off their moves (a feature that is permitted in most Yiddish
dances, according to LeeEllen Friedland).58
Basic step: Resembles that of the Israeli Hora.
A) Right foot steps to right, left foot crosses in front (or behind)
B) Right foot steps to right, left foot swings across
C) Left foot steps to left, right foot swings across

Variations: The designated leader (whether in a circle, or line if the circle

happens to break) determines which variation everyone does. The steps
are not called, everyone just watches and imitates the leader. It is also
acceptable for people to do their own variations (different from the
leaders) so long as they dont interfere with the other dancers.
58 LeeEllen Friedland, Tantsn iz Lebn: Dancing in Eastern European Culture,
Dance and Research Journal 17/2 and 18/1 (1985/86), page 78.

72

Examination of music marked Bulgar in the listed collections leads to

the conclusion that Bulgar and Freylekh instrumental settings are usable
interchangeably as accompaniments for either dance. The Bulgar appears to
be a lively Freylekh (based on Kammen Folio No. 1, 1924: nos. 17, 18, 19).
Music for both dances is written in an A-B-A formnot counting additional
instrumental interludeswith section C generally repeating material from
section A.

Ikh vel mikh shtekhenWords: Cahan, no. 253; Music: Kammen, 1924,
no. 19

Khbeit zhe mirBeregovski, no. 46

2. BULGARIkh vel mikh shtekn

Im going to stab myself!
Ikh vel mikh shtekhn,
And then Ill hang myself!
Ikh vel mikh hengen,
Oi oi-oi Momme, Mommele mine!
Oy oy-oy Momme,
Mommele!
Id pay a ransom to win that handsome
Dashing gentleman, so fine.
You know the one I mean,
Who keeps on tapping
All those messages on the window screen,
While youre supposedly napping!

Far dem sheynem

Un faynem kavalier!
((:Vos er ruft bay vazhanskin
Fun fenster.:))

Heres what he sends to me

It makes no sense to me:
Oy oy-oy Rokhl, please come out and play;
I know hell think Im shy.
(And really, so will I)
Until I steel myself to meet him
One fine day

((: Oy oy-oy Rokhele :))

Kum nor aher!
((: Tra la-la Rokhele:))
Kum nor aher!
((:Vos er ruft bay vazhanskin
Fun fenster.:))

(PINSK)
Music: Kammen (1924, no. 19)
1
Lively

Yiddish Words: Cahan (1957, no. 253)

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

1.

Ikh vel mikh shte - khn,

far dem shey - nem

17

26

Ikh vel mikh

2.

lier!

Ikh vel mikh hen - gen,

un

fay - nem,

oy,oy - oy mom - me, mom- me - le!

un

fay - nem

ka - va -

va

lier;

73

Fine

vos

er

ruft

bay

1.

Ikh vel mikh shte - khn,

far dem shey - nem

2.

17

un

fay - nem,

oy,oy - oy mom - me, mom- me - le!

1.

un

fay - nem

ka - va -

lier;

Fine

1.

Ikh vel mikh

26

Ikh vel mikh hen - gen,

zhans - kin,

lier!

2.

vos er

35

vos

ruft

er

ruft

bay

shey - nem

un

Ikh vol mikh shte - khn,

fay - nem

ka - va -

va

va - zhans - kin fun

1.

ter.

42

bay

fens

lier;

Ikh vol mikh hen - gen,

ter;

2.

Ikh vol mikh

far

dem

DC al Fine
using 2nd verse

lier.

3. Freylekhs
A cheerful dance in 2/4 time that Helen Winkler identifies in her Dance Description section as the major group-dance of the East European Jews the
one you see in all the old movies at most weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. The
concept is simple: either a line or a circle (or both formations interchanging);
everyone steps in their own way to the music. That doesnt mean its a freefor-all. There are characteristic movementslike a shuffling sort of walka
two-step, alternately stepping and stamping. The circle/line can move to the
right or to the left, snaking around the room. People can go into the middle
of the circle to show off their moves.
A spontaneous Freylekhs works best with a large group interacting. For
smaller groups of 10 to 15, the choreographed versions are sometimes safer.
This would ultimately depend on the experience level or preferences of the
dancers and the dance leader. For some enthusiasts, a totally improvised
Freylekhs will work no matter how small the group. For others, who are
uncomfortable with the idea of improvising, a choreographed version might
work better.
The community at large probably gets confused about a Hora vs. a Freylekh.
The Hora can mean many things. The Israeli Hora is a fast-paced dance done
with a shoulder hold and several characteristic stepsnot really much like
the Freylekhswith the basic step being the same as the Roumanian Sarba
(i.e., Bulgar) step.
There is also a slow (or Roumanian) Hora, done to very leisurely 3/8-time
music, with its own distinctive footwork; again, its very different from either

74

the Israeli Hora or the Freylekhs. In Roumanian dancing, the Hora seems to
be a generic word for dance, but quite often refers to a saw-toothed pattern that moves in and out of the line or circle. when traveling through the
Balkansincluding Greeceone finds many Horas, Horos and Orosall of
which are really non-specific terms for dance.
Just as steps seemingly migrate from dance to danceso, too, do dance
tunes migrateto the point where melodies that have proven themselves as
effective vehicles for a particular dance will inevitably be applied to other
dances as well. The Freylekhs offers a parade example: more settings exist
for it than for any other Yiddish dance. Here are a half-dozen that will do
nicelyin various musical modes and moodsbut you might also hear them
accompanying Hopkes (see immediately below).

Die mekhutonim geyenMlotek, 1972, pp. 56-57

Du zolst nit reydnWords: Cahan, no. 251; Music: Cahan, no. 252

Hekher besserMlotek, 1972, pp. 54-55

Ir fort shoyn avekBeregovski, no. 50

Shpilt ir klezmorimlekhKammen, 1924, no. 11 (including words)

Soreh rivkehCahan, no. 217

3. FREYLEKHSSoreh-Rivkeh
Soreh-Rivkeh, turn to the center,
Soreh-Rivkeh, drey zikh durkhn mitn ,
Tra-la-la Tra-la-la
Khaykeleh, gey zhe du baym zayt,
Khaykele, nows your time to enter,
Tra-la-la. Tra-la-la.
Nu, tu zikh a drey (a brokh tsu dir)!
Why wont you twirl (or break a leg)!
Sashay down the line
Gey zhe durkhn mitn
Honor your partner (or catch the plague)! Nu, tu zikh a drey (a klog tsu dir)!
Youre really doing fine.
(Ikh brekh dir dayn gorset)!
Make way, Tamara, see how its done Zey, Tamareh, makh a vareh
Watch! Gekhele (oi, what fun)!
Zey, Gekheleh, vi ikh gey!
Lift her, Yenkele, shes not a nun
Un du, Yenkele, durkhn mitn
(Even though she weighs a ton)!
Khaykeleh, tu zikh a drey!

75

(MINSK)
Words & Music: L Cahan, 1957, no. 217
1
Animated

10

English Words: Joseph Levine, (2008)

So - reh Riv - keh, drey zikh dur - khn mi - tn, tra, la,

zayt,

23

tra - la - la!

tu zikh a drey, a

Khay - ke - leh,

gey zhe du baym

Nu, tu - zikh a drey,a brokh tsu dir! Gey - zhe dur - khn mi - tn. Nu,

17

la!

klog tsu dir!Ikh brekh dir dayn gor - set!

Zey, Ta- ma - reh, makh a va - reh!

Zey Ge -khe - leh, vi ikh gey! Un du, Yen-ke - le, dur - khn mi - tn, Khay - ke - le, tu zikh a drey!

4. Kazatske (Ukranian Kozak)

Nathan Vizonsky and Steven Zeitlin both remark on the sheer physicality
of the Kazatske, based on a dance of the bareback-riding Cossacks, and are
puzzled by its later adaptation as a Yiddish dance. After all, the ancestors of
these same Cossacks had murdered and pillaged perhaps 150,000 innocent
Ukranian, Volhynian and Polish Jews during the mid-17th century,59 Yet this
voluntary act of acculturation only mirrors the perverse desire of contemporary Hasidim to continue donning the garb of Polish and Russian royalty that
they were prohibited from wearing by the Piotrikov Councils decree back in
the 16th century.60 The caftan and shtrayml have since become their silken
and fur-trimmed badges of courage as if to say: What you once denied us
we now proudly sportaf tsu lhakhis (just for spite)! So it is with the Kozak
/ Kazatske, a warriors display of somersaults, handstands and flips invented
by our peoples drunken tormenters. Now, young talmudic scholars are free
to call the Kazatske their own at every Jewish simkhawhether on the floor
surrounded by a ring of fellow dancers or on a table-top surrounded by the
bride and groom, family and friends.
The Kozak was performed by two Cossacks with arms folded aggressively
at shoulder height, from a crouch, with opposite legs kicking forward synchronically and torsos leaping to whatever heights of gymnastic bravado
their macho compulsion prompted them. Today, the Yiddish adaptation of
59 Shmuel Ettinger, s.v., Chmielnicki, Bogdan, Encyclopedia Judiaca (Jerusalem:
Keter), 1972, 5: 480-484.
60 Simon Dubnow, History of the Jews in Russian and Poland, Vol. I, 1916; cited in
Alfred Rubens, A History of Jewish Costume (New York: Funk & Wagnalls), 1967: 125.

76

this bravura dance is proudly (almost defiantly) performed at Traditionalist

Jewish gatherings by the communitys religious figureheads: its rabbi and cantor. As klei kodesh (holy vessels) of the assemblages spiritual heritage they
sublimate their individualism into a solemn partnership (one can typically
see this determination in their facial expressions) by grasping each others
forearms and swinging clockwise in tandem, stomping to the musics beat.
More than a strange twist of history, this turnabout ironically replays what
took place at the Second Temples annual Festival of the Water Drawing
(Simkhat beit ha-shoeivah) on the second night of Sukkot, culmination of
the early-Autumn High Holiday observances. At that over-the-top revelry the
greatest sages of the day would dance before the assembled multitude with
burning torches in their hands, singing songs and praises while the entire
corps of Levites played on harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets.61
The dancing was spectacular. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, head of the Sanhedrin (High Tribunal of Justice), would throw eight burning torches in the
air and juggle them so they were all aloft at any given moment and no two of
them ever touched. When he protrated himself he would dig his two thumbs
in the ground, bend down while still leaning on them, kiss the ground and
leverage his body upwards without using his hands.62 Next to this, a Kazatske
seems like childs play.

Bin ikh geforn keyn adessCahan, no. 239

KhatskeleCahan, no. 261
Reb abbaCahan, no. 262
Momme momme di kalle geytCahan, no. 263

4. KAZATSKEBin ikh geforn

I took me to Odessa town
On the mighty Dnieper,
Met a gal whose hair was brown,
she treated me like a leper!

Bin ikh geforn keyn adess

Oyf der Moldavanke,
Hob ikh getantst a polonyez
Mit a charlatanke!

Refrain Refrain:
Hot tea turns to frigid tea,
Heyse tey, kalte tey,
Cookies and biscotti,
Teyglekh mit fasolyes,
Girls who when young are pretty
Alle sheyne meydelekh
Often act quite haughty!
Hobn miyuse dolyes!
61 Based upon Mishnah Sukkot 4.9.
62 Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 53a (more probably it was Shimon ben Lakish,
a noted athlete, cf. JT, Gittin IV. 9; BT, Gittin 47a).

77


All week she cooked trs gourmet:
Vos hostu gekokht a gantse
vokh?
Chicken cacciatore;
Teyglekh mit fasolyes;
Shabbos, much to my dismay:
Vos hostu gekoht oyf Shabbes
nokh?
Bread crumbs, end of story!
Farfel mit barbolyes!
Refrain:
Hot tea turns to frigid tea,
Cookies and biscotti,
Girls who when young are pretty
Often act quite haughty.
(PODOLIA)
Words & Music: Cahan (1957, no. 239)
1
Very Fast

Refrain:
Heyse tey, kalte tey,
Teyglekh mit fasolyes,
Alle sheyne meydelekh
Hobn miyuse dolyes!

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

Refrain:

mit a char - la - tan - ka!
Hey - se tey,
kal - te tey,
teyg - lekh mit fa 12

Bin ikn ge - fo - rn keyn a- dess, oyf der mol - da - van - ke,

sol - yes;

al - le shey - ne

mey - de - lekh

hob ikh ge - tanst a

ho - bn

mi - yu - se

po - lo - nyez,

dol - yes!

5. Laanse (Quadrille of the Lancers)

Sonny Watson relates that the Lancers Quadrille was introduced in France by
M. Laborde in 1836 and spread to England two decades later. Solemnly slow,
with graceful salutes and delightful curtsies, the Lancers Quadrille became a
salon favoritethe men referred to as Cavaliers and the ladies as Dames. Its
music (Cahan no. 219) reflects that courtliness. Written in 6/8 time, it recalls
a Tarantella, only more deliberate and minus any hint of the madness associated with the Italian folk dance.63 The Lancers directions still bore classical
ballet nomenclature: jet, croissez, balancez, etc.
Opening formationThe Rose:

1. The first lady and opposite gentleman advance and retire, turn with both
hands and return to their places.
63 Resulting from a bite by the poisonous Tarantula spider, whose venom supposedly could be countermanded only by continuous and energetic dancing (Wikipedia).

78

2. The leading lady and her partner cross over, hand in hand, and the opposite
couple do the same, separately and passing on the outside.
3. All turn and set at the corners.
Fourth formationThe Star:

1. The first couple pays a visit to the couple on the right hand, and bows,
2. Then to the couple on the left hand, the same, while assuming an
arabesque-like pose.
3. Back to places, right and left.

The weight of the musics driving-but-controlled rhythm contrasts nicely

with the light frivolity of this choreography (a pale shadow, to be sure, of its
original military imitation of charging lancers, in which anyone who strayed
into the Lancer Quadrilles path would be knocked aside). By late-Victorian
times the Lancers Quadrille had been refined to suit upper-class taste. Routledges Manual of Etiquette64 cautioned that it be danced only by four couples
in each set, though of course there could be many sets dancing at the same
time: The number being so limited, one awkward or ignorant person confuses the whole set. Therefore, it is indispensable that every one who dances
in the Quadrille should have a thorough mastery of its graceful intricacies.
Indeed, the refined English version creates a movie-set effect (especially if
period costumes are worn) that transports participants and spectators to a
different time and place, culminating in a peeling-off of and regrouping of
partners into two sashaying (a corruption of the French chass65chased)
lines known as The Great Chain.
It should come as no surprise that Yente, Gitl and Dvorehthe hapless
botchers of Cahans Laanse in song lyrics no. 219, named after the prime
culprit, Motlgot off on the wrong foot!

Motl, motlCahan, Words: no. 219; Music: no. 218

5. LAANSEMotl, motl
Motl, Motl, turn your head towards me,
Motl, Motl, tsu mir mitn
ponim,
Yente, Yente, try to bend your knee.
Yente, Yente, gey in der mit!
Gitl, Gitl, its your turn to advance,
Gitl, Gitl, gey shoyn aher
Dvoreh, Dvoreh, why dont you
Dvoreh, Dvoreh,
Give the dance a chance!
Gey shoyn tsurik!
64
65

Part 3, section 6.
Websters Third New International Dictionary, 1981: 2016.

79

You want to know why it didnt work

(Besides the fact youre acting like a jerk),
Its because you stand around and diddle
Instead of listening and going in the middle!
The reason why Im fregn kashyes,
Is to get you to pick up your galoshes
Youre not swabbing a deck
With this Quadrille
So get it right, and give me a thrill!

Words & Music: Cahan (1957, nos. 218, 219)

With Spirit

Du bist nisht gegangen git.

Host badarfn geyn in der mit!
Host badarfn geyn aher
Geb zhe di hant dem ber!
Bist nisht gegangen git,
Host badarfn geyn in der mit!
Host opgeklogt di Laanse
Zol dir foyln di mayseh!
English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

Mo - tl, Mo - tl, tsu mir mi - tn po - nim,

Gi - tl, Gi - tl, gey shoyn a - her

10

git.

Yen - te, Yen - te

Dvo - reh, Dvo - reh, gey shoyn tzu - rik!

Host ba - dar - fn geyn in der

mit!

gey in der mit!

Du bist nisht ge - gan - gen

1.

Host ba - dar - fn geyn

a - her,

15

2.

Geb zhe di hant dem ber;

Host op - ke - klogt di laan - se!

6. Mazurke (Polish Mazurka)

Zol dir foy - ln di may - seh!

This is Polands national dance, avers Maja Trochimczyk, since it appeared in

the Polish national anthemDabrowsky Mazurkain 1797, sung by Polish
troops serving under Napoleon with the hope of regaining independence
for their homeland. The music is written in triple time and moderate tempo,
and features a variable accent on the second beat (unlike the Waltz whose
accent falls consistently on the first beat of each measure). The dance is fairly
complicated, and includes hops, sliding steps and kicking the heels together
while leaning to one side in mid-air.
An excellent example of its Yiddish variant is this lilting melody from
Warsaw, set to a biting commentary by the dance instructor, who skewers
the pathetic social aspirations of both men and women.

Hayntike meydelekhCahan, no. 245

80

6. MAZURKEHayntikeh meydelekh
Women today (who speak like Okies)
Hayntike meydelekh di
fonferonkes,
Zey geyen oyf khasunes un
Go to weddings and dance the Polkies

tantsn polkes;
They can twirl the whole night through,
Polke-mazur iz zeyer lebn,
Zey hobn keyn groshn dem
To pay the band they havent a clue!

klezmer tsu gebn!

Bandleader, play it hot
Klezmer, klezmer, shpilt mir
sheyn,
A drayer meyn iz gor keyn sakh,
For that Ill give you a five-spot
A five-spot and perhaps youll sing a song Khvel aykh gebn a drayer meyn!
While tootin a clarinet the whole night long Ir zolt mir shpiln a gantser nakht!

A wedding gig is not as bad a drag
A gantser nakht iz keyn sakoneh,
Mtor nisht khasune hobn mit an
As gettin hitched to an ancient nag
almoneh;
Whose knee-bones rattle and dentures click An almoneh hot kalte fis
Id rather snuggle with a cute young chick! A sheyn meydele iz tsuker zis!
(WARSAW)
Words & Music: Cahan (1957, no. 245)
Staccato First Beat
1 Accented Second Beat

tan - tsn

pol - kes;

ho - bn keyn

gro

Hayn - ti - ke mey - de - lekh di

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

fon - fe - ron - kes, zey gey- en oyf kha - su - nes un

Pol - ke Ma - zur

shn

der

iz

ze - yer

klez - mer

tsu

ge

le

bn,

zey

bn!

7. Mitzvah Tants
It fulfilled the Talmuds injunction to dance before the bride.66 The Badkhn,
acting as master of ceremonies, traditionally called up male wedding guests
to dance with the bride, one at a time. Isaac Rivkind differentiates the term
66 Babylonian Talmud, Ktubot 16b-17a, Our Rabbis taught: How does one dance
before the bride? the school of Hillel say, while singing her praises asgraceful and
beautiful!

81

Mitzvah Tants as being danced with both bride and groom. Sefer minhagim,
a Book of Customs published 1590 in Venice, describes the Mitzvah Tants
as a form of group involvement in which the men danced with the groom and
the women with the bride. Little more than a century later, the primer Derekh
ha-yashar (The Righteous Path; J. M. Epstein, Frankfort, 1704) stipulates
that men took turns dancing with the bride after wrapping something around
their hand as a symbol of separation (general use of a handkerchief came into
play early in the 19th century). Some have called this the Kosher dance, since
the bride had undergone ritual purification in a Mikvehritual bathprior
to the wedding. The bride was usually seated amidst a circle of chosen guests
while the Badkhn called each by name to step forward and dance with her.
First honors went to the parents on both sides, the next ones went to scholars
and community leaders, etc. During the weeklong festivities, neighbors and
townspeopleeven beggarshad the right to dance with the bride. She, in
turn, would look down modestly in order to avoid making eye contact with
any of the men she danced with.67
In the shtetl, everyone would have improvised their own steps when they
took a turn dancing with the bride, and that would have worked. In todays
climate of group-centered folk dancing, however, no participant wants to
sit on the sidelines watching others dance with a fictitious bride. So the
Mitzvah Tants has been modified into a vehicle for couples or for mixing. To
avoid chaos it is choreographed, yet participants ought not to worry if they
dont get the footwork quite right, since this was originally an improvised
dance. The only concern is that people change partners at the same time or
they might collide.
Music:

a 4/4 (i.e., moderately slow) Freylekhs or Bulgar will do; for faster
music use two beats per step, for slower music use one beat per step.

Far vemenBeregovski, no. 56

Hey, hober in kornCahan, no. 133

Shteyen di karetenBeregovski, no. 52

67 Dvorah Lapson, s.v., Wedding Dances Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem:

Keter), 1972, 5: 1265.

82

7. MITZVAH TANTSHey, hober un korn

Hay, barley and millet,
Hey, hober un korn,
Rivkeh hot dem fartukh
Rivkeh has lost her skillet,
farlorn,
Un Yenkel hot es gefunen,
And Yenkl has found it
Hobn zikh beyde genumen.
No need to expound it!
Rivkeh sees in the looking glass
The image of a pretty lass
And, standing beside her
Is Yenkl, ever ready to chide her!

Shteyt Rivkeh in shpigl

Un kamt arop di herlekh;
Iz tsugangen Yenkl
Un hot ir bashotn mit kerlekh.

Theyre made for each other,

Not like sister and brother
Rivkeh has made up her mind
And Yenkl is not far behind!

Dos veysn dokh alleh,

Az Rivkeh iz a Kalleh;
Un Yenkl iz a khosn
Un hobn zikh beyde geshlosn.

(PINSK)
Words & Music: Cahan (1957, no. 233)
1
Gracefully

Hey,

ho - ber un

ko

Yen - kl hot es ge - fu -

rn,

nen,

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

Riv - keh hot dem far - tekh far - lo

rn,

un

ho - bn zikh bey - de ge - nu - men.

8. Potsh Tants (Hand Clapping Dance)

Several different versions exist, the one most people know being by Lillian
Shapero, given in Dvorah Lapsons book. All the sources agree that it belongs
to the later phase of a wedding celebration, when the mood is notably lighthearted. Nathan Vizonsky believed that it was used to welcome the bride into
the fold of married women. Given that relaxed atmosphere, it is but a small leap
to adapt a rather cynical text from Cahans Family Songs sectionreflecting
on how easy it is to fool a prospective bridegroomto a well-established
melody for the Potsh Tants (see the recommended song, below).
As a mixer, the dance provides great fun for families; children enjoy the
clapping and the stamping that goes on. In fact, it can even be performed a
cappella in situations where musical instruments may not be appropriate. Isaac
Rivkind cites a Hasidic belief that the dance was created by Rabbi Zusya of
Hanipoli to be accompanied only by clapping and stampingexpressly teach-

83

ing Jews to worship God quietlywithout words or even melody. Hasidim

knew it as the Shtiler (silent) Dance. In line with this thinking, a version of
the dance that appears in the 1938 Yiddish movie from Warsaw, The Dybbuk,
is identified in the subtitles as Tapping Dance. As there are many different
musical arrangements of the dance, the one chosen for this survey is specifically titled Patsh Tants in Kammen International Dance Folio No. 9.
8. POTSH TANTSOt azoy nart men op

If you really want to attract a beau

Ot azoy un ot azoy
This is the way that you should go:
Nart men op a khosn:
Telling him your Dad is very rich
Mzogt im tsu a sakh nadan
Should suffice to give him the itch!
Mgit im nit keyn groshn

Throw out a hint (clap, clap, clap)
Ot azoy un ot azoy
Youre inheriting a mint (clap, clap, clap)
Nart men op di shviger:
Another he wont find (clap, clap, clap)
Zi zogt im tsu zaydns geben
Once the Ktubahs signed (clap, clap, clap)
Un git im nit keyn tiger!

Under the canopy, wearing the ring
Ot azoy un ot azoy
Think of how your heart will sing:
Nart im op der shver:
As your groom leads you off,
handsome and cool
Er zogt im tsu toyznt glikn
He wont know that hes been
made a fool!
Un heyst im kushn a ber!
Formation:

Everyone in a single circle, facing towards center:

1-4 Circle right eight steps

5-8 Circle left eight steps

9-10 Two steps forward (drop hands), clap three times

11-12 Two steps back (drop hands) clap three times

13-16 Repeat measures 9-12

17-24 Turn with your partner for eight counts

25-32 Reverse direction and turn for another eight counts

Ot azoi un ot azoiWords: Cahan, no. 288; Music: Kammen, 1937, no.

52

84

(VILNA)
Music: Kammen (1937, no. 5)
1
Playfully

Ot,

ot

sakh na - dan,

a - zoy un

zogt im

nit

oy

a - zoy

nart men op

kho - sn: m-zogt im tsu

m-git

15

im

Zi

Yiddish Words: Cahan (1937, no. 288, Family Songs)

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

keyn ti - ger.

(clap)

(clap)

nit

keyn gro - shn! Ot

a - zoy

nart im

tsu zay - dns ge - bn

(clap)

un git im

Ot a - zoy, ot a - zoy

nart im op,

op

di shvi- ger.

(clap)

nart

im

ku - shn a

ber!

op

der

20

shver.

Er Zogt im tsu

toy - znt gli - kn un heist

im

9. Polke (Polka)
This is a vivacious couple dance of Bohemian origin, writes Lori Heikkila,
using a basic pattern of hop-step-close, in 2/4 time. It was first introduced
to ballrooms in Prague, 1835. Its Czech namePulkameans half-step,
and refers to the dancers characteristic rapid shift from one foot to another.
(Some sources believe that the later Polish versionechoing this shuffle
was at first performed in a manner that deliberately mocked the way local
peasant girls danced.) It spread throughout the Austro-Hungarian empire
and, by 1840, had reached Paris.
Troy Hawlak theorizes that the Polka caught on so quickly and so universally
because it was a very informal dance that required the two partners to be quite
close! When it arrived in the United States in 1849, reported Thomas Balch in
his book, Philadelphia Assemblies, Breiters Band was prepared for ithaving
already composed and rehearsed a new Polka for that years Assembly.68
68 Philadelphia, then the nations capitol, had shed its plain and simple Quaker
manners and dress right after the Revolutionary War, and by 1849 had been holding
an annual Assembly or Coming-out Ball in a center city hotel for over half a century;
Kate Haulman, Fashion and the Culture Wars of Revolutionary Philadelphia, The
William and Mary Quarterly, 62:4, October 2005.

85

The Polka is one of the few dances originating in the 19th century that has
remained widely popular. To be sure, when Ragtime, Jazz and Swing burst
on the scene early in the 20th century, the Polka did decline for a while.
After World War II, however, with the arrival of Polish immigrants and the
inception of a weekly TV showcase for Polkas provided by Lawrence Welks
Band, interest in this heel and toe and away we go dance with its variance
in style from robust stepping to smooth gliding and ever-happy music picked
up again.

Az a meydele geytCahan, no. 250

Eyns tsvey dray f irCahan, no. 221

Khbeyt zhe mir a finf-un-tsvantsikerBeregovski, no. 46

9. POLKEEyns, tsvey, dray, fir

One, two, three, four, five-six, seven
Eyns, tsvey, dray, fir, finf, zeks,
zibn,
Play that Polka and send me to heaven,
Swing your partner here,
Swing your partner there,
Swing it before the clock strikes eleven!
Azoy vi di rozeve blumen bliyn

Shpilt zhe mir di poylke

vi es shteyt geshribn;
Shift zi zikh aher,
Shift zi zikh ahin,
(Bom ta-da).

One, two, three, four, five-six, seven-eight,

Eyns, tsvey, dray, fir, finf, zeks,
zibn,
Ive found me a girl/boy friend
Avu iz di meydele vos ikh tu ir
libn?
Who is really great,
Ot iz zi do,
And knows how to dance,
Ot iz zi nito
So Ill take a chance
Un ot iz zi avekgegangen
Tsu al di shvarts-yor
On romance, before its too late!

(Bom ta-da).

86

(PODOLIA; VILNA)
Words & Music: Cahan (1957, nos. 221. 222)
Bouncy
1

Eyns, tsvey,dray, fir,

Shift zi zikh a - her,

2.

blu - men bliyn.

13

di - di dom;

finf

zeks

zi - bn,

shift zi zikh a - hin,

Refrain

Bom

ta - da di - di

bom, ta - da di - di

shpilt mir di poyl - ke

vi es shteyt ge -shri - bn.

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

a-zoy vi de ro - ze - ve

bom

ta - da dom,

1.

blu - men bliyn;

bom

ta - da di - di

di - di dom - dom, bom ta - da di - di

dom.

10. Roumanian or Slow Hora

A slow, dignified dance that Helen Winkler assures is easy to perform, the
Yiddish Hora is essentially a social dance, for any number of dancers can
join in. What is more, it does not necessitate partition into couples or into
better-and-worse dancers. Notated in slow 3/8 time, it is not to be confused
with the brisk Israeli dance of the same name, that is danced in a much faster
4/4 time. The Roumanian Horas rhythmic pattern is calmer and its pace is
more relaxed. Here are its basics, as described by Jacob Bloom, learned from
Michael Alpert at KlezKamp 1994.69
Formation:
A circle or line, with a W hand hold.
Styling:
Dance progresses to the right. Steps made to the right are larger than
steps to the left. There is no movement to the center.
Basic steps:
1) Arms up and joined, raising slightly on each step
2) Facing rightwalk right, left, right
3) Facing centertouch left foot
4) Facing leftwalk left, right, left
5) Facing right and leaning back slightlytouch right foot
69 According to Helen Winkler, the above steps may originally have been taught
to Michael Alpert by the legendary Klezmer clarinetist, Dave Tarras (1897-1989).

87

Epelekh un barelekhBeregovski, no. 57

Gold un zilberWords: Cahan, no. 212; Music: Kammen, 1924, no. 16
Shviger, a gut helf aykhBeregovsky, no. 53

10. ROUMANIAN HORAShviger, a gut helf aykh

Good day to you, Father-in-Law,
What have you to say
Of your Daughter-in-Law?
She pleases me very much,
Teases me soId like to touch!
Ta ra-ra ram

Shviger, a gut helf aykh,

Tsu di shnur gefelt aykh?
Gefeln iz tsu mir freyer,

She is gentle as a feline,

She is pretty as a fox,
And should I step out of line
Both my ears she would box!

Sheyn iz zi vi a kalineh,
Zis iz zi vi a malineh,
Gut iz zi vi di malke Ester,
Vi a kalleh iz zi di besteh!

Ta ra-ra ram

Ta ra-ra ram

(UKRAINE)
Words & Music: Beregovski (1982, no. 53)
1
Coyly

A sheyne shnur in shleyer.

Ta ra-ra ram

Tra ta - ra ra - ra ram ta,

tra ra - ra ra - ra ram ta.

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

ra - ra

ay

ra;

13

ta ra - ra ra ra

19

Ta

25

ta - ra ra - ra ra - ra

ra.

ra

Ta ra - ra ram, ta ra - ra ram, ta

ra

ra - ra - ra ra

ram

Ram ta - ra - ra - ra. ram ta - ra ra - ra

ra - ra

Ta

ta - ra ra - ra ra - ra

ra ra - ra

ra

ram ta - ra ra - ra ram ta - ra ra - ra, ram ta - ra ra - ra

ra.

ra

ra - ra.

Fine

ra.

29 1. Shvi - ger,

fe - ln

iz tsu

gut

mir

helf aykh,

frey - er,

tzu di

shnur

shey - ne shnur

88

ge - felt

in

aykh?

shley - er.

Ge -

Dal Segno
al Fine

11. Sher
An old dance of the Eastern European Jewish communities, its name may
derive from sherYiddish for scissorsbecause the crossing movements
of the couples resemble the crossing motion of scissor blades. Dvorah
Lapson therefore speculates that it originated as a Jewish Tailors Guild
dance. The name might also be associated with the traditional cutting off
of the brides hair with a scissors on her wedding day, a custom alluded to
in Judith Brin Ingbers video, Dancing into Marriage.
Nathan Vizonsky claimed that the Sher in its present form seems most
directly influenced by the Quadrille, a square dance of four couples, that was
popular in the courts of European monarchsespecially in Franceduring
the 18th century. In its tempered movements and graceful bowings, the Sher
still retains the trappings of its courtly beginnings. At the same time, its elements are equally representative of the Hasidic devotional attitude known as
dveikut or clinging to God, a gentle hesitance that in other circumstances
could be taken as the shyness which dominated relations between the sexes
in the ghettos. The partners in this dance do not actually join hands, but hold
the opposite corners of a handkerchief.
LeeEllen Friedland70 explains the often-confusing nomenclature of Jewish group dances, especially for the Sher.

70

The group dances generally had simple patterns that encouraged a wide
range of participation. There were two patterns, a circle dance and a
dance in square formation. In many areas the circle dance was called a
Freylekhs; in other areas it was called a Redl [small group]. It was, in all
areas, the dance performed most often. It consisted primarily of everyone
dancing in a circle, every person doing his or her own individual variation
of stepping. A winding snake figure was often introduced, in which the
dance leader would lead the rest of the circle through a series of arches
and then back out those same arches.The dance in square formation was
known as a Sher. Although its configuration resembled that of the Kadril
[Quadrille], dancers have been adamant about the fact that the Sher was
considered a Jewish dance and the Kadril was not a Jewish dance. This is
especially interesting in light of the fact that most of the figures performed
in a Sher are pan-European patterns! In a Sher, figures that involved the
whole groupsuch as circling or a snakewould alternate with figures
that involved the two couples facing opposite each other, such as the two
ladies dancing to the center and crossing over to change partners.

Friedland, Tantsn iz lebn, p. 78.

89

Formation:

A square formed by four couples, male to the left of the female. Each man
holds in his right hand a handkerchief, which his partner grasps with her
left hand.

The Steps:

Since the Sher is not a fast dance, most people dance it in a sort of shuffling
walking step or in an ordinary walking step, two steps to each bar of the
melody. The steps remain the same throughout, while the choreographical
groupings change.

The Music:

Most often, musicians would string together a medley of tunes when

accompanying the Sher, and all of them workedas long as they were
played in the right tempo and style. Tunes for the Sher were known in all
the former Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. Here are two typical
ones whose lyrics specifically mention the Sherele (Little Sher), in the
contrasting keys of E major and in F minor.

Shpielt mir opBeregovski, no. 14

Shpielt zhe mirCahan, no. 260

11. SHERShpilt zhe mir

As I download the latest Sher
Off of iTune,
Im thinking of a girl so fair
Id love to see her soon.

Shpilt zhe mir dem nayem sher

Vos iz aroysgekumen;
Khhob mikh farlibt in a meydele a sheyner
Un ken tsu ir nit kumen.

If only she were closer

(She lives so far away)
Id tell her how I chose her
That very first day.

Khvolt tsu ir gekumen,

Zitst zi zeyer vayt;
Khvolt ir a kush gegebn,
Shem ikh mir far layt.

I am not ashamed
Of my secret love
One fine day she will be named
Before the One Above.

Nit azoy far layt,

Nor far Gott aleyn;
Ikh volt mit ir farbrakht di tsayt,
Az keyner zol nit zeyn.

90

Words & Music: Cahan (1957, no. 250)

1
Merrily

Shpilt zhe mir dem

English Words: Joseph Levine (2008)

na - yem

sher

vos

iz

a - roys - ge - ku - men,

khhob mikh far - libt in a

15

volt tsu ir ge - ku - men,

shem ikh mikh far - layt.

mey - de - le a shey - ner un

ken tsu

nit

ku - men. Kh

zitst zi ze - yer vayt,

Nit a - zoy far

kh - volt zi a kush ge - ge - bn,

layt

21

ir

1.

volt mit ir far - brakht di tsayt, az key - ner zol nit zeyn;

vi far Gott a - leyn.

Ikh

2.

key - ner zol nit zehn.

Dance Songs
Instrumentals and Vocals
Klezmer has always meant instrumental music, from its early-17th century
beginnings with Violin/Cimbalom71 duets to modern ensembles consisting
of ten players who alternate between eighteen instruments:72
Accordion

drums

piccolo

alto saxophone

flute

poyk73

baritone saxophone

guitar

tambourine

bass

mandolin

tenor banjo

clarinet

percussion trombone

cornet

piano violin

71 Cimbalom is what the dulcimer was called in Hungary, Romania and Bohemia
(The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 1977: 168.
72 Garnered from Personnel Lists of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, given in
various Klezmershack KCB reviews, Winter 2007-2008.
73 Yiddish: large double-headed bass-drum with a brass cymbal mounted on
top (Michael Alpert, All My Life a Musician, American Klezmer, Mark Slobin, ed.
(Berkeley: University of California press), 2002: 77.

91

Like Flamenco, another intensely emotional folk music that was first
playedthen danced and sungKlezmer has undergone a series of evolutionary cycles in which it spiraled closer to popular culture and legitimacy
before being forced to reinvent itself to avoid assimilation and disappearing
for good.74 After World War I, Flamenco was saved by two Spanish folklorists who were also musicians, the writer Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936),
and the composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). Simultaneously, Klezmer
was rescued by two rival virtuoso clarinetists, Dave Tarras (1897-1989) and
Naftule Brandwein (1884-1963). The impetus of their brilliant playing carried
Klezmer music in the United States until the immigrant generation began to
die out in the 1960sand with it the Yiddish language in which the dances
had been taught by myriad instructorsand the wedding rituals had been
parodied by countless Badkhonim.
As Jason Webster observes concerning Flamenco, salvation came a second
time around for Klezmer in the 1970s, when a younger group of enthusiasts,
spurred by the general renewal of interest in folk music spearheaded by Pete
Seeger, The Weavers, Oscar Brand, Peter Paul & Mary, and other performers
and anthologists. Unfortunately, our analogy ends at the point where the heart
and soul of Flamenco beginswith its deep song (cante jondo)which is
completely foreign to Klezmer, an exclusively instrumental art form despite
the vocals that permeate recent Klezmer recordings.
The Role of Yiddish Dance Songs
Simply put, they fill the gap between Klezmer and folk songs. They cover
seams that might otherwise separate what musicologist Walter Zev Feldman
postulates as Klezmer Genres.75 These are:
the Core Repertoire of Old Style Freylekhs and Shers;

the Transitional Repertoire of Volekhls, Slow Horas and Bulgars, with

Moldavia as its main source;
the Co-Territorial Repertoire originally played for Gentiles by Klezmorim
Mazurkas, Kolomeykes, Kazatskes, Hopkes, Krakowiaks;
the Cosmopolitan Repertoire of Western-and-Central European origin
Quadrilles, Lancers and Polkas.
74 Jason Webster, Duende: A Journey into the Heart of Flamenco (New York:
Broadway Books), 2002: 46-47.
75 Walter Zev Feldman, Bulgareasca / Bulgarish / BulgarThe Transformation
of a Klezmer Genre, American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots, Mark Slobin, ed.
(Berkeley: University of California Press), 2002, pages 91-96.

92

This continuum was set in motion after the Jewish Enlightenment, says
Feldman, when

it became more common for men to dance with women76 and models for
such music were sought outside of Jewish life. In particular, Roumanian
music grew in popularity after dances such as the Bulgareasca and
Suba became, in effect, dance crazes among Jews at the end of the 19th
century.

Yehude-Leyb Cahan completed his first Warsaw collection at that same

timethe late 1890sand it is no coincidence that most of the Dance Songs
in the 1957 re-issuing of all his successive Shtudyes (Studies) as well as all 11
of the songs for which music and words are provided in this articlefit neatly
into one or another of Walter Zev Feldmans four Genre categories.

Two of thema Bulgar from Minsk (2.) and a Slow Hora from Romania
(10.)are Transitional Repertoire.

Two othersa Laanse from Warsaw (5.) and a Poylke from Podolia
(8.)are Cosmopolitan Repertoire.

Two are Co-Territorial Repertoire: a Kazatske from Podolia (4.), and a

Mazurka from Warsaw (6.).
The largest numberfive, or 45% of the totalare Core Repertoire: a
Broyges Tants that is universally known (1.), a Freylekhs from Minsk
(3.), a Mitzvah Tants from Pinsk (7.), a Patsh Tants from Vilna (9.), and
a Sher from Podolia (11.).

Given the opportunity to enter modern life, our East-European great-great

grandparents seized the moment and danced what was current. In retracing
their path 100 years after the fact, we recognize that the tunes and steps of
their dance songs were modified to fit Jewish preferences. The words are, of
course, the original creations of their hearts and minds.
Music and Words
The published collections of Cahan (1957), Kammen (1924, 1937), Beregovski
(1982), and Rubin (1965) reflect usage and preference of the late-19th and
early-20th century when Yiddish dance songs still flourished in the old Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and had taken root as well among the
recently arrived immigrant Jewish population in North America. Though
76 This phenomenon is documented in The Memorial Book of Czyzewo ( Poland; published by its former residents, Tel-Aviv: 1961, A Wedding in Town, p. 498):
Some stood ready to challenge the prohibition, beginning with the second decade of
the 20th century, when men and women could be found dancing together before the
seated bride, undisturbed.

93

limited to only one for each of the Dance-types discussed above, the 15 songs
are remarkably versatile. Example 3., Soreh rivke, drey zikh durkhn mitl, from
Cahan (no. 217)sung Allegro (metronome mark 120) but played Presto
(M.M. 150)can accompany not only Freylekhs, but also Bulgars, Hopkes
and Kazatskes when it is judiciously ritarded or accelerated. Its melodys A
section opens in G harmonic-minor when ascending (with the F sharped)
and G natural-minor when descending (with the F remaining natural). The
B section moves to G minors relative-major key of B-flat. The C sectionin
the synagogue mode of D-Ahavah-Rabbah (meaning, With Abundant Love;
a major scale on D with E-flat and B-flat)quotes the well known folk song
from the town of Talnoye in the Ukraine: Reb dovidl (Rabbi David, formerly
of Vasilkov, now resides in Talnoye).77
If we carefully examine the tunes and texts presented here, it quickly becomes evident that they epitomize the term, folksong. Motifs repeat in the
music and the poems, in true folk fashion for a given cultural group. These
dance songs emerged from the common usage of a people at play; they were
never intended for concert performance. In fact, the concept of performance
is extraneous to the process by which they evolved. Neither does the label,
Gebrauchmusikmusic composed for a specific usequite fit, for the songs
were never composed; they simply happened over time. As for their lasting
value, Ruth Rubin puts the question in a realistic perspective.

We may not find pearls of literary creation in these incidental, often

accidental little rhymes, which at first performed a utilitarian function of
rhythmically accompanying the social dancing of the young people. Upon
closer scrutiny, however, it is clear that these fragments contain values
pointing in two directions. One represents the preserved remains of old
dance and love songs of several hundred years ago; the other, latent seeds
of love songs in the making. This endows these fragments with a quality
that, in its entirety, [embodies] a wellspring of primitive folk poetry of a
high order.78

In addition, Rubin sees in the dances that these poems accompanied, a

pantomime of neglected little details of shtetl existence. Like kinetic Bdikaskhomets candles on the eve of Passover, the dance songs cast a flickering light
into the nooks and crannies of Eastern European Jewish life. Every snatch
of verbal or tonal assonance that was in the airno matter how tinywas
swept up and incorporated into these dance songs, including the nonsense
77 The tune of Reb dovidl was the subject of a famous short story by I. L. Peretz:
Gilgul Fun A Niggun (The Transmigration of a Melody), 1901.
78 Ruth Rubin, Voices of a PeopleThe Story of Yiddish Folksong (Urbana: University of Illinois Press), first paperback edition, 2000: 195.

94

syllables that a mother made up on the spot and sang to her children as instant
Yiddish nursery rhymes.79
There is also no doubt that some of the resentful patter disguised as dance
instruction in songs like Motl motl (Cahan no. 219, a Laanse)80 or Soreh-rivkeh
(Cahan no. 217, a Freylekhs) were reflective of a social dynamic peculiar to
Yiddish-speaking Jews whod recently emerged from a cloistered existence
that might be described as medieval. Lyrics such as, [Women] can twirl the
whole night through, but to pay the band they havent a clue, reveal an evident naivet about the way things really work in the modern world (Hayntike
meydelekh, Cahan, no. 245, a Mazurka).
The dance songs under discussion lie much closer to folksong than to
Klezmer music which, as Helen Winkler observes, had no vocals whatsoever
Traditional Klezmer bands had the Badkhn, but he didnt sing for the dancing.
She concludes that songs collected by ethnographers like Beregovski, Cahan,
Mlotek and Rubin were most probably used in the home or in smaller social
gatherings, rather than weddings. Dvorah Lapson concurs:

In many communities of Eastern Europeespecially in Hungary, Moravia

and RomaniaJewish youths would assemble on Saturday afternoons for
dancing under the supervision of a woman. The dancing would be held,
when possible, in the synagogue courtyard, which became popularly
known by the name of a dance they loved, the Joc, a type of Hora common
among their Gentile neighbors.81

This appellation perfectly suited the place (dedicated and secure) and time
(the weekly Sabbath). The Joc is an old Roumanian circle dance, similar in
pace (slow) and mood (solemn) to the Yiddish Roumanian Hora, though in
4/4 rather than 3/8 time. The feeling of sameness in both is imparted by a
delayed trillor a delayed accentin each measure of the Joc.82
Finally, readers who detect a soupon of misogyny mixed into the English
lyrics, are assured that an effort was made to paint all players in these J-dating
games a bit outlandishlyyet appealingly. From the Broyges Tantss quarelling
couple (Perhaps we should seek some professional advice) through Rivkah
79 Ibid. P. 184.
80 Cahans endnote to this song is revealing: A dance-improvisation, with bitingly humorous remarks regarding a Laanse.
81 The dancing would have been accompanied by a cappella singing, given the
rabbinic prohibition against playing instruments on the Sabbath; Dvorah Lapson, s.
v., Sabbath Dances, Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter), 1972: 1267.
82 An video of this Roumanian dance is accessible at folkdancemusic/jJoc
BatrinescVideoSeminar Ulm 1998Brbel & Jacques Lonneaux.

95

and Yenkel among the barley and milletwho are made for each othernot
like sister and brother, to the rapacious father of the groom whose daughterin-law, gentle as a feline pretty as a fox, would summarily box his ears if
ever he stepped out of linethe lads and lassies (and old bucks) who cavort
without end in these slightly naughty musical rompsall seem to know the
score, even if their footwork might need a bit of attention.

Mitzvah Tants, oil painting by the English artist,

Siegfried Alva (1901-1973), Independence Hall, Tel Aviv
The Journal is indebted to Helen Winkler, an avid student of Jewish folkways and
webmaster of Helens Yiddish Dance Page: Dances of the Jews of Eastern Europe,
for providing much of the foregoing material, for suggesting many additional sources,
for permitting the reprint of her own expositional writing, and for expertly editing
the result. Joseph A. Levine is editor of the Journal.

