[HANASHIR:2141] Fwd: "south african" v'sham'ru

[CANTORMUM <CANTORMUM...>]

Judy Kaplan Ginsburgh asked about the South African "V'shamru" and now Cantor
Erik Contzius attributes this to the Jewish Community in South Africa. I can
only reiterate my earlier email message. Dr Werner believed this to be a South
African folksong, not one of Jewish origin. In my reform temple in Cape Town
we sang V'shamru settings by Lewandowski and Janofski.

As a South African who sang in temple choirs in Cape Town consistently, from
1962-1985 when I came to the USA, I can tell you that we never sang this
version, nor did I ever hear a folksong that sounds like this. I was lucky
enough at HUC to be in the last class that Dr Eric Werner taught. I tackled
him about this tune as the arrangement is attributed to him. He told me that
he had never seen an original piece of music for it. Someone told him it was
South African. When I pressed the point that we did not sing it in SA nor did
I know a folk tune like it he agreed that it could just as easily be South
American! So please discount the attribution of the tune to South Africa. I
met this tune for the first time when looking for music to sing at services
here in the States. It is one of the tunes that are very popular in my temple.

Hope this helps,
,

Cantor Miranda Kark Beckenstein
cantormum (at) aol(dot)com
> --- Begin Message ---
> >It raises a question.  It's like that V'shamru setting in Gates of Song that
> >I also sang as child that has lullaby words (I don't have GOS with me at
> >work -it's the one that says, "South African folk song".  It's also a sweet
> >melody and I can see why Werner wanted to use it.
>
> The melody is JEWISH, not african. remember, there is quite a large Jewish
> population in South Africa. That particular melody is by the jewish
> community of South Africa, not an adaptation of another culture's music.
>
> erik l. f. contzius
> contzius (at) home(dot)com
> elkins park, pa
> http://members.home.com/contzius/
>
>
> --- End Message ---