Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3 audio CD with booklet (liner notes, lyrics with transliterations and translations)
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Side D contains original testimnonies' audio clips from the Fortunoff Video Archive, edited and mastered for this edition.
Includes unlimited streaming of Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3
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about
Der hoyfzinger—דער הויפֿזינגער—The Courtyard Singer
During his younger years, Jack M. used occasionally to work in Warsaw. This is where he first heard (and memorized) couplets of hoyfzingers—courtyard singers, who were essentially professional paupers, asking for handouts. In a way hoyfzingers, also commonly referred to as gasn-zingers (literally, ‘street singers’), were bearers of the art and tradition of badkhonim (plural form of badkhn), wedding jesters in Eastern European Jewish communities. An ability to seamlessly make up stories and instantly rhyme them was a distinctive skill of both groups. This composition combines two different memories of Jack of the hoyfzingers. Later on this album appears yet another, very remarkable testimony of his concerning a former hoyfzinger who he met at a slave labor camp during WWII.
The music of this piece demonstrates the breadth of musical styles and genres that constituted the musical vocabulary of the hoyfzingers. These include Jewish instrumental dance genres (freylekhs, bulgar), the new and extremely popular genre of tango that stormed across Europe in the 1920s, traditional Jewish recitative that can be traced to the praxis of the synagogue, wedding rhymes, folk songs, and marches that were played in public spaces in most Russian and European towns by local bands, and more.
One of the sections of this composition re-enacts the dialogue between a hoyfzinger and what appear to be children in the streets who have prompted him to dance. The intonation of the hoyfzinger’s responses and his request that his audience “throw down at least a piece of bread” is nothing short of theatrical in nature.
lyrics
די נויט טרײַבט מיך פֿון שטוב אַרויס
יעדן פֿרימאָרגן
אין ווינטן, און אין רעגן, און אַ שניי.
דער טאַטע איז געשטאָרבן,
האָט ער פֿאַרזאָרגן
די אָרעמע יתומימלעך צוויי.
קײן גראָשן איז נישטאָ
אויף קיין ברייטל צו קויפֿן,
די מאַמע איז אַלט און ז׳איז מיד.
גיי איך אויף גאַסן, מאַרקן און הויפֿן
און זינג זיך אַן אומעטיק ליד:
״זאָג זשע מיר, טאָכטער מײַנע געטרײַע,
וואָס ביסטו אַזוי באַטריבט?״
״איי, מאַמעניו, מאַמעניו
, אין האַרצן ברענט אַ פֿײַערל,
איך האָב זיך אין אַ ייִנגעלע פֿאַרליבט.״
די וועלט איז קײַלעכדיק, אַזוי ווי אַן איי
און דרייט זיך אַזוי ווי אַ ריידל.
העלפֿט זשע די קליינע יתומימלעך צווײ
און מיר, אַ כּלה מיידל!
די וועלט איז קײַלעכדיק, אַזוי ווי אַן איי
און דרייט זיך אַזוי ווי אַ ריידל.
העלפֿט שוין די קליינע יתומימלעך צווײ,
אַ טאַטן פֿון אַ כּלה מיידל!
Di noyt traybt mikh fun shtib aroys
Yeydn frimorgn.
In vintn, in in regn, in a shnay.
Der tate'z geshtorbn, iz hot er farzorgn
Di ureme yesoymimlakh tsvay.
Kan groshn i nishtu
Of kan braytl tsu koyfn,
Di mame iz alt un zi'iz mid.
Kim iyekh of gasn,
Markn in hoyfn,
In zing zay an umutik lid.
“Zug zhe mier, tokhter mayne getraye,
Vos bisti azoy batribt?”
“Ey, mamemenyu, mamenyu,
In hertsn brent a fayerl,
Ikh ho' zikh in a yingele farlibt.”
Di velt iz kalekhdik
Azoy vi an ay, ay, ay,
In drayt zikh azoy vi a raydl.
Helft zhe di klayne yesoymimlekh tsvay, ay, ay
In miyer, a kale maydl.
Fintster in biter iz mir mayn velt,
Vayl mayne oygn zenen mir farshtelt.
Shenkts a neduve a blindn man!
Varfts epes arup!...
…Vayl mayne oygn zenen mir farshtelt.
Klugt zhe kinderlakh, klugt,
A kaliker iz ayer tate.
Zibm tekhter hob ikh farmugt.
In ayne mit der nomen Zlate.
)Vy(in a vaybl a molochinu
Hob ikh oykh gehat.
Avek iz zi fin mir mit a nyunya…
Klugt zhe kinderlekh, klugt.
Upgebrengt iz mir mayn derfl,
Farbrent iz oyekh mayn khate.
Shpil ikh mir oyf mayn bandure,
A kaliker, ayer tate.
Iyekh a kaliker, ayer tate.
Es iz mir biter vi der toyt.
Shenkt shoyn, shenkt shoyn, tayere mentshn,
Khotsh aza shtikale broyt!
Shenkt shoyn, shenkt shoyn, tayere mentshn,
khotsh aza shtikale broyt.
Oy, fintster in biter iz mir mayn velt,
Vayl mayne oygn zenen mir farshtelt.
Yam didi dadididi day didi dayday…
Di velt iz kalekhdik azoy vi an ay
In drayt zikh azoy vi a raydl.
Helft shoyn di klayne yesoymimlamekh tsvay,
A tatn fin a kale maydl.
Every morning,
Need drives me out of my home
Into the wind, rain, and snow.
The father died, and he has left
Two poor little orphans.
There’s not a penny
To buy a piece of bread.
The mother is old and weary.
I am coming out in the streets,
Marketplaces, and courtyards,
And I’m singing the sad song.
“Tell me, my dear daughter,
Why are you so upset?”
“Oh, mommy,
My heart is on fire,
I have fallen in love with a boy.”
The world is round like an egg,
It spins like a wheel.
So, help two poor orphans,
And me, a young girl.
My world is dark and bitter,
Because my eyes can’t see.
Give a handout to a blind man!
Throw something down! …
Because my eyes can’t see.
Cry, dear children, cry,
You father is a cripple.
I have a fortune of seven daughters,
And one of them is called Zlate.
I also had a young wife.
She ran off with a sissy boy.
Cry, children, cry!
They destroyed my little village,
My house also burned down.
I am playing on my bandura (zither),
Your father, the cripple.
I am your father, the cripple,
My life is bitter, like death,
Give me, give me, dear people,
At least a piece of bread.
My world is dark and bitter,
Because my eyes can’t see.
Yam didi dadididi day didi dayday…
The world is round like an egg,
It spins like a wheel.
So help two poor orphans,
And the father of a young girl.
credits
from Shadows - Songs from Testimonies, Vol. 3,
released January 19, 2024
Music and lyrics: unknown. Arranged by D. Zisl Slepovitch.
Performed by Jack M., testimony hvt.1555.
One of the best new albums of Yiddish and Klezmer music on Bandcamp in my opinion. The collaboration of two sensitive artists of different generations who know a lot about Yiddish and American music.
dcarkner
One of my favourite musical discoveries in a while. These musicians are seriously talented. I can’t help imagining that there would have been a whole significant subculture of Yiddish psych rock like this in a different, kinder universe. For now, this is a window into that world that might have been. And I love every second of it. Audrey
Raw black metal that brooks no compromises, this has all the ferocious guitars, lo-fi aesthetics and infernal howling you crave. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2023
Led by klezmer phenom David Krakauer, this collaborative LP develops international sounds into an celebration of our common humanity. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 2, 2022