96

Folk Songs and the Fragments of Ashkenazic Common

Culture
By Philip V. Bohlman and Otto Holzapfel

On Identities German and Jewish

As the twentieth century passes into the twenty-first, the contentious, often
heated, debate about the possibility of rapprochement between Germans
and Jews shows no signs of abating. Although the historical contexts for
the discussions are changing, the debate itself is anything but new. For both
Germans and Jews, it has not proved possible to extricate themselves from
the debate, even if most of those on both sides might prefer that solution.
Rather than showing signs of becoming threadbare or even of disappearing
as the final generation of Holocaust survivors passes away, new dimensions
to the discussions are revealed and new questions are posed. If anything, the
discussions have acquired a new immediacy precisely because they refuse
to go away.
The question that again arises from the debates has historically received
various names, but by the turn of the twenty-first century, the discussants
increasingly began to settle on a variant name, the German question. a deliberate and provocative alteration of the older historical name, the Jewish
question (Judenfrage). Both Jews and Germans were re-posing the question,
clearly with the hope that it might have a different, in other words, more
positive, answer than previous answers, be they the cases of anti-Semitism
and pogrom in pre-modern Europe, be they the limitation of acculturation
and the embourgeoisement that accompanied Bildung, be they reduced to
the single answer of the Holocaust Surely, German history itself had kept
the Jewish question alive by rarely according it anything but the most brutal
resolutions.
Why, we might ask ourselves, were the German and Jewish questions
being asked again (and again) at the beginning of the twenty-first century,
as if to imagine there would be a different answer? The Cold War was over,
Europe wanted to be unified, Germany was reunified, Berlin was again the
capital, and Germany aspired to be the most powerful political, economic,
and cultural nation in the New Europe. The German question was a blemish
on this New Germany, and many in the younger generation shaping the new
politics were eager to disentangle themselves from the German questions
vestiges in their Germany. If the answer to the German question would

97

persist in being negative, it would mean that the past would forever scar the
present.
The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz, a volume of folk songs whose variants are
Jewish and German, poses the German and the Jewish questions too, but it
employs a body of empirical evidence and a set of perspectives on history
that the public debates at centurys end do not. Historically, the German and
Jewish questions took as their point of departure that Jews and non-Jews in
Germany not only practiced different religions, but lived in different societies
and affiliated themselves with myth, history, and the nation-state in vastly
different ways. The debates remained so fixed on difference that the possibility
of cultural traditions in common was beyond consideration.
The songs gathered in The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz provide clear evidence
that there were rapprochement and a common culture shared by Germans
and Jews. The question posed by the songs in the volume is not about difference and dual identities, as postulated by Franz Rosenzweigs Zweistromland,
land of two rivers, or in Hebrew, naharayim, but rather about an historical
and geographical folk-song landscape produced by the many tributaries of
a single river. The identities these songs document, or at least represent as
traces, did not necessarily fall into German and Jewish components, but were
remarkably more complex. The versions of these songsthe tributaries of
this vast river on the cultural geography of Ashkenazreveal common cul
ture at the everyday level. They reveal that song was occasionally common to
Judaism and Christianity. They narrate the attempts to transform Jewish folk
song into a language for staking out positions in nineteenth-and-twentiethcentury Bildungsbrgertum, the educated middle-and-upper-middle class
that opened new paths of emancipation for Jews in Central Europe. These
songs also lay bare the complex contradictions of prejudice and anti-Semitism
and the inscription of Otherness.
The songs in this volume, then, reveal that there was a common culture,
made of fragments, shared repertories and practices, and occasional moments
of rapprochement and leveled differences, even if there was ultimately no
culture of commonality. The collection gathers songs from specific places
and times, and to the extent it has been possible, it endeavors to identify who
the individuals were that sang the songs, collected and transcribed them, and
published them within specific contexts. No individual version or variant
stands for an entire repertory or song family, but rather it offers one type of
evidence, a fragment or thread. The volume does not represent the whole
of Ashkenazic folk song in some sweeping sense. Instead, it is organized in

98

such a way as to illumine some of the ways in which parts were connected to
create a whole: historically speaking, probably several wholes.
If we speak of the fragments and threads of a common culture, we do not
wish to suggest that these deny the conditions and tragedies of dual identities.
The seams and ruptures that produce dual identities are hardly invisible in the
anthologys songs. Many of the songs probably circulated between Jewish and
non-Jewish communities in spite of the seams and ruptures, which therefore
makes the common culture of which they were a part even more complex
and remarkable. The authors do not wish to claim that the folk songs in this
anthology answer the German and Jewish questions, but they do believe
that the songs provide evidence for posing those questions in new, perhaps
more nuanced, ways. Their answers, like those offered at the beginning of
the twenty-first century at an historical moment of renewed passion for the
questions, insist that the crucial lesson of these questions lies in posing them
repeatedly. The lasting value of the German and Jewish questions lies not in
settling their answers, but rather in being unsettled by their answers.
Ashkenaz
If one looks in a modern Hebrew-English dictionary, the single definition
offered for the entry Ashkenaz is simply Germany. The Germany in that
entry is not the modern nation-state of Germany, with Berlin as its capital city;
that Germany is referred to as Germaniah in modern Hebrew. Ashkenaz
is another Germany, historically situated, but not in the present, or even in
the modern era of European history. Searching again in the modern HebrewEnglish dictionary under Ashkenazi, an individual living in Ashkenaz, one
finds two meanings: German and Eastern European Jew. Lexicographically, separating a German from an Eastern European Jew is not possible. The
meanings may seem to be geographically contradictory, but etymologically
they overlap. And this is precisely the case with their folk songs.
The term Ashkenaz appeared first in the Bible, where it refers to both
people and places. In Genesis 10:3, Ashkenaz is one of the sons of Gomer,
hence a grandson of Noah. Elsewhere, there are references to a place, even a
kingdom of Ashkenaz (e.g., Jeremiah 51:27-28), which lay between Assyria
and Armenia, in other words, in a border region that would today include
northern Iran and the southern Caucasus. During the first century C.E., in the
diaspora that dates from the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and
includes the inscription of the Babylonian Talmud, the location of Ashkenaz
shifted from western Asia to Europe. The exact location of Ashkenaz in Tal-

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mudic sources of the first millennium is not fixed, but it inevitably includes
regions settled by Germanic tribes, in both Scandinavia and Germany. By the
beginning of the second millennium C.E., however, the geographical identity
of Ashkenaz has become fixed, for it increasingly refers, for example in the
commentaries of the great eleventh-century religious authority, Rashi, to the
Jewish communities of the Rhine valley, especially those near the centers of
administration for the Holy Roman Empire: Worms and Mainz.
In Hebrew writings of the High Middle Ages, Ashkenaz increasingly
ascribes a distinction of selfness to the Jews of Germany; various writings
concern themselves with the atrocities against the Ashkenazim committed
during the crusades. By the end of the European Middle Ages, in other words
by the fifteenth century, Ashkenaz possessed a double meaning, not only
describing the intensive Jewish settlements of the Rhine valley, but the areas
in which Jews spoke a Germanic language. Historically, this is the point at
which The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz picks up its story.
It was also in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that Jews from the
Rhine valley, fleeing massacre and persecution, migrated eastward into the
regions of Eastern Europe. They brought with them many of their religious
traditions, among them traditions of Ashkenazic prayer and liturgy (i.e., a
distinctively Ashkenazic religious discourse), and the vernacular language of
medieval German communities: Middle High German. As emigrants from
the land of Ashkenaz and bearers of culture from Ashkenaz, the Jews of Eastern Europe were increasingly referred to as Ashkenazim. During the early
modern era, especially in response to the spread of Jews expelled from the
Iberian Peninsula in 1492, who settled on the European and North African
littorals thereafter and acquired the name Sephardim (lit. Spaniards), the
distinction between Ashkenazic and Sephardic cultures became culturally
more pronounced, forming the essential dichotomy between European and
Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Jewish communities. Later in the modern
era the boundaries of Ashkenaz were increasingly fixed to the larger region
of Central and Eastern Europe, and in this region Jews spoke vernaculars
derived from Middle High German. But for various reasons, not least among
them administrative, they also acquired fluency in modern literary German,
that is, High German.
If the external boundaries of Ashkenaz lent themselves to clearer definition by the era of European modernity, the internal boundaries were more
indistinct and fluid than ever. The vernacular languages-and the presence of
vernacular language in folk culturewere incredibly varied, bearing many
different relations to High German and modern literary Yiddish. These lan-

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guages were still inchoate in Jewish communities at the end of the eighteenth
century. Ashkenazic culture, it follows, was a mosaic of local forms far more
than a single landscape with larger Central and Eastern European regions.
The distinction between East and West followed the German Enlightenment
(Aufklrung), but alsoand very significantlythe Jewish Enlightenment
(Haskalah), which itself followed different paths in German-and-Yiddishspeaking Europe. The responses to modernity were, therefore, all Ashkenazic,
if indeed they revealed the increasingly disparate responses to modernity
that would also lead to a proliferation of folk-song repertories and traditions.
Some responses to the variant folk-song traditions exaggerated the differences
within Ashkenaz. Others celebrated those differences, and still others sought
ways in which rapprochement might eliminate tendencies toward divisiveness
and usher in a new era of common culture in Ashkenaz.
Ontologies of Ashkenazic Folk Song
Just as the historical and geographical concepts of Ashkenaz accommodate
a multitude of identities, so, too, do the ontologies of Ashkenazic folk song
that emerge from the book. The folk song of Ashkenaz has historically assumed many forms, and each form of Ashkenazic folk song embodies many
identities. What Ashkenazic folk song is, then, depends on many variables
and the ways in which they interact. Some of the variables that constitute a
given repertory or song-type might result from sameness (e.g., variants of
the same song in a linguistically and culturally unified region as in the case of
Ryti-Rssli-Lied,), while others may result from the juxtaposition of variables
that are different or even distinct in essential ways (e.g., related melodies that
appear with entirely) unrelated texts, as in the melodies for Frau von Weissenburg. Similarity and difference may fuse in some songs, while in others
they may enter into competition. The ontologies of Ashkenazic folk song,
therefore, result from the processes that allow individuals and communities,
performers and audiences, to accommodate and respond to the complex
patterns of identity that are themselves evident in the identity of each song,
variant, and repertory.
Because the ontology of Ashkenazic folk song bears witness to multiple
identities, the theoretical framework of this volume rests on the premise that
the Jewish and non-Jewish cultures of Ashkenazic Europe were not isolated
from each other. There were pre-modern, early modern, and modern conditions that tended to produce separationthe medieval Judengasse (lit. street
of the Jews) on the outskirts of the medieval village or city, the ghetto of late

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Renaissance and Baroque Europe, and the immigrant neighborhood on the

periphery of the modern metropolisbut these did not prevent communica
tion and exchange any more than they eliminated confrontation. The authors
focus their attempts to identify ontologies of Ashkenazic folk song on the
processes of exchange and communication, for folk song was one of the forms
of connection and communication. The volume opens, to take one case in
point, with the ballad Die Jdin, the text of which refers to the very sites of
border-crossing between the Jewish community and the non-Jewish world
beyond the Judengasse. The volume closes with several songs (Zayt gezunt,
mayne liebe Eltern and Die waisse Taibel) whose texts problematize the
dilemma of departure, of leaving the world of tradition for an unknown life
beyond. Communication and connection make literal appearances in the
songs (e.g., Das jdische Schaffner-Lied), but just as often they manifest
themselves as metaphor (e.g., Unmgliche Dinge).
Among the variables that constitute the ontologies of Ashkenazic folk
song are several that, within the traditional concepts of German and Yiddish
folk music, would be unexpected. Ashkenazic folk song is not necessarily relegated to the Jewish community. Not only did non-Jewish traditions
contain songs about Jews or with Jewish subject m
atter, but also non-Jews
did, under some circumstances, sing Jewish songs. This is strikingly evident
in several childrens songs that appear in the anthology. It is also an aspect
of traditions that belong more to popular than to folk culture, for example,
in the cosmopolitan couplet traditions at the turn of the past century (e.g.,
the Viennese Broadsides) or in klezmer traditions, in which Jews were not
infrequently joined in multiethnic border regions, such as Burgenland and
the Carpathian Mountains, by non-Jewish minorities, especially by Roma.
We do not wish, however, to ignore the fact that there were other reasons
for looking across the divide between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures: persecution and prejudice; financial and other socio-economic reasons; and
power and the transformation of political rights. Such pressures on the Jewish
community also led to the complication and proliferation of identities within
Ashkenazic folk song. Though many processes of contact and exchange contributed to the mixing and remixing of identity in Ashkenazic folk song, three
general processes emerge from the songs in the book. First, because many of
the songs themselves were collected in border regions, it is hardly surprising
that their identities bear witness to border-crossing. Second, variables within
the songs that combined because of their similarities often led to hybridity.
Third, those variables that were less compatible, for linguistic, musical, or
religiocultural reasons, nonetheless accrued to identities that reflected the dual

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accommodation of selfness and otherness. Each of these patterns of identity

arises from the conditions of modernity, and, accordingly, they produce a set
of ontologies that are indices for the entrance of Jews, however fraught with
problems, into modern European society and into modernity itself.
Cultural Geographies of Ashkenazic Folk Song
The cultural geographies of Ashkenazic folk song are literal, metaphorical,
and discursive. The places where folk song entered European Jewish life and
in which music in turn came to represent a specific geography are real, and,
though they frequently changed during the course of history, we can locate
them on the maps that inscribe European Jewish history. Folk song also lent
itself to the construction of metaphors about place, be these stereotypes about
the shtetl or the ghetto, or be they the regions with large Jewish populations,
such as Galicia, where Jewish culture was shrouded with images of otherness.
Together, the literal and the metaphorical geographies of Ashkenazic folk song
generated what we might call a discursive cultural geography, the vocabularies
used to talk about, describe, and represent the place of Ashkenazic Jewish
culture in Europe. Folk song not only contributed to such vocabularies, it
became one of the most complex and historically durable vocabularies for
representing both the expansiveness of an Ashkenazic cultural geography
and the local sites where it played itself out in the everyday lives of individuals and communities.
Just as the term Ashkenaz itself came to identify the distinctiveness of
Jewish place in a largely non-Jewish Europe, so too has the cultural geography
of Ashkenazic folk song formed along the borders between Jewish and nonJewish places. The iconic site of Eastern European Jewish culture, the shtetl,
stands at one extreme on a continuum of place in a cultural geography of
modernity. The shtetl remains buffered from European modernity, isolated
from the center of Ashkenaz, Germany, and withdrawn to the extent that this
was possible from surrounding non-Jewish culture. The culture of the shtetl
survives in folk tradition as a constellation of stereotypes. Significantly, shtetls
appear in many folk tales and folk songs as if they were entirely interchangeable. Their residents fall into certain typesthe shopkeeper, the innkeeper,
the yeshiva student, the hapless schlemiel, the klezmer musicianand the
cultural and musical activities cluster around a typical axis running from the
local inn along the central street to the synagogue.
The cultural geography of village life in Ashkenazic Europe was, of course,
much more complex than images such as these. There were Jewish villages

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throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and these, too, contained musical
cultures that responded to the relative degrees of isolation from or interaction with non-Jewish neighbors. Jewish village life also responded to the
rapid urbanization of Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
with shtetl dwellers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire moving to the urban
centers, where Jewish populations swelled, but often in specific districts or
neighborhoods, which in turn sustained the cultural geography of the village.
The shtetl gave way to the ghetto, and the cultural geography of modernity
formed along the historical paths connecting the traditionally rural places in
Ashkenazic Europe to the increasingly urban.
Diaspora, too, contributed to the mapping of a cultural geography of Ashkenazic folk song. The historical discourses of Ashkenaz were shaped by a
recognition that the German-and-Yiddish-speaking Jews of Europe did not
live in the Land of Israel. Folk song absorbed this recognition of diaspora,
for example, by sustaining song variants in Hebrew and German or Yiddish;
in other words, the languages of a diasporic and a non-diasporic people.
Diaspora left its imprint on the cultural geography of modern Jewish folk
song, not least the continued expansion of diaspora through mass-migrations
to North America from the late nineteenth century to World War I, and later
as responses to European persecution and the Holocaust. The cultural geography of Ashkenazic folk song, then, expanded the idea of diaspora to include
specific places in American cities (e.g., the Lower East Side of New York City)
and the settlements taking root in Palestine (e.g., the kibbutzim).
German folk song, too, was inseparable from a vocabulary imbued with
strong connections to place and to literal, metaphorical, and discursive cultural geographies. No geographical metaphor affixed itself more powerfully
to the spread of German culture into Eastern Europe than the Sprachinsel,
or speech island. The Sprachinsel, as its name made clear, was a place of
isolation, created as a concept that described the survival of the German
language and culture in regions surrounded by non-Germans, for example,
the Siebenbrgen and Banat settlements of Romania or the so-called Volga
Colonies. Like the shtetl, the Sprachinsel increasingly became the stage for
stereotype. As a discursive cultural geography, it plays a role in The Folk Songs
of Ashkenaz not unlike the role played by the shtetl.
It is also significant that the cultural geography of emigration, at least
obliquely comparable to diaspora, plays an important role in the collection.
Many of the song collections, historical and ethnographic, upon which the
authors have drawn for the edition, come from the periphery rather than the
center of a larger German folk-song tradition. Accordingly, they have been

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shaped by history and geography in ways not unlike those shaping Jewish folk
song within the cultural geography of Ashkenazic Europe.
Even more crucial than the distinctive German and Jewish cultural geographies represented by the songs in the volume is what is called the cultural
geography of Jewish betweenness. The map of betweenness highlights
border regions and regions that overflow historical and political boundaries. Betweenness results not from isolation in shtetls or speech islands, but
emerges in zones of exchange and hybridity. The cultural geography of Jewish
betweenness depend: on historical and political realities such as the Habsburg
monarchy which comprised the larger region known today as Mitteleuropa
and which included the most intensively Jewish areas of Ashkenazi Europe.
Whereas cultures of betweenness may form along borders, they also tend to
negate the divisive impact of borders, increasing instead the possibility for a
new common culture. The conditions that supported common culture were
also those that created the places in which German and Yiddish folk song
intersected, and, accordingly, they are particularly important for the cultural
geography of betweenness that the folk songs in the book represent.
Folk Song and the Common Culture of Border Regions
Border regions dominate the cultural geography represented by the folk
songs of Ashkenaz. These border regions range from those created by political boundaries, topographical boundaries, linguistic boundaries, historical
boundaries, and, perhaps most often, all of these. Whereas such boundaries
would seem to divide repertories and traditions of folk song into distinct parts,
just the opposite has taken place in those border regions where Yiddish and
German, Jewish and non-Jewish folk songs have formed from the threads of a
common culture. The possibility of a common culture, particularly in border
regions where it is unexpected, is critical to the larger narrative of The Folk
Songs of Ashkenaz, for it is not simply enough to identify songs that happen
to exist in German and Yiddish variants. There were reasons that encouraged
exchange and shared repertories. These reasons were specific to the places
where common cultures themselves took shape, where linguistic and regional
differences blurred, and where religious and cultural differences were not
debilitatingly divisive.
The border regions from which many of these songs came were of very
different kinds, and accordingly, so too were the common cultures. One of
the border regions most frequently plumbed in the anthology formed along
the northeast frontier of the Austro-Hungarian empire, consisting of two

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provinces administered by the monarchy. Silesia and Galicia constitute a

border region along the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains, starting
with Silesia in southwestern Poland and stretching across southern Poland
into southern Ukraine, where Galicia stretches farther toward the east. One
of the most distinctive qualities of both provinces wasand to some extent
istheir multiculturalism and interethnicity. Silesia contained large numbers of Poles and Germans, Catholics and Protestants. Galicia claimed Poles,
Ukrainians, Romanians, Ruthenians and Austrians. The Jewish population in
both provinces was extremely large, and in the major metropolises of both
(Breslau/Wroclaw in Silesia and Lemberg/Lvov/Lviv in Galicia), Jews played
an active and visible role in the cultural and intellectual life.
The folk songs in the collection document the common cultures of Silesia
and Galicia for a number of reasons. Silesia was the source for a large number
of German songs, collected and sent to German folklorists and folk-song
scholars such as Ludwig Erk by German teachers and other officials, not
least among them Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. Because Galicias
political affiliation was with Vienna, regional collectors sent their songs to
Austrian collectors; the 1904 project Das Volkslied in sterreich, for example, commissioned a Galician volume, but specified Jewish songs for the
volume, which would have been published in Lemberg had World War I not
intervened. Even more important for the book was the extensive immigration of Jews from Galicia to Vienna, where a new urban folk music grew from
the regional repertories that accompanied the Jewish immigrants. In short,
Silesia and Galicia became important regional sources for folk songs both
in the provinces themselves and in the centralized collecting endeavors in
Germany and Austria.
One other border region with an exceptionally large presence in this edition
is the so-called Dreieckland (Three-Corner-Land) of southwestern Germany
(Baden), France (Alsace-Lorraine), and Switzerland (primarily Basel and its
environs). There is a practical reason for the frequency of songs from this border region: the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv is located in Freiburg im Breisgau,
which is in Baden, but extremely close to France and Switzerland. The region
forms, therefore, an ethnographic epicenter for this volume, especially for the
examples collected prior to World War ll. Practical contexts notwithstanding,
the Dreieckland is truly a border region with a common culture comprising
a shared geography (the Upper Rhine), a regional dialect (Alemannisch)
stretching across national boundaries, and a Jewish history dominated by
small villages connected by an extensive trade and cultural network.

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Border regions were also the products of modernity and urbanizing Jewish communities. If the applicability of the notion of a border is somewhat
different in the cases of urban Jewish districts such as the Scheunenviertel in
Berlin or the Leopoldstadt in Vienna, these districts nonetheless became the
crucibles for a common culture precisely at the metropolitan border crossed
when rural Jews entered the city. The music of these urban common cultures
is best recognized in the new genres of folk-like and popular music, for example the Viennese broadsides that constitute the anthologys Group 16. In
the urban border regions, common culture underwent dizzying change, but
music responded quickly and decisively to that change.
In the longue dure, the border regions separating Ashkenazic from
Sephardic Europe also played a role in shaping the common culture of Ashkenazicand, of course, Sephardicfolk song. The Ashkenazic-Sephardic
border regions are, moreover, vital to the larger narrative of the volume. There
were significant bastions of Sephardic musical culture in both the northwest
(stretching from the Netherlands to Hamburg) and the southeast (primarily
the Balkans) of Ashkenazic Europe, and these areas possessed all the functions
of border regions. The nineteenth-century transformation of Ashkenazic liturgical music, for example, was particularly indebted to Sephardic influences.
In some of the more localized Jewish border regions of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, notably Burgenland, from which many songs and variants in the collection have come, Sephardic influences unleashed complex forms of Jewish
interethnicity. The folk song from such border regions with Sephardic populations reveals that Ashkenazic Europe had permeable Jewish boundaries,
which more often encouraged than stifled musical border-crossing.
Any attempt to identify the common culture from which Ashkenazic folk
music formed, especially from the mid-nineteenth until the mid-twentieth
century, cannot ignore the questions of diaspora and immigration. Jewish
immigrants to North America, for example, shaped distinctively American
Jewish music cultures, such as the Yiddish musical-theater scene in New
York City or the transformation of liturgy in the Reform movement. Zionist
settlements in Palestine aggressively laid the foundations for modern Jewish
song, taking what was necessary from Ashkenazic traditions and recasting it in
Hebrew. Historically, immigrant settlements in North America and Palestine
demonstrated all the earmarks of border regions, and in the second half of
the twentieth century it was in these settlements that the modern common
culture of Ashkenazic Europe gave way to that of a post-Holocaust world.

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Folk-Song Landscapes and Common Culture

Theoretical models with discrete geographical and linguistic boundaries
have dominated the history of European folk-music scholarship. The very
names of such models privilege this emphasis on boundedness, for example,
in describing the isolation of music in a mountain valley or in the German
Sprachinsel, the speech island, of Eastern Europe. Further, approaches to
regionalism and nationalism have often simply projected the village or the
aristocratic court onto a wider topography. But, whereas folk song is shared
within a geographic and linguistic unit, and whereas it may serve as an
emblem of a shared tradition, few scholars have sought to trace folk songs
disseminated beyond the borders of such units, assuming instead that the
identities of individual folk songs ascribe a unity wherever they are found.
The political, in other words, nationalistic, implications of claims that folk
song shored up geographical and linguistic boundaries have too often been
obvious, for they have turned folk music into a tool for the construction of
exclusive political boundaries.
The books authors espouse an entirely different approach. The evidence
they have mustered from folk songs in both Yiddish and German clearly
unveils processes of exchange, dispersion, borrowing, transformation, and
hybridity that belie the boundedness of discrete geographical or linguistic
units. Some of the German and Yiddish variants indicate a high degree of
stability when Jewish and non-Jewish traditions overlapped; others reveal
that changeeven radical change, such as the transformation from Yiddish
to Hebrew or Germancharacterized the tradition. There was, moreover,
no single way in which folk song moved across geographical and linguistic
boundaries, and similarly there was no single way in which songs became
fixed in versions anchored in a particular region or place.
The folk-song landscape of Ashkenaz was multicultural and multi-ethnic.
It was multicultural insofar as the Jewish communities in which collectors
gathered the variants in this volume were never entirely isolated from other
religious and linguistic groups. Not even the rural shtetl or the urban ghetto
at the end of the nineteenth century existed in isolation. It is not by chance
that the intensively Jewish border regions from which the largest number of
variants in this edition come were some of the most multicultural of Europe:
Alsace and the Dreieckland of the Upper Rhine; Burgenland; GaIicia.
The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz uses the term multi-ethnic to refer to the
differences within Jewish communities themselves, both at the local level
and at the pan-Ashkenazic level. The Jews in any given community were not
all alike. Again, if we examine areas with high concentrations of Jewish resi-

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dents, we discover vast differences between and among the villages or within
specific villages. The Seven Holy Cities (sheva kehillot) of Burgenland, for
example, could claim Sephardic and Ashkenazic residents, as could Vienna,
some fifty kilometers away (Bohlman 1997). Within the villages, moreover,
varying degrees of observance split the Jewish communities into different
ethnic alignments, as did the variety of vernaculars, which ranged from
German and Yiddish in multiple dialects to Slovak and Hungarian. The folk
songs in this volume often thematize such ethnic tensions, which at times
dramatically illustrate the complex multi-ethnic Jewish culture of rural and
urban Ashkenaz.
In this study, cultural and ethnic diversity is assumed as a background for
focusing on folk song as a component of the common culture of Ashkenaz.
Granted, of course, that pairing diversity and common culture seems on its
surface to be contradictory. Crucial to the authors argument, and ultimately
to their theory, however, is that diversity actually encouraged exchange. They
have drawn on the theoretical work of several scholars, notably Ingeborg
Weber-Kellermann (1978) and E. P. Thompson (1991), both of whom have
contributed extensively to the literature on interethnicity and customs
in common, in both cases from modified Marxian perspectives. WeberKellermann has examined the processes of exchange that characterize folk
music in Southeastern Europe, arguing with very convincing empirical
evidence that folk-song traditions flow back and forth between the Germanspeaking communities of Sprachinseln and the Slavic-or-Romanian-speaking
neighbors. Indeed, every aspect of folk musiclanguage, symbolism, musical
structureis subject to negotiation and transformation.
Thompson brings a more strictly historical approach to the emergence
of the English working class in the eighteenth century, arguing that a new
culture took shape because the customs in common made it possible for
rural and urban workers to respond in similar ways to industrialization, to
growing literacy and the spread of print culture, and to the restructuring of
English society through the Enlightenment. Folk music plays a particularly
important role for both Weber-Kellermann and Thompson, providing not
only a cultural commodity with new exchange value, but also a specific and
palpable vocabulary for the common cultures of Southeastern Europe and
the English working class.
The songs in the present volume reveal that exchange across cultural, ethnic,
religious, and linguistic boundaries also accompanied the entry of Ashkenazic
Jews into the public sphere of early-modern and modern Europe. It is not the
books aim, however, to claim that this entry was widely successful or that it

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in any sense leveled boundaries. It is not claiming that a common Jewish and
non-Jewish culture was ever achieved, even exceptionally, but rather that folk
song comprised a tentative, if occasionally flourishing, locus of common cul
ture. Exchange took place from song to song, when one repertory enriched
itself by drawing upon traditions shared with another. Each of the twentyseven song groups in this volume documents different sites and processes for
the formation of common culture, again contributing to the theoretical point
that diversity is the precondition for common culture. It was also the case
that the many forms of common culture documented by these songs may well
have precluded more extensive forms of rapprochement. But recognition of
that fact can only sharpen the analytical tools that lead us to the real sites of
common culture and the folk songs of Ashkenaz sung at those sites.
Sites and and Stages for Ashkenazic Folk song
The places in which Ashkenazic folk song was sung, performed, collected and
published were very specific. These places. moreover, fall into two general
categories: private spaces and public spaces. Folk songs private spaces were
occupied by the family, by children playing together, by ritual and custom in
the home, and by local religious communities. Because the folk songs in this
anthology acquire some measure of their cultural importance through religion
and identity, it might seem reasonable to presume that the private sphere
would actually dominate the volume. This is not entirely the case. Among the
forms of expressive activity occupying the public spaces of Ashkenazic folk
song were the dances accompanied by klezmer bands, the Yiddish theater of
Eastern Europe, Jewish mens singing societies in Central Europe, and the small
stage for couplets and cabaret in the growing metropolises. In contrast to the
private sphere, the public seems more modern, less unequivocally Jewish, and
more properly serving the performance of popular rather than folk song.
This, too, is not entirely the case.
Whereas private and public spheres are both evident in this collection,
they rarely stand apart. More often than not, songs move between them,
and that movement maps historical change onto the folk-song landscape
of Ashkenaz. There are several reasons why the distinction between private
and public is important, even if it does not form a neat dichotomy. First of
all, folk song, though it may depend on the intimacy of the private sphere,
often bears the public with it when circulating within the private spaces of
the home. The synagogue, whose musical life exclusively embodies liturgy
and ritual, for example, exemplifies many traits of the private. Yet, when new

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melodies enter the music of the synagogue, it is often the result of pressures
coming from the public sphere, be these the changing role of the cantor, or be
they new repertories accompanying Reform in nineteenth-century Germany.
In quite different ways, the revival of Yiddish folk song at several historical
moments (e.g., in Germany between the world wars or in North America in
the decades after the Holocaust) relies on stereotyped images of the private
sphere: songs that accompany rites of passage; play songs; songs that narrate
the integration and disintegration of the family.
The transformation of print culture in modern European Jewish culture
also recalibrated the relation between private and public. Broadsides introduced (and reintroduced) folk songs into an increasingly cosmopolitan Jewish
society, bridging the gap between public performance and private consumption of songs. The broadsides and couplets gathered as the sixteenth group
in this volume, for example, expose complex processes of exchange between
the new Jewish popular-music stage and changing Jewish neighborhoods in
Vienna. The explosion in the number of Jewish literary journals, too, combined private and public in new ways, for example, when Der Jude or Ost und
West included sections with folk songs, some meant to look authentically
Yiddish and Eastern European, others arranged for piano and solo voice, as
if best suited for performance in the intimate literary salon. The folk song of
Ashkenaz, therefore, juxtaposes the private and public, thereby creating new
repertories that mix stability and change.
The exchange between private and public is not without agency, and the
agents whose activities set in motion the historical processes documented
by the present volume are very clear. Many of the songs bear witness in one
way or another to specialized musicians. There are cantors and village church
musicians, choir directors and rabbis, school teachers and intellectuals.
There are also semi-professional and professional musicians, ranging from
klezmer players to the troupes who brought couplets to the nascent Jewish
cabaret stages of the fin de-sicle metropolis. Finally, there are the collectors
themselves, whose activities and whose imprint should not be overlooked
in this volume. All these agents encountered the folk music of Ashkenaz in
sites of private and public music-making, and they gathered, performed, and
transcribed these traditions in such ways that they would represent German
and Yiddish folk-song traditions in decisively modern ways. Each performance
and each edition redefined the historical trajectory of songs traveling between
the private and the public, transforming the sites and stages of Ashkenazic
folk song itself.

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Language as a Site for Folk-Song Histories

The folk songs in this book are not in two languagesYiddish and German
but rather in many, which in turn are related because they stretch across a
continuum. At the ends of that continuum are literary German, known also
as Hochdeutsch, or High German, and literary Yiddish. The literary languages
at the poles connect the continuum to several moments in modern European
history, specifically to the moments, beginning roughly in the mid-nineteenth
century, that led to the canonization of literatures in German and Yiddish,
moments approximately coeval with the impact of Goethe and Schiller on
German and of Sholem Aleichem and Y. L. Peretz on Yiddish literature. The
songs in this edition are implicated in the formation of the continuums poles,
because many of them were gathered and placed in published anthologies as
evidence for the cultural and vernacular underpinnings of modern literary
languages.
It is, nonetheless, the continuum between the poles that contains the
many languages represented by the bulk of the songs in this volume. For the
most part, however, the versions of German and Yiddish in the songs are not
discrete languages, but rather dialects, regional variants, local hybrids, or ossified versions of a language used in revival traditions. The continuum forms
along both geographical and historical axes. Different dialects and vernaculars occupy different places on the map of Ashkenazic Europe. Whereas it is
well known that folk songs from different parts of Germany or Austria are
transmitted in different dialects, it is less common to recognize that Yiddish,
too, is a language with many different dialects and vernaculars. The Yiddish
spoken in the Baltic region is, therefore, quite different from that spoken in,
say, Romania or in the areas of Germany where Westjiddisch survived into
the nineteenth century; the modern forms of Yiddish spoken in Brooklyn or
in the Eastern European Meiah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem differ
vastly not only from each other but also from the Yiddish found in the earliest
collections, such as Ginsburg and Marek (1901).
The linguistic continuum that concerns the authors contains vernacular
languages or, in the case of some published collections, literary renditions
of vernacular languages. It is at the level of the vernacular, furthermore, that
an axis with songs in Hebrew intersects the continuum and adds another
dimension to it. The Hebrew songs in the volume have entered a vernacular
world in which oral transmission has provided the context for their absorption into repertories of folk song. In the case of Yavo Adir, this process of
vernacularization is clearly evident, for variants with lines in Yiddish and
German have been woven into the Hebrew texts through oral transmission.

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The intersecting axis of Hebrew variants also includes more than a single
language, for not all Hebrew texts are the same. The Hebrew texts that enter the vernacular tradition in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, utilize
Ashkenazic pronunciation, whereas those that enter the tradition in Israel
reflect the linguistic reforms that have transformed modern Israeli Hebrew
and Israeli liturgical repertories to reflect Sephardic pronunciations. Such
distinctions are evident in the variants of Yavo Adir and Tsur Mi-shelo.
The historical axis of the linguistic continuum has unfolded in parallel
with the entry of Ashkenazic Jewish society into European modernity. At
the earliest stage of that history, prior to the advent of printing and to the
major pogroms and emigrations of Ashkenazic Jews from Central Europe
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it may well have been the case that
the vernaculars of a Germanic language spoken by Jews and non-Jews in
the Rhineland were closely related, or at least that the distinctions between
them were blurry. The entry into modernity begins with a second phase, the
evidence for which comes from the earliest printed collections. Graf von
Rom survives as one of the clearest pieces of empirical evidence for early
modern Ashkenaz, for the song appears in a sixteenth-century version with
Hebrew characters, which nonetheless adheres closely to the printed versions of late Middle High German (Mittellhochdeutsch), albeit with overtly
Christian references expurgated. The printed Hebrew version, therefore, is
not yet a Yiddish version, though there are some telling signs of its shift away
from Middle High German.
In the German Enlightenment (Aufklrung) and Jewish Enlightenment
(Haskalah) of the eighteenth century, the gap between Low and High languages, vernacular and printed versions, widened at an ever increasing rate.
The languages of folk-song collections either responded to the processes of
modernization, or they resisted them, retaining the markers of dialect and the
vernacular. In the course of the nineteenth century, the languages of German
and Yiddish folk song responded to the influences of both Romanticism and
Nationalism. Canonic repertories of songs in the literary language developed,
such as the German Ballade, or ballad. As Jewish national consciousness
grew along with Zionism in the second half of the nineteenth century, a
canon of Yiddish folk songs emerged to give voice to a type of national song.
It was not until roughly the turn of the past century that the term Yiddish
was used exclusively to name the vernacular language of Eastern Ashkenaz,
which was referred to by names such as the common Jdischdeutsch, literally Jewish-German.

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By World War I, the language of Ashkenazic folk song had become relatively standardized, not least because individual songs and collections were
appearing in print in relatively large numbers. The Holocaust, however, would
undo the transformation of vernaculars in Ashkenazic folk songs, for the
destruction of European Jewry would eliminate the possibility for oral transmission, and alter the relation between oral and written transmission. After
the Holocaust, the collectors of Yiddish folk song attempted to bring about
a form of discursive survival. Memory and the politics of memory, therefore,
provided new contexts for the ways in which Yiddish song provided a font
for revivalists in Central and eastern Europe. German singers rediscovered
Yiddish as a Germanic language, and they approached the language with the
fervor of Wiedergutmachung (literally, making things good again), as if
to atone for the Holocaust through song. Yiddish songs, therefore, entered
German repertories again, with revival extending and altering the historical axis of the linguistic continuum that the songs in this collection map on
post-Holocaust Ashkenazic Europe.
Ashkenazic Folk Musicians
With the rise of modernity that followed the Haskalah, new forms of musical professionalism began to tranform the landscape of Askenazic folk song.
Whereas there had been musical specialists in the Jewish communities of
Central and Eastern Europe prior to the Haskalah, their specialtiesand,
hence, their degree of professionalizationhad not been solely or even
primarily limited to the performance of folk music. The professionalization
of musicians performing Ashkenazic folk music accompanied the economic
transformation of the Jewish community and the growing social interaction
with non-Jewish European society that made the transformation possible.
For example, financial records in the northern Italian court of Mantua, as
well as contracts and petitions of various kinds, reveal that the late Renaissance Jewish composer Salamone Rossi (ca. 1570-ca. 1628) performed with
various ensembles within and outside the Jewish community, thus encouraging scholars to designate him the first professional Jewish musician of early
modern Europe, perhaps even a proto-klezmer musician.
By the eighteenth century, the Jewish communities in many areas of
German-speaking Europe were required to make their financial records available, in part as a means of extracting more taxes, but also in part to liberalize
interaction between Jews and non-Jewish governments. These records, too,
indicate the presence of Jewish specialist musicians, for example, those with
designations such as cantor (probably a synagogue hazzan) and musikant

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(probably an instrumental musician) in the intensely Jewish settlements of

Burgenland, along what is today the Austrian and Hungarian border.
As professionalization of Ashkenazic folk musicians expanded and increasingly spread across Ashkenazic Europe, three general groups became
recognizable: musicians largely within the Jewish community; musicians
functioning at the borders between the Jewish community and non-Jewish
society; non-Jewish musicians playing Jewish music. The first of these groups
of specialist musicians is best known to us, and the musician-types in the group
have Hebrew names: hazzan and klezmer. Traditionally, the hazzan and the
klezmer are further distinguished by the social realms in which they played,
that is, the sacred vs. the secular. As modernity swept across the Ashkenazic
folk-song landscape, however, such distinctions became less and less meaningful. It was, indeed, mobilitythe capacity to move across the landscape
at various social levelsthat characterized the growing professionalism.
The specialization of Jewish musicians at the borders between Jewish
and non-Jewish society was a product of growing emancipation during the
nineteenth century. By the centurys second half, Yiddish theatrical and musical troupes traveled between Eastern and Central Europe, and the secular
Jewish stage had established itself in the growing Jewish neighborhoods of
urban centers. As the broadsides in the sixteenth group in this volume demonstrate, the singers and actors who performed the new Jewish urban folk
and popular music had achieved a fair degree of fame, or at least notoriety,
by the turn of the twentieth century. As professionals, these Jewish popular
musicians performed new genres, which in turn calibrated the urbanization
and modernization of Ashkenazic folk song in the opening decades of the
last century.
It is important to recognize that non-Jews also played a role in the professionalization of modern music making in Ashkenazic Europe. Many of
the songs that appear in this volume circulated in traditional societies (e.g.,
villages in the Dreieckland of the Upper Rhine) with Jewish and non-Jewish
residents. In the nascent decades of the German singing-society movement
(from ca. 1830 to ca. 1880), before Jewish singing societies separated from
synagogue choirs, Jews often participated in the public choral life of an urbanizing Germany. With the advent of Jewish singing societies, it was also
common for non-Jews to participate, not least because Jewish singing societies were themselves constituent members of regional and national leagues.
Many songs in the present volume reveal that there were movement and
exchange between singing societies, and that the song anthologies facilitated
such movement.

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Other others also joined Jews in the ensembles that accompanied the
expansion of professional music making. The most notable of musicians
from outside the mainstream were Roma (Gypsies), who were particularly
evident in ensembles in border regions such as Burgenland and the Carpathian
Mountains in Romania, where large populations of Jews and Roma cohabited
the same folk-song landscapes. In such areas, it is impossible to think about
klezmer, or Jewish instrumental music, without also recognizing that Roma
musicians were contributing to it. Similarly, Jewish musicians were often
active players in professional Roma ensembles. Growing specialization and
professionalization therefore, were inseparable from intensified hybridization,
and all of these processes of change characterized the Ashkenazic folk-song
landscape presented in this collection.
Anti-Semitism and the Language of Modern Ashkenazic Folk Song
There is a truly remarkable play of images, stereotypes, and symbolic representations of numerous Others in the folk songs of Ashkenaz. Several of the
genres that appear in this volume have historically depended on stereotype;
others have survived in oral tradition or in the traces of written tradition
because of the durability of stereotyped images. Some stereotypes seem to
belong fully to the common culture of both Jewish and non-Jewish repertories.
For example, the exotic representation of Africans in the third song, Zehn
kleine Negerlein, spills over into much more pervasive forms of European
prejudice and racism. Other stereotypes, however, depend on more localized forms of prejudice and racism, not least those forms that constitute the
profound presence of anti-Semitism in the European history this collection
documents.
The folk songs of Ashkenaz, therefore, have not mapped a path of cultural
history that somehow circumvents anti-Semitism. Quite the contrary, these
songs bear witness to the complex ways in which anti-Semitism came to
shape European discourses of otherness. Already at the advent of print culture
and the publication of broadsides in the sixteenth century, folk songs drew
upon the stereotyped images (e.g., in woodcuts or engravings accompanying broadsides) and descriptions (i.e., in song texts) of Jews. Particularly at
historical moments of tension between Jewish and non-Jewish communities,
anti-Semitism assumed the form of a flagrantly racist imagery. Characteristically, those moments, in which Jews might be gaining entry into the public
sphere and enjoying greater success there, spawned a proliferation of anti-

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Semitism. The couplet tradition at the turn of the past century, for example,
was notable for the dissemination of songs with anti-Semitic contents.
Stereotypes also appeared in Jewish songs, and there, too, they formulated different languages for representing and then inscribing otherness.
The otherness historically encoded in Ashkenazic folk songs emerged from
the social and religious fissures implicit in the songs in this volume: East
and West; Yiddish and German vernaculars; secular and religious Jews; or
tradition-bound and acculturated communities. Some stereotypes expressed
an attempt to understand coreligionists more fully, even to use folk song as
a means of bridging the fissures; this was unquestionably the case with the
bilingual anthologies published between the world wars (e.g., Eliasberg 1918;
Kaufmann 1971; Nadel 1923).
Other stereotypes depended on self-hatred, functioning to distance one
community, usually that with more social mobility, from the other. As the
Viennese broadsides reveal, the prejudice that appeared in such songs may
have wantonly crossed the border into a domain marked by anti-Semitism. It
may well be that one explanation for such forms of prejudice and anti-Semitism
is that the genres their creators and performers employed (e.g., couplets and
cabaret) depended on parody, and parody by its nature communicates by
means of stereotype. Still, there can be no question that stereotype, prejudice,
and anti-Semitism produced images and stylized languages within folk song
that were recurrent in the common culture of Ashkenaz, proving it to be not
only complex but contradictory.
Between the German and Jewish Questionsan Ashkenazic Question?
The 1920s were a heady, almost frenzied time for the Jews of Ashkenaz. World
War I had been devastating in its impact on Europe, but it had nonetheless
created several palpable openings in the old imperial public culture, that
would prove fruitful for the Jewish citizens of Central and Eastern Europe
who had served with distinction on all sides of the Great War. In Weimar
Germany, Jewish cultural activities would accelerate so decisively that some
were sufficiently emboldened to speak of a Jewish Renaissance, reaching
back to a moment in European cultural history, or a New Babylon, drawing
on a much earlier moment in Jewish cultural history. In the imperial capital
of the imploded Habsburg monarchy, too, the cultural revolutions ignited
by Jews at the turn of the century would explode and resonate with their
public political presence in Red Vienna. In the new communist regime of
the Soviet Union, too, a moment of Jewish cultural efflorescence swept into

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public life with the winds of reform and rebirth. For the Jewish communities
in many areas of Central and Eastern Europe, it seemed as if the promises of
cultural rapprochement, which had proceeded only in fits and starts in the
nineteenth century, might be fulfilled.
The acceleration towards rapprochementbetween German-and- Yiddishspeaking Jews, between Jews and non-Jewsfound an increasingly audible
voice in Jewish folk song. Already in the final years of World War I and then
in even greater numbers during the 1920s, collections of ostjdisch and
Yiddish folk songs were appearing in rapid succession, providing staples for
several emerging Jewish publishers in Germany, such as Schocken and Jdischer Verlag. Collections with new folk songs, including those in modern
Hebrew, documented traditions from all regions of Ashkenazic Europe and
extended those regions to the yishuv in mandatory Palestine and secondgeneration settlements in the New World, especially the urban centers of
the United States. Jewish composers, too, perceived in Jewish folk songs
new possibilities for investing the language of folk identity with the impulse
of national identity. Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, Jewish folk
song occupied an increasingly central position in a public discourse about
Jewishness in music and music in Jewish Europe.
If in the 1920s there seemed to be signs of a final rapprochement between
the various sides of the Jewish question, the 1930s would divert European
Jewish history along a dramatically different route. By the mid-1930s the narrowing of differences, that hopeful praise of renaissance in the 1920s, had all
but ceased. By Kristallnacht in November 1938 and then with the outbreak
of World War II, new answers to the Jewish question were unequivocally
scripted. And these answers bore little resemblance toone might say they
even mockedthose proposed by Jewish folk-song collections in their effort
to represent the accelerating pace of modern Jewish history in Europe.
This edition of songs from Ashkenazic Europe, a musical landscape occupied by both Jews and non-Jews, who sometimes lived in close cultural and
geographic proximity to each other, has gathered empirical evidence that leads
us again to the Jewish question and to its twenty-first-century counterpart, the
German question, along routes not yet charted by modern cultural historians,
ethnomusicologists, and folklorists. The authors decidedly do not propose to
answer either the German or the Jewish question, nor do they suggest that
they be re-posed. Their aim has been to explore their inner workings and
broaden their dimensions. Their hope is that the book contributes a new form
of empirical evidence and suggests new forums for debating these questions.
They remain of the opinion that posing the questions incessantly and critically

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is an essential result of their weight and significance for understanding the

full measure of tragedy in modern Jewish history, including the destruction
of a once vital common culture. The folk songs presented are fragments of
this common culture; fragments, however, of a common culture that, even
at its moments of most intense rapprochement and occasional renaissance,
was constituted primarily, if indeed only, of fragments.
Philip V. Bohlman is Professor of Humanities and of Music at the University of
Chicago, where he also holds adjunct positions in the Divinity School, Germanic
Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Southern Asian Studies.
Otto Holzapfel is Director of the German Folk-Song Archive in Freihurg, Germany.
He has collaborated with Philip Bohlman in producing Land without Nightingales:
Musing on the Making of German-America (University of Wisconsin, 2002).
This article is adapted from the authors collaboration, The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz
(Middleton, WI: A-R Editions), 2001: Introduction, and appears here with the
publishers kind permission.

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Provisions for the JourneyA Rarity from the Lost World

of Yiddish Religious Song1
By Janet B. Leuchter

Bod zikh di yiddishe gas in lider

(The Jewish street is bathed in songs)
Noyekh Prilutski2

We in the Jewish world are forced to work with fragments,

with the merest crumbs of the rich banquet
that was once the Yiddish folksong tradition.
Mark Slobin3
In these sections of Brooklyn, one can hear Orthodox music
playing in bakeries, restaurants, butcher shops and giftstores
members of the Orthodox community claim their space
by broadcasting their music as other ethnicities do.
Mark Kligman4

Introduction
The foregoing quotes encapsulate the extraordinary death, revival and transformation of East European Jewry and its popular music in the 20th century.
Traditional instrumental (klezmer) music has undergone a remarkable worldwide revival in the last 30 years, bringing in its wake a smaller revival of songs
in Yiddish, the principal vernacular of East European Jewry. In the rich legacy
of Yiddish songs that has been reclaimed, one major sub-genre has been overlooked: religious songs. And although Yiddish as a spoken language has been
preserved among Hasidim here and around the world, and as an educational
1
Editors note: The data for this article was researched from the late 1980s
to the late 1990s, and the bulk of it is extracted from the unpublished thesis Janet
Leuchter submitted in 1999 as part of her Masters project for the School of Sacred
Music at Hebrew Union College in New York. For a note about the subsequent use
of this researched data and an updated view, please see the Epilogue at the end of this
article.
2
Noyekh Prilutski, Yiddishe Folkslider, vol. 1 (Warsaw: Farlag Bikher-far-Alle),
1911, from The Forward.
3 Mark Slobin, Studying the Yiddish Folksong, Journal of Jewish Music and
Liturgy 6 (1983-84): 10.
4
Mark Kligman, The Media and the Message: The Recorded Music of Brooklyns
Orthodox Jews, Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review 16, no. 1 (1994): 9-11.

