[HANASHIR:5385] Re: Camp Swig CD Songbook

[Josh Miller <jmiller...>]

Hello Everyone,

A couple of folks wrote in with questions related to Shir L'Yom Chadash
(the Camp Swig / Camp Newman CD) so I thought I'd write in here...

>I am looking for the music from the new Camp Swig CD for L'cha Dodi--  Has
>anyone thought to put togther a book of all the songs on that CD..  It is
>wonderful.

We have not yet put together a songbook for the CD, although it has been
discussed... Making the CD was such a huge project, that the idea of
producing a songbook now sounds a little daunting! We will probably produce
some kind of more casual chorded packet for folks at some point this summer
(to use at camp with the songleaders there), and once we pursue copywrite
permissions for printed music, we can start making it available to
everyone... Sorry to make you all wait!

Having said that, most of the songs on the CD actually appear in the new
Shireinu chordster if you are just looking for the chords. Pages 161, and
162 have both of those l'cha dodi melodies!

>I am sad to report, however, that it is now next to impossible to purchase a
>copy of any of the Dvekus CDs. If anyone knows of another source outside the
>usual vendors, I know some folks who are looking.

I have addresses, phone numbers, and/or fax numbers for everyone who is
credited in Shir L'Yom Chadash. If someone wants to contact me to contact
any of these song writers directly, let me know... I'd just post them, but
I feel funny about giving people's information away without their
permission... Many of the composers are actually on this list...

>It is interesting to compare Abie's original setting of the Boi V'shalom
>(the last verse of L'cha Dodi) with Debbie's rendering. Abie's is a
>hauntingly beautiful slow waltz, with all the gendered but wonderful Hebrew
>text intact. That's no reflection on Debbie, and her choice to adjust the
>text, up the tempo, and add the more of the verses of this beautiful piyyut.
>Each has its place.

Indeed, I too have noticed many variations on this melody floating around
the Jewish music circuit too. I know I have heard it sung at B'nai Jeshuron
in NYC with yet another rendering (the cantor there thought he learned from
someone who heard it in Greece!)... Regardless, we had to pick a rendering
to use for Shir L'Yom Chadash, and I'd be curious myself to know how close
we came to the original transcription of the music... Ahhh, the folk
process...

- Josh Miller
  Berkeley, CA

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