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language even in non-Hasidic right-wing Yeshivas, the old Yiddish folksongs

have survived among the Orthodox only in truncated form.
In researching the Masters thesis from which this article was later adapted,
my goal was to examine the corpus of traditional religious folksongs in Yiddish, survey the repertoire in print on commercial and archival field recordings and in oral circulation, and choose a relatively unknown yet outstanding
example for analysis, in the process offering a notated version of it that has
never been collected or published.
Definition of the genre
The appellation religious has no standard definition among the pre-War
collectors.5 Ginzburg and Marek,6 the commonly acknowledged first major
collection of Yiddish folk songs, designated their first category of song texts
as religious-spiritual, national and holiday. In his multi-volume Thesaurus
(1932), Idelsohn7 devoted an entire book to The Folk Song of the Eastern
European Jews, and another to The Songs of the Hasidim. Yet many seemingly religious songs also appear in the former (Folk Song) volume, which
is categorized not by text at all but entirely according to Idelsohns melodic
scale-types. In Kipnis8 (1918, 1925), one can find religious songs under two
categories: 1) religious, hasidish, misnagdish, and philosophical folksongs,
and 2) Jewish-Ukranian or Jewish-and-goyish folksongs. These appellations
are used synonymously in different collections. Hazzan A.M. Bernstein9 calls
his collection zemirot and folk melodies, yet they are all either wordless
niggunim, instrumental tunes for the various stages of a wedding, or songs
with sacred texts.
Nor are matters more clarified in post-war collections. In her comprehensive treatment of Yiddish folk song (1963), Ruth Rubin10 puts this mate5
In this article, pre-or post-War, unless further qualified, refers to World War II.
6
S. M. Ginzburg and P. S. Marek, Yiddish Folk Songs in Russia (1901), Dov Noy,
ed. (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press), reissue, 1991.
7
A. Z. Idelsohn, Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies, vols. IX and X (Leipzig:
Friedrich Hofmeister), 1932.
8
M. Kipnis, 60 Folkslider, Ershte tayl; 80 Folkslider, Tsveyte tayl (Warsaw: Farlag
A. Gitlin), 1918; 1925.
9
A.M. Bernstein, Musikalisher Pinkas, vol. I (Vilna: 1927); reprint, New York:
Cantors Assembly, 1958.
10 Ruth Rubin, Voices of a People (New York and London: Thomas Yoseloff ),
1963.

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rial in two different categories: 1) customs and beliefs, which she further
delineates as songs about the Sabbath, the Messiah, superstitions and death,
Bible heroes, as well as mixed-language songs; and 2) Chasidic melody and
song. The two anthologies of Vinaver,11 one of Jewish and one of Hassidic
music, are both devoted entirely to religious material. Dov and Meir Noy,12
in their publication of songs collected before the War by S.Z. Pipe, divide the
religious material between religious and national songs and songs for the
festivals and holidays. In their second popular collection, Eleanor Gordon
Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek13 scatter religious songs among humorous songs
and songs for celebrations and parties, our beloved Rabbi, and songs of
survival and national aspiration. In their third volume,14 religious songs can
be found under the renamed category of hassidic and national songs, as well
as under songs in a quiet and reflective mood and songs of the Holocaust.
In his second volume of Hasidic songs, Velvel Pasternak15 includes a songs in
Yiddish category (which also contains an Hungarian and a Russian song).
So how shall we define religious songs? For the purposes of this article,
I am defining religious folksong as is customary: though the texts subject
matterrather than through musical traits or performance context. Excluded
are those whose composer is known, except if it has become folklorized, such
as songs attributed to Rabbi Levi Yitzkhak of Berdichev. Somewhat arbitrarily
but simply to narrow the field down, I also exclude the following categories:
songs about or for use on holidays and weddings, and ballads about love
and topical subjects, even though many of their texts include entreaties to
God and statements embodying religious beliefs such as Divine reward and
punishment.
And what are the core topics about which there could be broad agreement?
11 Chemjo Vinaver, Anthology of Jewish Music (New York: Edward B. Marks Music
Corporation), 1955; Anthology of Hassidic Music, Eliyahu Schleifer, ed. (Jerusalem:
Jewish Music Research Centre at Hebrew University), 1985.
12 Dov and Meir Noy, eds., Folklore Research Center Studies, volume 2., Yidisher
folkslider fun galitzye, collected by Shmuel Zanvil Pipe (Jerusalem: Hebrew University),
1971.
13 Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek, Perl fun der yidisher poezie/Pearls
of Yiddish Song (New York: Workmens Circle), 1988.
14 Eleanor Gordon Mlotek and Joseph Mlotek, Songs of GenerationsNew Pearls
of Yiddish Songs (New York: Workmens Circle), 1996.
15 Velvel Pasternak, Songs of the Chassidim, vol. II (New York: Tara Publications),
1971.

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1. paraliturgical hymns [zmires in Yiddish, zmirot in Hebrew]

that include some Yiddish text along with the Hebrew and/or
Aramaic;
2. texts on the following subjects: the Sabbath, Gods giving the
Torah to the Jews, the soul, the Messiah and Redemption, the
Land of Israel and Jerusalem, the stages of life, Hasidic rebbes
[but not the parodies thereof ], biblical events, the ten mystical
emanations of God [sfires in Yiddish, Sfirot in Hebrew], and
the importance of observing divine commandments [mitzves
in Yiddish, mitzvot in Hebrew], and of helping the poor.
Yiddish as a criterion for identification and categorization
Much of the repertoire identified is not strictly in Yiddish but is actually in
Yiddish plus one or more other languages. These mixed-language songs have
long fascinated collectors and scholars. Several forms of such songs exist:
1. Yiddish lines, verses or even phrases alternating with loshn koydesh
[literally the holy language], meaning Hebrew or Aramaic in a variety
of formsbiblical, talmudic, medieval;

2. Yiddish plus the East European non-Jewish vernacular [the most common
being Ukranian, but also including Russian, Polish, Hungarian and even
Czech];
3. The addition of loshn koydesh to #2.

If, then, a noticeable part of the East Ashkenazi repertoire is in more than
one language, why define it as Yiddish altogether?
To explore this issue, I will start with my own place on the complicated
Jewish map. Like most American Jewish children educated Jewishly in the
1950s and 1960s, I was oriented toward Hebrew, the language of Jewish
prayer and the spoken language of our present and future. Yiddish and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) were languages of the past, period. The intense Zionist
indoctrination I received as a teen-ager underscored this outlook. However,
as I began to realize the cultural differences between American and Israeli
Jews, I beganperhaps unconsciouslyto look for an alternative source of
Jewish cultural identity.
I found much of it ultimately in East European Yiddishkaytand particularly in Yiddish song. As I had grown up loving the sounds of traditional prayer
along with the songs of the Yishuvfirst in Palestine, then in IsraelI was
delighted to discover that both musical traditions were essential components
of Yiddish song (albeit that the former is a source and the latter an offshoot).
Moreover, I had studied and performed Balkan and Russian traditional song,

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and was delighted to find that they shared their beautiful musical language
with a folk repertoire I could call my own. Finally, I was happy to discover that
the repertoire included popular, theater and even art songs, so that I could
put my classical vocal skills to good use.
In short, the Yiddish song repertoire is diverse enough to appeal to a
post-modern fragmented identity like mine. But it was not always viewed as
such. Indeed, the socio-historical reality of Yiddish-speaking Jews in the 19th
century dictated a different view: the use of Yiddish had then been intimately
connected with ideology.16 To speak Yiddish, to write and sing in Yiddish,
to use Yiddish expressions in another vernacularor not to do any or all of
theseare statements about Jewish identity in a particular time and place,
and are often decisions made consciously by both individuals and groups.
The framing of this article as being about Yiddish religious songs, rather
than as the wider genre of east Ashkenazi or Hasidic religious songs (which
could include cantorial chants, wordless niggunim, and traditional religious
songs in Hebrew and/or Aramaic), itself reflects an outlook that is modern
but not contemporary. That is because the topic Yiddish religious songs
takes as its standard a Jewish identity based on language, which is a kind of
Yiddishist perspectiveonce shared by a mighty portion of Ashkenazic Jewry
whose Jewish identity meant secular Yiddish culture.
Pre-war scholarship
Most of the classic pre-war Yiddish folk song collectors and scholars shared
this perspective and defined their work in its terms. With few exceptions,
they collected only those religious songs that included some Yiddish in their
texts. These songs were then laid side-by-side with the non-religious songs
in the same collection. While this approach can certainly be useful and even
illuminating, it misses the larger religious-music context of the songsthe
context of traditional prayer modes (nusah), cantorial recitative, and Hasidic
nign (Yiddish for Hebrew niggun).
Only two collectors in print took this more comprehensive approach to
religious song: Bernstein and Idelsohn. Monumental and sophisticated as
Idelsohns collecting and analysis was, the fact remains that his locus of activity was the Ashkenazi communities of Jerusalem, where repertoire was not
developing along the same lines as the main body of Yiddish-speaking Jews
in Europe. Paradoxically, political conditions in Palestine were more favor16 For a good overview of this topic, see Emanuel S. Goldsmith, The Language of
Ashkenaz, Modern Yiddish Culture (New York: Shapolsky Publishers and the Workmens Circle Education department), 1987: 27-44.

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able to his activities than conditions in the USSR were to Yiddish scholars
there. Had the Soviet Jewish musicologists been permitted to publish a truly
representative sample of items from S. An-Skis and Joel Engels voluminous
pre-World War I field collections, which after the Revolution were reposited
in St. Petersburg and later Kiev, we would today have a far more complete
picture of religious song in Yiddish,17 and perhaps even of the totality of East
European Jewish song. The survival of a good portion of this mother lode
of wax cylinders in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev has recently
been confirmed, and limited scholarly investigation by Western and Israeli
scholars is being allowed by the Ukraine government. A single Compact Disc
with 40-odd items has been pressed in limited quantities, and is available at
the YIVO Institute of Jewish Research in New York (I have heard selected
songs). So perhaps we may all yet see and/or hear more of these treasures.
In any case, during the last 30 years, scholars have shifted their gaze to
the multi-cultural aspects of Yiddish language and culture. Benjamin Hurshavski/Harshav18 describes east European Jewry as internally and externally
polylingual, with Yiddish as mediator among all the languagesboth Jewish
and non-Jewishthat Jews had to negotiate. In the field of Yiddish ethnomusicology, scholars like Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Mark Slobin have
pioneered the study of a folksingers total repertoire in all languages.19 And
Mark Kligman20 has taken a contemporary ethnological approach to contemporary Orthodox and non-Orthodox popular music, showing how language
choices continue to be ideological markers within the Jewish world.
Post-war scholarship and the new Yiddish-speaking Orthodox
After World War II, the division persisted between the treatment of Yiddish
religious songs as, on the one hand, a subset of the entire corpus of Yiddish
song (Rubin 1963; Mlotek and Mlotek 1972, 1988, 1996) and, on the other,
as a subset of Ashkenazi or Hasidic religious song. Andre Hajdu and Yaakov
17 Eleanor Gordon Mlotek, Soviet-Yiddish Folklore Scholarship, Musica Judaica,
Vol. II, 1 (1977-78): 75.
18 Benjamin Harshav, The Meaning of Yiddish (Berkeley: University of California
Press), 1990: passim.
19 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Patterns of the Jewish Song World; Mark
Slobin, Patterns of Musical Style, both in booklet accompanying Folksongs in the
East European tradition: from the repertoire of Marian Nirenberg, Global Village LP
GVM117, 1986.
20 Mark Kligman, The Medium and the Message, op. cit.

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Mazur,21 Chemjo Vinaver (1955, 1985),22 Uri Sharvit,23 Joachim Stutchewsky,24

M.S. Geshuri,25 and Eliyahu Schleifer26(Vinaver, 1985) are all serious postwar Israeli scholars who have focused on Hasidic vocal music. Nevertheless,
Vinaverwhose two anthologies are meticulously annotated (the latter by
Schleifer)wrote relatively little about the Yiddish component of this repertoire. The others include virtually no songs in Yiddish. They concentrated
rather on the wordless niggunim.
The only truly ethnological treatment of Hasidic music I have seen was carried out in the late 1970s by a non-Orthodox Jewish ethnomusicologist, Ellen
Koskoff,27 who studied musical composition among the Brooklyn Lubavitch.
Her work, while interesting, is concerned with the legitimization and status of
Hasidic composers of new songs. Coming before the cheap cassette-recording
revolution, her research is probably quite dated by now.
In a more popular vein, Velvel Pasternak has written the most extensively
in English on the Yiddish song genre within the Hasidic world (1968,1971).28
Pasternak, a Modern Orthodox Canadian living in New York, arranged and
produced a number of Hasidic recordings in the 1950s, 1960s and possibly
more recently, working with the communities in Brooklyn. He is undoubtedly the outstanding American popularizer of Hasidic music in the post-war
period. He was trusted by and given wide access to some, if not all, of the
Hasidic dynasty circlesincluding the more insularand his observations
21 Andre Hajdu and Yaakov Mazur, The Hasidic Dance-Niggun: A Study Collection and Classificatory Analysis, Yuval Studies of the Jewish Music Research Centre,
Israel Adler and Bathya Bajer, eds. (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, Hebrew University),
1974.
22 Chemjo Vinaver, Anthology, op. cit., 1955; Anthology of Hassidic Music,
1985.
23 Uri Sharvit, Niggunei Hasidim Mei-Galitsiah/Chassidic Tunes from Galicia
(Ramat Gan: Renanot/Bar Ilan University), 1995, cassette included.
24 Joachim Stutchewsky, 120 Chassidic Melodies (Tel Aviv: General Federation
of Labour/Government of Israel), 1950.
25 M.S. Geshuri, Ha-niggun vha-rikud b-hasidut/Melody and Dance in Hasidism vol. I of Intsiklopediyah shel Hasidut/Encyclopedia of Hasidism (Tel Aviv: Netsah),
1955.
26 Eliyahu Schleifer, in Vinaver, Anthology, op. cit., 1985
27 Ellen Koskoff, Nigun Composition in an American Hasidic Community,
Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, James Porter, ed. (Los Angeles: University of
California Press), 1978.
28 Velvel Pasternak, (New York: Bloch Publishing Company), Songs of the Chassidim 1968: Introduction; Songs of the Chassidim II, 1971: Preface and nos. 169-177.

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justifiably carry weight. However, Pasternak is not a trained scholar. In an

interview with me in June 1998, he said that he knows few or no religious
songs in Yiddish apart from the handful he had published until then.
However, as a Jewish music publisher and seller of recorded music, Pasternak, whose Tara Publications has become Americas largest Jewish Music
distributor, does reflect a popular zeitgeist of the post-war period, at least
through the 1960s. His Great Jewish Classics series, now up to seven volumes
of out-of-print sheet music, is a smorgasbord of East European song types.
Each volume might include one or more of the following categories:

songs of Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev;

songs satirizing the Hasidim;
bona fide religious songs;
Yiddish theater songs;
Yiddish art songs.

Popular singers like the American-born operatic tenor/cantor Jan Peerce

(1904-1984) performed and recorded similar types of programs (but please
notice that cantorial solos were largely excluded from the Great Jewish
Classics series).
However, a generation arose during the 1960s and 1970s that knew not Jan
Peerce. Its members largely rejected the smorgasbord sentimentalism of the
past and began looking for authenticity as they understood itin the more
distant past. The changing parameters of popular taste with regard to East
European-derived Jewish music deserves its own serious study. Suffice it to
say that in the last 30 years the American music audience has fragmented
into many more genres and sub-genres than possibly ever before. At the
same time, cheap recording technology has become widely available. The
Orthodox Holocaust survivors successfully rebuilt their communities, and
their children began to benefit from the sustained economic growth of the
Western world, including Israel. Enter the Orthodox recording industry and
its Yiddish sub-genrewhich is undergoing a mini-revival of its own.
It is beyond the scope of this article to treat adequately the complicated role
of Yiddish in contemporary Orthodox life. Nor can it give a comprehensive
survey of contemporary Yiddish-language song recordings and concertizing
by Orthodox Jews for an Orthodox audience. What it can do is describe the
range of recordings found in major music stores in Borough Park (where both
yeshivish and various types of Hasidim live) and Williamsburg (dominated

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by Satmar Hasidim; Crown Heights, the world center of Lubavitch, is not

covered).
In light of the foregoing, I can unequivocally state the following:
a) Certain contemporary Hasidim, in America and elsewhere, speak Yiddish
among themselves and with their children as a primary (but not exclusive)
vernacular. Lubavitch is a notable exception.29
b) Most Hasidic yeshivas for boys in North America and Israel taytch in
Yiddish (itself a redundancy, for taytch is an old synonym for Yiddish).
That is, they translate Bible and Talmud from Hebrew and Aramaic to
Yiddish, as their forefathers did in Eastern Europe. Non-Hasidic rightwing yeshivas for boys, while they do not translate to Yiddish, do offer
some familiarity with the language, sometimes in the form of a weekly
lecture from the principal. However, neither Hasidic nor non-Hasidic
right-wing yeshivas for girls taytch or otherwise expose the girls to much
Yiddish.
c) There is considerable divergence among contemporary Hasidim as to their
knowledge of Yiddish religious folk songs, particularly parts of the older
core repertoire found in all of the pre-War Yiddish-song collections.
d) Store holdings of Yiddish songs vary even among different Hasidic
neighborhoods.

Contemporary Yiddish religious recordings

In the late 1980s to late1990s when I first researched the Masters essay from
which this article derives, the following Yiddish religious-song recordings
were on the shelves at Eichlersa major Judaica chainin Borough Park
and at several stores on Lee Avenue, the main business street of Jewish Williamsburg.
a) Superstars Avraham Frieds and Mordecai Ben-Davids recordings of
Yiddish songs by Yom Tov Erlich (see next paragraph). The arrangements
are standard Ortho-Pop: professional studio sound, rich instrumentation
(keyboard synthesizer, guitar, bass, strings, woodwinds, brass and
percussion). The compositional style is sentimental and middle-brow,
verging on the kitchy and distinctly dated by todays non-Orthodox
standards. Adult and boy choirs are used; the alto voices adding to an
aura of sentimentality.

29 Because Lubavitcher Hasidim make it a point to interact with the outside world,
their primary language is not Yiddish (see Ester-Basya ((Asya)) Vaisman, She Who
Seeks Shall Find: The Role of Song in a Hasidic Womans Life, Journal of Synagogue
Music, Fall 2010: n.4).

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Yom Tov Erlich was a European-born Karliner Hasid who lived in

Williamsburg after the war, functioned as a badkhn (traditional wedding
rhymester) and composed numerous Yiddish songs that spread throughout
the North American Hasidic world in the 1950 and 1960s. Beginning in
the 1970s, he issued many poor-quality home-recorded cassettes of his
songs with himself as performer. Erlichs style combines the tradition
of pre-war songwriters Mark Warshawski (1848-1907) and Mordechai
Gebirtig (1877-1942) who wrote affectionately about many topics, with
the didactic ideological style of earlier maggidim (itinerant preachers) and
maskilim (proponents of Enlightenment). Erlichs themes include aggadic
and midrashic tales, the celebration of holidays, classic Hasidic heroes
(including modern ones of the Soviet underground), assimilated Jews who
return to their religion, and the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg
with its volunteer ambulance service (Hatsoleh).

b) Avraham Frieds two-cassette album, made in Israel with the Prague

Symphony Orchestra. On it he sings his own Yiddish songs on messianic
themes, to texts found in traditional Jewish and Hasidic literature. The
arrangement style is similar to the one mentioned in the previous subsection. Fried is a Lubavitcher, in his late 40s when I interviewed him,
who grew up and still lives in Crown Heights.
c) Suki and Dings Yiddish Classics, vols. 1-3. Suki Berrys arrangements for
volumes 1 and 2 are simply keyboard and drums; on volume 3 he adds
guitar, bass, winds and percussion. Stylistically, the arrangements are
more sophisticated than those of Fried and Ben-Davidcertainly more
artistic than those on any of the official Hasidic-dynasty tapeswhile still
being essentially middle-brow-Pop. The repertoire is highly eclectic within
the strict bounds of current right-wing Orthodox standards. It consists
of Erlich songs, well-known trademark songs of the various dynasties, a
few samples of Old Core repertoire, and word-for word, note-for-note
copies (with new arrangements) of songs recorded for the hard-to-find
series Zmires Yisroel (see letter g, below).
d) Tapes of new Yiddish religious songs composed and sung by a few younger
yeshiva boys (as described by Mendy, head of the Music section of
Eichlers Borough Park store).
e) Many tapes of Yiddish songs for children, all on religious themes, with
simple keyboard or accordion accompaniments, and no lyrics included.
The singers are usually boys, when theyre not adult men.
f ) Tapes and CDs of various non-Orthodox klezmer bands, including
women singers and instrumentalists (e.g., Klezmer Conservatory Band,
Klezmatics). This section was created by popular demand (according
to Mendy), and represented a definite cultural shift, for the right-wing

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Orthodox had previously been studiously uninterested in klezmer

music.
g) The rare two-cassette series Zmires Yisroel,30 issuedaccording to legend
and confirmed by the father of the men who made the tapeby a group
in Bnei Brakworld headquarters of the Vizhnitzer dynasty.31 These
cassettes are a reissue of an earlier LP recording; on neither version does
the name of any individual or dynasty appear. We do know that Rav Itzhak
Unger is official court composer to the House of Vizhnitz, though Im
guessing he was not involved in producing the first two volumes.

Another clue of the recordings origin comes from a songster called HaShir Vha-Shevah.32 Printed in Bnei Brak, its title page33 lists the same
songs that are sung on the Zmires Yisroel recordings. A golden-covered
bentcher34also titled Zmires Yisroel (subtitled: Songs of the God-fearing
and Hasidim)offers complete texts of all the songs on the identicallynamed cassettes, in addition to the usual bentcher texts of zmirot for
Sabbath and Festivals as well as prayers to be recited before and after
meals. The bentcher was printed in New York State and is also carried by
stores on Lee Avenue.
The Zmires Yisroel selections form part of the Old Core repertoire but
include songs not found elsewhere, except on Suki and Ding volumes 2 and
3, which copied them. The adult male singers are clearly non-professional,
and the instrumentation is acoustic: accordion and violin.
Arrangements appear to have been improvised on the spotneither
player sounds sure of what the singer is doing or about to do. The mood
is definitely Old World, and probably intended as such.35

30 Zmires Yisroel niggunei yreim v-hasidim b-idish, Kol Yeshurun cassette TS

106, n.d.
31 The father is Yaakov Mazur, a Bnei Brak resident, identified to me by Dr. Gila
Flam, Director of the Israel National Sound Archives in Jerusalem.
32 Ha-Shir Vha-Shevah: a collection of 67 songs in Yiddish (Bnei-Brak: HaLaM),
1986.
33 A photocopy of the title pagefrom a review of the songsterwas graciously
sent to me by Jack (Zev) Falk of Portland, Oregon.
34 A small book named for the act of bentchn (Yiddish for blessing).
35 In fall 1988, klezmer authority Professor Walter Zev Feldman and I listened to the
opening item on side A of the first Zmires Yisroel cassette. His immediate reaction was
that the accordionist, coming in on off-beats, was not playing in an authentic style.

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An important word about field recordings of Yiddish songs and

singers
While the Yiddish song collections in print and in commercial recordings
reflect an ideological point of view, this is blessedly not the case with several
important American archival and commercially available field recordings of
amateurs singing Yiddish songs. These recordings were made to encompass
the entire repertoires of their subjects. Therefore they contain all sorts of
material, including religious songs, simply not found elsewhere.
Archival recordings I consulted included the Ben Stonehill Song Collection (1947) and the Ruth Rubin Folk Song Collection (1948-62) at the YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research, New York, and the Miami Beach Project (197679), in the music library of the University of Miami. I was not able to peruse
the largest such collections: the Hebrew Universitys sound archive, and the
Cabinet of Jewish Language, Literature and Folklore of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev. The latter houses the Engel wax cylinders recorded in
Volhynia in 1912, and the Moshe Beregovski recordings from 1928-48.
Commercially released field recordings by non-professional singers include Folksongs in the East European Tradition: from the repertoire of Marian
Nirenberg (Global Village, 1986); Jewish Life: The Old Country, selections
from Ruth Rubins collection (Folkways, 1964, available from the Smithsonian
Institution as a CD); Az di furst avek with Lifshe Schaechter-Widman (Global
Village 1986, available as a CD from www.yiddishland.com).
The difficulty for outsiders in gaining access to Hasidic circles
Apart from the Lubavitch, Hasidim discourage sustained contact with nonHasidim, albeit to varying degrees. As a non-Orthodox Jew, I face a certain
degree of hostility and prejudice. As a woman, I face stringent restrictions on
associating with non-family-related men. And presenting myself as a Reform
cantor is out of the question.
Nonetheless, in researching this article I was able to conduct three interviews with American Jews who were born Hasidic and remain so; and four
interviews with former Hasidim. This group includes those born in Europe
and America as well as those of both sexes, ranging in age from their mid-20s
to about 80. One lives in Atlanta, one in Toronto, and the rest live in New
York City. I asked them two categorical questions:
1) what Yiddish songs they knew, from where did they know them, and when
they were sung;

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2) whether they knew specific songs whose titles I supplied (most of these
songs I took from recordings currently circulating in the community).

This was far from a scientific survey, but from the answers it elicited I began to discern the lay of the land. Only one of the interviewees considered
him/herself a singer or musical, which is unfortunate, for those who love
to sing are usually the ones who remember songs. I also asked Mendy, the
Music Department manager of Eichlers Jewish Bookstore in Borough Park,
to describe what types of people buy the Yiddish-song tapes. His answer was:
yeshiva-age boys and young men, primarily.
Three major factors emerged as determinant of the level of knowledge of
religious songs with a Yiddish component: gender, dynasty affiliation, and
residence. Three of the four women interviewees, ages 25-ish, middle-aged
and 80, did not know the Yiddish songs I asked them about, nor could they
remember others. The fourth woman did, with prodding, remember a few of
the songs on Zmires Yisroel 36 as ones she had sung or heard in childhood. This
woman, in her mid-50s at the time, grew up in Borough Park in a Galitzianer
Hasidic family. The other women belonged to Satmar, a smaller Hungarian
dynasty, and Lubavitch. The youngest had lived all her life in New York, the
others had lived in New York since the end of the War.
The level of familiarity with Old Core repertoire was slightly higher among
the men, but here dynasty and personal predilection seems to have proved
decisive. This bore out what I had learned in conversation with performers
of Yiddish songs. The popular American-born Lubavitcher singer Avraham
Fried, known for his original compositions, told me he knew a few Lubavitchrelated songs, but otherwise nothing. Hazzan Isaac Goodfriend of Atlanta
(since deceased), a Holocaust survivor then in his 70s who had grown up in
Lodz among Alexander Hasidim (an off-shoot of Ger), knew several Yiddish
religious songs, not from his childhood but from post-war collections and
recordings.
Only Michael Wex, who grew up after the war in a Strykover family (also
an off-shoot of Ger) among assorted Hasidim in Western Canada, was familiar with many of the songs on Zmires Yisroel and with other parts of the old
repertoire. He had heard them at public gatherings in his home community
of Alberta as well as at a Winnipeg yeshiva hed attended as an adolescent.
Shmuel Weiss, a younger ex-Hasid then in his early twenties whom I had met
twice but never interviewed extensively, also indicated that he knew significant
parts of the Old Core repertoire. He grew up in Omaha among Hungarian
36 Zmires Yisroel 1 and 2niggunei yreim v-hasidim b-idish, Kol Yeshurun
cassette TS 106, n.d.

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Hasidim. It is an intriguing but untested hypothesis that those Hasidim who

live far from large concentrations of other Hasidim, or even non-Hasidic
Jews, were more motivated to keep the old songs alive as important symbolic
expressions of group values and identity.
But is the surviving Yiddish religious song repertoire in fact of Hasidic
origin? The answer cannot be yesbased on the fact that an older core
repertoire existsthat some Hasidim still record, hear on recordings, and
even sing (as witness the Bnei Brak Vizhnitzer songster, Ha-Shir Vha-Shevah,
and Zmires Yisroel cassettes). Idelsohn writes that the Hasidim would invent
new meditations and set them to tunes. Their texts were often a mixture of
Hebrew and Yiddish, such as those of Levi Yitzchok of Berditschev This
procedure stimulated the antagonism of the Misnagdim.37 On the other
hand, he does not attribute solely to Hasidim either bi-lingual texts in which
Yiddish interprets the Hebrew, or tri-lingual texts that include a non-Jewish
vernacular.38
The larger Yiddish-speaking community knows a handful of religious folk
songs through their many renditions on recordings and in concert by major star singers of the mid-20th century, such as Jan Peerce. These songs are
almost invariably Hasidic, attributed mainly to Levi Yitzhak (examples are
A Dudele, A Din Toyre mit Gott, and Meyerke mayn Zun). But, though
these are also included among the songs gathered by pre-War non-Orthodox
collectors, the older collections also include many other religious songs. A
number of the latter have not been recorded by Hasidim and do not seem to
be known by them.
Apart from the results of my random testing of the above-mentioned
interviewees, I adduce as evidence for this split a comparison between such
non-Orthodox collectors and performers as the Mloteks, Ruth Rubin, and
Aharon Vinkovetzky,39 and the post-war Hasidic collections of Pasternak, and
Orthodox commercial recordings. Apart from the Levi Yitzhak material and
the song Habeit Mi-Shomayim U-Rei (Look Down from Heaven and See),40
little correlation exists between the Yiddish religious folk songs published
and recorded by the Orthodox on the one hand, and the non-Orthodox on
the other, despite the authenticity of both repertoire groups.
37 (Literally opposers), Abraham Z. Idelsohn, Jewish Music in its Historical
Development (New York: Tudor Publishing Company), 1948: 415.
38 Ibid. 392-93, 396.
39 Aharon Vinkovetzky, Abba Kovner and Sinai Leichter, Anthology of Yiddish
Folksongs, vols. 1-4, 3rd ed. (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University/Magnes Press), 1989.
40 Published in Shmelke Kaczerginski, Lider fun di getos un lagern, ed. H. Leivick
(New York: Tsiko Bicher Farlag), 1948; Mlotek, 1996, Bnei Brak, 1986.

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For example, Kotsk (about making pilgrimages to the rebbe, using a triple
pun on the Hebrew root R-G-L) and Fun Kosev biz Kitev (about R. Israel
Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism) are two apparently authentic or at
least folklorized songs from the Old Core repertoire that can be found in the
post-war collections of Belarsky41 and the Mloteks.42 Kotsk is mentioned in
a non-scholarly English work sympathetic to Hasidism.43 In fact, according
to Hazzan Goodfriend, Elie Weisel knew Kotsk as Vizhnitz, and the late
Grand Rabbi Menachem Schneerson knew it as Lubavitch. This points to a
wide diffusion of the song, from Poland to Belorussia to Bukovina. The different versions could conceivably fit Idelsohns definition (above) of Hasidic
meditations set to music. Yet these two songs do not seem to be part of the
Hasidic repertoire of the last 30 years. It is puzzling why todays Orthodox are
not singing some of these old songs, like the song Tseydo ladorekh (discussed
next), while continuing to sing others. Perhaps the songs located specifically in
European centers of Hasidism would be irrelevant to non-European Hasidim,
whereas religious texts are still in use. But this is only a guess.
The song Tseydo ladorekh: Sources
Tseydo ladorekh is a genuine find for Yiddish song researcher, since neither
text nor tune has previously been documented. I know it in two forms:
a) the version sung by Moti Friedman of Jerusalem, recorded by me in 1986,44
and the same source recorded again by Itzik Gottesman in 1998,45 the
recordings being virtually identical;

b) a fragmentary version sung by Gottesman himself as well as by his

mother, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, who grew up in Czernowitz. Their
version consists only of a refrain, remembered from the singing of Mrs.
Gottesmans late husband, Jonah. Jonah and his sister were raised in a
small town near Czernowitz amidst a Vizhnitzer Hasidic milieu, and
they considered the song a product of Hasidei Vizhnitz. The refrains
melody is quite similar to that of the Friedman version, except that it is
rhythmically metric (measures 24-31), nor has the refrains complete text
been retained.
41 Sidor Belarsky, Sidor Belarsky Songbook (Flushing, NY: Yiddish Books, Queens
College/CUNY), 1988.
42 Eleanor & Joseph Mlotek, Pearls of Yiddish Song, op. Cit., 1988.
43 H. Rabinowics, The World of Hasidism (Hartford, England: Hartman House),
1970: 114.
44 The present writers private cassette-tape recording of Moti Friedman, November 1986.
45 Itzik Gottesmans private cassette-tape recording of Moti Friedman, April 5,
1998.

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The version I wish to consider in depth is that of Moti Friedman, a native

of Jerusalem who was, at the time of this writing, in his early sixties. Moti
works for the Jewish Agency, and his passion is religious music, especially
hazzanut. He is an experienced Orthodox baal tfillah (prayer leader) from
childhood, having served as a High Holiday cantor in Conservative and
Orthodox synagogues during the years he lived in America. Moti learned
this song from his Hungarian-born father who had emigrated to Palestine
in 1936. Moti stated that he had not sung Tseydo ladorekh in a long time, yet
he quickly reconstructed the song in its entirety. Moreover, the earlier and
later recorded versions are alikemusically down to the last ornamentand
textually word for word, except for the interchangeable use of geyn (go) and
furn (travel; measures 3 and 11).
Motis Yiddish dialect primarily follows his late fathers, though influenced
by other dialects to which he has been exposed. He considers his fathers Yiddish vocabulary to include certain Germanisms (rendering it as Daytshmerish, in Yiddish parlance). These and other departures from standard Yiddish
are reflected in the song text: derum, umferhof, ferveynt, furbraytn,
emfang, ist, leyben, upgeyben, and laydet. Sometimes a whole word is
closer to German, othertimes only a prefix or suffix, as noted.
Origins and connotations of the phrase Tseydo ladorekh
The Hebrew phrase Tseidoh la-derekh46 means provision for the journey
i.e., food and drinkwhen occurring in the Bible47 and Midrash.48 In his biblical commentary, Rashi affirms the plain sense of the text.49 In his talmudic
commentary on BT Rosh HaShanah 17a, however, he interprets the phrase
metaphorically, identifying tseidat ha-meitim (provision for the dead) as
takhrikhin (burial shrouds).
In Shaarei Tshuvah (Gates of Repentance), an influential ethical work
of the medieval period, R. Jonah ben Avraham Gerondi (c.1200-1283) uses
the phrase to mean mitzvot (in this context, good deeds).50 Opposing the
46 Derekh is the primary form of the word. The variation in Ashkenazic spelling (e instead of o) depends on the position of the word in a sentence: o when it
falls at the end of a major clause ( Sephardic usage would dictate the spelling tseidah
la-derekh).
47 Genesis 42: 25, 45: 21; Joshua 9: 11.
48 Midrash Zota on Eikha chapter 1; Otsar ha-midrashim (Eisenstein).
49 Rashi on Genesis 44: 16; on Joshua 9: 11; on Isaiah 47: 2; on Jeremiah 2: 2.
50 Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi, Shaarei Tshuvah (Fano, 1505; Constantinople,
1511), The Responsa Project, version 5 [CD-ROM] (Ramat gan: Bar-Ilan University),
1995.

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influence of Aristotelian philosophy on Judaism, Gerondi and other Spanish,

Provenal and Italian rabbis stressed the importance of deeds, rather than
thoughts and beliefs, in connection with an individuals reward in the World
to Come.51 Gerondi spurred the development of Hanhagot (Directions) literature, which emphasized the details of daily living and integrated Halakhah
(Jewish Law) with ethical priniciples. His Sefer Ha-Yirah (Book of Fear [of
Heaven]), prototype of the Hanhagot literature, was translated into Yiddish,
in which form it was published numerous times from 1583 on.
Interestingly the Encyclopedia Judaica cites only one other major work of
Hanhagot literature: Tseidah La-Derekh,52 by Menahem ben Aaron ibn Zerah
(c.1310-1385), first published in Ferrara, 1554.53 The book is a Code of Law
concerning mitzvot that are obligatory for individuals as part of daily life (as
opposed to those that are obligatory for the community or for groups within
it, like the Kohanim (priestly descendants of Aaron). Ibn Zerah wrote the book
as a guide for busy members of the upper classes who were beginning to cease
observance of the mitzvot, his title-phrasetseidah la-derekhassuming the
role of a polemic in the late Middle Ages. We will revisit this struggle below,
in its 19th-century manifestation.
The song Tseydo ladorekh: the text

Tseydo ladorekh nemt aykh,

brider, mit.

Provisions for the journey,

brothers, take with you.

Ven ayner furt uf a veg,

upgetsaylte tsvay dray teg,
esn darf er zakh mitneymen meyr.
In es kimt fur zeyer oft,
shlekhte tsaytn umferhof,
az der ban ken nisht vayter geyn.

When one goes on his way

for two, three days,
he must bring more food with him.
And very often (hopefully not),
bad times occur,
when the train cannot go further.

Tsi ist amul a vint in a shney,

di veg iz in gantsn ferveynt,
der ban ken nisht vayter geyn.

Sometimes there are wind and

snow,
the road is bleary
the train cannot go farther.

51 Ephraim Kupfer, s. v. Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi, Encyclopedia Judaica,

1972, 10: 180.
52 Kupfer, loc, cit., 6: 924,
53 Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 11: 1304.

136

Derum ven ayner geyt uf a rayze

darf er zakh mitneymen meyr shpayze,
hingerik vet er nit darfn zayn.

Therefore when one goes on a trip

he must bring with him more food
so that he does not go hungry.

(Refrain):
Tseydo, tseydo ladorekh nemt aykh,
brider, mit.
Der ver es tit zikh furbraytn
der laydet kayn mul nisht.
Tseydo nemt aykh, brider, mit ahin,
vayl oyfn veyg ken men shoyn
gur nisht tin.
Tseydo ladorekh nemt aykh,
brider, mit.

(Refrain):
Provisions for the journey,
brothers, take with you.
The one who prepares never
suffers.
Provisions, brothers, take with you,
for on the road nothing more
can be done.
Provisions for the way, brothers,
Take with you.

Aroys, der groyser gevir,

vos shoymrim shteyen bay dayn tir.
Efsher hosti a mentschlekh gefil?
In ven es kimt ayn uremen tsi dir,
efen im oyf brayt dayn tir,
in emfang im mitn gantsn harts.

Come out, wealthy man,

whose guards stand by your gate!
Have you maybe a human feeling?
And when a poor man comes to you,
open wide your gate
and receive him with all your heart.

Bevurn ikh dir, brider, du,

kdey di zolst hubn of yenem shu,
in efsher vet dir dort beser zayn.
Bevurn ikh dir, brider, mayn leben,
in efsher vet men ayn shvakh upgeyben.
In efsher vet dir dort beser zayn.
(Refrain )

I warn you here, brother,

so that you will not go lacking at
that hour
and perhaps youll be better off.
I warn you, my dear brother,
and perhaps your way will be
better there.
(Refrain )

Tsi hosti aynem gringer gemakht?

Tsi hosti aynem nitsn tsebrakht?
Tsi hosti geholfn oy an uriman?
(Bevurn ikh )

Have you eased someones path?

Have you been of use?
Have you helped a poor man?
(I warn you )

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The song Tseydo ladorekh: the music

q = 47

(Original
Pitch)

Tsey do la - do rekh nemt aykh,bri - der, mit.

13

kimt

es - n darf er zakh mit - ney - men meyr.

for zey - er

oft,

az der ban

shlekh - te

tsay - tn

up -ge -

In es

um - fer - hof,

ken nisht vay - ter geyn.

Tsi

ist

di

a - mul a vint in a shney,

5


3

veg iz in gan - tsn fer veynt, der ban ken nisht vay - ter geyn. Der - um ven ay - ner geyt uf a ray - ze

6

3

darf er zakh mit - ney - men meyr

tsayl - te tsvay dray- teg

10

Ven ay-ner furt uf a veg

shpay-ze

hin - ger - ik vet er nit dar

fn zayn.

15

18

Refrain (in tempo) q = 60

Tsey - do, tsey - do la -do - rekh nemt aykh,bri - der, mit.

Der ver es tit zikh fur - bray - tn

21

der lay - det kayn

mul nisht.

23

oy - fn

tsey

veyg

do

Tsey - do nemt aykh,bri - der,mit a -

la - do

ken men shoyn gut

rekh

nemt

138

nisht

aykh,

hin

vayl

tin.

bri - der,

mit.

3
25

Gottesman Family version (Rhythmic)

Tsey- do tsey - do tsey - do la do - rekh nemt ir, bri - der, mit.

28

hin - gert

30

keyn

mul

nisht.

tsey - do nemt

ir mit

a - hin;

Vayl ver se nemt zikh tsey - do mit der

tsey - do

nemt

ir

mit

a - hin,

tsey - do la - do - rekh nemt ir, bri - der, mit.

The song Tseydo ladorekh: form of the text

The basic structure of its rhyme is a not-uncommon type in Yiddish folksong:
a-a-b, a form Hurshovski54 identifies as literature-influenced. The verse is built
of four such units: a-a-b, c-c-d, e-e-f, g-g-h. Contrarily, the third and fourth
units of the verse are longer than the first two (i.e., containing more words and
beats per line). This lends to the text an improvisatory quality, putting it into
the Hurshovski category of an older form. The rhyme scheme of the refrain
is a-a-b-b, which can be an older form, particularly as the melody reinforces
the strophic character. Surprisingly, the refrain ends with a repeat of its first
line, a very non-traditional feature.

The texts overall structure is:

verserefrain,
verserefrain,

half-verserefrain.

While some folk songs do have repeating refrains, in Hurshovskys analysis

they would not belong to the oldest strata, unless they were childrens songs
which our song is not.
The text displays other unusual features.
1) Its final refrain changes slightly: tit zikh furbraytn becomes bet zikh vaykh;
laydet becomes kvetcht, and veyg becomes yenem velt. Such a change is
not standard in folk songs.
2) The song opens with a single line: the last line of the refrain. This, too, is
highly unusual for a folksong.

Taken together, all of these uncharacteristic deviations would seem to

indicate a literary influence, if not a literary origin.
54 Benjamin Hurshovsky (Harshav), On Free Rythms in Yiddish Poetry, The
Field of Yiddish, Uriel Weinreich, ed. (New York: Linguistic Circle of New York), 1954:
219-266.

139

The song Tseydo ladorekh: meaning of the text

The texts topic advances a central Jewish religious teaching: that one should
lead a moral life in order to be rewarded in heaven. Jewish tradition provides
multiple reasons for adhering to moral and ethical principles, including the
promise of divine reward (and punishment). Responding to the popularity
of medieval rationalism, Maimonides and Jacob ben Asher offered moral
principles, aggadic literature and other non-halakhic reasons within their
Codes of Jewish Law (Mishneh Torah and Arba Turim, respectively).55
In the 18th and 19th centuries, a new context for rationalizing observance
developed with the Hasidic and Musar movements, both of which stressed
the importance of living a moral life. During this period, Gerondis writings
could be found in the libraries of Musar yeshivas,56 and Spanish proto-Musar
texts greatly influenced Hasidic teachings as well.57 Moreover, this Hanhagot
literature was popular not just in sectarian circles but among the common
masses of East European Jewry.58 The Haskalah movement produced a spate
of literature that preached to the masses in Yiddish, propounding the modern
(andin that milieusubversive and radical) view that ethical behavior is the
essential core of Judaism, rather than the fanatical observance of rituals.
Furthermore, in view of the ban (train) metaphor, we must conclude that
our text was created no earlier than the mid-19th century. It is highly didactic:
its form is that of a moralistic parable (Hebrew mashal, Yiddish moshl) being preached to a congregation. While many Yiddish folksongs, particularly
love ballads, are simply addressed to an audience (e.g., my dear mother, my
dear people), few such sermons are preserved in genuine folksong.59 The
didactic sermon qua sermon, however, is typical of two types of Yiddish
songwriters: maggidic and maskilic, like Eliakum Zunser (1836-1913) and
55 Menachem Elon, s. v., Codification of Law, Encyclopedia Judaica, 5: 639, 646.
56 H.H. Ben-Sasson, s. v., Musar Movement, Encyclopedia Judaica, 12: 536.
57 Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer, s. v., Hasidim, Encyclopedia Judaica, 7: 1413.
58 Telephone interview with Leonard S. Kravitz, Professor of Midrash at Hebrew
Union College, January 22, 1999.
59 For a possible exception, see Akavyo ben Mahalalel Omeir, a Yiddish interpretation of Pirke Avot 3:1, in Chaim Kotylansky, Folks-Gezangen/A Collection of
Chassidic Songs and Chants, Yiddish-Ukranian FolkSongs and Shteiger-Lieder (Los
Angeles: Chaim Kotylansky Book Committee and YCUF,), 1944. Kotylansky was a
Hasid-turned-Yiddishist who lectured and performed throughout the United States
during and following the war. He guessed that our text was derived from a maggids
sermon because it expressed blind fear of sin, death and Godin contrast with Hasidic
willingness to hold God accountable. But he may have been over-generalizing from
the famous Levi Yitzhak songs which form the bulk of religious songs in his book.

140

Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908). In an intriguing parallel, Zunsers Dos Lid

fun Ayzenban60 uses the train journey as a metaphor for life, with God as the
conductor. But Zunsers all-embracing moral is different, and nothing in its
text would suggest that it might be the source for Tseydo ladorekh.
Given all the above, I would suggest that our text is a folklorized form
originating from one of the following:
1) a maggidic sermon,

2) a maskilic story or song,

3) a parable from hanhagut literature,
4) a Hasidic parable.

Of particular interest is the fact that our textas a sermon on the importance of helping the poorremains practically sui generis as a song form. So
far, I have been unable to locate any songs like iteither in print, on recording, or in the oral tradition.
The song Tseydo ladorekh: analysis of the music
The melody for the verses is a non-rhythmic, non-metrical recitative, in
the style of a baal tfillah. The melody for the refrains is less easily categorized. Our informant sings it as a semi-recitative, non-metrically. The
endings of each line are at the least syncopated and even a bit rusheda
traditional style also characteristic of the ends of phrases in klezmer music.
(This may be related to the phrase-shortening that seems to typify unaccompanied solo singing in Yiddish.)61 This hybrid style could mean that
the refrain was originally metric, but that the informant and/or his father
adapted it to a non-group style of singing in which meter could have given
way to individual expressiveness. Or, perhaps this is simply a co-temporal
variant of the Gottesman familys metrical version.
The melodic pattern is as follows.

Verse: a-a-b-b, refrain: a-b-c-d-e, with the opening interval of (c) being
the same as that of (a).

60 Eliakum Zunser,Verk, Mordkhe Schaechter, ed (New York: YIVO Institute),

1964.
61 Moshe Beregovsky, Old Jewish Folk Music: The Collections and Writings of
Moshe Beregovski (1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1962), translated and edited by Mark Slobin
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), 1982: 293.

141

The refrains closing tag line (e) also opens the song. In other words, the
same textTseydo ladorekh nemt aykh brider mit is set to two different
melodies. This is quite unusual, but consistent with the Gottesman version.
The difference between the two lies in the fact that the Friedman version
is strophic, with the last line tagged on almost as an afterthought. It is not
needed harmonically, as the previous line has brought the melody back to
the tonic. The Gottesman version of the refrain, on the other hand, resembles
the melodic form of an English limerick:

a (long), a (long), b (short), b (short), a (long).

The last line of this version brings the melody from the b lineswhere it
outlined the dominantback to the tonic. It thus has an essential function.
This limerick-like form (my term) also crops up in Yiddish folk song, yet
Hurshovski does not mention it.
The song Tseydo ladorekh: the performance practice
Moshe Beregovsky62 classified folk singers according to three types:
1) moderate tempo, mezzo forte, minimal ornamentation;

2) considerable rubato, quasi-dramatization of the text through musical

gestures, and more frequent ornamentation;
3) collectors who always sing a song the same way.

According to this schema, one might characterize Moti Friedmans singing

as Beregovskis type #1. He uses very little rubato or gliding and swooping.
The vocal style is open with just a hint of nasality and little vibrato. One cant
help but be reminded of his familiarity with the Golden Age of hazzanut on
recordings, for that is the sound his singing most resembles. It also employs
a vocal quality much more typical of pre-war East European Jewry than of
the post-war American and Israeli Orthodox, whose preferred vocal timbre
is thinner and more nasal.
Most noticeable is the unvarying phrasing and ornamentation on all four
versions of the song (he recorded it three times in the Gottesman interview).
How to explain the remarkable sameness of every musical rendition? After
all, he did not acquire the song from a printed score, nor from a recording
that could be listened to repeatedly. My hunch is that for Friedman the song
is a very strong symbol of his father, and so he tries to sing it in the way he
remembers his father singing it.
62

Mark Slobin, Studying the Yiddish Folk Song, 1983-84: 11.

142

In the Gottesman interview he prefaces his singing with the words, I didnt
sing it for a long time. This implies that he has no ongoing life-context of
his own in which to sing the song, even though as a Modern Orthodox Jew
he sings Shabbat zmirot regularly. It is also possible that Friedman falls into
Beregovskys category #3 (if one accepts this schema); he is a collectorat a
distance from the folk traditionwho never varies in his treatment of it.
During the course of my interview with him, Friedman talks of his Orthodox
upbringing and his study at a yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and he contrasts it with
his current hatred of the Hareidim (ultra-Orthodox). Even though he loves
their music, he says, they have made me hate them. This revealing statement
illustrates the same cognitive dissonance experienced by countless numbers
of people throughout the centuries who love, perform and are entertained by
the music of particular ethnic groups in their societies, and whose own music
derives from it, while disliking the group itself. This phenomenon has always
been true of Jews and is evident among todays Orthodox, in their desire for
American Pop arrangements.
Epilogue
In recent years, Dr. Walter Zev Feldmannow Professor of Music at New
York University in Abu Dhabi and a researcher with The Hebrew Universitys
Jewish Music Research Centrehas placed the thesis from which this article
derives in the library of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has used it in
classes on Ashkenazic music which he taught at Bar Ilan University and at the
Rubin Academy. He has also used our 2001 recording of Tseydo ladorekh
from a concert in New York, featuring me on vocals and him on the tsimbl.
I, too, have successfully incorporated some of the researched materialat
least one rescued tuneinto the regular High Holiday and Festival repertoire of my congregation, which they now sing with gusto. It is a melody to
the Amidah text Atah vhartanu (You have chosen us), that I found in the
Stonehill field recording collection in the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
sound archives.
Moreover, since I wrote the thesis, important new efforts in research and
documentation of Yiddish song have been made in the Americas, Europe
(including the former USSR) and Israel. Even some Hasidim are themselves
collecting and performing this older repertoire. A few seminal academic works
have been published (e.g., Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman, Defining the Yiddish
Nation: The Jewish Folklorists of Poland, Wayne State University Press, 2004)
and documentary CDs released (e.g., The Hasidic Niggun as Sung by the

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Hasidim, Anthology of Music Traditions in Israel, #17, Edwin Seroussi, ed.

(Jerusalem: The Jewish Music Research Center, Hebrew University, 2004). The
Zmires Yisrael cassette series is now also available on CD. Lorin Sklamberg
and Frank London of the Klezmatics released three CDs of East Ashkenazic
religious music (Nigunim in 1998, The Zmiros Project in 2001, and Tsuker-Zis
in 2009) that include a number of these Yiddish religious songs together with
similar songs in Hebrew, thus placing both language types in their proper
Ashkenazic cultural continuum. The above listed efforts have brought these
gems to a far widerand arguably primarilygentile world-music audience
interested in spiritual music.
Still, I believe the central argument of the thesis is still valid: the preservation and dissemination of religious songs with a Yiddish component has
always and continues to be been greatly influenced by ideology and by the
radical disruption and cultural loss occasioned by the Holocaust (khurbn
in Yiddish). It is heartening that these neglected gems are increasingly seeing
the light of day.
Janet B. Leuchter has been cantor of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, NY since
2001. Invested by the Hebrew Union Colleges School of Sacred Music in 1999, she
is known for her involvement as a performer and teacher of Yiddish songs. She was
lead vocalist with the pioneering womens band Klez-meydlekh and has taught at
Klez-Kamp and other national festivals. Janet can be heard on Zumertega CD of
Yiddish songs by Bella Gottesman, as well as on the soundtracks of several acclaimed
documentaries, including Partisans of Vilna.

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Why Sidor Belarsky Was Popular among American Jewry

by Joel Colman

Sidor Belarsky (1898-1975) emigrated from Russia in the year 1930. He therefore belonged to the wave of Jewish immigration that has since been labeled
the East European immigration of Jews to America. Although there were Jews
who arrived in America from other parts of the world, the overwhelming
number at the turn of the twentieth century hailed specifically from Eastern
Europe. It is important to note that Belarskys life in Europe was far different
from that of the the average East European Jew. Most Russian-Polish Jews
had been employed in trade, tavern keeping, brokerage, makeshift occupations, as rabbis and other religious functionariesabout twenty-five percent
artisansand the rest were servants, beggars and paupers.
In contrast, Belarsky devoted himself to studying music and singing. His
experience differed from those of most East European Jews, especially those
who lived in the small towns of the Pale of Settlement, because Belarsky gravitated to the cities that offered gifted Jews like him opportunities for musical
training. Belarsky, whose hometown of Kreshopel in the Ukraine was not far
from the Black Sea, found ample training ground for his talents in Odessa.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Odessa had a population of approximately 200,000 and constituted a center of intellectual and cultural life.
That is where Belarsky learned to sing with such skill and musicality.

Belarskys Contribution I
Significance of the Yiddish Language to American-Jewish Audiences
Although Belarsky performed in many concerts and operas throughout his
career for the general American public, it was his connection to American
Jewry in particular that was central to his success. The majority of his records
are of a Jewish nature, that is either Yiddish or Hebrew music, and his popularity was rooted in singing such music to Jewish audiences throughout the
United States and abroad. It is important to note that Belarsky did not sing
the Yiddish theater music that was so popular with Jewish audiences in New
York. Belarskys daughter Isabel claims that her father was not comfortable
singing this genre of Jewish music, though he was no doubt capable of doing
so, if one were to judge by his operatic repertoire. Moreover, by the time Belarsky was establishing himself as a performer in America in the mid-1930s,
the heyday of Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue had passed. Their number
shrank from approximately twenty in 1920 to no more than four or five in

145

1940. Rather, Belarsky was best known for singing Yiddish folk songs with
simplicity and pathos.
Every artist needs an audience, and Belarsky needed an audience that could
understand what he was singing. He found such an audience in America. By
the time he arrived in the United States in January 1930, immigrants from
Eastern Europe had swelled the overall Jewish population in America to three
and a half million.

Sidor Belarsky and daughter Isabel at Pine Lake Park

Bungalow Colony, Montrose, New York, summer of 1931

Belarskys popularity among these Yiddish-speaking Jews did not wane

over time. In fact, as the Yiddish language diminished in importance during

146

the second half of the 20th century, those Jews who had been raised on the
Mother Tongue clung more tenaciously to it. They wanted to be recognized
as a group that continued to retain its roots, and that was done through the
Yiddish language. Belarskys prominence gave an effective boost to maintaining their heritage, for he sang Yiddish songs that reminded them of the Old
Country. As the historian Irving Howe so eloquently put it: Yiddish had served
as a kind of secret sign, a gleeful or desperate wave to the folks back home by
a performer who liked it to be known that he was still a Jewish boy. Howe
goes on to explain how local politicians of the time deliberately peppered
their speeches with Yiddish to win over Jews. Belarsky did not need to do the
same. Being secure in his knowledge of music and the Yiddish language, he
brought Jews toward him naturally. He sang to an audience that understood
every nuance of the language as it was articulated through the music.
Despite his connection to the Old World, Belarsky was not one to remain
solely in the past. He constantly studied new music. In the early 1950s he
recorded Songs of the Holocaust, for he wanted to represent musically the
grief of that horrific event. When Belarsky concertized he could thus evoke
both sadness and joy from his audiences by singing Yiddish folk songs, Hasidic
songs or Holocaust songs. As Chana Mlotek suggests, Much scholarship
and aesthetic taste were contained in his compilations of songs devoted to
specific themes, notably the songs of the Holocaust, songs of Soviet-Jewish
poets, the immigrant experience, Hasidim, holidays, etc.
Cantor Samuel Rosenbaum expands on this theme:

The songs of Israel, and the songs of the Jews of the Soviet Union (who
can forget his early recordings of Vulai and Kakha Kakh, or his album
of songs of the Jewish-Russian underground?); all of these responded
to his special genius. But to me he will always remain the spirit and the
substance of those little towns that were caught in the web of love and
artistry of Sholom Aleichem and I. L. Peretz and Mordechai Gebirtig
and Itzik Manger. I contend that Belarskys popularity with the people
stemmed not only from his knowledge of the Yiddish song, but also from
the fact that he succeeded as a musician in the non-Jewish world. Jews
in America, I believe, took delight in a fellow Jew fitting into the secular
world as well as the Jewish one. It was a source of pride to his fans to hear
Belarsky sing opera both at the New York City Opera and on the radio.

It is important to add that many who remember hearing Sidor Belarsky sing
did not belong to the first waves of immigrants from Russia at the beginning
of the 20th century. Indeed, numbers of Belarskys fans belong to the second
and third generation of American Jews who grew up hearing Yiddish being

147

spoken by parents and grandparents. They, too, have an emotional bond with
Yiddish, but do not identify with the Yiddish folk song in quite the same way
as their parents or grandparents. For some of these people Yiddish is not
their mother tongue. Yet as the linguist Joshua Fishman explains, although
their Yiddish is quite limited, their comprehension level is still substantial.
Moreover, many wish to sustain their East European heritage through song
and language. Historian Jack Kugelmass, describing the current upsurge of
interest in Yiddish language and culture claims: For others, the East European
Jewish past has reemerged as the bulwark against assimilation, as evidenced by
the recent revival of klezmer music and current attitudes towards Yiddish.
Belarskys language skills certainly helped him when he sang to JewishAmerican audiences. His Yiddish skills enabled him to engage the audience,
not only through song, but when he would speak to the audience. However,
there are many types of songs that can be sung in Yiddish. Knowing what
they wanted to hear, Belarsky carefully chose the songs he sang to Jewish
Americans. The next section surveys the lyrics of eight of Belarskys songs in
an attempt to understand the connection between the words and Belarskys
audience.

Belarskys Contribution II
What the Songs Actually Said to American-Jewish Audiences
Although Belarsky was capable of singing more sophisticated musicas
both his musical training in Russia and his ability to sing challenging operatic
roles would suggesthe was popular among Jewish audiences primarily as a
result of his eloquent presentation of the Yiddish folk song. During a career
that spanned over forty-five years, Belarsky produced over 350 recordings,
the majority of which are in Yiddish. His daughter Isabel has been actively
preserving many of her fathers Yiddish, Hebrew and Hasidic recordings and
has had them transferred first to cassettes, later CDs, and more recently online
(see note at end of article). Additionally, two song books are still available in
bookstores: My Favorite Songsarranged by Sidor Belarsky (1951) reprinted
by Tara Publications, Cedarhurst, NY; and Sidor Belarsky Songbook (1970),
published by Ethnic Music, NY.
Let us now explore why the lyrics of these two collections containing his
most popular songs captured the hearts of generations of American Jews.
The first song to be analyzed is Der kremer (The Grocer) by A. Liesin.
It begins:

148

There is a poor and modest grocer, among hundreds more on the street. He
sits and he waits for a customer, it is dark and the rain is like sleet. As he sits
he thinks about how much better things would be if there were a Jewish State.
While his fantasy is wondrous and sweet, a government run by our people, a
Jewish one, you understand.

While he dreams about a Jewish state a short man comes in and asks to
purchase a very tiny portion of fish, which immediately ends the grocers
dream and brings him back to reality. The lyrics continue:

All of a sudden a customer, as big as a peanut, comes in. He asks for a pennys
worth of herring and knocks every dream out of him.

Typical of many of these songs are the visual images that the words paint:
a vivid picture of the poor merchant on the main street of some backwater
shtetl (hamlet) in Poland or Russia. The listeners imagination will then provide a sense of the onerous burden carried by the Jewish people living under
Tsarist rule.
The second song is Dem milners trern (The Millers Tears), with words
and melody by Mark Warshavsky. As in Der Kremer, this song describes a
working-class Jew, an old man thinking about a bygone time when he was a
miller, wondering if he had had any joy at all in his life:

While passing by me, the years did try me, I was a miller long ago.

Remembering those who wanted to drive him away from his town and his
work; he laments how the years pass

without an end and without a goal.

This song depicts not only the pogroms that occurred,

The rumors try me, they want to drive me from out the village and the
mill,

but like the previous song, this one indicates the desperate financial conditions of Russian Jews:

The days will never come back as ever, when I could claim a little luck.

The third song, Dem zeidns brokhe (Grandfathers Blessing), written by

Mark Warshavsky, also dwells on the theme of poverty. It tells of a man recalling the eve of Yom Kippur when, before the last pre-fast meal was eaten, his
grandfather would bless him and ask him to go to shul with him. He pleaded
with him, saying:

Comemy childto shul with me, God will be most merciful toward
you.

149

Now, however, the grandson bemoans the fact that he never joined his
grandfather in shul. For this misdeed he has suffered, his years have been
filled with suffering.

You meant well, Grandfather dearest, but your prayers for me were no
blessing. Instead, my years were filled with sorrows, every day brings new
misfortune.

Thus a young man with initial hopes for achieving success in Eastern
Europeeven with the blessings of his pious grandfatherstill grows up
with difficulty and sadness. The song explains why so many young men would
venture alone from their homeland to America, bringing the rest of the family
only once some money had been earned. There was little hope for any kind
of a future in Eastern Europe.
The fourth song, in addition to portraying community life in the shtetl,
discusses personal relationships. Reizele, with words by Mordechai Gebirtig, is
one of Belarskys signature songs. Although this song does not speak directly
of poverty, the listener can imagine love overwhelming any concern over it.
The song speaks of a young man who is thinking only about his love.

ReizeIe, I Iove you so much. I love your mama. I love the streets. I love
the old house. I love the stones next to the house, because you walk on
them.

This song differs from the previous three in that instead of singing about
poor old men we now hear about the all-consuming feeling of love that a young
man has for his beloved. All four songs cited describe a time when Jews lived
in small towns and for the most part in poverty. For many first-generation
American Jews these scenes would not have been difficult to imagine. Even
second-generation American Jews might have been attracted to the songs
because they could conjure up the image of immediate relatives such as a
parent or grandparent living in such circumstances.
The songs Belarsky sang touched the hearts of many people because they
speak of harsh times in Eastern Europe. But many Jews in America continued
to have financial difficulties at first. Almost two thirds of the new immigrants
settled down in the big cities of the Northeast, especially in crowded downtown neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side of New York City. There
they found employment in manual labor of various kinds. Over half entered
the ready-made clothing industry in which entrepreneurs, contractors, tailors,
and seamstresses were mainly Jews. Wages were low, hours were long, and
working conditions poor in the small, unventilated and dirty sweatshops.

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It would seem that to some degree Belarsky was consoling his listeners
by reminding them of a time when life was even more difficult; as arduous
as life was in America, the hope persisted that eventually conditions would
improve (and in fact, for most they did). It is important to add that Belarsky
did not sing to Jewish Americans when they were new to the country at the
turn of the century, but during the 1930s when they had already established
themselves in the United States. By 1951 when Belarskys book of Favorite
Songs was published, singing about troublesome times in Russia may have
been easier, considering the more comfortable circumstances of Jewish
Americans at mid-century.
Sociologist Marshall Sklare observes that at that time American Jewry
seemed optimistic about its future. Older Jews will recall the celebration of
the American-Jewish Tercentenary in 1954, honoring the 300th anniversary
of the arrival in New Amsterdam of a small band of Jewish refugees from
Brazil as a bright and joyous occasion. The reason for the festivities is easy to
locate: Nazism had been destroyed, the State of Israel had been established,
and the enemies of Israel did not seem to pose any immediate threat to its
survival. Also, while the main outlines of the tragedy of the Holocaust were
known, American Jewrys illusions had not yet been shattered by revelations
about the Roosevelt Administrations lack of resolve to rescue Jewsfirst
from persecution and later from annihilation.
Another common theme in Belarskys repertoire is the desire to go to Palestine, a popular topic in the East European Jewish press in the 1880s. One
historian observes that when East European Jewish emigration increased, the
Jewish press debated whether it should be directed to America or to Palestine.
Most of the emigrants opted for the United States, but the idea of re-establishing the land of Israel as the center of Jewish life took hold among many
of the intelligentsia (maskilim) and Russified Jews. Zionist ideology played a
central role in Belarskys life. He visited Israel eight times, including a concert
he performed the very evening that Israel was declared a State. He played an
important role in the Histadrut Israel Foundation for many years.
In the song Yerushalayim, with words by Avigdor Hameiri, the Zionist
theme is unmistakable:

From generation to generation we dreamed and hoped to be a nation,

as well as the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, rebuilt by our strength and our joy;

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Oh city that none can destroy.
Oh holy city, great is your praise!
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I never shall wander from you;
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the Messiah will surely appear.

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Olim (Song of the Advancing Brave) with words by I. Shenberg, bears

an even stronger Zionist message than does Yerushalayim:

To the land my fathers knew, my brothers are all coming;

and they hear a secret humming: Only this land will do.

Though Belarsky did not make aliyah to Israel, he still sang about the importance of going there. Given his strong relationships with Labor Zionist
organizations, it is no wonder that his repertoire included a number of songs
with a powerful Zionist theme.
Belarskys musical selections take us to the cold and barren land of Siberia,
about which he sings in Ergetz vayt (In the Distant Land), with words by
H. Leivik and music by Lazar Weiner. It tells the story of one man who was
exiled there:

Somewhere far away lies the land forbidden, somewhere

lies a prisoner, alone. . . one cannot even find a way to
this forbidden land.

It is important to mention that this is not a simple folk song, for Weiners
music plays on the lyrics with jarring dissonance, leaving the listener with
a sense of bleak emptiness. A song like this gave Belarsky an opportunity to
paint a vivid tableau for his audience.
The last song, Moyshelakh shloymelakh with words by J. Papernikoff and
music by Israel Alter, portrays the aftereffect of the Holocaust on a town in
Poland.

Under the green Polish trees, little Moses and little Solomon
do not play anymore, no little Sarahs and little Leahs,
not on the grass and not on the snow.

And now this Polish town has no Jewish homes or streets,

Dead are the Jewish homes, dead are the streets,

destroyed are the homes, where children,
sticking their heads out like little mice with their
big dark eyes, used to play.

Isabel Belarsky mentioned on several occasions how people would react

when Belarsky sang this song. She told me of people sobbing, and sometimes
fainting.
Belarsky knew that these songs would be meaningful for his audience.
Singing in Yiddish was not just a symbolic gesture, for he knew that his audiences could understand the stories he was telling. Belarskys songs were
significant not only to first-generation Jewish Americans, but also to those

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who had been born in this country during the first half of the 20th century.
Many were raised in areas that were primarily Jewish and where Yiddish was
spoken at home. So for many second-generation Jewish Americans as well,
there was a strong emotional attachment to what he sang.
In choosing his programsincluding Yiddish folk material, Hasidic niggunim and Yiddish art songsSidor Belarsky was ever careful to pick items
that meant something special to Jewish Americans. Whether to conjure up
images of the Old Country or to evoke the desire for a return to Zion, he was
extremely aware of the texts that he sang and how they affected his audiences.
We know this because Yiddish songs were included in his programs year after
year. Belarskys use of Yiddish texts made for a powerful combination that
usually evoked a strong emotional reaction from the audience. However, there
is still another element of Belarskys popularity among American Jews: the
melodies to which these texts were set, folk-like and often based on synagogue
motifs, which signaled to the audience that this was Jewish music.
Belarsky employed his musical artistry to relate many folk talesthrough
Yiddish songsabout Jewish life in Eastern Europe. American Jews wanted
to assimilate into the American landscape, but they did not wholly reject
certain ethnic expressions, such as music. Yiddish folk song gave Belarsky
the opportunity to musically transport this socially and culturally mobile
audiencebeginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1970sback
to a time that reflected many different events, both sad and happy, in the lives
of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Belarskys Contribution III

The lesson for todays cantors
The singing of simple Yiddish folk songs to Jewish audiences can be a highly
moving experience for performers as well as listeners. Belarsky was able to
touch his audiences because they understood the language, the music, and
related to the meaning of the text. Why shouldnt contemporary Jewish
American audiences have the opportunity to hear Jewish music sung that
meets them on the three levels where they are at: the English language, music
thats recognizably Jewish, and the songs meaning?
Although some of the American Jewish folk-style music being written today
is not as sophisticated as Lazar Weiners, it nevertheless has a right to be sung
with pride, elegance and musical quality, just as Belarsky would sing them. It
must also be remembered that Belarsky did not only sing simple Yiddish folk

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songs. He sang difficult and dissonant art music (Weiners compositions) as

well as operatic arias.
As a teacher, Belarsky taught his students how to interpret Yiddish song.
Besides his important legacy in the musical life of Jewish America during his
career, he also left an important message: that Jewish musicwhether simple
or complexcan be meaningful for the listening audience. But to touch audiences fully one must be able to convey the subtle nuances imparted by the
music. Jewish Americans, who live farther and farther from the language of
Eastern Europe and the immigrant experience, deserve to have music sung
that will also connect to them, just like the Yiddish folk song and lyrics did
for Belarskys audiences. That is why the folk-like music of a composer like
Debbie Friedman is so popular today. Not only does it offer melodies to which
modern audiences relate, it often combines Hebrew and English versions
of selected liturgical texts into one song. This insures that the audience will
be able to relate to the music on three levels: the language, the text and the
melody.
It becomes the responsibility of each generation to try and learn about the
Jewish traditions of preceding generations. Todays and tomorrows generation must be able to make an attempt to learn what moved previous Jewish
generations. Though these songs may never touch audiences the way they
did seventy or eighty years ago, they can still tug at us emotionally and still
be meaningful to us, though in a different way. I believe this coincides with
Belarskys wishes. As he so eloquently put it in the introduction to his 1970
Songbook,

My life has been and continues to be devoted to discovering, reviving, and

presenting our exciting heritage of songs, bringing them to the attention
of those who wish to pass them on to succeeding generations.

When the Masters essay from which this article is excerpted first appeared in the
Journal of Synagogue Music in December 1995 (Vol. 24, No. 2), Joel Colman was
cantor and music director of Greenwich Reform Synagogue in Greenwich, CT. He
graduated from the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion in May of 1995 and later served as a cantor in New Orleans.
To hear Sidor Belarskys artistry on records, visit the Jewish Sound Archive at
Florida Atlantic University (www.fau.edu/jsa).

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She Who Seeks Shall Find: The Role of Song in a Hasidic

Womans Life Cycle
By Ester-Basya (Asya) Vaisman

But youre not going to find [commercial recordings of the songs] of

khasidishe [Hasidic] girls, there is no such thing, they will not give out such
a tape, you wont see it on a shelf. They wont sell it in the stores. There
will only be hundreds and hundreds of them by girls, hundreds of them,
from this camp and that camp, CDs, records, do you have this play? do
you have that play? between them. But its not on the market, you wont
find it, you wont see it, you wont hear it. You wont even know it exists.
Its amazing, you go to camps, every single summer, I cant tell you how
many songs are produced and sung, and plays. Every year. I would say
hundreds of songs. And they just dont make the market. And theyre all
beautiful, they really are. Theyre really beautiful.1

I. Introduction
You wont even know it existsthese telling words, spoken by Suri Gold, a
young Hasidic woman who lives in Borough Park, are indicative of the private
status of contemporary Hasidic womens songs. I met Suri while I was doing fieldwork for my dissertation on the Yiddish songs and singing practices
of contemporary Hasidic women. Kol bishah, a Jewish religious regulation
on a womans voice, prevents Hasidic women from publicly performing or
commercially recording songs, as the law stipulates that their voices may
be sensually attractive to men.2 Thus, while Hasidic mens music has been
collected, published, and analyzed to an extent, virtually no research exists
outside of the community on the enormous repertoire of the Hasidic womens
songs.3 Due to the insular nature of Yiddish-speaking Hasidic communities,
1
Suri Gold, a 25-year-old Tosh Hasidic woman, interview with the author, April
2007. The names of all informants have been changed to protect their anonymity.
2
The Kol bIshah prohibition can be traced to the Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 24a, which states A womans voice is ervah (an erotic stimulus), as it is written,
For your voice is pleasing and your appearance attractive (Song of Songs 2:14). This
line has been interpreted to mean that a womans voice could lead a man to engage in
impure thoughts and possibly actions, and thus it is prohibited to him; it is generally
accepted that this prohibition applies only to a womans singing voice, and not to her
speaking voice. Kol bIshah usually does not apply to a womans immediate relatives,
such as her husband, brother, father, or son, except when the man is praying or when
the woman is menstruating, though in Hasidic circles there are restrictions even on
family members.
3
The studies most relevant to this paper include Mark Kligman, The Media
and the Message: The Recorded Music of Brooklyns Orthodox Jews, Jewish Folklore

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information on this subject can be obtained only through fieldwork, which

consists of identifying the Yiddish-speaking informants, approaching women
directly, and conducting interviews.
I established contact with informants in several ways. In some cases, I approached individual women on the street and asked, in Yiddish, if they knew
any Yiddish songs and if they had time to meet in order to discuss and sing
these songs. My ability to speak Yiddish often sparked the womans curiosity
sufficiently for her to agree to a later meeting. Once contact with one woman
was established, it became easier to interview her family members. On occasion, the woman introduced me to her neighbors or friends, but often, especially in the Satmar community, women refused, claiming that no one else in
the community would agree to be interviewed. In other cases, I established
contact through common acquaintances. I also visited several Hasidic girls
schools and observed school performances and rehearsals, graduations, and
classes in which teachers taught songs. My observations in this paper are
based on fieldwork I conducted over the past four years in Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Rehovot, London, and Antwerp with Hasidic women from the Satmar,
Bobov, Puppa, Vizhnits, Tosh, Belz and other communities.4
Not only are outsiders to the community unaware of events at which female singing takes place among Hasidim, but many Hasidic men are not even
conscious that singing plays a role in the lives of their mothers, wives, sisters,
and even daughters. Because of the lack of emphasis placed on engagement in
activities outside of the religious and home spheres, the women themselves
and Ethnology Review 16, no. 1 (1994): 9-11; Mark Kligman, On the Creators and
Consumers of Orthodox Popular Music in Brooklyn, YIVO Annual of Jewish Social
Science 23 (1996): 259-93; and Velvel Pasternak, Songs of the Chassidim: An Anthology
(New York: Bloch Pub. Co, 1970-1971). Two significant works on Lubavitch womens
music do exist, Ellen Koskoff, Music in Lubavitcher Life (Chicago: University of Illionois Press, 2001) and Ruth Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices: Womens Music in Londons
Lubavitch and Satmar Hasidic Communities (PhD diss., City University, 2003), but
my research concerns non-Lubavitch Hasidic women, as explained below. My work
also differs significantly from Ruth Rosenfelders in that she analyzes womens song
only in London Hasidic communities, whereas I conducted research in the United
States, Israel, and Belgium, as well.
4
My research excludes Lubavitch Hasidim, because this group differs significantly from the other Hasidic groups. An important aspect of Lubavitch philosophy
is kiruv (outreach to non-religious Jews). Because of outreach activities, Lubavitch
Hasidim engage in much more contact with the world outside their community, and
a much higher percentage of this communitys members come from non-Hasidic
families. As a result, Yiddish is not the primary language of Lubavitch Hasidim, and
their music is much more heavily influenced by non-Hasidic sources.

156

sometimes do not realize that they know songs and engage in singing until
prodded with specific questions.
Yet singing does indeed occur among women and especially girls. This
paper will explore the role that singing plays in the lives of Hasidic women
and girls at different stages of their life cycles. Varying with a womans age
and Hasidic group, the opportunities for listening to and engaging in singing
are numerous and diverse, ranging from simply listening and singing along
to tapes while doing housework to writing songs and directing choirs for
elaborate school productions.
I observed three kinds of singing events at schoolssinging used as an
educational tool in the classroom, practicing singing at graduation rehearsals,
and singing at school performances. I also attended charity events at which
singing took place. Because of the private nature of many of the other occasions
at which female singing occurs, however, I was unable to personally observe
many of the events that I will describe. Fortunately, the in-depth interviews
that I conducted with women of different ages provided much information
about the way Hasidic women use song in everyday life.
During my interviews, I noticed that women gave very similar answers
when asked about singing contexts; it seems that both within and across
Hasidic groups, the venues for listening to and participating in song are fairly
consistent within each age group. Because of these similarities and because
of my inability to observe events firsthand, I found that the most efficient
method of describing my findings is to offer a composite picture of the role
of song in a typical Hasidic womans life cycle using the device of a fictional
family. This approach offers a more complete look at the various occasions
when singing occurs. I extend the composite device only through the first half
of the paper, subsequently moving on to a more conventional, documented
discussion of provenance, authorship, and perceptions of singing.
Current trends in anthropology prescribe using an ethnographic approach
to describe findings (depicting events observed first-hand) and underscore
writing reflexively to account for the subjectivity of the ethnographers perspective (see works by Ellen Koskoff, Michelle Kisliuk, Clifford Geertz, and
Jean-Paul Dumont, for example).5 The composite approach is often criticized
5
See for example, Gregory F. Barz and Timothy J. Cooley, eds. Shadows in the
Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2008); Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York:
Basic Books, 1973); Ellen Koskoff, ed. Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective
(Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1989); Michelle Kisliuk, (Un)doing Fieldwork:
Sharing Songs, Sharing Lives, in Shadows in the Field, eds. G. F. Barz and T. J. Cooley,
183-205; Jean-Paul Dumont, The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the
Fieldworking Experience (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978).

157

for neglecting regional and individual differences. A work in Jewish Studies

that is famously critiqued for misrepresentation through this approach is
Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzogs Life is with People.6 The erasure of
geographic and class differentiation of the communities described in the book
creates an overly simplified picture of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
Precedents for successfully presenting a community with the usage of composite informants do exist, however, and have been seen as especially useful
in describing the life cycle or the developmental cycle of domestic groups.7
Both studies of Hasidic communities and works of anthropology in other areas
use this method. Rhonda Berger-Sofers dissertation uses a composite family
to describe a typical Hasidic womans daily routine in the neighborhood of
Meah Shearim, Jerusalem;8 Jay Mechlings On My Honor describes two typical
weeks in a boy scout camp based on the authors experiences of attending the
camp over twenty years;9 Renato Rosaldos Ilongot Headhunting, 1883-1974:
A Study in Society and History describes the life cycle of Ilongot males (a
tribe in the Philippines) in a composite biography based on his knowledge
of a number of men at various phases of their lives;10 and Bruce Macleods
Club Date Musicians: Playing the New York Party Circuit discusses the typical experiences of musicians in New York who play Club Dates, based on
interviews and conversations with more than 100 musicians.11
With an awareness of the potential problems inherent to this approach, I
have tried to guard against making generalizations and have tried to paint
as representative a picture as possible. In those cases where experiences of
informants diverged, I have tried to indicate the differences in the text. Furthermore, I am using a family consisting of several female members rather
than a single woman in my description to ensure that I present the role of song
only in contemporary times rather than longitudinally. Each family member
6
See Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Introduction, in Life is with People: The
Culture of the Shtetl, Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog (New York: Schocken,
1995), ix-xlviii.
7
Renato Rosaldo, Reflections on Interdisciplinarity, in Schools of Thought:
Twenty-Five Years of Interpretive Social Science, eds. J. W. Scott and D. Keates (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
8
Rhonda Berger-Sofer, Pious Women: a Study of the Womens Roles in a Hasidic and Pious Community, Meah Shearim (PhD diss., Rutgers University, 1979).
9
Jay Mechling, On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
10 Renato Rosaldo, Ilongot Headhunting, 1883-1974: A Study in Society and
History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980).
11 Bruce Macleod, Club Date Musicians: Playing the New York Party Circuit
(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993).

158

thus represents one stage of the life cycle. Now I am pleased to introduce to
the reader to the Berenboim family.
II. The BerenboimsA Composite Life Cycle
From the time Rivky Berenboim is born, her mother rocks her to sleep in the
evenings with a lullaby.12 Shluf shoyn, mayn tayere sheyfele, makh shoyn tsi
dayne zise oygelekh, shluf shoyn, shluf, in a zise shluf, ay-li-liu-li-liu (Sleep
already, my dear lamb, close already your sweet eyes, sleep already, sleep, in
a sweet sleep, rock a bye).13 Mrs. Berenboim, a Satmar woman in her late 30s
living in Williamsburg, had sung this same lullaby to her two older daughters,
Gitty and Suri.
As Rivky grows older, she starts to pick up words and phrases from the
childrens songs her mother sings with her, often accompanied by related
motions: Ikh hob tsvay fiselekh tsi kenen gayn, ikh hob a zise kepele tsi farshtayn (I have two legs to be able to walk, I have a sweet head to be able to
understand).14 Even from the early age of two or three years, the songs Rivky
hears and sings teach her important lessons about faith in G-d.15 Vus zugt
men far dem alemen? (What do we say for all these things?) asks the next
line in the body-part song; Burekh hashem! (Thank G-d!) is the emphatic
answer.
Rivkys little brother, Moishy, less than a year younger, hears and sings
most of the same songs as Rivky until they start kindergarten at the age of
six. Mrs. Berenboim, like many other Williamsburg mothers, gets many of
these songs from Yiddish childrens tapes, which are readily available in the
local neighborhood bookstore. Rivkys favorites are the Kinder Classics (Childrens Classics) albums, which teach her about giving charity and honoring
12 Rivky and her family are imagined composite characters based on information about contexts for singing in a Hasidic womans life provided by a number of
informants.
13 Song: Shluf shoyn, Sleep, already. Note on Yiddish: Yiddish text, as quoted in
the speech of Hasidic women and in song lyrics, is transcribed in Hassidic Yiddish,
a mixture of Polish and Hungarian dialects (using a modified YIVO system). Yiddish
words that appear individually within the text are transcribed using Yivo orthography
with an English translation (as it appears in the Oxford English Dictionary) where applicable. Titles of albums are spelled the way they appear on the album cover.
14 Song: Ikh hob a matuneh, I have a present.
15 In keeping with Hasidic avoidance of committing to written form any name
that can be construed as a direct reference to the Holy One, I have used the incomplete
spelling: G-d.

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her mother and father. The tapes (or CDs), recorded by male singers or boys
choirs, are often playing in the background when the children play, keeping
them occupied while their mother tends to her chores.
On Fridays, Rivky and Moishy sing along to the Heyliger Shabbos (Holy
Sabbath) album from the Momme Lushen (Mother Tongue) series, learning
through song about preparing for the Sabbath by putting away their clothes
and toys and helping their mother set the table. After their father comes
home from shul (synagogue) on Friday night, the family sits down to a festive Shabbos meal, throughout which they sing zmires (traditional Sabbath
songs in Hebrew), led by the father. By age three, Rivky already knows that
it is forbidden to use electricity on Shabbos, and when Moishy crawls to the
tape player on Saturday and tries to turn it on, Rivky runs over to stop him.
After Rivky starts kindergarten at age six, she learns many new songs from
her teacher. The lyrics to most of these songs are made up by the teacher or
the principal of the kindergarten and are printed in newsletters that Rivky
brings home every week to share with her mother.16 The melodies of the songs
are usually borrowed from old niggunim (tunes traditionally composed and
sung by Hasidic men) or other well-known songs, which makes it very easy
for Mrs. Berenboim to learn the new songs.17
The songs taught in kindergarten and elementary school are on a wide
variety of topics, and they are generally short and simple, consisting of one
or two stanzas. Many of these songs teach Rivky and her classmates about
the stories in the Torah with simplified rhyming vignettes, like
A kalle zolsti zikhn far Yitskhok mayn zin,
Nisht kayn fremde maydl, nor a yiddish kind.
Vaser far di kemlekh hot Rivke gegeybn,
Tsi tin a toyve iz geven ir shtreybn.

(You must find a bride for my son Isaac,

Not a foreign girl, but a Jewish child.
Rebecca was watering the camels,
She yearned to do a good deed.)18

There are also songs associated with rituals and with activities for the day.
As one teacher (a Belz woman) said about the varieties of childrens songs,
Every subject has a song. If its cleanliness, its a cleanliness song, if its days
of the week, what month, when the moon is small, the moon is full, all that is
in Yiddish [childrens] songs.19 Heres one about the Penitential season.
16 Dvoyre Horowitz, interview with the author, March 2007.
17 Horowitz 2007, and Esty Kahan, interview with the author, March 2007.
18 This story is based on Genesis 24, in which Abraham asks his servant to
go back to his home to find a wife for his son Isaac. The servant finds Rebecca, who
demonstrates her worthiness by offering to water the servants camels after he asks
her for a drink.
19 Rokhl Steiner, interview with the author, November 2004.

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(Rosh Hashanah has arrived,

We blow the shofar: tu tu tu!
Father, mother, sister, brother,
Please forgive me, I repent.)

Roysh hashuneh iz gekimen,

Me bluzt shoyfer: tu tu tu!
Tatte, momme, shvester, brider,
Zayt mir moykhl, ikh ti tshiveh.

In the spring, with Passover approaching, Rivky practices the four questions that she will recite during the Passover Seder. The teacher teaches them
line by line, each Hebrew phrase followed by the Yiddish translation. While
they are learning, the girls yell out the questions together as loudly as they
can, encouraging enthusiasm and participation. After much practicing, the
teacher calls up the girls, one at a time, to sing a verse in front of the class
to demonstrate their knowledge. Each girl gets a star sticker for successfully
passing the challenge. Rivky proudly brings her lyric sheet home, the shiny
star next to each verse signifying that the whole song is memorized.20
As the school year draws to a close, Rivky prepares for the pre-one graduation, a festive event marking the completion of preschool. There are many
songs to learn and stage directions to memorize from the script prepared
by the principal. Mrs. Berenboim helps out by sewing some of the colorful
costumes to be used in the performance. Since there are only girls in the class,
Rivky will be playing the role of a little schoolboy, and the skirt of her costume
has to be gathered at the bottom to make it look like trousers.21
The graduation is not the only performance in which Rivky participates.
Halfway through first grade, there is a party to honor the fact that the girls
have begun praying from the siddur (prayer book), after having learned the
alphabet. Mothers, grandmothers, and even great-grandmothers attend
this celebration, at which there is much singing.22 In the winter, there is a
big party and auction to raise money for tzedakah (charity), at which Rivky
sings in a choir.
Rivkys older sister, Gitty, is 12 years old and already in the 6th grade. The
songs she learns in school and summer camp are much longer and more
complex than the ones Rivky knows, ranging from two to ten stanzas. The
songs fall into several categories. There are songs that teach Gitty about her
responsibilities as a Hasidic woman, particularly her future role as a mother
and preserver of tradition in her family: Shtayt a boym (There Stands a Tree).
These songs often overlap with the Shabbos songs, which describe the mother

20 This episode is based on the authors observation of a Satmar preschool class

in Williamsburg, April 2007.
21 For more about this method of getting around the prohibition for women
and girls to wear mens clothing in school plays, see Ruth Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices:
Womens Music in Londons Lubavitch and Satmar Hasidic Communities (PhD diss.,
City University 2003), 155.
22 Khane Feldman, interview with the author, January 2005.

161

lighting candles and praying for her family: A Haylike Shtilkayt (A Sacred
Silence). Other Sabbath songs emphasize the festive yet soothing atmosphere
and review the commandments for the day, much like the Hebrew Shabbos
zmires that the men sing: Oy shabbos koydesh (Oh Holy Sabbath).
Songs about faith and trust in G-d belong to another significant category
in Gittys repertoire. They teach Gitty and her classmates that they are never
alonein every hardship, through all troubles, G-d is with them, and everything happens according to His will: Dertsayl ikh (I Tell You). Related to
these are songs about golus (exile) and geulah (redemption). Sung year-round,
but particularly around the time of Tisha BAv (the Ninth of Av, a midsummer
fast day commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples),
these songs remind the girls that however comfortable their lives may seem,
they are perpetually in danger until the coming of Moshiakh (the Messiah)
Bi-yerusholayim (In Jerusalem). The perils of exile are illustrated most forcefully in the final major category of teenage girls songsHolocaust songs: Di
Dray in nayntsik kadoyshes (The 93 Martyred Young Women).
In school, Gittys day is split up into two halves: Yiddishor Jewish
subjects in the morning with one teacher, and Englishor secularsubjects
in the afternoon with another teacher. It is the Yiddish teacher who teaches
Gitty the songs mentioned above. She hands out lyric sheets to all the girls
and teaches them the melody by ear, line by line.23 Gittys 55-year-old aunt
remembers that when she was growing up, before photocopying was available, the teacher would have to dictate the songs to the girls, who wrote them
down in their notebooks.24 Sheet music is not used for singing by girls in the
Hasidic community.25 Sometimes the girls bring a tape recorder to class and
record the teacher singing, so that they can practice the melody at home by
listening to the tape.26
In Gittys class, her Yiddish teacher brings in a new song every week to
teach the girls, but in other classes, songs are taught more sporadically, or in
preparation for an upcoming school play.27 While in the Satmar school there
is not a specific subject with which singing is associated, at the Pupa school
a few blocks away, the fifth-grade English teacher teaches a separate subject
23 Leye Levinsons daughter, interview with the author, April 2007.
24 Khave Bernstein, interview with the author, November 2007.
25 Several informants have told me that only the girls who learn how to play an
instrument know how to read sheet music, and even within that group, not everyone
learns notation, since many girls learn by ear or experimentation (interviews with
Khave Bernstein, Dvoyre Horowitz, Suri Gold, and Leye Grinberg). Also see Ruth
Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices, 140.
26 Leye Levinsons daughter 2007.
27 Simi Spitzer, interview with the author, May 2008, and Gold 2007.

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of poetry and songs.28 The school plays always include much singing. Some
songs are sung by a choir of 20-30 girls, with several girls soloing, while others
are sung entirely by one soloist, usually in place of a monologue.
Gitty also learns songs in the choir she sings in, after school. Sixth grade is
the last year when Gittys choir can perform at all-womens charity evenings,
since Satmar girls are not allowed to sing outside of the school or camp setting after age twelve.29 The charity evenings are for a variety of causes and
usually involve an auction and a slide show with singing.30 For instance, when
the grandfather of one of Gittys friends passed away, the choir performed
at a charity evening in honor of the grandfather, singing songs about him in
his memory.31 At another party with singing, money was raised to help out a
mother of a newborn baby.32
After age 12, Gitty is still able to perform songs at summer camp, for a
haymish audience (usually used to mean Hasidic, the term in this case also
implies a closed audience of other camp attendees and sometimes close family members, at events where tickets are not sold to outsiders).33 Every Friday
night, the girls gather together after the Sabbath meal to sing. At Gittys camp,
there are two heads of singing, and there are four singing counselors who
help them. These six (older) girls are usually considered to be good singers,
and they sing together for a little while in front of the other campers. After
this portion of the evening, song booklets are distributed, and everyone sings
together from the booklets, led by the counselors. Some of these songs are
written by the counselors themselves each year, while others are older songs
from previous years of camp. Every week, the singing heads prepare new
song booklets. Gittys mother, Mrs. Berenboim, remembers that when she
was young, there was only one booklet for the whole summer, and the same
songs were sung every week.34
28 Kahan 2007.
29 Leye Levinson, interview with the author, April 2007, and Leye Grinberg,
interview with the author, June 2008. For more on this prohibition, see Ruth Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices, 147-148. In London, Belz Hasidic girls are allowed to act until
age 16 (interview with Belz woman, March 2008).
30 Simi Spitzer, interview with the author, May 2008.
31 Horowitz 2007.
32 Levinson 2007.
33 In an interview, Leye Grinberg, said In camp for example they can be older
than 12 years old [when they] go on stage and sing. But not for strangers. Only for their
own camp. For example, Satmar makes beautiful, really nice color wars (explained in the
paragraph below) and all those things, they could make a lot of money [by selling tickets
to outsiders]. But the Rebbe didnt allow. Only amongst themselves (June 2008).
34 Interviews with Leye Grinberg (June 2008), Simi Spitzer (May 2008), Dvoyre

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Singing is also a big part of the camp-wide color war. For this activity,
each bunk in the camp is assigned a color, and it competes with the other
bunks at ball games, making a banner, and making a song.35 Each event can
earn points for the bunk, and Gitty is very excited when the song she helped
to write wins in color war. In addition to color war and Friday night gatherings, singing is part of camp assemblies and plays, which are very similar to
the ones done at school. When Gitty returns from camp and shares the new
songs she learned and helped write that year with her mother, Mrs. Berenboim laughs, exasperated, at the complicated melodies. During the school
year, Gitty often gets together with friends to talk and sing, repeating the
songs from camp and school.
At the end of eighth grade, Gitty spends several weeks preparing for her
graduation, which will mark the transition to high school the following year.
She learns two new songs for the graduationa song thanking her mother
and asking G-d to heed her prayers, and a song about the Satmar Rebbe.
As the day draws nearer, the girls go to the auditorium to rehearse. They
sit around the stage in assigned chairs, and three head teachers give instructions into microphones. Gitty is in the first group of girls to come up to the
front of the auditorium to sing. Sing loudly, on the beat, says a teacher. She
directs the singing by using her fingers to count off the beats and moving her
hand up and down to keep the rhythm. She addresses some of her remarks
to the harmony maydelekh (harmony girls), telling them to sing faster or
slower. Male construction workers pass through the auditorium, but the
singing continues.36 At the end of the song, a different group of girls comes
up to the front. As they sing, the teacher instructs them on ways to sing different parts of the song: Shtark! (Strong!), Ruik! (Peaceful!), Es zol zayn
hartsik! (It should be heartfelt!). One line of the song is particularly difficult.
Di pauzes zaynen nisht genig shtark (the pauses are not strong enough),
she tries to explain.37
Horowitz (March 2007), Leye Levinson (April 2007), and Suri Gold (April 2007).
35 Gold 2007.
36 Ruth Rosenfelder (Hidden Voices) observed similar occurrences at Satmar
and Lubavitch performances that she attended. Men assisted with changing scenes at
the Satmar girls production, and a male camera operator was present at the Lubavitch
one. Rosenfelder writes that her informants justified the presence of men by saying
that they are strangers to the community, so the same rules do not apply to them.
Another explanation was that a mans presence among women is tolerated as long
as there is no alternative (149).
37 This episode is based on the authors observation of a Satmar eighth grade
graduation rehearsal in Williamsburg, May 2007.

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On graduation day, the auditorium is filled with mothers, grandmothers,

and great-grandmothers. Paper packets in clear plastic sheathes, containing the program, a booklet the students made to thank their teachers, and
a booklet of texts to be read, are distributed to everyone in the audience.
Women take pictures throughout the event. Chairs are moved around and
squeezed into tight spaces to allow families to sit together, or to afford an
older grandmother a better view of the stage. One side of the auditorium is
occupied by long tables covered with refreshments: cookies, cakes, and soda
await the end of the formal part of the afternoon.
About fifteen minutes after the scheduled start time, the ceremony begins.
A teacher gives an introductory speech, after which the graduating girls
come out dressed in matching white blouses and black skirts. As they take
their positions, standing and sitting in two rows on the stage, several of the
girls come up to the microphones at the front of the stage. The microphones
unfortunately do not work, and several minutes go by as teachers come up to
the stage to try to fix them. Finally, the girls end up reciting a poem as loudly
as they can without the assistance of sound equipment. They take turns, two
girls coming to the front at a time to recite one line each. A second teacher
then speaks, introducing the class speaker. The girl gives a speech, thanking
the teachers and principal on behalf of the class.
Next on the order of the day are the songs. In addition to the two new
songs the girls learned, they also sing their school theme song, proclaiming
the importance of their education. Finally, the rebbetzin (wife of the rebbe)
comes to the stage to distribute the presents to the girls. As the singing continues in the background, the rebbetzin calls out the name of each girl, who
comes up to receive her presenta siddur and a diploma. When all presents
have been handed out, women and girls line up by the refreshment tables,
chatting about the afternoons festivity.38
Rivky and Gittys sister Suri is 18 years old. She has just finished school
and is engaged to be married. The Saturday before her wedding, there is a
party called the Shabbos kalleh (the Sabbath bride). Suris girlfriends
come together for shalosh seudos (the third meal of the Sabbath), and there
is much singing, both of Yiddish songs and of zmires such as Mizmor ldovid.
(Psalm 29).39 On the day of the wedding, before the ceremony, while the bride
38 This episode is based on the authors observation of a Satmar eighth grade
graduation in Williamsburg, June 2007. While the eighth grade graduation is generally
the last major school performance for Satmar girls, the Pupa school puts on a play with
singing in 10th grade, and Bobov also stages productions with high school girls.
39 Interviews with Rokhi Davidson (August 2005), Esty Kahan (March 2007),
Leye Levinson (April 2007), and Khave Bernstein (November 2007). Esty Kahan mentioned that the amount of singing at a shabbos kalleh varies from class to class, noting

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is being prepared to go to the khupah (wedding canopy), several girls take

turns singing to her. One of Suris friends even composes a new text to be
sung to Suri for this momentous occasion.40 In the three sections of this song,
the narrator asks the bride, on this important day, to pray for her own wellbeing, her parents, and the Jewish people, since G-d pays special attention
to the bride on the day of her wedding. The melody of the song is in a style
similar to recitative, evoking the male badkhn (traditional wedding jester and
master of ceremonies) style. At the wedding itself, there are male musicians
entertaining the audience with vocal and instrumental pieces.
For the year after her wedding, before her first child is born, Suri works as
a teacher in a preschool. She sings with and to her students, teaching them
many childrens songs. On holidays such as Hanukkah and Purim, when the
men are away in the synagogue, Suri gets together with her female friends
and relatives and sings holiday songs. She also sings to herself on Friday night,
before her husband comes back from synagogue. Soon, Suri gives birth to
Malky, a healthy baby girl. After Malky is born, Suri goes to Lakeshore,41 a
recovery home for new mothers, to rest for several weeks. On Friday nights,
the young women at the home gather together and sing.42 When Suri returns
home, she sings to her baby in the evenings, as she rocks Malky to sleep.
For the next three to four years, Suris participation in singing revolves
around Malky and Malkys younger siblings, who arrive at one-to-two-year
intervals. Most of Suris school friends sing with their children until the
children start preschool, and the young women generally associate singing
at this stage of their lives with this context. As the children grow older, Suris
involvement with singing increasingly becomes that of a listener rather than
of a performer. She attends musical communal gatherings, such as charity
events and the graduations and performances of her relatives, and listens to
tapes with her children, but she discovers that it is progressively more difficult to find time to sing. When Suri runs into a friend at the grocery store,
each pushing a stroller and holding a small childs hand, they reminisce about
their school years, when friends would get together to sing.
Mrs. Berenboim remembers fondly singing with Suri and her younger
brothers when Suri was still Malkys age. Despite her busy schedule, Mrs.
Berenboim loves to sing even now. She sings while working around the house,
while cooking, and even at night, if she cannot fall asleep.43 Often when she
that when her classmates gathered at a shabbos kalleh, there was a lot of singing.
40 Grinberg 2008.
41 The name of the home has been changed.
42 Spitzer 2008. Simi noted that it is fairly common for new mothers to go away
to such a home.
43 Mrs. Berenboim is modeled after Khave Bernstein (interview, November

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is home alone, she has a tape playing on the stereo, and she sings along to
it. Once a week, Mrs. Berenboim gets together with some other women to
sing and say psalms.
Mrs. Berenboims singing activity is somewhat unusual for her community.
Many other women her age feel that they have no time to sing, as they are busy
taking care of their large families and often working on the side. By the time
women are grandmothers (usually from the age of 40), they think of singing
as something that happens mostly in schools and camps or that can be found
on tapes. When asked about the role of singing in their lives, women in their
40s, 50s, and 60s respond with statements like Im too old for singing, ask
the younger women; I cook and I bake,44 I dont remember any songs,45 and
Im too busy with my 12 kids to sing.46 Older women sometimes sing along
quietly in synagogue or at other mens gatherings when they are sufficiently
far away from the men not to be heard, a practice seen by younger women
as bobbedik (grandmotherly).
Some limited opportunities for singing do exist, and a womans willingness
to find them depends on her affinity to song. One 32-year-old mother of five
said that she is too busy on the phone and with other things when she is home
alone to have time to sing, so she usually sings only on Friday nights, after
lighting candles. She finds that she has more time to sing, however, when she
goes to the country during the summer. Many women and children from the
community go to the Catskills when the kids have summer vacation, and there
women can sometimes get together and sing if they are in the mood.47
A 25-year-old woman with only one child, in contrast, finds time to get
together with a cousin occasionally to sing together. She feels that singing is
her expression, noting that If I want to comfort myself, I sing. If I want to
laugh, I sing That is, I really love to sing. Though she has less time now that
she is married, she sometimes sings with her sister-in-law, and every once in
2007), who said in an interview, When I work, I sing, when I cook [I sing], and a lot
of times I sing in my sleep! [Laughs.] When I cant fall asleep, I sing a little.
44 Statement from a Satmar woman in her 50s.
45 Statement from a Satmar woman in her 60s.
46 Statement from a 37-year-old Vizhnits woman.
47 Levinson 2007. In her dissertation, Hella Winston notes that vacations at
bungalow colonies can provide an opportunity for women to indulge in their relative freedom. In the absence of men [who come up only on the weekends], Hasidic
women do not need to concern themselves with modesty issues [as much as usual]
and often do not. Hella Winston, Edgework: Boundary crossing among the Hasidim
(PhD diss., City University of New York, 2006), 191. Since modesty (in the form of
kol bisha) is a central constraint on singing, relaxed modesty facilitates singing opportunities.

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a while she even sings with her friends over the telephone. Every Tuesday, her
fathers sick unmarried sister comes over to visit, and they sing old songs.48
While active singing involvement dwindles with age, older women still find
enjoyment in listening to vocal music. Mrs. Berenboim attends girls performances on khol hamoed (the semi-festive intermediate days of a festival) and
on Saturday evenings, paying $15 to $20 for tickets to shows that raise money
for the school. A widowed friend of Mrs. Berenboims who lives in Borough
Park describes one evening gathering of widowed women at which a female
performer, herself a widow, came to sing some songs in English and Hebrew
with her daughter.49 Some of Mrs. Berenboims cousins, who are not Satmar,
attend English performances produced by Beis Yaakov (ultra-Orthodox nonHasidic) schools and musical evenings at which adult women sing in Yiddish,
English, and Hebrew, called Taste of Music.50 Women in their 80s and 90s
who live in nursing homes are able to hear songs from girls choirs that come
every week to sing at the home.
Mrs. Berenboim stands in the doorway of her guest bedroom, watching
her oldest daughter Suri, who is visiting for the weekend, put her daughter
Malky to bed. Shluf shoyn, mayn tayere sheyfele, sings Suri, remembering
the lullaby of her childhood. Mrs. Berenboim walks back to the kitchen, smiling and humming quietly to herself.
III. Provenance and Authorship
Where do the songs come from? Some are older, some are newer, said Esty
Kahan when I asked her if she knows the authors of any of the songs that she
sings.51 In the Hasidic community, unless a song was written and recorded by
a popular Hasidic musician, or the author was a Rebbe or another important
spiritual or religious figure, songs are almost never associated with an author. It is thus very difficult to track down the exact origins of a song, though
general information, such as it was written by a teacher or it was written
in camp is sometimes available. This section will describe the provenance of
the songs sung and listened to by women on the occasions described in the
previous section, such as lullabies, childrens songs, and camp songs. Most
commonly, the songs are either written by Hasidic women and girls or by
Hasidic male songwriters, or they originate from outside of the contempo48
49
50
2007).
51

Grinberg 2008.
Bernstein 2007.
Interviews with Esty Kahan (March 2007) and Dvoyre Horowitz (March
Kahan 2007.

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rary Hasidic community. The attitude of Hasidic women to the question of

authorship will also be addressed.
The lullabies that mothers sing to their babies come primarily from two
sources. Some are folk lullabies that are passed down through the generations
from mother to daughter and can be traced back to Eastern Europe (such as
Unter soreles vigele).52 Lullabies are often the only songs that women in their
20s, 30s, and 40s remember hearing from their mothers and grandmothers,
insisting that all of the other songs that they know were learned in school and
camp or from tapes. Other lullabies are newer, with more religious content,
composed by male and female Hasidic songwriters and learned by mothers
from tapes and CDs recorded by men and boys (such as Shlofn kinder shlofn,
by Yom Tov Ehrlich).53 In some rare cases, women make up lullabies for their
children on the spot; one informant said, I sing for my daughter songs I make
up myself. I have no idea the next minute what I sang, but I do it.54
As mentioned above, childrens songs are learned from tapes and CDs
that the mother plays at home and from teachers at school. The recorded
childrens songs are written by both male and female Hasidic authors. In the
liner notes of these recordings, male authors generally use their full names.
Female authors, however, are inclined to use only their first initial, purposefully making it difficult to determine the gender of the author on some CDs.
The melodies of the songs can be original, borrowed from other Hasidic
songs, or borrowed from non-Jewish childrens songs (such as Frre Jacques
and Oh My Darling Clementine). In the latter two cases, the original song
and composer are almost never referenced or credited. In the case of original
compositions, it is not always possible to tell from the liner notes who the
composer is, if different from the lyricist.
Similarly, the melodies of songs learned in school are often borrowed from
other Hasidic or non-Jewish songs without any indication of this on the
distributed lyric sheets, except when the melody is a popular nign (singular
from niggunim) that the parents are familiar with and able to apply to the
new words. The words of childrens school songs are usually written by the
teacher or principal. One teacher, when I asked where she got the songs that
she taught to her students, responded, Where did I get the songs? From
52 First published in S. M. Ginzburg and P. S. Marek, Evreiskie narodnye pesni
v Rossii (Jewish Folk Songs in Russia) (St. Petersburg: Voskhod, 1901).
53 This lullaby describes how little children go to sleep in the evening after putting their clothes away neatly and saying the Shma bedtime prayer. Yom Tov Ehrlich,
a Stoliner Hasid, was an extremely prolific singer and songwriter whose moralistic
songs are still very popular among women, despite the growing trendiness of popstyle musicians such as Michoel Schnitzler and Mordechai ben David.
54 Grinberg 2008.

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here, from there. What I was taught; from other teachers.55 Another teacher
said, The songs that I taught my students at school, I didnt make them, the
principal made them.56 The same woman later added that during her first
year of teaching, she made up some of the songs herself.
Songs sung by teenage girls in middle school and high school are for the
most part original works set to borrowed melodies, although this seems to
be changing. Leye Grinberg told me that a lot more of the songs (lyrics and
melodies) that girls sing in camps today come from tapes than when she was
in camp. She explained, Today is already a more sophisticated world [At
camp gatherings], first theres a [small] choir with songs made by girls, and
afterwards the whole camp [sings together], songs that everyone knows, and
everyone knows tapes.57 Nonetheless, new songs are being created all the
time. At camp, counselors and older girls are involved in writing lyrics. Music
is almost always taken from other sources.
One teacher, Suri Gold, described how she created a song for one of her
classes: [This is] a song I wrote myself. I made it for my class for before davening [prayer]. I took a tune of the Yerushalayim song, a song that I remember
singing as a kid, [and wrote new words].58 She also explained that in general,
when women and girls create songs in school and camp, tunes are written
probably less often. Theyll probably take it from interesting places, a tune,
like from not common tunes, not common tapes. Theyll take an old, old,
old song like from Modzits or from Bobov, like an old zmires song they would
sing on Shabbos I mean there are hundreds and hundreds, thousands of
songs, khasidishe songs, that people dont sing.
What Suri did not initially mention is that girls also often take melodies
from non-Hasidic songs and instrumental pieces. While this practice is officially frowned-upon by teachers and principals, it often goes unpunished
or unnoticed, since authorship is almost never attributed to musical pieces.59
If the teacher or principal in charge is not familiar with the non-Jewish or
non-Hasidic melody, she will not be able to recognize its appearance in a
Hasidic girls song and prevent its performance.
55 Levinson 2007.
56 Grinberg 2008.
57 Ibid.
58 Gold 2007. The Yerushalayim song that she is referring to is a song with a
new Yiddish text about the destruction of the Temple, set to a melody that comes from
Tisha BAv liturgy; the original text is in Biblical Hebrew.
59 For more about the prohibition against listening to and singing non-Hasidic
music, see Ruth Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices, 143, 156.

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Girls take these prohibited melodies from various sources. Most commonly, they use melodies that come pre-programmed into the Yamaha
or Casio keyboards that they sometimes use for musical accompaniment.
These demo tunes are also very frequently used as musical accompaniment
to choreographed interpretive dances that form a large part of school and
camp performances. When I asked Suri about the usage of these melodies,
she responded, Im opposed to that [using non-Jewish music for dances in
Hasidic girls plays]. A lot of times it looks ugly, it looks very bad; the message
theyre trying to bring across with the play will not match, like, whats the
point of that music? Because girls do not often compose music themselves,
however, it is hard for them to find suitable music to use. Suri explained, They
do want something good, so theyll either take it from the demos on the Casio,
or I think there are just tapes floating around from camp to camp, from girl to
girl, someone who had access got a bunch of them and they would use them.
Maybe a course on a tape, a tape without words, stuff like that.
Practices also vary between Hasidic groups. A Belz woman in London
told me that her daughter was naughty once and used songs by the musical group ABBA for the melodies in one Hasidic production.60 Because the
headmistress was not familiar with the groups songs, she did not question
the provenance of the melodies and approved their use. The mother did not
mention where she and her daughter had learned the songs. A 57-year-old
Bobov woman, Khave Bernstein, used to teach in a kindergarten and told me
that she sang If Youre Happy and You Know It and You Are My Sunshine
with her students.61 When she was young, the attitudes towards music from
outside the community were much more lenient, and she grew up listening
to non-Hasidic tapes and records. It is thus possible that another source for
non-Jewish melodies used by Hasidic girls today is melodies taken from songs
taught by teachers such as Khave.
In a later part of my interview with Suri Gold, outside music sourcing came
up again. We were discussing the fact that Yiddish theater and folk songs,
which had been popular before World War II even among Hasidic women, are
no longer sung by Hasidim today, with a few exceptions. Suri was explaining
that before the popularity of commercial recordings, Hasidic music was not
widely available for people to listen to, whereas Yiddish theater songs were,
as they were broadcast on Yiddish radio. Suris view is that once tapes and
records of Hasidic music started being produced, however, such as those
60 ABBA was a Swedish pop music group, internationally popular from the
mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Their albums continue to be sold and played on the
radio to this day.
61 You Are My Sunshine is a popular song credited to Jimmie Davis and Charles
Mitchell. It was first recorded for Bluebird Records in 1939 by The Pine Ridge Boys.

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of Yom Tov Ehrlich, people stopped listening to the secular Yiddish music.
Today, Suri believes, no one would use non-Hasidic songs in a production;
however, The music they might yes take without the words, not everybody
is so careful. Some people would take the music off a non-religious Jew, write
different words to it, and use it. Like in camps.
Occasionally, girls and women who are particularly talented do write music
for the Hasidic songs. As Suri noted, [There are] very selected people who
really sit down and work on a tune The professionals will make tunes. And
sometimes talented girls will too. This work is almost never acknowledged,
however. Both for lyricists and composers, the emphasis placed on humility in
the Hasidic community proscribes pride in creative accomplishments. Thus,
on the vast majority of lyric sheets for songs, neither author nor composer is
indicated. Dvoyre Horowitz, a 24-year-old Satmar woman, said, The teacher
could say where a song comes from if she knows, but she usually doesnt know.
Its not important. In the English/Goyish [non-Jewish] world the author is
very important, but not for us. Most interviewees agreed.62
Simi Spitzer, a 22-year-old Satmar woman, elaborated:

The teacher doesnt really say who wrote the song. Unless if its something
special, for example, have you already heard of Yom Tov Ehrlichs tapes?
If there is something of a special background, she says; otherwise not.
Generally people dont know where songs come from. Sometimes a name
can be written on the lyric sheet, but I have no idea who it is.63

Leye Grinberg, a 25-year-old Satmar woman, said that if a teacher doesnt

know the provenance of a song, it generally means that the song was aygene
gemakhte, which literally means made on ones own, here implying that it
comes from a girl or woman in the school or in the community, not from a
recording or an important religious figure.
Leye also shared with me two songs that she wrote herself: a song that she
wrote for a friend who was getting married, and a song she wrote in memory
of a young cousin who had passed away. She gave me permission to publish
the texts of her songs in my dissertation. When I asked her if I should use her
real name to give her credit for the songs, she replied, I dont care whether
or not you use my name. I mean... however you want. I dont care. Im not
this type. This telling example indicates that not only is the community not
interested in giving credit to authors, but the authors themselves are also
generally not concerned with claiming their rights to a song.
62 Interviews with Leye Grinberg (June 2008), Simi Spitzer (May 2008), Dvoyre
Horowitz (March 2007), Leye Levinson (April 2007), Suri Gold (April 2007), and Esty
Kahan (March 2007).
63 Spizter 2008.

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Even when the author of a song is initially known to her friends and
classmates, as in Leyes case, once the song is distributed outside of her immediate circle of friends, the link to the author is usually lost. Suri Gold gave
an example of how song lyrics get distributed. In order to teach her class a
song, she needed to create sheets with the lyrics for the students to look at
as they learned the words together. She said, I probably saw [this song] in a
song booklet and just copied it out of there, and I just changed the border,
put on the graphics, stuff like that. But the original print, being that theyre
all identical, if I dont find it in print, I would type it or write it.64 With such
informal methods of distribution, any additional information that may be
associated with a song, such as the author, can easily get lost.
Suri also provided much insight into the way teenage girls think of songwriting and the reasons that authorship is not stressed:

The kids in camp, theyre not even doing it for anything, they have a knack
to it and they just do it. Theyre so into winning the games and winning
the color war [They want the song to] become a popular hit and for
the summer to be great, [rather than being recognized] Because its
not going to be a future for them, unless theyre really into it, and then
theyll get into it much, much later. Theyre just doing it now because its
camp. They dont even [make a big deal about it], Oh, I made that song.
Its like, Oh, I made it, and next. If someones great at it, then everyone
knows, oh shes great, she makes songs in seconds she can make songs
out of you know, just standing on the street. But people who would
work a whole night and then theyd make a song for color war, its like
three kids working together: one kid, oh I have a paragraph, I have this
or that, lets compose our own tune. But when they make major plays,
theyll hire real gifted girls, and theyll compose, and theyll work with
music and theyll stay up nights, but then again its also for the whole
performance, they dont concentrate on the song alone.

Suris comments indicate that when girls create songs to share with their
friends and classmates, their main motivation is the good of their community
rather than self-promotion. They are thus not focused on acquiring recognition or associating their names with the songs they create. Sociolinguist Miriam Isaacs observed this phenomenon in her research on Hasidic creativity,
as well; she writes, Conscious artistry for its own sake is discouraged. Piety,
and not artistic virtuosity, is the motivation for music or the shaping of words.
Thus Art for the glory of the artist is peripheral to cultural norms.65
64 Gold 2007.
65 Miriam Isaacs, Creativity in Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish, in Yiddish
Language and Culture Then and Now - Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Symposium
of the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization,, ed. L. J. Greenspoon
(Omaha: Creighton University Press, 1998), 178.

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The situation is markedly different in the case of songs with male authors
and songs from outside of the community. Songs that appear on commercial
recordings are generally attributed to the singer, whether or not he is also the
actual author. Most women can identify which of the songs that they sing were
written by artists such as Yom Tov Ehrlich, Yonasan Schwartz, and Michoel
Schnitzler. When lyric sheets of these songs are distributed, however, the
name of the author is still often omitted. I asked Suri Gold how she knows
who the author of the songs is in those cases, and she responded, I think
of the song, of how it sings on the tape, and I recognize the voice. And then
again I keep on hearing the same songs over and over again.66
Occasionally, women misattribute the author of a song, especially for older
songs or songs that were not written by Hasidim. The most notable example
of this that I have found appears in a book of Yiddish songs published in the
Hasidic community, Dos flam fun amol: nigguney yisroel.67 G. Engel, the
books compiler, included the names of some of the songs authors, but many
songs were unattributed. Based on the books contents and the fact that only
the first initial was used, I believe that G. Engel is a woman, though this fact
is difficult to confirm.68 Among the songs in the book that appear with an
author are several songs attributed to Reb Yossele Rosenblatt, zl, including
Vos vet zayn az moshiakh vet kumen (What will happen when the Messiah
comes) and Mayn yiddishe momme (My Jewish mother). Yossele Rosenblatt
(1882-1933) was a very well-known Russian-born cantor who flourished in
Hungary, Germany, and the United States.69 Although he wrote many original
66 Ibid.
67 G. Engel, ed. Dos Flam fun amol: nigguney Yisroel (The Flame of the Past:
the Melodies of Israel) (Brooklyn: G. Engel, 2007).
68 Dos Flam reprints some of the songs that appeared in another Hasidic songbook published a year earlier, Anim Zemiros VeShirim Eerog (Brooklyn: Zalman Leib
Blau, 2006.) This earlier publication (compiled by a male author, Zalman Leib Blau)
consisted of two sections: liturgical texts in Hebrew and songs in Yiddish. The Yiddish
songs were for the most part attributed to male authors, both Hasidic leaders (such as
the Rebbe of Berditchev) and contemporary songwriters (such as Yonasan Schwartz).
Dos Flam, in addition to selections copied verbatim from Anim Zemiros, also contained
songs with no authorial attribution that are not found on any recordings. Unlike the
songs in Anim Zemiros, which may be considered mens songs, many of these latter
songs are sung frequently by my female informants during interviews and appear in
school and camp song booklets. In contrast to the mens songs, the unattributed songs
often feature female characters (most commonly the mother) and gender-specific
subject matter (such as raising children).
69 For more on Rosenblatt, see Jeffrey Shandler, Jews, God, and Videotape:
Religion and Media in America (New York: NYU Press, 2009), pages 26-35.

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compositions and performed both Jewish and secular music, he did not write
either of the aforementioned songs.
While Vos vet zayn az moshiakh vet kumen originated as a folk song from
Eastern Europe about the coming of the Messiah,70 My Yiddishe Momme (in
English) was written by Jack Yellen (1892-1991) in 1925 in the United States.71
An instant hit popularized by Sophie Tucker, the song describes a mother as
a valuable gift from G-d and declares the importance of appreciating ones
mother for her unconditional love. Jack Yellen had been born in Poland and
came to America with his family at the age of five. Although Jewish, Yellen was
neither Hasidic nor religiously observant. As an extremely prolific lyricist and
screenwriter, most of his works were secular, written for an English-speaking
popular American audience.
Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, on the other hand, was an Orthodox Jew who
came from a family of Ruzhiner Hasidim. Despite numerous offers of lucrative jobs at the opera, he stayed true to his observance and refrained from
accepting engagements that would have required him to break the Sabbath.
Rosenblatt did perform and record Yellens Mayn yiddishe momme (in Yiddish), popularizing it for a religious Jewish audience. The fact that the compiler
of Dos flam attributed the song to the performer is thus not entirely surprising.
Mayn yiddishe momme appears on two of Rosenblatts record albums: Songs
of my People and The Incomparable. Notably, neither album cover indicates
the authors of the songs on the record, but Songs does state: With very few
exceptions, the Yiddish songs sung by Cantor Rosenblatt were not his own
compositions. The recording itself has Yellens name next to the song title in
parentheses, but it does not explicitly state that he is the lyricist.
Whether or not G. Engel was aware that Yossele Rosenblatt did not write
Mayn Yiddishe Momme, the reasons for attributing the song to the cantor
are fairly clear. Including a song by a non-religious author in an anthology
published by and for Hasidim would be unacceptable in the community. The
fact that a respected and well-loved religious performer had the song in his
repertoire, however, legitimizes it in this context. Attributing the popular
song to an acceptable source allowed for its inclusion in the book.
70 First published in 1911 by Susman Kisselgof, ed. Song Collection for the Jewish School and Family (St. Petersburg, 1911). The editors of a Leo Zeitlin anthology
add, Although it looks as if it could be a Hasidic song, Chana Mlotek thinks that it
is not, and Idelsohn labels it as parodic. Leo Zeitlin, Chamber Music, eds. P. Eisenstein
Baker and R. S. Nelson (Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, Inc., 2008).
71 Jack Gottlieb, Funny, It Doesnt Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood. SUNY Series in
Modern Jewish Literature and Culture (New York: State University of New York Press,
2004), 253.

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I observed similar cases of misattribution in my fieldwork. Leye Grinberg

sang a song for me in Yiddish that she called Toyre hakdoyshe (The Holy
Torah). She said that the song was by Yom Tov Ehrlich, and that someone
had translated it into English. After some research, I discovered that the song
was actually originally written in English by Abie Rotenberg, an Orthodox
Jewish singer/songwriter who writes in English and Hebrew, and whose songs
are not commonly listened to in the Hasidic community.72 The song is called
The Place Where I Belong, and it appears on Rotenbergs album Journeys
Volume 1.73 I was unable to find a recording of the Yiddish translation; it is
possible that the translation was done by a woman in the Hasidic community.74 The lyrics of Rotenbergs song do resemble works by Yom Tov Ehrlich
both in style and subject matter, so it is fairly easy to see how one could have
been mistaken for the other.
The same informant, Leye Grinberg, sang Mayn shtetele belz (My Town
Belz), a song of the American Yiddish theater, written by composer Alexander Olshanetsky (1892-1944) and lyricist Jacob Jacobs (1890-1977) for the
1932 play Dos Lid fun Getto. Leye thought that this song, too, was written
by Yom Tov Ehrlich. Mayn shtetele belz belongs to the same genre and category of songs as Mayn yiddishe momme, and although Leyes mistake was
unconscious, it occurred for similar reasons. Because songs by non-Hasidic
authors are not accepted, Belz is usually seen as being a folk song from the old
countryi.e., Eastern Europethough it was actually written in America.
Since the real author is never associated with the song and his name not written on the lyric sheets, it is understandable that Leye could have assumed the
song is by the prolific Hasidic songwriter.
As all of these examples illustrate, the attitude toward authorship in the
Hasidic community is quite complicated, particularly in the case of womens
songs. Because of the expectation that women engage in creative processes
72 Rosenfelder notes, Abie Rotenberg is a composer who qualifies for Satmar
disapproval, given the sects uncompromising rejection of Hasidic-pop. She relates
a story, however, of another of Rotenbergs songs, which became very famous and is
regularly performed professionally by Hasidic artists: Hamalakh from the Dveykus
IV album. She writes that none of her informants could identify the song as being by
Rotenberg. Rotenbergs melody appears to have achieved folk status thereby discarding
its pop associations. Regarding the omission of attribution Rotenberg stated, Not only
would I not be pleased for not receiving credit, I would be disappointed that a song of
mine was used without permission (Ruth Rosenfelder, Hidden Voices, 116).
73 Rotenberg composed only the original lyrics of the song; the melody is an
old nign from Israel (Binyomin Ginzberg, personal communication, May 2009).
74 An anonymous informant mentioned that this song was performed in a
Satmar camp in 1993. She does not know the source of the translation, but she suggested that it could have been done by the camp heads.

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solely for the educational or spiritual enrichment of the community and not
for personal advancement, women and girls almost never seek to attach their
names to their works, unless they earn their livelihood from commercially
selling recordings of their pieces. Furthermore, the most common method
of distributing songs among girls in the community is on lyric sheets that
provide no additional information; thus, any association a song initially had
with an author easily becomes lost. The resulting lack of attention to provenance nurtures a tradition of freely borrowing melodies and occasionally even
songs from sources from both within and without the Hasidic community.
As the outside pieces are incorporated into the Hasidic female repertoire,
they undergo the process of acquiring kosher Yiddish lyrics and a folk
status with no connection to the original objectionable author. Those songs
in the Hasidic womens repertoire that are recorded by male Hasidic artists,
however, usually are associated with their apparent author.
IV. Perceptions of Singing
Er zingt zeyer hartsik (the way he sings is very heartfelt) thus answered
almost all of my informants when asked how they would describe a good
singer. The perceptions that Hasidic women have of singing reveal much
about the values of Hasidic society and about the role of Kol bishah. This
section of the article will explore what Hasidic women value in the singing
of others, how they perceive their own singing, and how Kol bishah affects
their singing.
During interviews, I asked Hasidic women, What words would you use to
describe someone who sings well? The answers are revealing: The way he
sings is very hartsik [heartfelt], hartsik is very good. Sometimes someone
will have a nice voice, or he sings hartsik. He sings so that it reaches your
soul. He sings hartsik, he makes someone happy or makes someone cry. He
sings with heart, naturally, not forced, warm, lively. I would say he sings so
heartfelt When you hear him singing, your heart is captured.
The pattern that emerges from these answers is that importance is placed
primarily on the emotive quality of the performance. Although a few of the
women mentioned the value of carrying a tune or singing like a bird, most
of them spoke little, if at all, about pitch, volume, vocal range, arrangement,
or ornamentation. It appears that listening to singing is perceived as more
of a spiritual experience rather than an aesthetic one. Since the Hasidim feel
that music can affect your soul, the effectiveness of a singer depends on
his or her ability to successfully touch the listeners heart or soul. Suri Gold
elaborated:

177

What makes a voice good? I guess the heart, a big heart. Devotion, a love
for songs and singing, wanting to inspire other people, make peoples lives
happy Some people can go very high, some people just carry a tune very
well, some people sing very heartwarming.

Analogous to the preference for heartfelt singing over pitch or vocal range,
when I asked informants what kind of music they like and whom they enjoyed
listening to, they emphasized song content over singing ability. I dont look
up to someone just because they can sing nicely. Its really not important. If
someone makes a nice song, then Ill be impressed. But singing nicely is not
important, said Dvoyre Horowitz. Esty Kahan declared, For me, content
is important, not the voice. Because singing plays the most active role in a
womans life during her school years, women tend to think of songs as vehicles
for education and carriers of moral messages. They are thus used to identifying more with the songs content than performance, looking for meaning in
the words: I like [songs] with words, I like when words have a meaning, I
like more with [words] than not, said Suri Gold.
My observations of girls performances confirm the relative insignificance
of pitch and vocal range in singing. In most performances, girls perform in
choirs, with occasional solos. In performances that are based on a play, the
main characters of the play have some solo numbers. I have found that in most
cases, the girls chosen to have the solos and lead parts generally do not have
the best pitch or vocal range; they often sing off key, sometimes so tunelessly
that it is difficult to discern the melody. What does seem to be valued, albeit
not consciously, is volume. Women who can sing loudly identify themselves
as having good voices, while women who maintain pitch better but sing softly
insist that they are not good singers.
There are several possible explanations for this phenomenon. One of the
fundamental tenets of Hasidism is the necessity for kavoneh, or intent, during prayer. Among men, kavoneh may manifest itself in increased volume,
singing, and/or dancing to reach higher spiritual levels. Because the vast
majority of the songs that women sing are religious or spiritual in nature, I
asked several informants if the emphasis on volume was related to kavoneh.
The informants, however, did not believe this to be the case. Simi Spitzer
said that kavoneh is reserved for prayer and does not apply to Yiddish songs,
regardless of their content.
Simi proposed several other potential reasons for the importance of singing
loudly: When a teacher tells students to sing louder, maybe she wants them
to have more spirit and make it more lively, or maybe they were practicing,
maybe she wanted it to stick in their heads better? Maybe she wanted them
to remember it well. Several informants agreed that increased volume makes

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the singing more lively, which improves the learning experience. Suri Gold
added that girls who get solos have to be courageous enough to get up on a
stage and sing, and this courage is often expressed with loud voices.
The preference for loud singing in the performance setting stands notably
in contrast to the great care taken to observe the rules of Kol bishah. In a
recently-published book of interviews with female Hasidic educators in Israel,
the principal of the Belz Bais Malka school is quoted on this topic:

With regard to the girls singing, even within the school, we are very
careful because kol bishah ervah (it is forbidden for a man to listen to
the sound of a womans singing voice because is considered erotic). We
have very specific conditions for where and when they may sing. Under
the age of nine, the student is considered not yet at the age of khinukh
[education] in this matter. After the age of nine, singing is only allowed
with all windows closed and in a place where it is certain that no men
are in the vicinity. When we have a school sholosh seudos (third Sabbath
meal) for the students, it is much easier today than it was years ago. Even
ten years ago, without air conditioning here in Eretz Yisroel (the Land of
Israel) we closed all the windows and it was very hot. But we cannot allow
our singing to be heard by men.75

The question of Kol bishah has come up on a number of occasions in my

interviews, as well. I asked several informants if they ever feel uncomfortable
or frustrated because of the restrictions Kol bishah places on their singing.
Simi Spitzer responded:

Yes often when the brother-in-law comes over and sits at the table [on
Friday nights] so I cant sing along zmires, oftentimes I would want to sing
along but I cant [Also] it happens sometimes for example that one hears
a truck and theres music [coming from the truck] and I would want to
sing along, but I dont sing. On the street, you dont sing. Is it hard? No.
Doesnt matter. I know that [one must not sing] outside. I grew up with
it, so its not hard.76

The description of a brother-in-law preventing women from singing recurred in several other interviews. In every case, the woman expressed feelings of frustration but quickly added that she does not really mind it, since
it is mandated by the Torah. Leye Grinberg explained:

Once I had a situation, I was at my father-in-laws house. All the men went
to synagogue. We [the women] wanted to sing. But it happened that my

75 Interview with the principal of the Belz Bais Malka school in B. C. Glaberson,
Educating Our Daughters, Why?: Extraordinary Interviews with Women Educators
(Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers, 2006), 92.
76 Spitzer 2008.

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brother-in-law was there. Then I feel frustrated, because just like that I can
feel often frustrated, but we are Jews, we have a Torah and thank G-d!77

Leye also mentioned that she can not even always sing in her own home,
because she has paper thin walls and when her male neighbor is home,
he can hear her. During our interview, Leye was able to sing, because the
neighbor was at work. She continued, Friday night, when I hear he goes to
synagogue, then I know that I can sing.
Hasidic women, particularly young women, are very conscious of Kol
bishah and learn to modulate their voices according to the occasion. Later
on in the interview, Leye became concerned with the volume of her singing
voice, because the window was open. Since I had told her that I have interviewed many other women, she began asking me how the volume of her voice
compared to that of my other informants:

I dont want people to hear me outside. Do you think they can hear me
outside? Do I sing loudly? The window is open a little. Do I sing more
loudly than youve heard other people singing? My voice is loud. Youve
heard already, you go around listening to singing. Do I sing louder? I have
a very loud voice. I ask if it can be heard outside. I hope not.78

I assured Leye that it was very unlikely that anyone outside could hear her,
considering that her apartment is on the fifth floor of her building.
As with many other aspects of singing, older women tend to be somewhat
more lenient with adhering to Kol bishah. At one point during an interview
with Leye Levinson and her daughters, Ms. Levinson opened the window,
because the room was getting very warm. Her 11-year-old daughter expressed
concern: Mother, its Kol bishah, leave it closed. Ms. Levinson responded
confidently, Nobody can hear.79 The disagreement occurred partially because
girls are taught to be especially stringent with the law until they learn when
there is or is not a danger of being heard. Older women, however, have more
experience and can make educated decisions about when the prohibition is
applicable.
The commitment to avoiding Kol bishah affects women in other ways,
as well. I would like to propose that because they associate singing with the
dangers of being heard by men, women often have the perception that they do
not ever sing or know any songs, even when this is clearly not the case. On a
number of occasions, at the beginning of an interview, a woman would deny
knowing or singing songs; after some specific leading questions, however,
77
78
79

Grinberg 2008.
Ibid.
Levinson 2007.

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she would agree that she does sing in certain contexts and would proceed to
sing extensively.
For instance, when I asked Blumi Klein if she ever sings, she said no. When
I prompted, Even when youre at home? Or to your children? she responded,
I sing to myself, to my children a little bit.80 Taybl Glickman had told me
over the phone that she knew a number of Yiddish songs but did not have
a good voice; when I came to her house for the interview, however, she said
Im not into singing and insisted that she never sings.81 When I reminded
Taybl of our earlier conversation, she reluctantly conceded that she did know
a few songs. When she began singing, it turned out that one of the songs was
actually a lengthy ballad to which she knew all of the words.
The most telling example came from Mrs. Brandwein. When I first approached her on the street in Williamsburg, she told me that women do not
have time for singing and therefore she could not help me. When I insisted,
asking if she could suggest someone else for me to contact, she revealed that
she had a notebook full of songs in her purse. The fact that she was carrying
songs around was particularly remarkable, because it turned out that Mrs.
Brandwein lives in Monroe, not in Williamsburg, and she was in Brooklyn
just for the day to visit her elderly mother. I asked why Mrs. Brandwein had
brought the notebook, and she replied, My mother likes me to sing for her
she doesnt listen to all these tapes and CDs.82 Despite Mrs. Brandweins initial
claims to the contrary, it turned out that she does have time for singing: she
sings at least once a week when she visits her mother.
While the restrictions of Kol bishah do complicate the relationship of
women to singing, obliging them to be vigilantly conscious of their environment and the volume of their voices, women, and particularly girls, are able
to express themselves uninhibitedly in this medium on various occasions. As
Suri Gold observed, So because we dont have a drive for it, its not public,
and its not so professional, but its great, and the songs really touch people,
and that everyone knows.83 Even without voice lessons or formal training,
women and girls are able to engage in performances that delight the haymish
female audience, as it is the content and emotive quality of singing that is
valued in the community.
If I were to leave my readers with one set of lyrics that summed up the role
of song in a Hasidic womans life cycle while epitomizing the emotive quality
80
81
82
83

Blumi Klein, interview with the author, November 2004.

Taybl Glickman, interview with the author, November 2004.
Mrs. Brandwein, interview with the author, May 2008.
Gold 2007.

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of singing that is valued in the community, it would be the following paean

to religious Jewish motherhood:
Momme

Mother

Shtayt a boym, inmitn feld, mit fille

prakht,
Mit fil zorg, bavasert ir, tog in
nakht,
Shtayt der gertner dort dernebn,
mit fil getrayshaft, azoy
ibergegeynbn.

A magnificent tree stands in the middle

of the field
With much care it is watered day and
night,
The gardner stands nearby,
With much faithfulness, so devoted.

Kikt tsim boym, derzeyt di frukht,

fin zayn mi,
Zaftik shayn, mit azoyfil tam iz zi.
Genisn fin di payres, siz tsayt,
Hanueh fin vos er hot ayngezayt.

Looks at the tree, sees the fruit of his

labor,
It is juicy, beautiful, with so much
flavor,
Its time to enjoy the fruit,
To derive pleasure from what he sowed.

Hazoyrim bedimomit azoyfil

yegieh,
A sheyvekh farn boyre oylom, a
groyse zekhiye,
Baygeshtanen zenen zay fil shturems
in gefar,
Mit shireh tsim bashefer derfar,
Oz yeraneni atsay yuar...

They that sow in tearswith so much

toil,
Praise for the Creator of the Universe, a
great honor,
Th e y re s i s te d m a ny s to r m s a n d
dangers,
With song to the Creator for this,
Then the trees of the forest will sing
for joy...

Ki ha-udam der mentsh tsim boym,

is dokh glayzkh
Momme mayn, farzayen iz dayn
fakh,
Mit tf ileh t si ha shem burekh
shmoy,
Khanoykh lanaar al pi darkhoy.

Because a person is similar to a tree,

Mother of mine, to sow is your trade,

Nisht imzist iz dayn mi, Momme

mayn,
Di payres shtayen du rayf far dir
haynt,
Ikh blik tsirik, di yurn zikh geplogt,
Ikh bin dir shildik, azoyfil in deym
tog.

Not in vain was your labor, mother of

mine,
The fruits are here, ripe for you
today,
I look back, the years that you toiled,
I owe you so much on this day.

With prayer to G-d, blessed be His

name,
Educate the youth according to his
ways.

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Hazoyrim bedimohmit azoyfil

yegieh,
A sheyvekh farn boyre oylam, a groyse
zekhiyeh,
Oy ashray li, vi bin ikh zoykhe dertsi,
Az ikh hob aza momme vi di,
Aza geshank fin hakudoysh burekh
hi.

They that sow in tears?with so much

toil,
Praise for the Creator of the Univerise, a
great honor,
Oh, I am happy, how could I have earned
the honor
To have such a mother as you,
Such a present from the Holy One, Blessed
be He.

Ver is nokh azoy vi mir, aza bal

khoyv?
Far dir, Momme, shildik fil hakores
hatoyv,
Oy ashray li, vi bin ikh zoykhe dertsi,
Az ikh hob aza momme vi di.
Aza geshank fin hakudoysh burekh
hi!

Who else is as much in debt as am I?

To you, mother, I owe much gratitude,
Oh, I am happy, how could I have earned
the honor
To have such a mother as you,
Such a present from the Holy One, Blessed
be He.

Ester-Basya (Asya) Vaisman holds degrees in Yiddish and Linguistics from Barnard
College and Harvard University, where she is currently writing her dissertation on
the subject of this article. A native of Chernovtsy, Ukraine, where seemingly even
the air is filled with Yiddish, she has undertaken to counteract the trend among
most American Jews to dismiss Yiddish as either a dying language or one that is
confined to the ultra-Orthodox world. For Asya Vaisman and other researchers
like her, the study of Yiddish means not only to read about it in libraries, but to
internalize its rich culture by speaking the language every day of ones life.

183

Som Fon Iz Shlekht?! In Praise of a Cutting-edge Cat

By Gershon Freidlin

This cat cut the 20th century in halfhis career having flourished at its midpoint, 1947- 1957.
He wasnt really a cat, but a Kohenwhose family name, rather than Katz,
likely had been Kates, whichafter adjusting for the Lithuanian inflection
stands for kohen tsedek, i.e., p.c. priest.
Mickey Katz, 1909-1985his dates correspond to those of Benny Goodmanwas a virtuoso clarinetist, vocalist, swing/klezmer band leader-arranger,
comic and bal-mishpokhe (family-man), who successfully passed on much
of his trade to a son, Joel Gray, (the other one also is no bum). Listen to his
original sides, recorded on major labels, plus, to the 1993 CD of his songs
by black clarinetist Don Byron, who has been associated with both the New
England Conservatory of Music and the Klezmer Conservatory Band (KCB)
formed by one-time NEC students.
The Katz presentation at its best is a raucous Yiddish-English mixture, cascading into klezmer riffs and returning to a slightly slower reprise. In purely
instrumental selections, hed take a Hava Nagila, and play it not as a bonfire
dance nor as a symphonic special, but as a working band would play it.
Although American-born, his Yiddish was faultless and earthy. He represented the children of immigrant America of that time. His core audience
was familiar with Yiddish, but it would pass from their lives. If their children
took it up, it would come through the academyyou can demonstrate Katzs
language leaps onstage, but you cant teach it in a classroom. You wont hear it
at Jewish Studies departments at Columbia, Harvard, NYU or YIVO. His was a
stage language, one a salesman might pick up in retelling a joke to prospective
customer. Katz ended an era, but he did so consciously and without complaining. He knew and loved show business and accepted its hardships.
So rooted was Katz in the Jewish America of his day that he directly derived
from U.S. cultural mustering for the fight against Hitler. Heres the sequence:
In 1942, for a Disney movie cartoon, Donald Duck in Nutziland, Spike Jones
and His City Slickers contributed the song, Der Fuehrers Face, sung by
Carl Grayson. This ditty became a patriotic anthem; I, a generation later, as
a rabbi in Connecticut, interpolated it into my Purim Megillah reading. Yet,
its popularity did not stop after the World War II dismissal of Grayson from
the band, for being more shikker than Slicker.
Thats when Katz joined Jones as a clarinet sideman and maker of gluggglugga series of throat noises associated with the Slickersthat Katz, after
a brief stay with that groupoccasionally also used with his own ensembles.

184

Such sounds would link for the listener Katz with Jones, and showed that
Mickey prided himself on two traditions: one Yiddish, the other American.
His own bands often included major Jewish-American swing instrumentalists, also practiced in the Yiddish-wedding repertoire.
I have three Katz favorites that parody pop hits of their time: Mechaye
War Chant itself a parody of Spike Jones parody of Hawaiian War Chant,
Kiss of Meyer, and Geshray Fun a Vilder Katshke. The last is spelled in
various ways, and is covered (given its own later rendition) by the KCB.
Its lyrics bear comparing those of Chicken, originally recorded by Nellie
Casman, and later covered by Henry Sapoznik. The mortal danger to highly
articulate fowl strikes close to home, certainly for Jews, where the shoykhet
(slaughterer) is not a mitzvah-performer, but a villain.
A good parodist brings out meanings from a song that might have escaped
even an author; Katz and Jones were major American mid-20th century
parodists. The aforementioned three of my favorite Katz performances are
distinctive for their lack of shmaltz, their listenabilitywhere features can
be picked out and isolated, and the dexterity of their blend of languages and
musical formssectioned off by abrupt halts before jumping to a new section of a song.
Katz could talk grob (grossly; read his 1977 autobiography, Papa Play for
Me), but that was not the essence of his oeuvre; nor was it of the Barton Brothers, whose work had inspired Katzs own career on the Jewish circuit.
In 1968, I chanted High Holiday services at a mid-sized hotel in the Catskills.
To my shock and pleasure, after the meal on the first night of Rosh Hashanah,
out came the Barton Brothers with their repertoire and vulgar rhymes. They
were accompanied now not by the Epstein Brothers Orchestra, as in their
prime, but by a solo pianist, kind enough to lend me their microphone the
next morning for Musaf.
For years afterward I listened repeatedly to the Barton records. The melding of their jokes and singing with the Epsteins playing provides a musical
comedy treat of a high order. Gross? They, like Katz, were performing just as
the sexual revolution was getting under waynot that they were promoting
it. Part of their job was to help listeners adjust to greater social freedoms while
still maintaining family life. Their vulgarities hopefully aided in achieving
that goal. One can still hear the Bartons occasionally on mainstream radio.
Michael Savage, a nightly talk-show host, plays their signature song, Joe and
Paul, when he feels like recreating a more genteel era.
Current Yiddish musical theater offerings often address groups who have
till now been deprived of both Yiddish and its lorelike recent immigrants
from Russia, or the American-born youth who pick up their knowledge, often

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substantial, in academies (with a shtikl doctorate thrown in). These fans do

not look to either Barton or Katz as primary sources for momme-loshn.
A decade ago, while editing What a Life!, the English-language bio of the
Yiddish musical theater Burstein (Burstyn) family, by Lillian Lux Burstein
(Syracuse University Press), I was invited by her to offer the annual Hebrew
Actors Union (HAU) memorial hazkarah prayer at Mt. Hebron Cemetery in
Queens. I felt awed standing before the graves of Rumshinsky, Tomashevsky,
Schwartz and Berg (Judithchoreographer for the film, The Dybbuk). Lillian Lux is no longer alive, nor is Seymour Rechtzeit, the then HAU president
and archivist.
A few years ago I listened to Rechtzeits hit recording with Xavier Cugat,
of The Wedding Samba, aka, Der nayer sher (ay rhymes with my), by
Abe Ellstein. American-born Ellstein is considered, along with Rumshinsky,
Olshanetsky and Secunda, a leading composer for the American-Yiddish stage.
The KCB did a nice cover of the Ellstein song, using the original lyricswhich
are OK by me, but not as ai-yai-yai as the melody. As coda to this essay, I offer
my own, Katz-inspired lyrics to Der nayer sher:
Refrain:
Ayeke-bayke, bella-bella-layke, payk-un-payke, grinzl-payke
Shtum-brum, a-fender-zayke. [Shouted]: Hey, Frances!
Ayke-bayke, bella-bella-layke, payk-un-payke, grinzl-payke
Shtum-brum, a-fender-zip.
A-kookaroo, a mozanyuna,
A brinza, mameliga, a karnatzl, heyse zokn mit a floken.
A-kookaroo, a-mozanyuna,
A shnorkeh, a vaysn mit a bloyen mozanyu.
Verse: [whistled]...
Refrain:
[Music by Abe Ellstein. Lyrics 2007 by Gershon Freidlin from his play, Hey, Frances.]

Coda yeteira:
Shortly before I came up with these lyrics, a student taking a doctorate in
computersa neighbor who used to babysit our catswhose English was

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competent but carried the inflection of his native China, asked me for a
sentence in Yiddish or Hebrew that he could surprise a professor with who
was always bumbling to him some phrase in Chinese.
Sholem aleykhem, reb yid, came to mind, but soon passed. The choice
became obvious, which the neighbor heard, rehearsed and inflected better
than his English-language speech: Som fon iz shlekht?! (Whats wrong with
some fun?!)a line from Mechaye War Chant.
The professor was bowled over; his soul had been touched from an unlikely
source.
If you, too, wish to try the Katzism, remember: everything is in the inflectionplus, do not forget the leer; it will not make you a sleazeball, as it did
not make one of the Cutting Edge Cat.
A frequent contributor, Rabbi Gershon Freidlin, Pittsburgh, serves on the Journals
editorial board. His article Ad Yom Moto: Lifes a Game? appeared in the Fall
2008 issue. In 1998, at the 50th Anniversary Convention of the Cantors Assembly, he
sang, It Shouldnt Happen to a Dog, by Menashe Skulnik, a contemporary of Mickey
Katz.

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Breathmaster: An Insight into the

Biomechanics of Great Singing
By Michael Trimble

Chi sa respirare, sa cantare

Who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing

(Attributed to Maria Celloni, 1810)

On my seventy-first birthday March 15, 2009, I decided to write down for

posterity an in-depth record of the biomechanical and psychomotor processes
I have studied, compiled, tested and implemented over a 50-year period as
professional singer, voice teacher and coach. This long experience has given
me many opportunities to learn the essentials of breath development, beauty
of tone, stamina, health and longevity of the singing voice. I have given this
project a great deal of thought since the first serious opportunity arose to
have a book published on this subject in 1980.
One of the problems in writing down all of this information has been to
sort out the useful knowledge from the useless knowledge. In order to do
this, I have had to find out, objectively, what I have learned that is useful to
someone else and what is useful to me in my capacity as teacher, advisor and
mentor. Some of what I learned was useful to me as a singer and only to me.
Why? Because every voice is unique and every singer is unique. Each singer
is made up of a unique combination of anatomy; conditioning; chemistry;
strength; natural breath capacity (as opposed to developed breath capacity);
musicality; psychological health, and physical health. A teacher must know
this and be able to approach each student on this individual basis. Singing is
a talent and cannot be learned or taught. It is important to understand that
the singer who possesses the ability to match pitches with the voice has a
natural talent. The singer must learn the criteria that are required of great
singing. In this regard, Buddhas wise words, adopted as the eastern Martial
Arts philosophy, offer a useful adage:
Train the body and the mind will follow.

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One thing is absolutely clear and applicable to all singers:

The foundation on which all great singing is built is the correct breathing
method, the inhalation, posture and exhalation of the breath. This psychomotor system response and biomechanical process must be repeated correctly
under expert supervision until the body responds habitually to the correct,
healthy, muscular coordination of the breathing function. Through repetition,
the body integrates the pathways which are correct and eliminates, if incorrect
pathways have already been created (bad habits), those which are damaging
to good singing and cause physical damage to the vocal cords. Here are what
three vocal authorities had to say on the importance of efficient breathing:

In fact, all bad habits of the throat are merely efforts of protection against
clumsy management of the breath. Faulty singing is caused by awkward
respiration. The foundation of all vocal study lies in the control of the
breath. The stroke of the glottis (violent attack) which many singing
teachers advise is absolutely harmful to the voice.1

It is indispensible, for the singer, to properly take and control the inhalation
and exhalation of his breath; for breathing is, so to speak, the regulator
of singing.2

The lungs and diaphragm and the whole breathing apparatus must be
understood by the singer, because the foundation of singing is breathing
and breath control A singer must be able to rely on his/her breath, just
as he/she relies upon the solidity of the ground beneath his/her feet.3

The first two rules of the historical Bel Canto era of singing4 (approx. 18201920) are: no action in the throat, and no change of emission. Every singer of
the golden age of beautiful singing who wrote a book about their approach to
the production of the singing tone, repeatedly emphasizes the importance of
the relaxed, totally free throat and proper breathing techniques which permit
the throat, tongue and facial muscles to remain free. Professional singers
are expected to be able to fulfill the requirements of the operatic repertoire
1
Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1839-1910), Vocal Wisdom (New York: Taplinger),
1931/1957: 5, 13, 6.
2
Manuel Garcia II, A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing, Part I (New York:
DaCapo Press), 1984: 45; Garcia is credited with the invention of the Laryngoscope in
1854.
3
Luisa Tetrazzini, The Art of Singing (New York: Dover edition) 1975: 11.
4
A Note of Interest: The reign of Sir Rudolph Bing at the Metropolitan Opera
from 1950 to 1972 is considered by avid opera fans to have been the second Golden
Age of Bel Canto.

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(and great cantorial repertoire), genre(s) of vocal music that require, by their
nature, beauty of tone, projection, flexibility, range, emotional expression,
vocal stamina and vocal longevity. At one point in his book, Enrico Caruso
(1873-1921) refers to the massive breathing essential to good singing.5
A list of these singing authors includes Enrico Caruso, Luisa Tetrazzini
(1871- 1940), Lilli Lehmann (1848-1929) and Lillian Nordica (1857-1914). I
recommend that singers read as much material as possible about the vocal
methods of these artists, especially the books written by the artists themselves. It seems obvious, therefore, in order for the throat to remain free
while singing or speaking, action must happen elsewhere in the body. It is
this process and the combined activities of the muscles of the body and the
breathing system that we will explore, and hopefully, begin to understand
and practice correctly.

In comparing books on Bel Canto singing, one is convinced that at the

time there existed a traditional way one learned to sing, along with an
aesthetic that one recognized and strived to attain, to the best of ones
ability. It is no accident that the era of Bel Canto and the Golden Age of
hazzanut followed each other historically. One wonders what conditions
were present that allowed this to happen; that such marvelous singing
should thrive sequentially in two different worlds of expression: in the
world of Italian opera and the world of synagogue prayer.6

The ability to know what is good for you is so rare among singers that it
is often never discussed at all. It does not occur to many coaches and teachers to even broach the subject. Yet, when the Metropolitan Opera baritone
Robert Merrill (1917-2004) presented a Master Class for singers during my
summer opera program at Sarah Lawrence College in 1978, he answered this
question very succinctly. During the question and answer period following
the Master Class, Mr. Merrill was asked by a young singer what was the most
important consideration in order to make a professional career. He answered:
You have to have the talent, gift or intelligence to know what is good for you
specifically. You have to be able to run everything through your mind You
will hear a lot of nonsense and garbage, most of which, if you followed the
advice given, would eventually ruin your voice!
Mr. Merrills insight brings to mind Mahatma Gandhis famous admonition: It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming their
own right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever,
5
Enrico Caruso.,The Art of Singing (New York edition: Dover) 1975: 46.
6
Pamela Kordan Trimble, Kol Hazzanit: Alternatives to the Vocal Requirements and Expression of Traditional Hazzanut for Women Cantors, Journal of Synagogue Music, Vol. 32 (New York: Cantors Assembly), 1972: 105.

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and there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world.7 There

will be a few people you meet who may have some good advice for you, but
the thing to remember is that everyone you meet has an opinion! You will
hear, I think the tone is too bright I think the tone is too dark I think it
should be more accented I think it should be smoother, etc. One hundred
people in a room will give you one hundred different opinions. Which ones
do you listen to and which (most, if not all) do you ignore? Most professional
singers end up listening to no one. If a singer is lucky, as Robert Merrill was,
he or she finds one great teacher/mentor and listens only to the advice of
that individual. Mr. Merrill studied with Samuel Margolis (1883-1982) for
over forty years (Margolis was also the teacher of Metropolitan Opera basso
Jerome Hines). In the end, the singer stands alone on the stage and will take
the credit, blame or criticism for his or her performance.
I have helped countless singers over the years find and re-find their voices.
Singers of all ages and all stages of development have been coming to me
since 1959, desperately looking for help with their voices. What did I know
when I was 21 years old? What could I know at that age? very littleand
what I did know was intuitive. But I did seem to possess some kind of knack
or talent for teaching: the ability to impart information clearly, and also, an
ability to empathize physically with what the singer was doing or not doing in
the throat and in the breathing system that either helped or hurt the quality
of sound the singer was producing.
This innate ability permitted me to actually help singers with general and
specific problems. For instance, it seemed obvious to me that a singer should
not have to make faces to sing well. How could a singer act, smile, cry, look
surprised, etc. if the face was always locked in a grimace, or having to show
all the teeth, or having to pull the jaw down? If singers look at the pictures of
Enrico Caruso demonstrating the vowels in Dr. P. Mario Marafiottis book,8
they will see great emphasis on softness and relaxation of the facial muscles,
the corners of the mouth always pulled back (even on the oo vowel). There is
not one vowel which is formed with the jaw pulled downas the following
illustrative photos demonstrate:
During a radio interview I listened to in the 1960s, the American dramatic soprano Rosa Ponselle (1887-1981) said that Enrico Caruso told her
to always keep a rectangle in the back of her throat. This is the same shape
7
R.K. Prabhu & U.R. Rao, editors, The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi (India:
Jitendra T. Desai, Navajivan Trust), 1945/1967/1996: 42
8
P. Mario Marafioti. Carusos Method of Voice Production (Dover, New York),
1949: 243-247.

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Photo by Bettini Syndicate Inc.

Fig. 25Vowel A
In this illustration the great tenor is singing the vowel A, with very dramatic expression.
Note how wide his mouth is open, which his lips are completely relaxed, and his tongue lies
flat on the floor of the mouth, its tip in contact with the interior of the lower lip

Giovanni Battista Lamperti recommended while insisting that the open

throat in Italian singing was the same shape as the ah in the Italian word
stai (stah ee).9
A singer should have a loose jaw, a relaxed tongue and a breathing method
that releases tension instead of creating tension. Tension and relaxation are
words that must be carefully defined in any type of physical skill. There must
be a balance of tension and relaxation somewhere in the body, of course. To
9

G.B. Lamperti. Vocal Wisdom (New York: Taplinger), 1931: 132

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Photo by Bettini Syndicate Inc.

Fig. 26Vowel E
This illustration shows Caruso singing the vowel E, with lyric expression. The mouth is half
open when compared to the size of the vowel A. Note the marked relaxation of the masque
and tongue which, as in A, is in contact with the interior of the lower lip.

achieve it the singer must learn to use only the essential muscle groups at the
correct time, as one unit (this is the biomechanical function that becomes
habitual with proper training), necessary to produce a free and healthy tone,
relative to the individuals vocal potential and at that particular moment in
each singers development.
One of the reasons I have the patience necessary to re-train singers with
damaged vocal cords is that I was and still am totally fascinated with the
idea that human beings can use their voices to create extraordinary musical

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Photo by Bettini Syndicate Inc.

Fig. 27Vowel I
In this illustration Caruso is seen singing the vowel I. Besides the relaxation of the masque,
as in the vowels A and E, and its characteristic expression which make it almost evident when
the focus of the voice is centers, his lips approach withour the slightest evidence of tension.

sounds combined with emotional expression. The basic musical scales and
various exercises never, for an instant, bore me. I find the process challenging; it requires intense concentration, physical development and dedication
by both teacher and student. Repetition of correct function under expert
supervision is essential to incorporate the physical concepts into a singers
working technique as quickly as possible. I can still sit at the piano, day after
day, playing the same simple scales and feel the way a prospector must feel
during the search for buried treasure. As the singer achieves looseness of

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Photo by Bettini Syndicate Inc.

Fig. 28Vowel O
This illustration shows Caruso singing the vowel O. The prominent feature lies in the shape
of the lips, which are protruded, making a megaphone for the vowel. The lips, however, are
in completer relaxation.

the tongue and throat, first a little gold dust, then a few nuggets and signs of
beauty of tone begin to appear or reappear. The excitement I feel as a teacher
whenever a pupil succeeds in finding the zone must be similar to what the
prospector feels when he first finds gold dust. Somewhere beneath the dust
are the nuggets and then, with enough digging, the mother lode!
Wilbur Gould, MD (1919-1994) was world renowned as the great throat
specialist for professional singers. He was Chief of Otolaryngology at Lenox
Hill Hospital in Manhattan, and throughout my New York City teaching years

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Photo by Bettini Syndicate Inc.

Fig. 29Vowel U
This illustration shows Caruso singing the vowel U. In this vowel the prominent role is
played by the lips, which by protruding markedly give the shape to for the vowel U.

(1973-1994), Dr. Gould sent professional, working singers with vocal-cord

problems and damage to me for rehabilitation before he would schedule surgery. He was a true colleague in helping singers when they most needed help,
and a wonderfully caring human being. He always encouraged the singers to
take the time necessary to correct vocal-breathing techniquesin order to
avoid surgery. If surgery was unavoidable, Dr. Gould sent the singers to me
for vocal rehabilitation after the vocal cords had healed properly.

10

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
they should be; now put the foundations under them.10
Henry David Thoreau, On Walden Pond.

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Down to Basics
The essential building blocks which are integral to my teaching reflect many
influences, including the encounters and friendships I nurtured with great
singers during my developmental and professional years as an operatic tenor.
From 1960 through 1975, I met, sang for, and took lessons and coachings with
a number of historically famous singers. My great friend, Lawrence Shadur
(1935-1991), a wonderful baritone with the Metropolitan Opera, was Lauritz
Melchiors god-son. Through Larry I had the opportunity to meet Melchior
(1890-1972) and Richard Tucker (1913-1975). Trying to find out technical
secrets from these masterful singers was like attempting to study with the
inscrutable Zen master described in Eugen Herrigels book, Zen in the Art of
Archery.11 I was young and full of enthusiasm, and the advice given by these
legendary singers seemed so vague and undefined. Management and use of
the breath, however, lay at the root of all discussion.
When I first sang for Richard Tucker his immediate reaction was: Get a
good breath under that. How? I asked, what should I do? Now, one must
understand that Tucker was the master technicianthe so-called tenors
tenorbecause of his great technique. He could sing everything from Mozart
to Verdi, and beautifully. My favorites among the roles he sang were from La
forza del destino, Un ballo in maschera and I vespri siciliani. He was simply
the best Verdi tenor I ever heard (but I loved his singing in Mozarts Cosi fan
tutte, as well).
At a later coaching session Mr. Tucker said: Ive only got two things to tell
you, kid. Breathe behind you and keep it light, like this. He then demonstrated
via a gigantic, thrilling, free high note that seemed to threaten the layers of
paint on the walls. I was sure the rafters would come down from the incredible
vibrations bouncing from the walls and off my head. When the tone ended,
Mr. Tucker said, See what I mean? Always keep it light. It is all done by the
breath and not with the vocal cords.
Ill never forget that day! It was 1962, I was a 24-year-old lyric tenor with
great promise. After a few months of study, Mr. Tucker said, too bad Paul
Althouse died (his only voice teacher) he could have helped you. He repeatedly added: Breathe in your lower back and dont let the belly wall or
the chest move at all, especially on the attack. This was the same approach
to breath control I learned in conversations with Cantor Charles Bloch in
New York and with Cantor Irving Bushman in Cleveland (at the time I served
as Chair of Vocal Studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music where Cantor
Bushman taught.) Cantors Bloch and Bushman were both beautiful singers
who enjoyed very long and successful careers.
11 Eugen Herrigel. Zen in the Art of Archery (New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics), 1989

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Great singers echo again and again the same approach to breath control.
Here are some insights from the very best among them:

To take a full breath properly the chest must be raised at the moment
that the abdomen sinks in. Then with a gradual expulsion of the breath,
a contrary movement takes place. It is this ability to take in an adequate
supply of breath and to retain it until required that makes or, by contrary,
mars all singing With the acquisition of this art of respiration, the student
has gone a considerable step on the road to Parnassus.12

In order to insure proper breathing capacity it is understood that the

clothing must be absolutely loose around the chest and also across the
lower part of the back, for one should breathe with the back of the lungs
as well as with the front, upper part of the lungs In learning to breathe it
is well to think of the lungs as empty sacks, into which the air is dropping
like a weight, so that you think first of filling the bottom of your lungs, then
the middle part, and so on until no more air can be inhaled... This feeling
of singing against the chest with the weight of air pressing up against it is
known as breath support, in Italian we have even a better word, appoggio,
which is the breath prop or lean Never for a moment sing without this
appoggio, this breath prop. Its development and its constant use mean
the restoration of sick or fatigued voices and the prolonging of all ones
vocal powers.13

I learned this: To draw in the abdomen, raise the chest and hold the breath
in it by the aid of the ribs; in letting out the breath gradually to relax the
abdomen A horn player in Berlin with the power of holding a very long
breath, once told me, in answer to a question, that he drew in his abdomen
very strongly, but immediately relaxed his abdomen again as soon as he
began to play. I tried the same thing with the best results... The breath
pressure, which includes abdomen, diaphragm and chest muscles, is
often named Atemstauen (breath stop) or appoggio, the breath lean
or breath prop.14

Role models
We need to discuss the singing methods that have proven successful for singers
in avoiding vocal problems over the length of their careers. As mentioned, all
vocal success and all vocal problems result from management or mismanagement of the breath. An example of the latter, breathiness, is considered bad
12 Enrico Caruso. The Art of Singing (New York:Dover edition), 1975: 53-54;
first Publication by The Metropolitan Co., 1909.
13 Luisa Tetrazzini. The Art of Singing (New York: Dover edition) 1975: 11-12,
15-16; first Publication by The Metropolitan Co., 1909.
14 Lilli Lehmann, How to Sing (New York: MacMillan), 1949: 14, 23.

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in classical singing and it can cause many vocal problems like hoarseness,
nodules, bowed vocal cords, etc. Any excess breath passing through the glottis, especially under pressure, can be disastrous for the vocal cords.
I met the great tenor Giovanni Martinelli at the Metropolitan Opera in
1961. He was seventy-seven years old at the time and still singing! I, of course,
asked him what his ideas were about how to sing. He answered very energetically, primo respirare (first breathe), poi appoggiare (then lean). I asked him,
how should I breathe? He grabbed my lower ribs in the back and said qui,
qui, e profondo (here, here, and deeply).
I heard Lauritz Melchior sing a concert when he was seventy years old. His
voice was still clear, strong and remarkably youthful. When I asked him to
describe his singing technique, he began to explain how he breathed. It was
the same story. Breathe into the lower back, lean on the diaphragm, never
sing into the nose. Let the breath open the throat. No action in the throat,
only reaction to the low back breathing.
George London (1920-1985), with whom I had a wonderful working relationship, said, The rib cage should not move independently. The ribs move
only if the breath moves them. He called the process the machine and said
to me many times, Mike, make the students work the machine. Open the
back, close the back, repeatedly!
There were many instances over the years when I would ask singers how
they sang. Cesare Siepi (1923- ) and Cornell MacNeil (1922- ) would not say
a word about technique. Jan Peerce (1904-1984) told me, Dont move anything in the front of your body when you breathe or sing. Dame Eva Turner
(1892-1990) was the only singer I ever met who used the term psychomotor system. In 1962, long before computers were so common, we sat down
together and talked about vocal technique. The mind must be programmed
through repetition to do the right thing as a habit, she explained, thus training
the psycho-motor system to sing for you. How and what must I repeat over
and over, Dame Eva? I asked. Again I heard those magic words: Breathe,
breathe, breathe, and no action in the throat!
What she then added has stayed with me for decades: Even a grain of salt
or sugar dropped in the throat would be too much action.
In sum, to this point
Breathe into the lower back, either drawing the abdomen in or not allowing the
belly to move outward (to remain still), thus sending the inspiration toward the
back, into the lower portion of the lungs. Make no action in the throat or jaw
or tongue (imagine an invisible throat, an invisible jaw, an invisible tongue, as

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if you could pass your hand through them, as if nothing were there). Only the
tip of the tongue should be allowed to move to make the dental consonants,
which is an up-and-down movement that does not react in the throat. No
forward or backward movement of the tongue is needed. Try not to pull the
tongue back into the throat (i.e., no action in the tongue or throat). Breathe
in a way that relaxes the throat, much like yoga breathing.
Robert Merrill and the Danish tenor Helge Roswaenge (1897-1972) were
advanced yoga practitioners and when asked how to breathe, they both demonstrated deep, slow, low back yoga breathing. Strong yoga breathing, like any
strong form of back breathing, causes a completely relaxed tongue, allowing
the tongue to depress in the back using only the power of the inhalation and
thus creating a v-shaped groove down the center of the tongue (sometimes
called inhaling the tongue). This type of breathing will also cause the soft
palate to rise in an upward and forward direction. Such action will seal off
the naso-pharynx, creating a resonating cavity behind the nose. This is the
resonance referred to as the mask. Singing in the mask is different from
singing in the nose. If the singer sings NG as in the word hung, a resonance
line can be identified across the bridge of the nose. Here is Caruso again:

Never sing into the nasal cavityit is against all the rules of song. There
are a number of wrong sorts of voices, which should be mentioned to be
shunnedthe white voice, the throaty voice, the breathy voice, the nasal
voice and the bleat (goat) voice... After all, those who have practiced the
art of right breathing need have none of the defects mentioned above.15

The singer must avoid placing the voice into the hung line. Below the
hung line causes the voice to resonate in the throat cavity and bring up a
predominant chest resonance into the tonewhich has no carrying power
over an orchestra. The true mask is found over the hung line. If a singer wishes
to direct the voice by singing into the mask, every tone and every vowel
must be placed over the hung line. This would explain whyto eliminate
nasalitythe Swedish tenor Jussi Bjoerling (1911-1960) and the Bulgarian
soprano Zinka Milanov (1906-1989) insisted that young singers practice
holding the nose closed with the fingers to make sure that no tones escaped
into the hung line.
Metropolitan Opera baritone Leonard Warren (1911-1960) used to vocalize using the B consonant. We could hear him backstage at the met singing
bah, beh, bee, boh, boo, and blah, bleh, blee, bloh, bloo. Vocalizing on the
consonant B causes the nose to close (as opposed to the consonant M
which opens the nose). The students called him The Genie because he lived
in a bottle (he sounded so stopped up!)
15

Enrico Caruso, The Art of Singing (New York: Dover edition), 1975: 57-58

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Both the Australian soprano Joan Sutherland (1926 - ) and the Italian tenor
Lucianno Pavarotti (1935-2007) used to lean forward while singing, as did
the Polish tenor Jan Kiepura (1902-1966). They held the chest out, keeping it
still and not allowing the resonating breath within it to collapse. The Italian
tenor Benjamino Gigli (1890-1957) also kept the chest high and out while
singing.
Much of this discussion could be eliminated if todays young singers would
go back to the old, proven system of breathing and/or learn yoga breathing.
The soft palate will automatically find its correct function and position.
One of my students counted the number of times Enrico Caruso mentioned
breathing in his book. The count was 60 times! Considering the small size of
the book, Caruso was obsessed with the art of right breathing.16
It seems strange that contemporary singers dont avail themselves of books
written by great singers of the past. Both Enrico Caruso and Lilli Lehman
described their breathing function very clearly (as we have seen from the
many quotations above, drawn from both of their books. The gist of their
vocal wisdom is that the abdomen be drawn in while inhaling and let out
while singing. Caruso said to draw the abdomen in while inhaling and do a
contrary motion while singing. Lilli Lehman described the breath jerk, a
deliberate violent jerking in of the abdomen when inhaling.
My wife and I once interviewed Dr. Maurice Sheetz who, at that that time
was a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellow at St. Lukes/Roosevelt
Hospital in New York City. I asked him what he thought about the type of
breathing technique that Caruso, Tetrazzini and Lehman describe in their
books. Why would these great historical singers develop a breathing technique
(the inhalation and exhalation of the breath/ appoggio, etc.) in a manner opposite to what is being taught to our young singers in universities and music
conservatories of today?
Dr. Sheetzs response amazed me in its immediacy and directness. He said
that it was obvious that Caruso, Tetrazzini and Lehman wanted to force the
back half of the diaphragm down, thus increasing the breath capacity to almost
double the amount that is achieved by letting the belly go out while inhaling.
He went on to describe that image in more technical terms:

16

It is like saying that at one end of your body youve this tremendous pressure
of breath against your sternum, but at the same time you are learning to
relax the muscles from the neck upThere are these little muscles that
surround the vocal cords; the ones in the back that change the length and
tension of your cords are called the Arytenoids. What happens is that
you build up pressure against your sternum; then you have to learn how
to relax the muscles surrounding the vocal cords so that you can open
Ibid. p. 58.

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your throat and at the same time slowly release some of the pressure, not
all of the expiration, directly against your vocal cords. It is analogous to
banking a pool ball off a side cushion instead of going directly through;
you divert that air so that it goes through in a controlled amount, as little
as possible.

I asked him about so called natural breathingthe sleeping baby

breathingfor instance. He said that babies breathe one way when they sleep
and the opposite way when crying or laughing. The belly out while inhaling
and belly in while exhaling is natural when not making a sound. But when a
baby begins to sustain sound by crying or making separated sounds while
laughing, the belly definitely goes out while sound is being produced.
I asked why Tetrazzini said she kept the pressure against the chest at all
times. Again the pulmonologist said it was very obvious that the continuation
of sound required a continuation of control of the diaphragmatic tension in
order to prevent the breath from coming into the throat and flooding the
vocal cords with more air than can be utilized while singing or speaking. Dr.
Sheetz described this function as a controlled expiration of the breath against
a closed glottis. Apparently, the front of the diaphragm must remain still
while the back of the diaphragm gradually relaxes. This allows the amount of
air that can be utililized by the vibration of the vocal cords to be sent by the
lower ribs to the larynx. This would explain why Enrico Caruso described the
action of the lower ribs in the back as resembling a bellows: opening while
breathing in and closing (squeezing) while singing.17
YouTube is a fantastic resource for all singers now because we are able to
hear and in some cases actually watch many of the celebrated singers of the
past perform and see what they were doing with their bodies while singing.
Turn on your computer, bring up Youtube, and observe videos of all the
singers mentioned in this article.
Postures While Exercising the Voice
In this article I am including three of the many postures that comprise my
warm-up method, and one ten-count breathing exercise. Twenty-four breathing exercises and vocalises will be explained in detail in Volume 1/DVD 1 of
my upcoming book due to be published in September of 2011. At this point
I might add that Yoga is not essential to good singing. Many singers have
had long, successful careers without Yoga. However, nearly everyone would
agree that exercise is good. It makes us feel better, and it might help us all
sing better! And among the most widely practiced forms of exercise, Yoga will
17

Enrico Caruso, The Art of Singing (New York: Dover edition), 1975: 54.

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definitely help develop breathing control and capacity. The guiding principle
here is: Ritual eliminates choice.
As with all physical exercise systems, the person involved is all-important
and the exercise should be helpful and not harmful in any way. This is not
to say that a little pain must be avoided! As the sports adage goes: no pain,
no gain. Almost every physical exercise we begin has some discomfort that
is part of the price we pay to get into good physical shape. Every artist must
ultimately find his or her way. There is always a threshold of difficulty in everything we aspire to accomplish. The art of singing is fraught with problems
and mountains of material that has to be learned. It is up to the individual
artist to decide how many languages to learn or how many roles to learn,
and how much physical exercise to undertake. I recommend that all forms
of exercise such as aerobics or weight lifting be avoided, unless a doctor who
is familiar with the individual aspirant should approve these or any other
forms of exercise.
If the doctor approves physical exercise for you, I would recommend that
it be the old exercise systems that have had the bugs worked out of them.
Yoga and Tai Chi are ancient, as are the other Martial Arts practiced in Eastern Asia. Any of these systems taught in a reputable school by a qualified
instructor are safe for practitionersincluding singers. Running is good for
general conditioning but does not seem to increase breath capacity. Yoga,
swimming, and playing a wind or brass instrument increase breath capacity
dramatically.
Posture #1: Lolling About

(Warning: This exercise should not be used by pregnant women

or within 3 months after delivery without a physicians approval)

Sit in a large easy chair and lean back all the way. Slide the pelvis forward
toward the edge of the seat while leaning the head well back. The neck should
be totally relaxed and supported by the high back of the chair, thereby avoiding any form of tension in any part of the neck.
Place both hands on the lower abdomen, right above the pubic bone. Inhale
through the nose silently with the lips closed for as long as possible by drawing
the abdomen in slowly with the hands pressed against the abdominal wall.
The breath should be drawn into the lower rear quadrant of the lungs. At this
time dont worry about the chest, which should be very relaxed. Expansion
of the chest will be developed through other exercises at a later time. At this
stage, we are concerned with the freedom and expansion of the lower back
and the lower lungs while maintaining a totally loose throat and neck. Hold

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the breath for a moment as the lungs are completely filled. There should be
no tension in the vocal cords.
As mentioned earlier, to avoid the glottal stop, Lilli Lehmann taught the
breath jerk, a sudden jerking in of the lower abdomen at the moment of inhaling. Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967), Carusos favorite singing partner, used
this same breathing method, learned from Lilli Lehmann, her teacher. At this
moment, reverse the process by relaxing the belly (abdominal wall) outward,
slowly. sing a low, comfortable note without any particular criteria in terms
of volume or quality, avoiding a glottal stroke or any tension in the throat.
Avoid any flexing of the muscles in the abdomen. While sustaining the sung
note as the lower belly (abdomen) moves continually outward, use the hands
to disturb the tone by moving (shaking or wiggling) the abdominal wall in
and out (not up and down) rapidly until a rhythmic disturbance of the sung
tone is achieved. It is sometimes better to make a fist with one hand and use
the other hand to press it inward. It is important to note that the movement
of the fist or hands must be in an inward (towards the spine) direction and
outwards (away from the spine) direction, alternating fairly rapidly.
As soon as the rapid movement causes an audible response in the voice,
change the tempo of the pulsing with the hands to a slower or faster rhythm,
eventually creating a range from slow to a very fast, almost quivering speed
and back again to very slowly. The movements should not be vertical (up
and down) in relation to the body, but at a 90-degree angle relative to the
abdomen. All of this movement should be done while holding a long note in
a comfortable part of the voice. The pitch can be lower or higher, and even
to the very highest notes of the range, as long as the voice responds and the
lower belly remains flexible. It is important that the sound be continuous
and not crack or break.
The abdominal wall should be completely loose during inhalation and exhalation. This can be achieved by continually moving (wiggling or shaking)
the belly with the hands during inhalation and exhalation.
The object of this exercise is to loosen all tension in the abdomen, throat
and viscera in general, and to encourage breathing into the lower back. It is
not necessary to pull in the abdomen while breathing in (or to use the breath
jerk) if the inhalation sinks deeply into the lower back. However, most singers tend to create tension in the abdomen and all abdominal tension must be
eliminated in order to maintain a free throat. Lolling is a loosening and freeing
exercise, dedicated to the neutralization of the muscles that affect the throat
and the breathing process. It is generally beneficial to the practitioner because
it encourages total relaxation in the body and mind while beginning

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1. Diagram of the Action of the Diaphragm

a. Inhalation

b. Exhalation

Giovanni Battista Lamperti. The Technics of Bel Canto

(New York: G. Schirmer, 1905: 6.18

an activation of the breathing process.

If you were taught that the belly or abdomen must be drawn in while exhaling
and/or singing and speaking, conflicts can occur if a female singer becomes
pregnant. Everyone agrees that women sing better and better when they become pregnant and the larger the fetus becomes, the better the singer sings.
18 The book is dedicated to his pupil, Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935), who sang
regularly at the Metropolitan Opera at turn of the 20th century and was considered
one of the finest coloratura soprano of her day.

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She has no choice but to breathe in her back! A pregnant woman who has
the nearly impossible task of pulling the belly in while inhaling or singing
can get into a state of severe conflict with her voice and diaphragm if she
was taught to pull in while exhaling. It is better to do what comes naturally
and breathe into the back with the belly hanging out. Let us all learn from
Mother Nature! If it were necessary to pull in the belly while singing, a pregnant woman couldnt sing!!
Singers who are not pregnant should practice pulling the abdomen in
while inhaling in order to eliminate the possibility of tension in the abdomen.
While it may feel like tension is being created by pulling the abdomen in, an
examination using the shake the lower belly test will reveal, that although the
abdomen is pulled in while breathing, there is no tension (flexing or hardness)
in the muscles of the abdominal wall. This is crucial to good singing. Singers
who activate abdominal muscles while breathing or singing must compensate
by creating an opposite and equal force somewhere else in the body, usually
in the throat. Everything we do is done for the purpose of total relaxation of
the throat. This exercise is conducive to a very free attitude concerning the
quality of the sound and helps the singer to relax.
Posture #2: The Primitive (Campfire) Squat
From a normal standing position, squat down all the way, with the heels on
the floor. Most adults cannot squat down and keep their heels on the floor the
first time they try. However, it can be done, believe it or not! In some cases,
it is as difficult as learning to ride a bicycle or learning to ski, because it is all
about balancing and centering. Every child we see playing in the sand on the
beach squats this way heels down. It will require a lot of practice in some
instances, but it is possible to learn to squat correctly. All primitive people
squat this way around their campfires. It is the natural way to squat, and
must be relearned by most modern adults. Moreover, since it is essential for
proper centering and energy flow, it should be learned.
The mechanics of squatting are simple. From a normal standing position
with the arms relaxed and hanging down and the feet apart at shoulder width,
bend the knees deeply and completely. It will be necessary to shift the weight
forward with the arms well in front of the body as the body goes down. Ideally,
the squatter will be able to rock back and forth without a loss of balance. In
attempting this, most people lose their balance and fall backwards. While a
little embarrassing, this is harmless and is a natural part of the learning and
adjusting process, just as falling off the bicycle is part of finding your balance
and coordination. Dont give up! Keep trying until you are successful!

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Once accomplished, this posture is inducive to the lower back breathing

begun in the Lolling posture. The dome-like diaphragm should be descending while breathing in and the rear half of the diaphragm should descend to
the lowest point possible. It is not enough to depress only the front of the
diaphragm. These postures, and the ones described in the following examples,
cause the singer or speaker to breathe in a complete way, utilizing the total
diaphragmatic function, thus providing a deeper tone and more freedom of
the throat, which leads to more control of the voice.
Posture #3: The Tree
Stand up on the right foot with the leg straight, take the left foot in hand and
turn it upside down so the sole of the foot is facing upwards. Pull the heel of
the left foot back into the crotch until the heel is well back and against the
inside of the upper right thigh. Press the knife-edge (the outside edge) of the
left foot against the inside of the right thigh, high up, and let the left, bent leg
rest against the right thigh.
Raise the arms and touch the fingertips together above the head. Be sure
that the space formed around the head is as equal as possible. Allow the arms
to relax without losing their posture above the head. The elbows will move
slightly forward. The shoulders should be as loose as possible and the entire
body should feel as soft and relaxed as possible without compromising the
perfection of the posture.
Maintaining this position, concentrate on straightening the body upwards.
The breathing should continue to be very deep and directed toward the
tailbone and buttocks. The abdomen should be drawn inward during the
inhalation and released outward during the exhalation. This is a very good
posture to begin octave exercises from a very low note. The body should remain free and the singing should not cause any loss of balance or any loss of
the correctness of the posture. In fact, one of the rules of the posture system
in singing is that, once a posture is established, the singing should not cause
any lack of balance or any change in the perfection of the posture.
This posture is the only one dedicated to the development of the pure, vertical lean. It is the posture that best develops the brick in the bucket concept
of a straight-down, vertical drop of the breath down into the pelvic floor with
nothing to hold it down but gravity. (Bouncing is discussed in my book on
vocal technique, which also develops the vertical concept of the drop of the
breath; however, it is not really a posture but an action technique.)

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The main thing to remember with the tree is that we are not floating away
into space. Gravity is all we need to hold us down on the earth. Therefore, it
makes sense that gravity can hold the breath, viscera, and diaphragm down if
we can relax and allow it to happen. This is the secret of those obese singers
who seem to sing so beautifully without the problems and tendencies that
seem to plague most singers. We know that obese singers who lose a lot of
weight invariably develop vocal problems. Some are very famous, magnificent singers who lost control of their voices after losing enormous amounts
of weight, sometimes over 100 lbs. Having been obese since childhood and
having relied on the weight to keep the breath dropped down in the lower
body, when the loss of the extreme downward pull was no longer there, the
singers developed huge wobbles and the voices became hard and strident.
The breath is no longer held down deep in the body by the weight carried in
the abdomen.
This loss of control can be corrected after a severe diet by teaching the singer
how to get the breath down again. By exercising, through Yoga posturing and
consciously thinking deep, the concept of where to place the breath in the
body can be relearned. In this posture, the feeling of heaviness and weight are
all-important. The voice itself seems to drop down into the body, as if each
tone weighs several pounds and is sitting right in the center of the floor of
the pelvis. The sensation of the voice sitting securely down in the lower body
is essential to having secure and easy high notes. The feeling of the body being heavy helps especially with the high soft notes. It is obviously something
to be desired for any singer! This is one of the most important postures for
developing the upper register of any voice.
Ten-count Breathing
This exercise is the same for both men and women. Stand or sit erect (in a
straight-back chair if sitting); your spine in proper alignmentchest slightly
raised; arms slightly behind the body, allowing the air box to be fully open
and expanded.
Exhale, releasing all of your breath, allowing the abdomen to fall out as
you exhale.
Inhale to a count of 10 seconds (start with 5 if necessary and build up to a
10-count). Inhale through the nose silently, slowly, as if smelling a fragrant
flower for 10 seconds; as you inhale, simultaneously draw in the lower abdomen slowly with the inhalation.
Hold the breath for 10 seconds and then, exhale slowly and evenly for 10
seconds, relaxing the abdomen outward as the breath is released.
This exercise can also be done while walking or standing still.

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At all times, the singer works towards the following criteria:

The jaw is free; the tongue relaxed and resting on the inside of the lower lip
from one corner of the mouth to the other.
The lips are relaxed, the mouth closed with corners of the mouth slightly
back (a gentle smile) for inhalation.
Inhalation is through the nose (as if slowly smelling a fragrant flower).
Upon exhalation, allow your jaw to fall open and slowly exhale through the
mouth.
In Conclusion
Anything written on singing today will have to deal with faulty concepts of
vocal technique that have become so universally acceptable as to be considered convention. It is important to remember that the greatest singers in
historyincluding Enrico Caruso and Lilli Lehmanndescribe the correct
method of breathing for singers as follows:
When the singer inhales, the abdomen should be pulled in before singing, and at the instant the singer begins to sing a tone, the abdomen should
be released down and outward. Caruso described the process as pulling the
abdomen in while inhaling, and doing a contrary motion while singing. Lilli
Lehmann (she of the breath jerk) described her breathing method as being
like that of Enrico Caruso. This seems paradoxical when one considers that
today, the so-called correct method of breath support is taught to be the exact
opposite function of what both these immortal singers advocated!
How can a young singer become as great as the old greats if he or she does
not use the same criteria they used, as described in their books? Young singers
today are directed as follows: no grunting; no sobbing; no slowing down; no
speeding up; no holding notes too long; no cutting off notes too soon; dont
wait too long; dont hurry; dont sing too dark; dont sing too bright; dont
look up; dont put your head up; dont breathe (the most amazing of all bad
advice!); dont, dont, dont!
All we can do is hope that there are young singers in the wings who are
smart enough to wade through the donts and discover the dos that set the
voice free. The true fans of beautiful, thrilling, expressive singing will be ever
so grateful.

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A final series of images that I would like to leave with readers is from
Giovanni Battista Lamperti, who taught the Old Italian Bel Canto method
of singing:

The breath is the ocean-the voice is the boat that floats on the ocean!

Nature gave us the voice-we cannot change it-

but we can educate the breath and learn to control it.

This constitutes the whole method of singing.19

Michael Trimble won both the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and the American Opera
auditions in 1963 and made his debut in Milan at the Teatro Nuovo as Cavaradossi
in Puccinis Tosca. He has sung over 60 leading roles in the Italian, French and
German repertoire throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, performing
with such celebrated conductors as Karl Bohm, Christoph von Dohnnyi, Charles
Mackerras, Nello Santi, Ferdinand Leitner, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Karl Richter.
Mr. Trimble served as Chair of Vocal and Choral studies at the Cleveland Institute
of Music, as Professor of Voice at the University of Texas in Austin, as Guest Professor
at the University of Miami, and on the voice faculty of the Aspen Festival for over 25
years. In 1992 he established the Trimble Vocal Institute and, despite his attempts
at retirement, still maintains an active voice studio and vocal consultation service in
Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he and his wife, Cantor Pamela Kordan Trimble,
relocated in 2001. At the Journals request, Michael Trimble graciously excerpted this
article from his forthcoming book, The Encyclopedia of Great Singing: A Complete
In-Depth Guide to Great Technical Singing, Vol. I plus DVD; scheduled for
publication in September 2011.

19

G.B. Lamperti. Vocal Wisdom (New York: Taplinger), 1957: 131-132, 144.

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Contrafaction

By Joshua R. Jacobson

Four hundred years ago Samuel Archivolti, a rabbi in Padua, Italy, wrote about
the synagogue music of his day:

There are two categories of song. The first category is a melody which is
composed to fit the words in consideration of their ideas. For by melodic
changes we are able to distinguish between pause and continuation, a
fast tempo and a slow one, between joy and sadness, astonishment and
fear, and so forth. And this is the most excellent type of melody in music,
for not only does it consider the ears pleasure, but it also strives to give
spirit and soul to the words that are sung. This type of song was used by
the Levites [in the Beit hamikdash], for it is the only way they could have
arranged their music, and it is the proper type to be written for songs in
our sacred language.

The second type [of song] is the vulgar sort of tune in which the words
[must] fit [the music], and its only concern is for the ears pleasure. So a
single popular melody may be applied to many songs whose subjects are
as distant from one another as the West is from the East, so long as they
are all written in the same meter and rhyme scheme.1

One doesnt have to read between the lines to understand that Archivolti
prefers the first category to the second. In fact, Archivoltis classification is
nearly identical to that of Italian secular vocal music from the same period.
Madrigal composers in Italy were divided into two camps: those who composed in the first style and those who composed in the more modern second style.2 In 1607 Giulio Cesare Monteverdi wrote in defense of his famous
composer brother, Claudio Monteverdi, The first style is the one that considers the music [or the harmony] the master3 of the words The second
style makes the words the master of the music.4 The author is saying that
composers of the first style accommodated the lyrics to the music, whereas
1
Samuel Archivolti (1515-1611), Arugat ha-bosem (Venice, 1602), in Hebrew
Writings Concerning Music in manuscripts and Printed Books from Geonic Times up
to 1800, ed. Israel Adler, (Munich: G. Henle Verlag), 1975: 100. Translations in this
article are by the present author.
2
In Italian, prima prattica and seconda prattica.
3
Literally mistress, but given the other connotations of the word mistress,
and given the relative paucity of gendered nouns in English, compared to Italian, I
think master is a better translation.
4
Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History: The Baroque Era (New
York: W. W. Norton, 1965), 48-49.

211

composers of the second style made the music fit the lyrics. The second style
gave birth to the recitative, in which the accompaniment took a back seat
to the free declamation of the words in their natural rhythms.
In the context of the synagogue, Archivoltis first category refers to the
cantillation of the Torah, haftarot and megillot, as well as traditional nusah
davening. As is the case with operatic recitative, a flexible melody fits the
flexible rhythm of the text, which is primary. Music makes the text more
meaningful.
Archivoltis second category seems to refer to metered tunes that are sung
in unison by the congregation. The focus is on the pleasure of singing rather
than on the meaning or mood of the text. Whether in the seventeenth or
the twenty-first century, congregants love to sing tunes. I am using tunes
in the sense of songs that have a strong rhythmic pulse, a limited range, a
strong tonal (or modal) center, predominantly stepwise motion and syllabic
text allocation (i.e. generally no more than one or two pitches per syllable).
Tunes must also be simple and easy to learn, characterized by repetition and
recurrence of melodic and textual segments. Tunes expanded into extended
songs will be strophic in form, and will usually have a refrain (in which lyrics
and music recur after each verse). Fondness for this kind of singing seems to
be universal. In fact, some anthropologists have speculated that music may
have originated as a means of achieving tribal unitybringing people together
and binding them through communal singing.5
The texts that are best suited for such treatment will themselves have regular meter and strophic form. In other words, each line has the same number
of syllables in a consistent alternation of weak and strong accents, and each
verse has the same number of lines.6 Among the liturgical hymns that best
fit this description are Lkha dodi, Adon olam, Eil adon, and Yigdal. But even
texts such as V-Shamru, with its irregular meter and non-strophic structure, have been set to tunes. And in many cases the text has been altered to
suit the tune: the wrong syllable is forced to receive metric stress, words are
repeated to accommodate the length of the musical phrase, the text is broken
in nonsensical phrasing, and one line of text will recur artificially in order to
create a refrain. This is exactly what Archivolti was describingthe vulgar
sort of tune in which the words [must] fit [the music].
5
Oliver Sachs, Musicophilia (New York: Knopf, 2007), 244.
6
Most English poems are qualitative in meterhaving a pattern of alternating
stressed and unstressed syllables. The meter of classical Hebrew poetry is generally
quantitativehaving a pattern of alternating long and short syllables.

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One can further differentiate synagogue tunes into two categories: (1)
melodies that have been composed specifically for a liturgical text, and (2)
pre-existing melodies that have been adapted for use with various prayers.
For the most part congregants dont know and dont care who composed
the tunes they sing. Some tunes, such as Avinu malkeinu (Example 1.), are
traditional, that is, they are relatively old, and no one knows who composed
them.
Example 1.
1
Avinu malkeinu (excerpt)
Trad.

A - vi - nu Mal - ke

nu

ho - nei - nu va - a - nei - nu

vi - nu - mal - kei - nu
ho - nei - nu va - a - nei - nu ki ein ba - nu ma - a - sim.

A-

In other cases, while professional musicians may know who composed

the tunes, the typical congregant is unaware of their provenance. Included
in this list would be Meyer Leons7 Yigdal (Example 2.), Isadore Freeds Mi
khamokha (Example 3.), Julius Freudenthals Ein keiloheinu (Example 4.),
Israel Goldfarbs Vhayah Adonai (Example 5.), Jeff Kleppers Shalom rav
(Example 6.), Sol Zims Ldor va-dor (Example 7.), Nurit Hirschs Oseh shalom (Example 8.), Tanhum Portnoys Eits hayyim hi (Example 9.), Moshe
Rothblums Vshamru (Example 10.), and Max Wolhbergs Mkhalkeil
hayyim (Example 11.), to cite but a few. Some songwriters however are so
popular that their names are associated (at least for now) with their tunes.
One speaks, for example, of Debbie Friedmans Mi she-beirakh and Debbie
Friedmans Havdalah.
Example 2.
Yigdal (excerpt)
1
Leoni

Yig - dal e - lo - him

hai
v - yish - ta - bah
nim - tsa v-ein eit el m - tsi - u - to.
Example 3.
Mi khamokha (excerpt)

Mi

kha - mo - kha ba - ei - lim A - do - nai,

mi

ka - mo - kha

ne - dar ba - ko

A.k.a. Michael Leoni (London, 1751Jamaica, 1797)

213

desh

Freed

Example 4.
Ein keiloheinu (excerpt)

Ein kei - lo - hei - nu, Ein ka - do - nei - nu,

Freudenthal

Ein k mal - kei - nu,

Ein k mo - shi - ei - nu.

Example 5.
Vhayah Adonai (excerpt)

V - ha

yom

- yah

ha - hu,

ba - yom

L dor va - dor

yih - yeh

al yis - ra - eil am - kha

A - do - nai

e -

rets,

ba -

had,

Eits

Zim

l - dor va - dor na - gid god - le - kha,

Example 8.
Oseh shalom (excerpt)

seh sha - lom bim - ro - mav

hu

ya - a - seh sha - lom a - lei

Example 9.
Eits hayyim hi (excerpt)

Klepper

l - o - lam

l dor - va - dor

ta - sim

Example 7.
Ldor va-dor (excerpt)

ha - hu

kol ha - a

l - me - lekh al

Example 6.
Shalom rav (excerpt)

Sha - lom rav

A - do - nai

Goldfarb

Hirsch

nu

Portnoy

hay
yim
hi
la
ma
ha
zi
kim
bah,

to

m - khe

ha

214

shar.

la - a - sot

V - sham ru

Example 10.
VShamru (excerpt)

v - nei

et

Yis- ra - eil

ha -

sha - bat

et

l - do - ro - tam b - rit

Example 11.
Mkhakeil hayyim (excerpt)

M - khal - keil hay
-yim b - he - sed,

ha -

Rothblum

shab

bat,

o - lam.

m hay
- yei mei-tim b - ra-ha-mim ra- bim,

Wohlberg

Many of our popular melodies were originally composed for choral performance. The Sephardic Mizmor l-david (Example 12.) was composed
by Michele Bolaffi (1768-1842) in Livorno, Italy in 1826. Salomon Sulzer
(1804-1890), the great Viennese hazzan, composed Ki mi-tsiyon (Example13.)
for his renowned choir at the Seitenstettengasse synagogue.8 And Louis
Lewandowksi (1821-1894), who served as chief choirmaster of Berlin in the
second half of the nineteenth century, created Tsaddik ka-tamar yifrah (Example 14.). The traditional Adon olam (Example 15.) was composed by
the Russian hazzan, Eliezer Gerowitsch (1844-1914) around the same time.9
Gershon Ephros (1890-1978) wrote the melody often heard for the Torah
service, L-Kkha Adonai ha-gdulah (Example16.). Due to their popularity,
these choral compositions were spontaneously adopted by their congregations, transformed into monophonic tunes (based on the soprano part), and
then passed through oral tradition to synagogues around the world.

8
Congregations apparently enjoyed singing Sulzers Ki Mi-tsiyon melody so
much that they applied it to the subsequent texts of the Torah service, Barukh shenatan torah and Shema yisraeil.
9
L. Gerowitsch, Schirej Simroh: Erster Theil (n.d., n.p.). Adon Olom (p. 28) is
marked A.W. (Alte Weise), suggesting that the tune may have already been traditional
in Gerowitschs time. Gerowitschs setting is not strophic; the familiar tune is found
only for the first verse.

215

Miz - mor

nei

ei

Ki

lim

tsei

tei - tsei

u - d - var

A do - nai

dik

ka

rez

o - lam

l-eit na - a - sah

bal - va

A - don

ta

mar

oz.

ki

mi- tsi - yon

mi -ru - sha - la

non, bal -

yif

va

Example 14.
Tsaddik ka-tamar (excerpt)

Tsad

to - rah,

b -

va

to - rah,

ka - vod

Example 13.
Ki mi-tsiyon (excerpt)

Bolaffi

la - do - nai

la - do - nai

mi- tsi - yon

Ha - vu

Da - vid

ha - vu

Example 12.
Mizmor ldavid (excerpt)

non

rah,

yis

b - hef
- tso kol,

a - sher ma - lakh

tei -

yim.

Lewandowski

k -

geh,

Example 15.
Adon olam (excerpt)

Sulzer

Gerowitsch

b-te - rem kol

a - zai

216

me - lekh

y - tsir

niv - ra.

sh - mo

nik - ra.

Example 16.
Lkha Adonai (excerpt)

L - kha,

A - do - nai,

ret

v - ha

ha - g - du

nei

tsah
v - ha
-

lah v - ha - g - vu

Ephros

rah v - ha - tif -

hod.

Lewandowski wrote in his memoirs:

With the introduction of choral music, congregations were prevented

a priori from direct participation in the services, because of the artistic
nature of choral singing. Congregations were now condemned to silence,
whereas they had previously been accustomed to shouting. After a short
while, out of a desire for equal participation, congregations adopted the
melody, or soprano line, singing together with the choir in two, three and
four octaves. The other voices [of the choir] were thus overwhelmed [by
the congregation], and the artistic form was entirely destroyed.10

Now, these are all cases where someone set out to create a melody to fit

a specific text. Presumably, if the composer knows and cares about Hebrew
vocabulary and grammar, the melody will match the mood and the meter
of the words.
But frequently someone is inspired to adapt a tune from one context and
apply it to another. Musicologists have a term for this process of retrofitting
contrafaction. Some listeners, unaware of the original source, will associate
the tune only with its new context. For example, in 1814 Francis Scott Key
wrote the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner, intending it to be sung to the
tune of The Anacreontic Song, a popular British drinking song written by
John Stafford Smith. And in 1882, Samuel Cohen, a resident of Rishon Letsiyon, suggested that Naftali Herz Imbers poem, Hatikvah (or Tikvateinu)
be sung to the tune of Carul cu boi, a farmers song he remembered from
his native Moldavia.11
10 Louis Lewandowski, Kol Rinnah UTfillah (Berlin, 1871), in Geoffrey Goldberg,
Neglected Sources for the Historical Study of Synagogue Music: the Prefaces to Louis
Lewandowskis Kol Rinnah UTfillah and Todah WSimrah Annotated Translations
Musica Judaica XI (1989-1990): 41.
11 When congregations sing va-havieinu l-tsiyon irkha to the tune of Hatikvah, they are actually singing it to the tune of Carul cu boi, creating a double
contrafaction.

217

The obvious advantage of contrafaction is that the tune is already well

known. Some piyyutim (liturgical hymns) share a similar poetic meter and
are thus ripe for melodic promiscuity. One often hears the same melody
transferred from Eil adon to Anim zmirot to Adon olam and beyond. And
this is not a phenomenon that is new and unique to our generation. Recall
Archivoltis observation about congregational singing in sixteenth-century
Italy: A single popular melody may be applied to many songs whose subjects
are as distant from one another as the West is from the East, so long as they
are all written in the same meter and rhyme scheme.12
One of the greatest Jewish songwriters of the twentieth century, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (1925-1994), sometimes would compose a melody before he
had any lyrics in mind. His well-known melody for Mizmor l-david (the final
Psalm before Lkha dodi) (Example 17.) was composed in the summer of 1974.
Shabbos morning before davening I made up this niggun Mizmor ldovid.
It didnt have words yet Before it was set to the words Mizmor ldovid I
used to sing it to the words Shabbat Shalom U-mvorakh, Good Shabbos.13
And he would also not hesitate to retrofit one of his own melodies with a new
set of lyrics. In 1977 Carlebach composed a lively melody for the text, Ki va
oeid (found in the Sephardic rite at the end of Ein keiloheinu) (Example 18.).
But soon thereafter he began to use the same melody for singing the second
Psalm of Kabbalat Shabbat, Shiru ladonai shir hadash (Example 19.).14 A true
Carlebach Hasid is not bothered by the fact that the versification of Psalm 96
becomes compromised in order to keep the tune going.
Example 17.
Mizmor ldavid (excerpt)
Carlebach
1

Miz

mor

lim,

ha

da

vu

lA -

vid.

do

Ha - vu

nai

lA - do - nai

ka

vod

b - nei

ei -

va - oz.

12 Archivolti, 100.
13 Ben Zion Solomon, ed., Shlomo Shabbos: The Shlomo Carlebach Shabbos
Songbook (Meor Modim: Kehilat Jacob Publications, 1993), 15.
14 Solomon, 9.

218

Example 18.
Ki va moeid (excerpt)

Carlebach

ta - kum t - ra
heim
tsi - yon
ki eit l -
he - n nah
ki
va
Ki

10

va

mo -

eid,

va - mo -

eid,

Example 19.
Shiru ladonai (excerpt)

Shi - ru

ki

a - tah

mo - eid,

shir
ha
- dash, shi-ru lA- do - nai kol ha - a - rets.

lA- do - nai

Carlebach

Liturgical texts that are intended to be chanted by the congregation are

ripe for contrafaction, even those that do not have a regular metric structure.
In some synagogues the Shabbat Musaf Kdushah has become the ultimate
Jewish karaoke. Kvodo malei olam (Example 20.) is sung to the tune of Yosef
Hadars love song, Erev shel shoshanim (Example 21.), and V-eineinu tirenah
malkhutekha (Example 22.), to the tune of Rabbi Israel Goldfarbs Shalom
aleykhem (Example 23.) or to the tune of Naomi Shemers Yerushalayim shel
zahav (Example 24.), to cite but a few practices.15

sha

Shabbat Musaf Example 20.

Kdushah (excerpt)

vo

do

r - tav

sho -

mor

be - sa - mim

ma

lim

zeh

lei

nei - tsei

le

vo - nah

na

el

o - lam

Example 21.
Erev shel shoshanim (excerpt)

E - rev shel sho - sha - nim

after Hadar

m -

la - zeh

Yosef Hadar

ha - bus - tan.

l - ra - g leikh mif - tan.

15 Shemers song itself is said to have been based on a Basque lullaby, Pello
Joxepe composed by Juan Francisco Petrarena (1835-1869).

219

Example 22.
Kdushah(excerpt)

V - ei

nei - nu

tir

e - nah

mal - khu - te

kha

Example 23.
Shalom aleikhem (excerpt)

Israel Goldfarb

Sha - lom a - lei - khem mal - a - khei ha - sha - reit

after Goldfarb

V - ei - nei - nu

var

mal - a - khei el

Shabbat Shaharit Example 24.

Kdushah (excerpt)

tir

ha - a -

mur

e - nah

mal - khu

b - shi - rei

te -

ze

yon.

after Shemer

kha,

ka - da -

kha.

Sometimes congregational melodies are deliberately and effectively used

as seasonal leitmotifs. For example, the Ashkenazic melody for the Tisha
BAv kinah, Eli tsiyon (Example 25.), becomes the melody for L-Khah dodi
(Example 26.) on the Shabbat preceding the fast. On the Friday night of Hanukkah we try to fit the melody for Maoz tsur (Example 27.) to Mi khamokha
(Example 28.).
Example 25.
Eli tsiyon (excerpt)
1
Trad.

E - li

Tsi - yon

L - kha

do - di

v a - re

ha

k - mo

i - shah

Example 26.
Lkha dodi (excerpt)

lik - rat

kal - lah,

220

p - nei shab - bat

v tsi - re

ha

n - kab - b - lah.

Trad.

Ma - oz

tsur

y - shu - a - ti

Mi

Example 27.
(excerpt)

Maoz tsur

kha -

l - kha

na -

eh
l - sha - bei ah.

Example 28.
Mi khamokha (excerpt)

mo

kha

ba - ei - lim

Trad.

Trad.

A - do - nai

* * * * *

That brings us to the subject of alien contrafaction: adopting non-Jewish

melodies into the synagogue. Jews have been singing sacred texts to borrowed
melodies for many centuries. The superscriptions of many of the Psalms
most likely indicate the melody to which it would have been sung in ancient
Israel. The heading of Psalm 45, for example, la-mnatsei-ah al shoshanim,
has been interpreted as an indication to the music director (ha-mnatseiah)
that the following Psalm should be sung to the melody of a song known as
shoshanim.
The Maoz tsur melody that we cited above is based on an old German
love-song, So weiss ich eins, das mich erfreut. But for most Jews that origin is
hidden and irrelevant. Indeed, many of the Ashkenazic piyyutim appear to be
based on non-Jewish melodies, secular and sacred. In his book, A Voice Still
Heard, Eric Werner asserts that there are at least seventy-five instances of
this process from the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.16 Other alien
contrafactions are more recognizable to the congregation. Adon olam has
probably been the worst victim of indiscriminate contrafaction. I have had to
endure hearing that majestic hymn sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Went
to Town, Take Me out to the Ball Game and even Silent Night. I suspect
that the readers of this journal have their own horror stories, as well.
What is the traditional Jewish opinion on bringing gentile melodies into
the synagogue? Some rabbis objected on theological grounds: one should not
bring into the synagogue something that was used for worship in another
religion. Other rabbis objected on a different basis. They pointed out that
16 Eric Werner, A Voice Still Heard: The Sacred Songs of the Ashkenazic Jews
(University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976), 94.

221

while singing contrafactions we might remember the original lyrics of these

songs.
Rabbi Yehudah He-Hasid (c. 1150 - 1217) wrote, In the case of a hymn
composed by a priest for worship in a non-Jewish service, even if a Jew
considers it to be a beautiful form of praise, he should not chant it to God
in Hebrew.17
Rabbi Yehudah Al-Harizi (c. 1170-1235) wrote of his visit to a Baghdad
synagogue in 1220: The cantors dont understand the words, and the people
have no idea what they are saying. And instead of the holy (kdoshim) songs
of [King] David, they sing the songs of prostitutes (kdeishim).18
In the Shulhan arukh, Rabbi Joseph Caro (1488-1575) wrote, If a shliah
tsibbur sings using gentile melodies, you should protest that he should not
do such a thing. And if he doesnt listen, you should remove him.19
The Italian Rabbi Samuel ben Elhanan Archivolti (1515-1611) wrote, What
can we say? How can we justify the actions of a few hazzanim of our day, who
chant the holy prayers to the tunes of popular secular songs? While reading
sacred texts they are thinking of obscenities and lewd things.20
In 1605 Rabbi Ben Zion Sarfati (d. 1610) wrote that in his youth in the
synagogue of Padua, Italy, his choir used to sing the whole order of Kdushah
at the request of [Rabbi Meir]. Certainly it was not worse, indeed better than
the those who raised their voices against us,21 singing [the Kdushah to the
tunes of ] the vulgar songs that are sung outdoors in the streets.22
In his Shirei yhudah published in Amsterdam in 1696, Rabbi Yhudah
Leib Zelichower (d. 1709) wrote,

But now, in this generation they know not, they do not understand,
they walk in darkness, they abandon the ancient melodies and toss them
behind their backs, they laugh and make fun of them saying, thats old
stuff, and we get no pleasure from them, and they fabricate new melodies
to take their place, either [melodies] of their own, or they borrow them

17 Yehudah He-hasid, Sefer hasidim, 428.

18 Yhudah Al-Harizi, Tahkemuni (Tel Aviv: Mahbarot lsifrut, 1952), 226, in
Amnon Shiloah, Ha-moreshet ha-musikalit shel khilot yisrael (Tel Aviv: Everymans
University, 1986), 12.
19 Joseph Caro, Shulhan arukh, orah hayyim, 53/25.
20 Archivolti, 101.
21 Sarfati compounds his condemnation by quoting Jeremiah 12:8 My own
people [or heritage] acted toward Me like a lion in the forest. She raised her voice
against Me; therefore I have rejected her.
22 Modena, preface to Ha-shirim asher lishlomo by Salamone Rossi (Venice,
1622).

222

from their theaters and bring them into Gods Temple, and they sound
like the melodies that go with mixed dancing. And there are even some
of them who learn melodies from the uncircumcised and sing them in
our synagogues. Have you ever heard of such evil? Could God desire this
kind of song and music?23

In an anonymous pamphlet entitled Tokhehah mgulah (Open Demands),

written in Styria (now Austria) in the seventeenth century, we find several
complaints lodged against hazzanim, including, If you become used to
foreign melodies, you will manage to destroy the proper kavvanah. And
the listeners are focused on the melodies to such an extent that even Torah
scholars havent a clue how to concentrate and achieve kavvanah. What happens is that people become used to going to the synagogue [merely] to listen
to pleasant singing.24
Moshe Vital, a well-known Sephardic cantor in Jerusalem in the early twentieth century wrote, For artistic and theological reasons a Sephardic cantor is
forbidden to introduce secular songs into the synagogue Sometimes one of
our cantors works also as a secular singer who entertains others with secular
songs, and it is quite common to hear from his mouth the melody of a love
song merged with sections of prayers, such as a Kaddish or a Kdushah But
he should allow himself to do this only if the melody is not recognizable to
the congregation.25
Yet not all opinions have been against contrafaction. Some rabbis entertained a more positive view. Some expressed the hope that using melodies
that people already knew and loved would encourage greater participation
in the worship service. Others subscribed to the Kabbalistic idea that there
is a spark of holiness in even the most degraded objects, and that it is a great
mitzvah to rescue these sparks and redeem them into the service of the Holy
One.
In the sixteenth century, Rabbi Israel Najara (c. 1555c. 1625) wrote Hebrew sacred lyrics to be sung to melodies of then-popular Arab and Turkish
songs. His intention was to distract young people from the secular world,
allowing them to sing their favorite tunes, but with new, uplifting lyrics. The
23 Yhudah Leib Zelichower, Shirei yhudah (Amsterdam, 1697), 26B, in Israel
Adler, La pratique musicale savante dans quelques communauts juives en Europe
aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sicles (Paris: Mouton, 1966), 249-250.
24 Anon. Tokheha Mgulah, 29B, in R. Hanokh Henikh. Reishit Bikkurim (Frankfurt am Main, 1707-8), in Adler, Hebrew Writings, 247.
25 Amnon Shiloah, Ha-moreshet ha-musikalit shel khillot Yisrael (Tel Aviv:
Everymans University, 1986), 13-14.

223

mouths of liars and the singing of sensual songs will be blocked, and they will
no longer think about love songs when they see [my] songs.26 His collection,
Zmirot yisrael was published in 1587 in Safed and subsequently reprinted
in an expanded edition in Venice in 1599. In the introduction, Najjara wrote
that his piyyutim are all based on the characteristics of Arab melodies and
other songs.27 Of the 346 songs in this collection, 150 are based on Turkish
songs, 60 on Arab songs, 30 on Spanish (Sephardic) songs, and a few others on Greek songs. Furthermore, Najara created a superscription for each
piyyut, which included the word lahan (to the tune of ) and then the title
or incipit of a well-known non-Jewish popular song. For example, lahan
Istanbuldan ektim Turkish.
But Najara was not clumsily superimposing a foreign melody on an inhospitable text. Najara was creating new lyrics, modeled after the very structure
of the song he was imitating, thus ensuring a perfect fit of music to lyrics. In
some cases he borrowed and transformed the content of the original song.
The Ladino song Arvolera, in which a forlorn wife is faithfully awaiting the
return of her missing husband Amadi, becomes a piyyut in which the Jewish people faithfully await their redeemer. In other cases Najara consciously
created a phonological link from the parody to the original. His piyyut Anna
Eil, shomrah nafshi is based on an Arab song, Ana al-samra wa-sammuni
sumayra. Najaras songs were deliberately demotic, rejecting the learned
esoteric style of earlier payytanim such as Eleazar ben Kallir. His songs were
not limited to liturgical use, but could be sung on many occasions. Their
content was often nationalistic, emphasizing the intimate relation between
the Jewish people and their God, often using metaphors of the love of a man
for a woman. The refreshing poetic style quickly caught on among the people
of Safed and were transmitted far and wide by the many seekers who made
pilgrimages to this center of spirituality. In all, Najara composed some 800
paraliturgical songs, many of which are still popular in the Sephardic world.
The only song of his that is widely recognized among Ashkenazim today is
the Shabbat table song, Yah ribbon alam.28
While Najaras songs enjoyed tremendous popularity, even among such
prominent rabbis as Isaac Luria, not everyone endorsed his methods. Rabbi
Menahem di Lonzano (1572-1619) denigrated Najaras work. Was it because
26 Abraham Z. Idelsohn, Yisrael najara v-shirato, Hashiloah 37 (Nisan-Elul,
1920), 25-36 and 122-135.
27 Hanokh Avenari, Ha-shir ha-nokhri k-makor hashraah l-yisrael najara,
in The Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University,
1965), 283.
28 Idelsohn, Yisrael najara vshirato, 25-36 and 122-135.

224

Lonzanos own piyyutim never achieved the same level of popularity as those
of his rival?

I have noticed that a few scholars are complaining [and saying] evil [things]
about the composers of songs praising God using non-Jewish melodies.
But they are wrong; there is no [problem] in this. But what are truly
despicable are some [sacred] songs that start with [Hebrew] words that
resemble the words of the non-Jewish [song] [Najjara] thinks he did
something great, but he has no idea that a song like this is an abomination,
it is not acceptable. Because the person who sings it will be thinking about
the [original] lyrics about an adulterer and an adulteress; his emotions
and thoughts will be with them. Thats what happens when people sing
shem nora [Gods mighty name] instead of seora, etc.29

Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews, in particular Syrians, continue the practice of

contrafaction in their pizmonim.30 The Syrian payytan Raphael Isaac Antibi
(?-?) defended this practice, citing the Kabbalistic interpretation.

A melody is a holy spark. When you play love songs the spark is hidden
in its shell. Therefore in every new melody that the gentiles compose
you must establish words from the scribes, words of holiness, in order to
extract the spark from the other side [i.e. Satan] to the side of holiness.
And this is an obligation no less than preventing sinners from sinning,
causing many people to turn from sin, to extract that which is precious
from that which is evil, to choose the sparks of holiness.31

Rabbi Israel Moshe Hazzan (1808-1862), who served in Jerusalems High

Religious Court, defended the practice of borrowing a beautiful melody that
had been used in non-Jewish worship.

And I testify by heaven and earth that when I was in Smyrna, the great
city of scholars and mystics, I saw some of the outstanding religious
authorities who were also great creators of the science of music, headed
by the wonderful Rabbi Abraham Ha-Kohein Ariash of blessed memory,
who secretly used to go (behind the screen) of the Christian church on
their holy days to learn the special melodies from them and to adapt them
to the High Holiday prayers which require great humility. And from those
same melodies they would arrange the most remarkable blessings and
holy prayers, and it is clear from this that the tune is not of the essence,
but the sacred words.32

29 Menahem di Lonzano, Shtei Yadot (Venice, 1617-18), 142A, in Adler, Hebrew

Writings, 244.
30 Kay Shelemay Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance among Syrian
Jews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
31 Raphael Isaac Entebbe, Shirah hadashah (Jerusalem, 1885), preface, in Idelsohn, Yisrael najara vshirato, 134.
32 Amnon Shiloah, Jewish Musical Traditions (Detroit: Wayne State University

225

Jacob S. Kassin (1900-1994), Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Community of New

York, echoed this sentiment.

[Borrowing melodies and providing them with new, sacred Hebrew texts
is done for a] good reason, a reason of fundamental importance, and it
is correct that it is said about it that it is good. This is so because the
melody is a holy spark. Because when one plays sensual love songs, the
spark is submerged in the klippot [waste coverings]. It is for this reason
that it is necessary to establish a foundation of holy wordsdrawn from
the mouths of scholars and from the mouths of booksfor any tune with
a non-Jewish source, in order to lead the spark from the realm of evil to
the realm of holiness. This is an obligation in the same way that it is an
obligation to draw sinners to good, to turn away from iniquity, and to bring
out the precious from the vile. It is an obligation to make clear the holy
sparks. So it is with holy songs. The holy sparks bring light to the just.33

In 1976 Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef (former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel) wrote,
I have been asked if it is permissible for the cantor to graft the melody of a
secular love song on to the blessings or other prayers or whether a distinction must be made between the holy and the profane. His response was that
removing the melody from its original context is likened to the performance
of a good deed: it is a mitzvah to do so, and implies sanctification of Gods
name in that something has been transferred from the realm of the profane
to the realm of the sacred.34
But Yosef then qualifies his hekhsher, indicating that the transformation
will be successful only if the cantor chooses the songs out of the purest
motives, to praise and sing to the Lord, blessed be He, and only if the adaptation is sensitive to the prosody of the Jewish text. He condemns the cantors
who contort the meaning of a verse, put the accent on the ultimate syllable,
where it should be on the penultimate, and vice versa. These are boorish inversions, the way fools sing; they transform the words of the living God and
subordinate the prayers and blessings to a secular tune.35
Among the Ashkenazim, it is primarily HaBaD,36 the Lubavitch Hasidim,
who allow, even embrace, non-Jewish melodies into the liturgy, provided they
are sung with spiritual enthusiasm. These Hasidim believe in the importance
of the mitzvah of kiruv: bringing Jews closer to Judaism, closer to God. They
Press, 1992), 82.
33 David Matouk Betesh, ed., Shir ushvahah hallel v-zimrah (New York: Magen
David),
/ (accessed June 20, 2008).
34 Shiloah, Jewish Musical Traditions, 82-83.
35 Shiloah, Jewish Musical Traditions, 84.
36 Acronym for Hokhmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding), Deiah (knowledge).

226

believe that through this act they are redeeming a soul. They also believe
that you can redeem a song; that you can take a secular song, remove it from
its original profane context, outfit it with sacred words or even just with
vocables such as ai di di di dai, and not only do you have a sacred song, you
have performed a mitzvah: you have converted something from profanity to
the service of God.
But perhaps that is an oversimplification. To achieve dveikut [adhering to
God], one must have the proper state of mind. The transformation of a secular tune into a sacred niggun, the process of musical tikkun, is a four-stage
process, as described by Ellen Koskoff.37 First an appropriate person must be
able to recognize the potential in the song, to perceive the holy spark dormant
in the music. Second, the redeemer must spend time with the song, creating
a sense of ownership. Third, the secular lyrics must be discarded. Finally, the
remodeled song will be performed by the devout with proper intention and
in the appropriate style.
The Hasidim believe that once a song has been redeemed, it is no longer
available to its original owner. The story is told that Shneur Zalman of Lyadi
(1745-1813), the first HaBaD rebbe, one day heard an organ grinder sing a
beautiful song. The rebbe tossed some coins to the street musician so that
he would sing the song over and over. Eventually the rebbe was able to sing
the song himself, to take ownership of the song (stage two above). From
that time on, according to the legend, the organ grinder lost his ability to
remember that song.38
Another story: In 1812 the rebbe heard Napoleons March played by the
French army as they crossed the Russian border. He understood it was time
to escape before the arrival of the enemy forces. As a sign of gratitude to God
for his deliverance, the rebbe designated Napoleons March to be sung as
a wordless niggun each year at the Neilah service, symbolic of the victory of
the Jewish people over Satan.39 Koskoff writes that this tune also signals the
ultimate defeat of Napoleons power through the mystical transformation of
his armys music and its redemption as a niggun.40
The rebbes great-great-grandson, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
(1902-1994), is credited with another unusual contrafaction.
37 Ellen Koskoff, Music in Lubovitcher Life (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press), 2001: 77-78.
38 Ibid., 75.
39 Macy Nulman. Concepts of Jewish Music and Prayer (New York: Cantorial
Council of America), 1985: 90.
40 Koskoff, 99.

227

[In 1974] a large group of Jews from France who were looking into
their roots came to Crown Heights (Brooklyn, New York) to acquaint
themselves with the Lubavitcher movement. At the hakofos [the dancing
on Simhat Torah], they were unable to join in with the singing, being
unfamiliar with the melodies of the niggunim. Suddenly the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, shlita, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, began to sing a tune
they knew well, that of the French national anthem (La Marseillaise),
accompanying it with the words of a prayer, Ho-aderes vho-emunoh [Power
and Trustworthiness]. The singing began softly, as most of the Hasidic
multitude were unacquainted with the song. But the momentum built
up and before long, French guests and bearded Hasidim were singing the
rousing march in unison. As the Rebbe kept them going, over and over,
the newcomers felt that all these bearded people were not strangers at
all, but brothers, with one soul and one God binding them all together.
Feelings of love and yearning toward God were welling up and gripping
them with their intensity.41

* * * *
Is contrafaction a vulgarity or a mitzvah, a distraction from the words of
prayer or an effective shortcut to successful congregational singing? There
are rabbinic sources to support each of these views. But perhaps the keys to
any successful congregational singing can be found in two of the examples
we examined. Israel Najara took great care to fit the structure of the lyrics to
the tune. The HaBaD Hasidim adopt a tune only if it has a holy spark, only
when its original identity has been forgotten, only if it can be sung with the
proper intention, and only after it has been transformed into a vehicle for
spiritual transcendence.
Joshua R. Jacobson is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at
Northeastern University and Visiting Professor of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. He
is also founder and artistic director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston. Over one hundred
of his choral arrangements, editions and compositions have been published, and are
frequently performed by choirs around the world. In 2004 the Cantors Assembly
presented Prof. Jacobson with its prestigious Kavod Award. His book, Chanting the
Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation, published by the Jewish Publication Society
in 2002, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Dr. Jacobson holds degrees
in Music from Harvard College, the New England Conservatory, and the University
of Cincinnati.
41 Gitty Stolik, Musical Rhapsodies, Womens Youth Organization Book of the
29th Annual Convention (May 24-28, 1984), in Mordechai Staiman, Niggun: Stories
behind the Chasidic Songs that Inspire Jews (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson,
1994), 154. That melody is still sung in many HaBaD shuls. I heard it myself in the
HaBaD House in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Shabbat, March 11, 2006.

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Subject: Remembering Johanna L. Spector (1915-2008)

June 10, 2009

I cannot say enough about how
much Dr. Spector influenced me
in my work as a cantor and in
the way I thought about Jewish
music. She was unforgettablea
superior scholar whose pioneering fortitude as a woman ethnomusicolgist enabled her to
produce on-site films of musical
traditions pertaining to communities that had recently resettled
in Israel from Samaria, Yemen,
Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Djerba,
Libya, Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
Turkey, Greece, Bukhara and
elsewhere. She was also a creative
and determined thinker, unstoppable in her quest to record and
analyze our Middle Eastern
cousins musical heritage before
Archive of June Light Goldberg
the process of diffusion had westernized it beyond recall.
Johanna forged her own path after losing her husband, brother and family
in the Holocaust and surviving imprisonment in a series of concentration
camps. Her hoped-for career as a concert pianist was eclipsed by the need to
earn a livelihood in the United States, where she arrived in 1947. Choosing
the field of Jewish musicagainst all adviceshe completed the rabbinical
program at HUC in Cincinnati in 1950. As a Doctor of Hebrew Studies, she
became the first ethnomusicologist to preserve the musical heritage of exotic
Jewish communities on film. As Professor of Ethnomusicology at JTS from
1954 to 1985, she taught the Cantors Institutes first generation of graduates
that the Ashkenazic riteEast and Westshared a common provenance
with the Sephardi and Mizrahi minhagim, and that all of them originated
long before, in the Middle Eastern culture sphere.

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Lastly, she became a very dear friend and mentor over the course of my
studies with her that culminated in my 1979 Masters thesis, The Middle
Eastern Roots of East European Hazzanut. Her several books and numerous
encyclopedia and scholarly journal articles as well as her documentary films
continue to reinforce the professional skill that I and all of my colleagues, her
former students, bring to our sacred calling.
May her memory be a blessing.
Edward W. Berman
West Orange, NJ

Subject: Austin Synagogues Increasingly Choose Cantors

as Spiritual Leaders
July 7, 2008
Neil Blumofe, spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim (founded in
1914), joined his community as its hazzan in 1998. He recently announced
he would be receiving smikhah from the Academy for Jewish Religion
California in May and from the Jewish Theological SeminaryNew York
in 2010. I will have two rabbinic ordinations, one from the West Coast and
one from the East Coast, which is a perfect synthesis of progressive and
traditional strands of Judaism in America. It will allow me to keep involved
with what is most current in American Jewish life and to bring both worlds
to my congregation, Blumofe said.
Cantor Marie Betcher, education director at Congregation Shir Ami, was
recently invited to also serve as the six-year-old Reform congregations first
spiritual leader, making her the sixth female cantor in the nation to serve in
that capacity. At our upcoming (American Conference of Cantors) convention
in San Francisco, there will be a meeting of cantors serving congregations as
spiritual leaders, she said. That there are enough to hold a meeting indicates
that this is a growing trend around the country.
Cantor Yitzhak Ben-Moshe is scheduled to arrive at traditional, nonegalitarian Conservative Congregation Beth El this month as its first spiritual
leader (it has been lay-led since its founding in 1981). Ben-Moshe will lead
services and give divrei Torah. He will also conduct life-cycle events. Theres
a sense that synagogues need to be musical and participatory, the cantor said,
moving away from the rabbi as a lecturer and leader of English readings, and

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the sort of formal worship that was characteristic of American congregation

in the 20th century. The 21st century is moving towards a model of service
filled with singing and spirit. I think cantors as spiritual leaders are one side
of that.
Tonyia Cone, correspondent
The Jewish Outlook, Austin

Subject: Hasidim and Mitnagdim Between the Wars in

Northeast Poland
October 20, 2009
JSM 2009s Point/Counterpoint articles about a comfortable symbiosis between the Hasidic and Mitnagdic communities in Vilna during the 1920s
and 1930s concur with what I read recently in an Internet Yizkor Book from
Zambrow, in the Bialystok province of Northeast Poland. Pages 220 and
256-258 show that the Rebbe of the Habad Hasidim had earlier Judaized
an old Ukranian folk songs mocking condemnation of a doltish peasant who
neither bought nor sold anything at market. In the Rebbes version, the neerdo-well becomes the yeitser ha-ra (evil inclination) and the general populace
who shun him are Jews from various communities. The Ukranian lyrics have
been replaced by a Hebrew refrain from Psalm 42:3, with Yiddish verses that
unite all Jews against the allure of evil:

Neither the Hasidim nor the Mitnagdim

Whether dwelling in Jerusalem or Babylon
Will follow youO evil inclination
Or listen to your covetous enticement;
Instead, their bodies thirst for the Holy One

Their souls yearn for the Worlds Radiance!

The Rabbi of Zambrow, in his 90s during the 1930s, was a Litvak (Lithuanian), but no flaming opponent of Hasidism. In fact he never distinguished
between Hasidim or Mitnagdim, but gathered to him all who feared and
adhered to Gods word. He demonstrated this love for all Israel by singing
and dancing the Habad Rabbis Niggun (see p. 236) with Yeshiva bakhurim
on every yom tov.
Helen Winkler
Toronto

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Dem rebbns niggun

Zambrow Yizkor Book: Image 232
Chabad sefer ha-niggunim: Number 196

Moderato

REFRAIN: Hoy

tsom - oh, tsom - oh, tsom - oh,

tsom - oh

l-kho

naf -

kom - hoh, l-kho

shi;

b-so - ri.

ho - ro,
ker dir
yet - ser
gey dir vay - ter
vi - der;
Bav - lim - lekh;
mis - nagdim - lekh, Yeru - shal - mim - lekh,
mar - ku tshtsho - ti
yar - mor - ku;)
du - ren
rub - yash na

Akh! du,
VERSE 1:
VERSE 2: Khasidim - lekh,
(UKRANIAN: Ekh - ta
7

Kom - hoh, kom - hoh, kom - hoh, kom - hoh,

gey
dir
VERSE 1:
ve - ln
dir
VERSE 2:
(UKRANIAN: nyit kop - lyayesh

tsu
day - ne
lib nit
fol - gn,
veln
nyi - pro - da - yesh, shol-ko

ste
dir
rab

nit
- yish

bri he smar -

der.
rn.
ka.)

Subject: The Glantz/Pinchik Conundrum

September 3, 2009

I read with interest this article by Joseph Levine in the Fall 2009 Journal, and
wish to clarify several matters.
1. Hazzan Levine seems to indicate that the earlier publication of Glantzs
arranged recitatives by Bloch Publishing Company in the late 1940s,
relative to the publication of Pinchiks arranged recitatives by the Cantors
Assembly some fifteen years later, relates to a lesser degree of accessibility
on the part of Pinchiks approach. He cites Glantzs Shema Yisroel and
Pinchiks Rozo Dshabbos as cases in point. The three pieces by Glantz that
Bloch published were not necessarily issued because of public demand.
Bloch generally published with the financial support of the composer in
question; funds were raised even to facilitate the publication of Cantor
Gershon Ephros six-volume Cantorial Anthology (1940-1953). Hence
it is probable that the publication of Glantzs Shema Yisroel, Uvnucho
Yomar and Holoch Vkoroso was made possible by a subventionif not
by Glantz himselfthan most certainly by Sarah Wachs, who served
selflessly as his manager for many years.

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2. As to the printing of Pinchiks recitatives, I have heard a privately made

1951 tape of a conversation between Cantors Moshe Ganchoff, Pinchik
and Wolf Hecker (then director of Hebrew Union Colleges School of
Sacred Music), concerning the planned publication of such a volume. On
the tape, Pinchik sings excerpts from Mloch, Mah Tovu and a few other
texts. The underlying implication of the discussion is that The Repertoire
of Hazzan Pinchikat least its liturgical portionwas to be published
by The Sacred Music Press as part of its Out of Print Classics Series of
Synagogue Music (1954). Moreover, Cantor Noah Schall informed me
that in 1953 he was contacted by Pinchik to possibly edit the placement
of texts within the scores of such a publication. Why HUC dropped the
project shortly thereafter is uncertain.
3. Regarding a basis for the estrangement between Glantz and Pinchik, there
is no indication that it was due to Glantzs disapproval of his competitors
lifestyle (aside from a statement to that effect which Hazzan Levine
attributes to Glantzs son, Ezra). Did Glantz distance himself from anyone
else in his field because that colleague was not an exemplar of Torah
life? Rather, one might conclude it was simply a matter of professional
jealousy. Regardless of what one might think of the hazzanic talent of
these two greats, Glantz was not a popular cantor in the same sense that
Pinchik was. One indication: in 1941 when Glantz served Sinai Temple
of Los Angeles, his yearly compensation was around $6,000. Pinchik was
paid more for Yamim Noraim alone at the time.
Barry Serota
Chicago

Subject: Jewish Music as Midrash: What Makes Music

Jewish?
September 1, 2009

[Editors note: Jack Kesslers review of the above book appeared in

the Fall 2009 Journal; this is author Michael Isaacsons reply.]

Jack, I thank you for your thoughtful review of my book and CDs. Undoubtedly you read the book and considered your review deeply. and for that Im
grateful to you. I do think it would have been a better, more balanced review

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had you left your own biases at the front door and really reviewed all I had
to say.
You suggest that my background and environment is Classical Reform
(which doesnt even exist anymore), but a look at my bio would have told you
that I was brought up Orthodox, went to a yeshiva, and have composed for
Conservative synagogues as well. I even can read Hebrew!
I never implied that all art is midrash. I did suggest that the best art can
function as midrash and most often does.
I dont understand how you can laud one aspect of the overtone system
and yet call the evolution of western music silly when it follows the direct
path of overtones from the fundamental to its higher more dissonant partials.
Believe me, microtonal music is one of the possibilities for the future and in
synthesis it is alive and well today.
Tell your singers whom you teach not to be concerned about textual matters
like diction and meaning as well as musical issues and just sing the gestalt.
Art is in the details... you know that... and so is active listening. Not so intellectual ... just honest instruction.
You accuse me of focusing only on music performed in the synagogue,
but what about my chapter on Life Cycle music? Did it not fit into your
agenda?
This comes down to your less-than-subtle personal bias of active participation. When a rabbi has the congregation talk along with his drash, Ill buy
into your blanket thesis of dynamic engagement. Until then Ill continue
advocating moments of thoughtful listening by the congregation (which, as
you know, can be just as actively engaged) initiated by skilled hazzanim and
not merely by expedient song leaders.
I also spent a great deal of time talking about the balanced bimahand balance in all repertoire. Did you miss these words? or did they also not fit into
your own bias? I have nothing against Klezmer but refuse to extol it as the
art form that you seemingly adore. As a matter of fact, when I was growing
up, second rate musicians, who only played wedding and Bar Mitzvahs, were
known as Klezmorim. I guess this echelon is more than enough for you... it is
neither for me nor for many Jews who have been turned away from Judaism
by its present musical banality.
Finally, I have nothing against mindful ecstasy, but that does call for some
intellectuality (or at least a functioning mind), which you repeatedly seem

234

reticent to acknowledge or support. I dont think you can have it both ways,
unless unconsidered ecstasy is enough for you, too.
The bottom line for me is that unless cantors begin to act like hazzanim
again, all this active participation will lead to song leaders replacing trained
synagogue musicians. Could that replacement be your bottom line thesis?
Michael Isaacson
Encino, CA

Subject: A Song Treasury Worth Researching

Date: December 13, 2009
An amazing collection of Yiddish folk-and-art songs in every imaginable
category, as well as Israeli songs from the early Halutzim period onward, plus
immaculately prepared talks on these topics, all in handwritten-printed-and
recorded form, was recently donated by Naomi Bell, one of my dearest friends
and a devoted member of our congregation, to the University of Toronto. Over
many decades Naomi has collected, studied, performed and lectured about
this material, one of the largest private Jewish music collections anywhere.
On several occasions I was honored to have her accompany me in presenting sample programs from this treasury, such as The Yiddish Art Song
and Songs of the Halutzim, and can attest to the profound impression they
left upon audiences. Naomi later told me she looked back fondly upon the
years we worked together as her golden memories, and in a very real sense,
theyre mine as well.
To discover whats in the 23 boxes and items of Bell, Naomi. Papers, 19232003, please log onto [Finding Aid]. The collection is housed in the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto [www.library.utoronto.ca].
Beny Maissner
Toronto

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Louis Dantos 4-CD Retrospective Album50 Years of

Musical Treasuresand His Music Collection
Reviewed by Charles Heller
The 4-CDCommemorative Album
Modestly packaged by Cadenza
Records (LRCD 120) without liner
notes except to indicate place and
date of performance, this 4-CD set
spans an incredible 50 years of performances. Be prepared to hold your
breath for 4 CDs of musicthese are
definitive performances of classics
of Jewish music, from the Baroque
era to modern Israel, as well as opera
arias and lieder.
This collection consists of neverbefore released recordings of concerts and broadcasts. Many of the
concerts were never professionally
recorded, and we owe the recordings to amateur enthusiasts in the
audience.
The opening track sets the tone: Glantz setting of Ezkra Elohim (from
Neilah). Despite being inadequately miked, and with an indifferent accompaniment, this is a stunning performance of stunning music. If you never
had the privilege of attending the Neilah service at Beth Emeth Synagogue
in Toronto (where Danto would give a thrilling account of this piece, top Bflats and all, despite having been fasting for 24 hours) this recording will give
you some idea of what you missed.
CD1 comprises selections from liturgy, with real hazzanut composed by
Roitman and Glantz as well as more folky Hasidic-style settings, and including
Ben Steinbergs soothing Shalom rav. There is even a live performance of the
Sheva brakhot, accompanied on the legendary Conn organ. It was state-of-

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the-art in the 1960s, but was old-fashioned by the 1980s when this recording
was made; but even in the 1990s when its obsolescence meant you could not
get spare parts, it was still so admired that visitors at a wedding would come
up to the organist (the present writer) almost as much in awe of the organ as
of the cantor.
CD2 is mainly music by Israeli composers, as well as other material with
Hebrew texts. There are beautiful songs by Ben Chaim (Ruah, ruah, and
Ha-geshem) as well as the colorful Boi na roati of Esther Brik, an evocation
of an idyllic Palestinian pastoral scene that surely could not be
performed today without embarrassment. There is also Mirons charming Ufi
ruah and some Israeli Song Festival-type numbers. An unexpected track is a
niggun recorded in 1989. Despite the poorly-miked choir in the background,
Danto gives a soulful performance. (This niggun, arranged by the present reviewer
who learnt it from an elderly member of his congregation, is published by
Neil A. Kjos Music Company, as Niggun/Hasidic Melody, Catalog #8779).
There are 17 tracks altogether on this disc, but the titles just mentioned
will give you a sense of the whole disc.
CD3 is devoted to Yiddish songs, ranging from Goldfaden operettas to songs
composed in the shadow of the Holocaust, such as the almost unbearably
moving Unter di poylishe grininke boymelekh, here poignantly paired with
its pre-Holocaust model Unter di grininke boymelekh (regrettably not listed
in the liner notes). These 21 selections are noteworthy for Dantos limpid
Yiddish enunciation, his sense of humor, his bel canto control of dynamics
at the service of the text, lovingly caressing the mommeh loshn (in truth, his
mother tongue.) These are all expressive performances informed by his own
life experiences, but especially noteworthy are Gebirtigs Dray tekhterlekh
and Secundas setting of Leivicks starkly dramatic poem Eybik.
CD4 contains 19 tracks of arias, lieder and Neapolitan favorites. Included
are four selections from a recital given in 1954, which demonstrate that right
from the start of his career Danto has been a master of the voix mixte, a vital
component of bel canto that enables the lowest register to flow seamlessly
into the highestand vice versa. This is particularly well shown in the wide
compass of Unaura amorosa from Cosi fan tutte. We forget today that Mozart
in the 1950s was a minority taste waiting to be rediscovered, as Handel still
was in the 1960s (see below). In fact, Cosi had only had its U.S. premiere 30
years before this recording was madethere were undoubtedly listeners in
Dantos audiences who had never even heard of this opera! Louis Danto has
often remarked on how even celebrated singers at that time would shmir
(grease) Mozarts vocal runs instead of singing each note because they simply

237

did not have the technique to tackle bel canto repertoire. This is of course not
a fault in this CD, although there are no conspicuous runs to show off in this
aria, nor in the other Mozart selection, Dalla sua pace from Don Giovanni
(which was actually written for a singer of limited ability at the Vienna production of 1788). Dantos very selection of this repertoire in the 1950s indicates
an exceptional musical talent at work and a commitment to bel canto from
the very start of his career, developing into a life-long mission.
Also noteworthy is Handels Non lo diro col labbro from Tolomeo (once
known to English audiences as Did You Not See My Lady)a brave choice for
a concert in 1965, before the Handel revolution of the 1970s. Although this
track is poorly recorded, encumbered with a ponderous accompaniment,
yet we can discern here also at this stage in Dantos career the control of a
bel canto expert, especially in the sensational messa di voce leading into the
da capo (which sadly lacks embellishment). By the way, the liner notes give
this aria its alternative English title: Silent Worship (Alexander, the character,
is singing I shall not say it [my passion] with my lipsinstead he will rely
on his fervent gaze to indicate his feelings.) It would be very unfortunate if
anyone listening to this track thought it was Handels setting of part of the
Amidah.
Although these early operatic recordings lack much sense of drama, there
is certainly enough vocal technique for todays students to learn from, not to
mention a mastery of Italian that we do not generally associate with hazzanim.
Danto also sings in German, French, English and Russian, the latter of course
being a specialty.
My personal highlights of these CDs include: the Baroque-era cantata
Shokhen brum eil elyon by Lidarti, with its breathtakingly beautiful oboe
obbligato performed by a no-name soloist on a recording made for Israel
Radio; the Ravel-like shimmering music of Paul Ben-Haim; and the chamberensemble versions of Yiddish songs, of which we may particularly mention
the elegiac arrangement by the late Srul Glick of Gebirtigs Moyshele mayn
fraynt (with Rivka Golani, viola).
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring track of all is Secundas Dos yiddishe lid:
a scratchy recording, with a pianist playing wrong notes, and in the background the audience scraping their chairs. But waitthis was recorded in
Italy in 1948. Here is a teenaged Louis Danto, just emerged from the ashes
of Poland, singing to an audience of Displaced Persons: fun a brenendike
oyvn kumt er lebedig aroys (from a burning oven the Jew comes out alive),
as a memorable phrase from the lyric so aptly put it. This song was written

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in the 1920s; but can it ever have had a more meaningful performance than
this one in 1948?
The Music Collection
Cantor Dantos Music Collection is an archive of printed music, manuscripts
and recordings that he collected and donated to Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda
Synagogue, 100 Elder Street, North York (Toronto), ON M3H 5G7, where it
is now housed.
During his 50-year career, Cantor Danto performed a vast range of material: classical arias and lieder in Russian, Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish and other
languages; Baroque music in Italian and Hebrew (yes, there is a wonderful
repertoire of Baroque-era Jewish music, and it is largely due to Cantor Danto
that we can hear it); Yiddish folk and modern Israeli music; and of course a
vast range of cantorial music. All these categories, and more, make up the
Danto Collection, which is not only the largest collection of its kind in Canada,
but one of the major collections to be found anywhere, drawing admiration
from the worlds leading scholars.
Cantor Dantos own life-story is the background to this collection: As a boy,
he went from Poland to study music in the Soviet Union. By the time he left
school, World War II was over and his family had been destroyed. He went to
Italy and would have gone on to Palestine had he not been befriended by the
Yiddish composer Dovid Botwinik, who was studying with Professor Mortari.
Through Mortari, Danto was introduced to Biniamino Gigli, who encouraged
him to continue his vocal studies. Danto became a student of Tito Schipa (and
indeed sang Handels Lascia chio pianga at Schipas funeral).
The Collection contains many treasures collected by Danto as his career
took him around the world. It was augmented by rare editions and manuscripts
acquired through Dantos friendship with leading singers and cantors, notably
Chaim Kotylansky and Rabbi Dov Aryeh Lebel, who taught many of todays
generation of cantors (as well as being Dantos father-in-law). To get a feel of
the Collection, consider what I found when I visited it recently. I pulled out
a box of hazzanut at random and this is what was inside:

a volume by Moritz Lazarus of Lemberg, 1902; choral compositions

for Hallel by Siegmund Rosenthal, Frankfurt am Main, 1883 (in correct
German pronunciation, of course: Haudu for Hodu, etc.); music for the
Choral Temple in Nicolajeff (Ukraine) by Bezalel ben Yitshok-Eisig Brun
(better known today as the composer of Umipnei hataeinu).

This was just the first box I pulled out. There are shelves and shelves of
more boxes waiting to be catalogued

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In the Yiddish section, I found a box containing a neat pile of books arranged by size, a large anthology at the bottom, and a tiny paperback on top,
whose title reads: Noten tsu Yosef Magilnitzis Kovets shirei tsiyon vshirei am:
geshribn un aranzhirt fun berimten Musiker (Collection of folksongs, notated
and arranged by famous composers). The author is Rev Bezalel Vaysblum of
Philadelphia (no date, but from the appearance of the ads for corsets it must
be pre-World War 1). The volume includes music and words for patriotic
songs in English and Hebrew (Ashkenazi pronunciation), such as this:
Hagidu no ha-se-he-zu

L-or_ bo-ker bo-kei-a

(which you might just recognize as Oh say, can you see)

as well as Columbia the Gem of the Ocean and

My Country Tis of Thee (Ar-tsi_ bas_ dror no_ _ ei-moh).

Lower down in this box we find recitatives by A. E. Nesvizhsky of Vilna, and

what is of particular interest, an entire musical siddur by the same composer
(1903), printed by a photographic process directly from a manuscript.
The Collection also contains many valuable early editions of music by Idelsohn, such as Sefer hashirim (Berlin 1912) which includes Idelsohns original
works, under the pen-name of Ben Yehudah. Then there are early editions
of music by Warshawsky, Engel, Milner, Shnipelisky and on and on
At present, the Collection is being catalogued under the supervision of Mrs.
Rouhama Danto and two hard-working volunteers, Andrea Kirshenblatt and
Lil Perelshtein, together making up a team with a formidable knowledge of
Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew and French literature and music. The next phase
will be to make the materials more accessible to students and musicians. For
more information, please contact Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue:
[email protected] (416 633-3838).
Charles Heller recently completed 30 years as Choir Director at Beth Emeth Synagogue,
Toronto. His most recent book is the award0winning What To Listen For in Jewish
Music (Toronto: Ecanthus Press, 2006 www.ecanthuspress.com). To order the 4-CD
commemorative album, please email <<[email protected]>>.

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Lomir Zingena CD of Yiddish Songs Performed by

Children at the Bialik Hebrew Day School of Toronto
Reviewed by Errol Helfman

For a cantor or educator who wished to introduce Yiddish into their religious
school curriculum, the CD Lomir Zingen, performed by the Bialik Hebrew
Day School Students of Toronto, could be of great assistance in beginning
this process and in helping to motivate both instructors and pupils.
Here is a comprehensive 33 song, feel-good collection of traditional and
more modern Yiddish melodies, everything from joyous freylekhs and waltzes
to mournful songs of loss and yearning. It features vocals enhanced by guitar,
keyboard, tambourine, clarinet, string, electric bass and piano. While it may
not contain every melody ever written in Yiddish, it most certainly provides
an uplifting and empowering Jewish musical experience.
The CD evokes a joyous party mood, each piece capturing some facet of
the lives of East European Jewry. As the children singmostly in unison with
an added vocal solo here and therethey express the very soul of a people
from its darkest hours to its moments of ecstasy. Moreover, these day school
students introduce us to what they characterize as being their own personal
language from the first selection, Dos iz yiddish, siz mayn shprakh, mit a
veyn un mit a lakh, (This is Yiddish, it is my language, with crying and with
laughing), suggesting that Yiddish songs are a reflection of our lives. This
is particularly true of Jewish life in Canada, where Old World traditions like
the language of everyday speech lag at least a generation behind the United
States in the process of cultural assimilation.
Who would have imagined Mary Poppins singing Chim-Chiminey in
Yiddish? Yet, Zingt kinderlakh, zingt kinderlakh, zingt sheyn dos lied actually
captures the essence of Marys love for her young charges. And to simply have
fun with a class, one might try Miki mayzl, shtelt zikh kinder alle oys, lomir
shpiln kats un moys; miki mayzl, miki mayzl, ta-ra ra-ra miki mayzl, kum
arayn, un gey aroys. A loose translation would be: Mickey Mouse, lets play a
game of cat and mouse ta-ra ra-ra, Mickey Mouse, in and out the house.
One could effectively engage senior members of a synagogue with Shabbes
zol zayn (Let there be Shabbat, Yom Tov and peace all over the world). For
congregants who happen to be totally unfamiliar with Yiddish, the ya-ba baba, ya-ba ba-ba, bai bai bai bai refrain of this song will surely do the trick!
Anyone responsible for setting the religious schools music curriculum will
be interested in knowing that Lomir zingen includes many holiday songs as
well: Sukkot, Hanukkah, Tu BiShvat, Purim, and Pesah.

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The insert booklet covers all 33 songs, with Yiddish words for every selection appearing in Hebrew characters, most with brief English translations.
However, the booklet is incomplete in so far as the children sing many verses
for which no corresponding text is given in either Yiddish or English, nor any
transliteration for non-Yiddish speakers.
The engineering quality on this recording is adequate, considering that the
students were recorded in live class performance during May of 2007. The
instruments and vocals are distinct, with a good sound stage and depth of
tonal quality. Although it is evident that the performers on this CD are not
professionals, clearly the intent was to have all of the children attending this
Hebrew Day School deeply involved in mastery of, and appreciation for, the
Yiddish language.
Anita Eckhaus, vice-principal of the Bialik Hebrew Day School, who conceived the project and saw it through to completion, reminds us that, this
CD is a testament to the resilience of the Jewish culture and its ability to
evolve over time. The children of grades 3 to 8 who are heard singing from
the depths of their hearts on this recording are honoring their Yiddish teacher,
Anna Berman, who sang these songs with them during every lesson. Anita
Eckhaus, hearing these lovely sounds as she meandered through the halls
between classes, sought and found a way to capture and preserve them. For
Anna Berman, it was a dream come true, as she told the Canadian Jewish
News in an interview, a tremendously valuable resource for students as
well as anyone interested in experiencing or learning about Yiddish through
song.
This CD should appeal to all Jews, but especially to professionals who have
the responsibility of maintaining a connection with our complete musical
heritage and to preserve it for future generations.
Errol Helfman recently retired as hazzan of Temple Beth El, Birmingham, Alabama,
after a half-century in the cantorate. A native of Montreal, he studied with Tevele
Cohen, well-known cantor of the traditional Congregation Beth Itzchok in Chicago
(1932-1959), and at the Hebrew Union Colleges School of Sacred Music in New York. As
a long-time member of the Cantors Assembly he served as co-chair of its Southeastern
Region and on its Executive Council. Yiddish song, particularly in its role of helping
to establish and maintain community spirit, has held a lifelong fascination for him.
Lomir Zingen is available from the Bialik Hebrew Day School: [email protected] .

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The New British Siddur

Daily Prayer Book of the British Commonwealth,
translation by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, 2006.
Reviewed by Victor Tunkel

British Jews are proud of the fact that most of the standard editions in English
of the great classics of our peoples literature: Humash, Tanakh, Mishnah,
Talmud, Zohar, Midrash, and of course the siddur were first published in
England, rather than by the much larger and wealthier Jewish community in
America. The standard siddur for Britain and the Commonwealth has since
1890 been the so-called Singers Prayer Book of the United Synagogue (the
main Anglo-Jewish association of Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues). It got
its nickname from the clear and literate translation by the Reverend Simeon
Singer (1848-1906). It might have been equally fittingly called the Baer siddur, since for the Hebrew texts of this and all subsequent siddurim we should
acknowledge the great scholarship of Seligman Baer (1825-97).
After a long delay and much taking of opinions, the latest Singersor better
to say the first Sacks siddurappeared in 2006. That long delay has meant
quite a moderate penetration of the ArtScroll siddur in some synagogues
in Britain. For us the ArtScroll siddur has two immediate advantages over
the old Singers: its layout and typography are much superior. Those things
apart, the ArtScroll is not much liked among many regular daveners here.
Its Hebrew texts are defective (see below), its English is graceless, its rubrics
enjoin minhagim and practices not recognised by our community, and its
whole outlook is backward and blinkered.
The new siddur begins with a 22-page masterly introduction by Chief Rabbi
Sacks Understanding Jewish Prayer. He looks afresh at all the well-known
aspects of our worship: its sources, structure, study as prayer, mysticism,
history, sacrifice, kavvanah, and whether prayer is answered. (Did he mean
us to read this during services? it might prove more inspiring.)
The Sacks siddur covers all services throughout the year except those of
the High Holidays, and has all the weekday parshiyot. To achieve this the
siddur runs to nearly 1,000 pages, so with its small format the paper has to
be very thin. One wonders how durable the books will be. The Hebrew text
is in a strong, black, very sharply square font designed by Nadav Ezra. The

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inserts for special occasions, e.g. in the Amidah, indicated in the ArtScroll
by shading the text, are less clearly shown by Sacks: they are set in smaller
font and between lines. Time will tell if this works. An important innovation
is the marking, by elongation, of the short kamats, though there are some
mistakes both of inclusion and omission. (But no guidance is given as to the
pronunciation of the kamats before a hataf-kamats.) More importantly, there
are much-needed rubrics, stage-directions, guiding all the physical aspects of
worship: tsitsit, tephillin, three steps, feet together, bowing, Shma, Tahanun,
aliyot, lulav, Hoshanot, etc; though breast-beating in the Weekday amidah
is not called for. While these instructions in Traditional prayer books were
pioneered by the ArtScroll, It is our custom or According to our custom
occurs pointedly from time to time in the Sacks rubrics.
In marked contrast to the ArtScroll, our loyalty to Israel is emphasized
with the services for Yom haatsmaut and Yom Yerushalayim with, of course,
the regular prayer alongside that for the Queen and her government, for the
welfare of Medinat Yisrael and its defenders.
Some corrections to ArtScroll Hebrew: in the Kedushat Yotseir: bsafah
brurah uvinimah kedoshah, kulam etc; i.e. pure speech and sacred
melody as the utterance of the angels, is obviously right grammatically. So
also in the Hazkarah: tahat kanfei hashhinah must be right, since the metaphor is btseil knafekha, i.e., sheltered in the shadow of the divine wings;
the shadow must be beneath the wings. (The ArtScroll al kanfei seems to be
based on al kanfei nesharim (from Yitro): on eagles wings. But that was a
method of transport, not of protection. (The thought of spending all eternity
as air passengers is not appealing!)
A general point correcting ArtScroll is the supplying of the missing makeif
(hyphen) in locutions like brov-hasdekha, shmor-tam, miyordi-vor, al tizkorlanu, etc., to make the two words one. This is necessary for the recognition
of the short kamats and its pronunciation. ArtScroll is either unaware or
dismissive of this need, as it is also of the necessary hyphenation of kol (when
spelled with a kamats) to the following word, and for the same reason of pronunciation. (The one exception, correctly observed by Sacks, is in the phrase
kol atsmotai tomarna, quoted from Psalm 35, where the Masoretes made the
word stand on its own with a merkha, unhyphenated, and may therefore be
pronounced kal.)
On the other hand, Sacks and his committee have not been as bold as one
might have hoped. We are still praying in Rtsei for the acceptance of our nonexistent fire-offerings; whereas at least one edition of the ArtScroll siddurim
punctuates more appropriately: vhasheiv et haavodah lidvir beitekha vishei

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Yisrael, utfilatam, asking God to restore these offerings and meanwhile accept our prayer. Similarly, the misplaced bracket which for no reason prevents
us saying Eloheinu veilohei avoteinu on Yomtov when not Shabbat, is retained,
despite Rav Yakov Emden and others pointing it out as an early printers error.
In the Shabbat Shaharit Amidah, Chief Rabbi Hertzs siddurthough based
on the Singers had lo yishknu rshaim instead of lo yishknu areilim, but
this has not been adopted in Sacks. So the uncircumcised still cant have any
benefit from Shabbat. And the censored sentence she-heim mishtahavim
l-hevel va-rik (For they bow to vanity and emptiness...) in Aleinu remains
absent, whereas ArtScroll discreetly brackets it as optional.
There are throughout very helpful running comments or explanations to
various prayers. A minor complaint is that where these prayers occur repeatedly (the Shma, Aleinu, Kaddish, Adon Olam, etc), while we cant expect the
comments to be repeated on each occasion, there could be a cross-reference
to where they first occur. Not everyone comes to every service.
The first edition has several small typos or errors, notably the masculine
form where a memorial prayer is for a woman, and in the last refrain of Geshem
a singular in the translation for the Twelve Tribes. These may be corrected in
later impressions. However an interesting Orwellian omission is in the Preface,
where what purports to be the Preface to the first edition of 1890 is included
for historical interest. It states the Biblical passages were translated by an
accomplished scholar In the true 1890 preface he was named: Mr. Claude
G. Montefiore. But he later became an unperson because of his prominence in
the Liberal Jewish movement. This mean-spiritedness is not to be attributed
to Sacks himself but to one of his predecessors, as the suppression occurred
in previous Singers editions. (Was Sacks aware of it?)
Sackss translations (S. below) are not only literate but elegant, and especially when compared with the clumsy wordiness and obscurity of ArtScroll
(A. below). For example:
A. Our oxen are laden; there is neither defection nor outburst, nor wailing in
our streets
S. Our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breach in the walls, no
going into captivity, no cries of distress in our streets
(Psalm 144)

A. He will judge the corpse-filled nations

S. He will execute judgement among the nations, heaping up the dead
(Av HaRahamim)

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A. You have changed for me my lament into dancing

S. You have turned my sorrow into dancing

(Psalm 30)

A. For His anger endures for a moment; life results from His favour
S. For His anger is for a moment, but His favour for a lifetime
(Psalm 30)

A. Long has my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am peacebut when
I speak they are for war
S. I have lived too long among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but
whenever I speak of it, they are for war
(Psalm 120)

In these and many other examples, not only is the language more thoughtful
and graceful (and often also rhythmical) but the meaning is so much clearer.
ArtScroll is particularly unintelligible with medieval poetry, for example in
Geshem:
A. May He obligate [the Angel Af-Bri] to give us portions of the segregated
rain to soften the wastelands face when it is dry as rock
S. May He make him apportion due portions of rain,
Moistening the earth with drops pure as opal

Similarly in the Shabbat Zmirot, admittedly very compressed in poetic

meaning, Sackss version is not only more intelligible but also retains the
metre of the Hebrew.
A. Concerning the ban of labor, the Awesome One commanded us;
I shall merit kingly glory if I safeguard the Sabbath: I shall bring an
offering to the Fearsome One, a perfumed meal-offeringSabbath of
contentment.
S. All work is forbidden by the revered Ones commandment.
I
will merit royal glory if I keep the Sabbath day,
Bringing the Awesome One a sweetly scented gift
A Sabbath of serenity.

(Yom Zeh LYisrael)

A general improvement is the rendering of Shma Yisrael as Listen, Israel

instead of the time-honoured but obsolete usage Hear, O Israel. As Sacks
explains, listening is active, hearing is passive.

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For readers of this Journal, I regret that there is no music included, nor
even a mention of the importance of music as the inseparable vehicle of our
prayer, and despite Sackss affirmation in the introduction that the Siddur is
the choral symphony the covenantal people has sung to God across forty centuries When the original Singers was published by the United Synagogue
in 1890, they at the same time published their large Blue book of choral and
congregational music (referred to in the 2008 issue of JSM, pages 205-6). The
Singers siddur and this musical compendium have gone along in tandem for
over a century. However the English Sephardi community have done better.
Their daily siddur has 117 pages of music as an addendum in the siddur itself.
Perhaps if the Ashkenazim had done likewise there might be less ignorance
of basic nusah and less scope for the unsuitable tunes that characterize much
Anglo-Jewish worship today. But that is a subject for another day.
Victor Tunkel, a London barrister and law lecturer, has had a lifetime involvement in
Jewish music as an amateur chorister, cantor, cantillator, collector and educator. His
elegant taste is evidenced by his pairing of the Halevi poem with the Duarte Sonatina
in JSM 2007 (Music of the First Jewish Woman Composer). His book, The Music
of the Hebrew Bible: The Western Ashkenazic Tradition, was reviewed in the
2006 Journal.

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Khei HaolamimLife of the Worlds

Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music

by Cantor Richard Kaplan, 2003 Five Souls Music

Reviewed by Ira S. Bigeleisen

Life of the Worlds is a remarkable and wonderful journey into Sephardic

piyyut and Hasidic niggun. Cantor Kaplan has a rich baritone voice that he
uses expressively, at times with great bravura, at other times with an intimacy
that goes deep into the heart. On this wide-ranging recording, Kaplan applies
his ethno-musicological training to liturgical texts from Jewish communities
around the world. As a result, no two of the eighteen tracks are alike. The selections are interpreted with a sure musical sense that always seems intuitively
right. The accompaniments are engaging and fit naturally with the music.
The accompanying booklet has personal notes on each piece along with the
words, transliterations and word for word translations, in other words it is
both accessible and useful.
1. Haaderet vehaemunahLeKhay Olamim: A Yemenite Piyyut with a
refrain for Leader and Congregation to be sung before the Amidah. I think
this piece is eminently suitable for worship because the congregational
refrain is so singable that people would pick it up immediately. It is
performed with an arrangement of Middle Eastern instruments that
builds as the song goes on.

2. LeEil Adir Nranenah: An Afghani piyyut in alphabetical acrostic for leader

and congregational response accompanied with piano, doira (frame drum
with jingles) and tar (long-necked lute). The verses are rhythmic and the
response is instantly learnable.
3. Bati Legani: A beautiful melody by Rav Zalman Shachter-Shalomi; the
text is from Shir Hashirim. The intimate singing combines with the piano
accompaniment in an especially affective rendition.
4. Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden: Based on the concept of Kinot on Tishah
BAv, this is a lament for the destruction of the earth (an eco-lament).
In Hebrew and English, with words and music by Cantor Kaplan, the
unaccompanied melody uses Eikha trop as its inspiration. Here Kaplan
does some of his most creative work as a composer and writer.
5. Sephardi Yerushalmi Khatsi Kaddish: The melody is the popular Ladino
song, Cuando El Rey Nimrod. The accompaniment by oud (pear-shaped
lute) and kanun (board zither) is charming.
6. Nava Thilah: Shokhein Ad is set to an Afghani Folksong in 7/8 meter;
this is one of the most interesting of all the settings. Accompanied by

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ney (Turkish end-blown flute) saz (wire-stringed lute), dundun (African

talking-drum) and dumbek (hand-held drum), the piece rocks.
7. Hayoshevet Baganim: Set to a text from Shir Hashirim, the melody is
Yemenite. With only a drum for accompaniment, the music is almost
mantra-like. Cantor Kaplan is in his element here with a performance
that is truly meditative.
8. Ein Keiloheinu: This is an authentically non-Western approach to the
familiar piyyut, its Moroccan melody being worlds apart from the usual
four-square tunes heard in most American synagogues. I suspect that
without the accompaniment, worshipers would find the melody difficult
to follow. That being said, the performance is quite engaging.
9. Modeh Ani/Elohay Neshamah: These two excerpts from Birkhot HaShahar
are set to a beautiful Sephardi melody from Salonica that suits both the
text and most voices. The performance is full of feeling, with a supple,
expressive line and very effective accompaniment on the oud and ney
(long, end-blown flute).
10. Eli Shema Koli: The piece opens and ends with an unaccompanied,
unmeasured chant from the Sephardi Yerushalmi community. This
Moroccan piyyut is sung to the tune of an Algerian freedom song in
which the leader intersperses each verse with a chorus that involves the
congregation responsively. The accompaniment on accordian, dumbek
(chalice-shaped drum), riqq (Arabic tambourine), bendir (Moroccan
framed drum), violin and oud gives the song a driving verve.
11. Reb Nachmans Niggun: Kaplan is at his most captivating in this
unaccompanied, meditative niggun of the Bratslaver Rebbe. The singing
is admirable, but at times felt a bit static to this reviewer...
12. Hishtapkhut Nefesh: This is a beautiful rendition of the piece by Menachem
Mendel of Vitebsk. The Yiddish is beautifully pronounced and the
accompaniment by cimbalon, bass, tilinca (Romanian wooden pipe
with no finger-holes), baraban (two-skinned drum from the Caucasus
played with sticks), and violin is effective. In the accompanying notes,
Kaplan identifies the mode as a gypsy doina; in Yiddish its known as
a volokhl (shepherds song in the Ukrainian-Dorian minor mode with
characteristically raised fourth and sixth steps).
13. Niggun of the Alter Rebbe: In this dveikut (meditative clinging-to-God)
niggun by Shneur Zalman of Lyady, who founded the HaBaD branch of
Hasidism), Kaplan attains an appropriately devout mood, through his
beautiful and deeply felt tone of voice.
14. Veerastikh Li: Set to a Salonican melody, this three-part nuptial vow
from Hosea is used in daily prayer while wrapping the fingers with the

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Tefillin shel Yad. Here Kaplan combines vocal sonority, sinuous line and
supportive accompaniment into a very moving rendition.
15. El Mistater: Kaplan chants this unaccompanied piyyut from the Husyatiner
Hasidim without the varied coloration and vocal agility that is so evident
on every other track on this recording.
16. Ashrey: This is a jazzy version of the deservedly popular responsive setting
for Psalm 145 by Pinchas Spiro. In the middle of itfrom Tov HaShem
la-kol through L-hodia livnei ha-adam(verses 9-12 ), Kaplan inserts a
Gregorian chant as sung by Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata on their
recording, The Sacred Bridge: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe. The
chant actually originates in Sephardic practice, as Eric Werner showed
so clearly in his book The Sacred Bridge (1955: 419f ).
17. Yemeni Shema: This melody is verifiably Yemenite, and Kaplan is once
again in his comfort zonecombining his beautiful voice with musical
sensibility to create an impressively novel rendition of a familiar text.
18. Grandfather Sang a Song: The prayer ha-maariv aravim from the Evening
serviceis first chanted in Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) style. That is followed
by the personal tale of how Kaplans family emigrated to America. The
chant then re-emerges in a jazz version interposed with Yiddish. This
story of the American Jewish Experience interweaves cultural elements
from all over the diaspora, and transforms them into something new and
unique.

Richard Kaplan is an artist well worth getting to know. His varied interests
and musical acumen make this recording a listening pleasure from beginning to end. Whether accompanied or a cappella, the music is served with a
conviction that allows for setting aside ones critical ear in order to make the
journey with Kaplan. Moreover, his innovative melding of piyyut texts with
disparate musical traditions points a plausible way toward the re-invigoration
of Jewish music generally and Jewish worship in particular.
Ira S. Bigeleisen has been cantor at Adat Ari El congregation in Valley Village, CA,
since 1993. A graduate of the Belz School of Jewish Music of Yeshiva University,
he has appeared as a guest hazzan and concert artist all over the United States,
Europe and Israel. Considered an authority on the nusah of prewar Germany, he
led services at the re-opening of the Rykestrasse Synagogue in Berlin. Adat Ari El
has won top awards for worship programming under his leadership, including
One Shabbat Morning, the innovative Saturday morning service. He is currently
composing music for children aged four-and-up to sing in the traditional service.

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Zamru LoThe Next Generation, Volume III

Congregational Melodies for Hallel, Shalosh Rgalim,
and the Weekdays
Compiled and Edited by Cantor Jeffrey Shiovitz
(Cantors Assembly, 2009)

Reviewed by Sam Weiss

Readers of this journal surely know what to expect in a volume of congregational melodies compiled and edited by the indefatigable and diligent Jeffrey
Shiovitz. Volume III of Zamru LoThe Next Generation continues the high
standards and comprehensive scope Shiovitz established for Volume I (published in 2004, and devoted to Shabbat melodies), which was reviewed by
Robert Scherr.1 In fact, many if not all of Scherrs basic observations on the
editorial, liturgical, musical and textual qualities of Volume I are also applicable
to Volume III, and I refer the reader to that review for those observations.
Not reviewed in these pages, however, was Volume II, Shiovitzs 2006
compilation of melodies for the High Holidays. The present review of Volume
III will therefore also glance at Volume II while taking the measure of the
entire three-volume Next Generation anthologyparticularly as it relates
to its predecessor, the three-book Zamru Lo collection compiled and edited
by Moshe Nathanson. These books were originally published by the Cantors Assembly in 1955 (Congregational Melodies and Zemirot for the Friday
Evening Service), 1960 (Congregational Melodies and Zemirot for the Entire
Sabbath Day) and 1974 (Congregational Melodies for the Shalosh Rgalim
and the High Holidays). When necessary, the six Zamru Lo volumes will be
referenced here individually by their respective editors surnames and year
of publication.
In his preface to the Sabbath collection (Shiovitz 2004) the editor only
foresaw a single second volume which will contain congregational melodies
for the Yamim Noraim and Shalosh Regalim. This was a reasonable prediction considering that his Volume I covered ground (Friday night and Shabbat
day) similar to the earlier Volumes I and II (Nathanson 1955; 1960), and one
additional book would logically correspond to Volume III (Nathanson 1974).
It is a tribute to the dedication to his mission that Shiovitz did not keep to that
plan, but when faced with the wealth of available material he instead created
two more handsome Next Generation volumes that round out a magnificent
library of traditional and modern synagogue melodies.
1

Journal of Synagogue Music, Fall 2005, vol. 30, 228-230.

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That Shiovitz completed this project in only five years (compared to the
nineteen-year publication spread of Nathansons Zamru Lo) earns him an
extra Yasher Koah. The shorter production time may have been a factor in
why the new Zamru Lo is a somewhat more cohesive anthology than the
older one. For example, the original first two volumes (Nathanson 1955; 1960)
were transliterated according to Ashkenazic pronunciation while the third
(Nathanson 1974) transitioned to the modern Israeli pronunciation. All of
Shiovitzs volumes use the same modern transliteration system. The earlier
project had sixty-two Hallel selections divided equally over two separate
books (Nathanson 1960; 1974), but in The Next Generation all of the Hallel
pieces can be found between the same two covers (Shiovitz 2009), and their
total number has increased almost threefold.
The fact that the Hallel service constitutes substantially more than half of
Shiovitzs Volume III explains why it gets top billing in his title, while Hallel
does not appear in any of Nathansons titles.2 Whether this new quantitative
emphasis on Hallel represents a new reality in current synagogue practice or
simply reflects a greater abundance of published music available to the editor
is an open question that is also applicable to other liturgical areas that Shiovitz
has expanded, like the sixty-two item Weekdays section.3 But even more significant than the comparative numbers is the fact that twenty-five of Nathansons
original sixty-two Hallel settings are also included in Shiovitzs one hundred
and seventy-fourwhich hints at the many decisions that Shiovitz had to make
in compiling a Zamru Lo for the the 21st Century.
This ratio of the old incorporated within the new nicely illustrates how the
two Zamru Lo anthologies complement each other, and similar examples of the
interdependency between the two Zamru Lo generations abound throughout the
collections. For the newest synagogue melodies its The Next Generation; for
2
Regarding this newfound congregational status of Hallel one can ironically
albeit hyperbolicallyapply a verse from Hallel itself: Even maasu habonim haytah
lrosh pinah (Psalm 118:22, the stone that the builders cast aside has become the
cornerstone).
3
This portion of the book consists of an entirely new Shaharit section plus a
virtually new Maariv sectioni.e. fifteen new settings as opposed to the earlier five
snippets of Maariv inserted between the Zmirot for Sudah Shlishit and Motzaei
Shabbat (Nathanson 1960). Shiovitzs Weekdays selections are based largely on the
works of Max Wohlberg, Samuel Rosenbaum, Pinchas Spiro, and Jack Chomsky. It is
noteworthy that Wohlbergs contributions to this Next Generation section come from
his Shahar Avakeshkha, a forward-looking collection of melodies that was published
in 1974the same year as Nathansons third previous generation Zamru Lo.

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traditional chestnuts and even some of the old masters its The Next Generation
and/or Nathansons Zamru Lo. The older Zamru Lo settings included by Shiovitz
have not merely been reprinted, however. They have also benefited from two
important features of the new collection: completely notated texts for passages
that contain repeated melodies (more so in Volume III than in the Shabbat and
High Holidays volumes), and full chord symbols for every measure (and often
every beat) of music. These chords are not the perfunctory basics, but rather
interesting musical enhancements that make the pieces inviting and enjoyable
whether or not one uses accompaniment in performance.4
Comparing the two collections for the fate of individual texts can be illuminating. For example, the famous Selihot passage beginning with the words
hanshamah lakh (Yours is the soul) was classically a favorite spot for hazzanic improvisation rather than congregational singing; it is thus plausibly
missing from the first Zamru Lo High Holidays section (Nathanson 1974).
After Shlomo Carlebach, the progenitor of Neo-Hasidic music, released
his first record album with Hanshamah lakh as the title song, the melodic
preferences for this text gradually changed from cantorial to congregational.5
This is duly reflected in four congregational melodiesincluding Carlebachs
presented in The Next Generation (Shiovitz 2006, 710).6
A similar, if more subtle, trend can be discerned in the concluding verses
of Min Hameitzar (Psalm 118) in the Hallel service (Shiovitz 2009, 94-126).
While the end of this psalm has long standing as a passage sung chorally or
congregationally, such treatment would logically begin at odkha ki anitani, the
first of the set of four repeated final verses. Indeed, of the eleven melodies for
4
One assumes that it is Jeffrey Shiovitz who provided the careful chording,
though it is not explicitly mentioned. This reticence typifies the lower profile that
Shiovitz maintains throughout the pages of The Next Generation series. Whereas
Moshe Nathansons name appears all over his Zamru Lo books as arranger and/or
assumed composer of many passages (especially those labeled traditional), the name
Shiovitz does not appear at all beyond the preface. Unfortunately, in this volume the
reluctance to acknowledge sources of arrangements often affects pieces whose arrangers are known, including those documented by Nathanson.
5
For a full discussion of the development of Neo-Hasidic music in the synagogue see Sam Weiss, Carlebach, Neo-Hasidic Music, and Current Liturgical Practice,
Journal of Synagogue Music, Fall 2009, vol. 34, 55-75.
6
The fact that the Carlebach version is first of the four is strictly due to alphabetical
order. Shiovitz continues Nathansons model of organizing all melodies for a given title
in alphabetical order by composers surname (including the name Traditional, which
comes before Unknown). This proves useful when searching for a particular version
among the twenty or thirty settings of some of the more popular titles in this book.

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the end of this Psalm in the first Zamru Lo (Nathanson 1960; 1974), ten begin
at odkha ki anitani and only one (by Jacob Beimel) begins at the preceding
verse, pithu li shaarei tzedek. Beimels version is also included in The Next
Generation (Shiovitz 2009, 96), along with three others that begin at pithu li
and twenty-one more that begin at odkha ki anitani. But this slight difference
in the ratio of one starting point over the other is not nearly as striking a change
as the twelve additional settings of the verse pithu li shaarei tzedek by itself,
i.e., without continuing into odkha ki anitani. This liturgical development, too,
is part of Shlomo Carlebachs legacy: Pithu li shaarei tzedek was the opening song on his iconic album At the Village Gate, which featured this verse in
Hebrew letters on its cover.7
Along with the expanded liturgical sections there are abridged ones as well.
Totally absent from The Next Generation are any Haggadah melodies (save for
the incidental Hallel psalms, of course), which is in marked contrast to the earlier
full inventory of tunes for the Passover Seder (Nathanson 1974). This sound
editorial decision reflects the fact that compared to thirty-five years ago, only a
minority of hazzanim conduct Seders for their congregants, so the main locus of
this repertoire has shifted from the synagogue to the Hebrew School. Similarly
gone are the former Zmirot sections (Nathanson 1955; 1960). In this case the
missing items have not really disappeared; they are actually flourishing in their
new home, the popular BKol Ehad booklets also edited by Jeffrey Shiovitz.
Although they are mainly books of congregational melodies, both Zamru
Lo series contain a fair amount of material that is not meant for congregations
to sing, such as various versions of the Kaddish and other nusah passages that
may contain only brief congregational responses, or pieces which unrealistically assume that the congregation will imitate a hazzanic phrase by the cantor.8
In Volumes II and III of The Next Generation, however, there is yet a greater
amount of solo music. Examples include pieces that are clearly choral rather than

7
This cover design was, of course, a bold play on the words shaarei tzedek
(gates of righteousness) and Village Gate, the name of the nightclub where Carlebachs 1963 live performance was recorded.
8
E.g. the Min hameitzar verses in the Shofar ceremony (Nathanson 1974;
Shiovitz 2006), or the complete piyyut for Tfillat geshem (Nathanson 1974; Shiovitz
2009).

254

congregational,9 passages of straight davenen,10 and even occasional recitatives.11

Many of the Weekday settings, moreover, call for congregational singing on
extended passages of rhythmic nusahwhich probably works better on paper
than in a real congregation (Shiovitz 2009, 220-260).12
It is rare for an anthology of this size (the three books total close to a thousand
large-format pages) to be totally free from errors. Perhaps due to the accelerated
production schedule alluded to before, or for other reasons, the latest Zamru
Lo volume does have its share of spelling inconsistencies that could have been
corrected with further proofing.13 A bit more surprising are some incorrectly
sequenced prayers. In the Hallel section both settings of Heemanti ki adabeir
(Psalm 116) precede Adonai zkharanu (Psalm 115), and both settings of the
related Psalm 116 text Ki hilatzta nafshi inexplicably appear between Ma ashiv
and Lkha ezbah.
It is commendable that the Passover hymn Brah Dodi is included in the Shalosh Rgalim section, but for some reason this piyyut for the First Days of the
holiday comes after the Seventh Day hymn Yom lyabashah. The latter setting,
a nice adaptation by Abraham Idelsohn of a folk melody, is mistitled (also in
Nathanson 1974) Shirah hadashah, after its recurring refrain. By not using the
9
For example, where Nathanson has a brief citation from Wolf Shestapols
choral setting of Adonai zkharanu (beginning with the words lo hameitim), Shiovitz
has the complete psalm (misattributed to Sevastopol), whose melody line is clearly
beyond the limits of congregational singing (Nathanson 1960, 66; Shiovitz 2009, 39).
10 There is a nice Kvakarat roeh edro and a Ki veiti veit tfillah in the High
Holiday volume charmingly attributed to Boro Park (as if this removes it from the
category of Unknown), and a sweet but clearly hazzanic Shma koleinu by Lawrence
Avery. (Shiovitz 2006, 109, 245, 246). Avery is also the source of the Shalosh Rgalim
solos Ein kamokha, Shalosh pamim, and Birkat kohanim (Shiovitz 2009, 168, 206,
207). Particularly noteworthy are Charles Davidsons setting of the Nanuim for Hodu,
the traditional settings of Meirshut for Hatan torah and Hatan breishit, as well as the
traditional chant of Akdamut milin. (Shiovitz 2009, 70, 167, 212, 213)
11 E.g. Davidsons Ahavat olam and a complete transcription of Yossele Rosenblatts Tal.
12 See note 3, above.
13 In skimming through the opening pages we find Mi Kadonai in the music
and on the contents page but Mi kadonai in the title. One title for Psalm 114 has Mah
Lcha Hayam while the title on the adjacent page drops the h in Mah. The tzeirei is
universally transliterated as ei but an occasional e or ai comes through (hahalel,
hayarden, ydaihem). There are isolated errors here and there (e.g. hayaraah vayanos,
chalomish) but certain misspellings recur in other settings of the same textnot surprising in todays copy-and-paste notation practices (e.g. hamashpili lirot hashamayim,
hahofchi atzur, av lahem vlo yrichun).

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famous incipit Yom LYabashah as the title but rather a phrase that is identical
to a nearby daily liturgical passage, this Passover gem may very well remain
unnoticed by those seeking a setting for Yom LYabashah.
Since not all users of The Next Generation collection will have an equally
solid grounding in Hebrew pronunciation (a consideration which may not have
been as relevant in Moshe Nathansons days), the key to transliterations page
at the beginning of the book is a welcome touch. Unfortunately, however, two
of the nine keys on this page (which is identical in all three volumes) are problematic. It is a common editorial time-saver in transliterating Hebrew lyrics to
coalesce the sounds of kamatz katan and holam into the single symbol o. But
to compound this shortcoming by giving only the holam pronunciation (o as in
oh) for these two distinct Hebrew vowel sounds is simply incorrect.
The second problem is not as serious, but is still worth noting. The shva na
is quite properly transliterated throughout the Zamru Lo series as an apostrophe
(though not in this books title word Regalim). Shiovitz gives the key to this
apostrophe as follows: shva [when pronounced]: i as in easily. Since the only
type of shva that is represented in lyrics using the English alphabet is the one
that is pronounced, to say when pronounced in this context is unnecessarily
confusing. More importantly, the pronunciation keyword given for this vowel (i
as in easily) is an infelicitous choice. While it is true that most native English
speakers will pronounce the middle vowel in easily as a neutral schwa sound,14
it is also a fact that too many English speakers confuse the sound of the Hebrew
shva with that of the hirik (e.g. Mi Yimaleil, liolam, etc.) so a keyword like
easily will only reinforce that tendency.15 A much less ambiguous keyword
like a as in above or e as in given would have been preferable.
Such minor critical observations aside, Jeffrey Shiovitz has done a yeomans
job in assembling and editing the three grand volumes of Zamru LoThe Next
Generation. Appreciative hazzanim and Jewish music lovers worldwide will
thank him for generations to come.
Sam Weiss, hazzan at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ, is a recitalist,
lecturer and Jewish Music consultant in the fields of liturgical, Yiddish and Hasidic
song. A frequent contributor to the Journal of Synagogue Music, his article, Carlebach,
Neo-Hasidic Music and Liturgical Practice, appeared in the Fall 2009 issue.
14 Furthermore, some British and most non-native speakers will pronounce that
vowel closer to a weak i rather than a schwa.
15 The editor himself seems to have fallen into this trap, spelling and titling
Mkimi meiafar dal correctly as Mkimi, but also incorrectly as Mikimi (Shiovitz 2009,
5, 6, 8, 10).

256

Isaac Goodfriend (1924-2009)

Isaac Goodfriends shared words of wisdom were: always sit with a Holocaust survivor and ask them to share their stories; the experience will not
only enlighten you, it will warm the survivors heart to know that somebody
cares and really wants to listen.
In turn, our late khaver Isaac managed to warm the hearts of everyone
who knew him. At Cantors Assembly conventions he would share his innate
gifts of song and wisdom with us in elevators or hallways, at meals or during
formal concerts, or late at night, just sitting around reminiscing. He was like
those Old Masters of legendary fame, whose singing could be described as
a bubbling brook.
Like flowing spring water, his warm baritone voice ran clear and pure,
soothing your soul even as the words they carried on wings of song enriched
your mind. For his vocal artistry was not confined to hazzanut alone, but

257

overflowed into a prodigious repertoire of Yiddish folk and Ghetto songs

heard during his childhood and teen years in Poland.
He was at his best in the Yiddish Cabaret-style songs that emerged from Nazi
labor camps like the one at Piotrokow were he was interned as a 16-year-old,
and from which he escaped in 1944. Hidden by a Polish farmer, he lived to
see the Wars end, and from that time on displayed an unswerving optimism
to one and all.
Isaac was a lion, an admirer said of him; and his beloved lifes partner,
Betty, was a lioness, a charming and vivacious hostess. Together, they provided a home away from home to countless colleagues who came to perform
with him or simply to visit with a couple who considered life a blessing to
be enjoyed fully.
Yet, his own narrow escape had taught Isaac that not everyone was singled
out by fate to live forever serenely and undisturbed. His album, Songs of Martyrdom and Hope ( http://faujsa.fau.edu/goodfriend/ ), features a selection
that could have served as his theme song: Di zelbe gasn (The Same Streets).
It wonders whether
it must be so
that fortune smiles on one
while his friend is in dismay
that, like the moon and sun,
our world must be this way.
and one would really like to know:
why must it always be so?

[JAL]

Di zelbe gasn
Tango Rhythm
REFRAIN:

Baritone

Piano

Zi

darf

es a - zoy zayn,

258

As sung by Issac Goodfriend

Arr. Charles Heller

zi

muz

es a - zoy

2
4

zayn

vert,

12

az far ey - nem

15

zoy

rit.

Er

hot
a tempo

zayn,

es

fregt

tsi

muz

parlando

un fregt

a - zoy

un far der tsvey - ten

rit.

es ayn - ge- shtelt

a tempo

iz zikh ba - shert

a tempo

velt,

dos

harts

zayn?

rit.

a - zoy

zol zayn di

mayn

259

iz alts far -

tsi darf a -

Barry Serota (1948-2009)

An irreplaceable bridge between the golden age of yesterday and today, Barry
Serota had made aliyah and settled in Modiin in the spring of 2009. He died
suddenlyon his way back to Israel six months laterafter a brief visit to
his former home in Chicago.
Barry was a walking encyclopedia of hazzanut, a friend of hazzanim,
whom he never hesitated to help either in his professional capacity as an
attorney or in any other way. His passion was to singlehandedly produce an
entire library of re-mastered old recordingsthrough his foundation, Musique Internationaleand to make them available for fellow lovers of hazzanut
everywhere. He was also an entertaining and informative speaker who filled
hundreds of requests over the years for lectures that included recordings and
videos from his vast collection.

260

One of Barrys favorite anecdotes concerned Cantor Pierre Pinchiks ingenious solution for a tessitura problem. Halfway through Pinchiks setting
of Rozo dshabbos (The Mystery of Sabbath), a mystical introit to the Arvit
service proper on Friday night, the music moves up a fourth and remains
centered there until the end. That particular vocal tessitura felt uncomfortably high for Pinchik on the day he recorded the prayer (Let all evil powers
flee before the Sabbath).
Since he was accompanying himself at the organ, he solved the problem
by playing the second half a semi-tone lower, in E minor instead of F minor.
The change went unnoticed because it occurred just after listeners had
turned the 12 78 RPM platter over on their phonograph turntable. Those
few among Pinchiks adoring public who did notice, simply thought it was
part of the original composition, yet another indication of their idols quirky
musical genius.
Inspection of that part of the published score proves otherwise. It shows
no key change, and confirms Barry Serotas expediential reason for the pitch
suddenly on the recording. The artist simply didnt feel up to it, and since he
was the accompanist as well (as Pinchos Siegelhis given nameyoung
Pinchik had supported his musical studies by playing piano gigs in clubs), he
improvised an unobtrusive way out of the situation.
Along with the Journal staff s deepest sympathy to his widow Yvonne and
the childrenperhaps the finest Envoi we can offer Barry are his own words,
which appear in the MAILBOX section of this issue, and reveal the acuity of
his perception when it came to matters hazzanic.

261

[JAL]

...Rozo dshabbos
Ending, first side of record: F minor...

...ro - zo de - sha - bos

6

yach - das ve - is par - shas mi - sit - ro acha - ro,

i - hi sha- bos.

262

Beginning, second side of record: E minor...

Kad

a - yil shab - to,

i - hi is -

kad a - yil shab - to...

Samuel Fordis (1921-2010)

We are fortunate to have in writing Sam Fordiss considered thoughts on the relationship between singing and string playing, which he first expressed to your editor
privately during a lull between sessions at a CA convention in the 1960s. He later
formulated these ideas in a letter that appeared in the MAILBOX section of JSM
2006. The Journal staff expresses its deepest sympathies to Sams wife, Mary, and the
entire family. [JAL]

In the 19th century there were only two great violin soloistsWiniawsky and
Joachimand none from Russia. In the 20th century most great violin soloists
were Russian, and most of them were Jews.
Why? Social reasons. Because of Russian restrictions, the only way a Jew
could get to Moscow or St. Petersburg was with special permission. Since
higher education was a closed door for Jews, the natural detour was via
the arts, whose patronsthrough their connectionscould bring talented
young Jewish violinists (easier to carry around that a piano) into the big city
conservatories, salons and halls.
Israel in the 1950s was like America at the turn of the last [19th] century,
so the European tradition of violin playing as a key to social climbing still
prevailed. Hence: Izkhak Pearlman, PInchas Zukerman and Gil Shajam. And

263

Pearlman didnt really blossom until he appeared on Ed Sullivans show, got

a Juilliard scholarship and studied with Ivan Gallamian.
In my own childhood (ca. 1930), when Jewish immigrants were beginning
to make it economically, my zeyde nixed a musical career for me: there will
be no klezmorim in this family!
But singing came naturally, so I became a child hazzan in Los Angeles,
where I grew up, even though what I wanted most was to study violin. Ironically, this push/pull worked will for me throughout my career as a professional
musician/clergyman. Violinists always considered me as a cantor, while cantors always thought of me as a violinist. Result: no professional jealousy!
As for the connection between singing and string playing, when the cellist
Lynn Harrell was starting out on this career, he confessed to his teacher that
he just couldnt bring out the tone of his instrument. The teacher advised him
to go buy a record by Cantor Pierre Pinchik, called Raza DeShabbat (The
Mystery of the Sabbath). When Harrell played it for the first time, he broke
into tears at the passage, ve-khol shiltanei rugzin u-marei de-dina (and all
the forces of evil and powers of severe judgment). When he related this to
his teacher he was told: Its not the techniquefingering and bowing in your
casethat should concern you. Pinchik wasnt interested in whether or not his
coloratura was perfectly even or whether he should be singing forte or piano;
he sang from his soul, and this is the secret that all great artists know.
I heard Pinchik daven one Pesah, and all through Shaharit Hallel and the
Torah service the man did nothing. But in the prayer U-mipnei hataeinu (Because of our Sins) of Musaf he took worshipers to a different world. In eight
minutes he had that congregation eating out of the palm of his hand.
My friend Abe Salkon (zl), who was cantor at Beth Am in Los Angeles,
later introduced me to Pinchik: Khazn, I want you to meet a mnagen godol
(great musician). I asked Pinchik: :What do you look for in a concert? Pinchik
answered, What not to do.
What ties singing to string playing is the flow, the legato (literally: tie).
After Lynn Harrell had played Pinchiks Raza DeShabbat a dozen times he
told me: I dont go anywhere without taking a tape of that recording with
me; every night its at my bedside and I listen to it before falling asleep.: In
fact, Harrell always tells students at his master classes: Now play it again,
and this time, sing with it.
The reverse is true of voice teachers; they usually tell young students to
think if a violin while singing...
[JAL}

264

THE CANTORS ASSEMBLYS

Zamru Lo The Next Generation Volume III

$49.95

Edited by Cantor Jeffrey Shiovitz, Volume III is compilation of melodies both

traditional and contemporary for Hallel, Shalosh Regalim, and weekdays. It contains
compositions by many of todays important composers as well as many traditional
melodies, complete with chords.

EASY ORDER ONLINE AT WWW.CANTORS.ORG!

Just click on Online Store at the left side of the screen

265

NEWEST PUBLICATIONS

Shabbat Mnucha

$39.95

This collection of original settings by Cantor Meir Finkelstein contains many of the
prayers sung on Erev Shabbat, with piano accompaniment. Pieces include: Shabbat
Hamalka, Shalom Aleichem, Ma Gadlu, Lcha Dodi, Ahavat Olam, And You Shall
Love, Hashkiveinu, Mi Chamocha, Vshamru, Shalom Rav, Vaychulu, Magein Avot,
and Amar Rabbi Elazar.

266

 A-R Editions, Inc.

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For over four decades A-R has published critical editions for performers and
scholars.
Our Recent Researches series encompasses music from the middle ages
through the early twentieth century, especially the Renaissance and Baroque
eras, and including oral traditions.
Chant, motets, masses, madrigals, lute music, trio sonatas, and other genres are
available in our editions.
Performance parts are available for many editionsplease inquire.

Some comments about our editions:

In seven different series they are pumping out music at a rate that makes even the glory
days of Corpus Mensurabilis Music seem tame. At the same time they seem also generally to maintain the highest standards and to present music in the sanest way possible.
David Fallows, Early Music
About the Complete Motets of Orlando di Lasso: This is a superb edition of Lassos
motets, highly recommended to scholars, students, and performers.
Jessie Ann Owens, Notes
About Fortuna Desperata: Thirty-Six Settings of an Italian Song, edited by Honey Meconi:
. . . as a data-bank on Fortuna Desperata this can hardly be bettered. . . .
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Phone 608-836-9000 Fax 608-831-8200 Customer Service (U.S. only) 800-736-0070

267

A new website has been established in tribute to:

A new website has been established in tribute to:

SIDOR BELARSKY
The Man and His Music

www.sidorbelarsky.com
Sidor
Belarsky
the singer
whoAmerican
taught Jews
American
Jews the
to
Sidor Belarsky
waswas
the singer
who taught
to understand
understand
the
unique
Yiddishkeit
of
the
songs
of
the
Jews
of
Eastern
unique Yiddishkeit of the songs of the the Jews of Eastern Europe. On the
Europe.
concert
stage he
eleganta and
moving,
concert On
and the
opera
stage and
he opera
was elegant
andwas
moving,
performer
of
aunquestioned
performer of
unquestioned
musicianship
and
authority.

musicianship and authority.

Cantor
Samuel
Rosenbaum,
Executive
Cantor
Samuel
Rosenbaum,
Executive
Vice- ViceCantor
Samuel
Rosenbaum,
Executive
VicePresident
of
the
Cantors
Assembly,
1959-97
President
of
the
Cantors
Assembly,
1959-97X
President of the Cantors Assembly, 1959-97
One is struck by the artistry and the natural, almost disarming expression of
One
is struck by the artistry and the natural, almost disarming
his interpretations. He used his lyric bass, seamless in all registers, in the
expression of his interpretations. He used his lyric bass, seamless
service of the text as well as the music...with no contrived mannerisms, only
in
all registers, in the service of the text as well as the music...with
a seemingly endless flow of melody with flawless diction.
no contrived mannerisms,
only a seemingly
Dr. Morton
Gold, Musicendless
Critic ofow of melody
with awless diction. The National Jewish Post and Opinion
Dr. Morton
Gold, Music
of
Dr. Morton
Gold, Music
Critic Critic
of
the National Jewish Post and Opinion
The National Jewish Post and Opinion

268

Our Fall 2011 issue will feature

Hazzanut in the 20th Century and Beyond

with articles that place legendary Golden Age figures within the
contexts of Blaze of Day, Darkness at Noon, Golden Sunset and
Dawning:
The Youthful Debut of a Mshorer

Zavel Kwartins Life in Vienna at the Centurys Turn

Yossele Rosenblatt, His Rival, Hershman, and His

Protg, Malavsky
The Visionaries: Roitman, Glantz, Pinchik

Lions in the Pack: Shlisky, Alter, the Koussevitzkys

A Brand Plucked from the Holocaust: Sholom Katz

A Cantors Cantor: Moshe Ganchoff

The Status of Hazzanut in the early-21st Century

Tr a i n i n g t h e N e xt G e n e r a t i o n : A H y p h e n a t e d
Cantorate?
The Journal no longer charges for subscriptionsbecause its raison
dtre has always been to elevate Jewish music standards and to aid
cantors and interested lay leaders in this endeavor. By eliminating cost
as a factor, the Cantors Assembly hopes to put this scholarly publication
into more hands individually, and collectively via institutional
libraries.
Current and past issues are now accessible online, through a Journal of
Synagogue Music link on the Cantors Assembly website ( www.cantors.
org ) or as hard copies (only 2005 through the current year) @ $10 each
plus postageVISA, AMEX, DISCOVER, MASTER cards acceptedby
contacting the Cantors Assembly ( [email protected] ).

269