Introduction

[kunanbay <kunanbay...>]

For the moment I'm a Russian citizen but stay in Madison this academic
year thanks to my dear wife Alma who is working here. We very hope to be
in the USA much longer thanks to my Jewish studies in the USA (I'm a
participant of two joint Russian-American programs in Jewish music).

I was born in St.Petersburg (Russia) in 1936 to a very Yiddish
family which descended from Nevel shtetl (this is the former Vitebsk
gubernia well-known thanks to Mark Shagal). I was named 'Izaly' because
of my grandfather's name 'Israel' who passed away in 1934 but in Russia
that time was not so easy to have such Jewish name and my family decided
to change it a little with some associations with a flower 'azalea' which
blossoms just in Russian February. Yiddish was our family's language but,
in my antisemitic time, not for children, unfortunately: it was a
language for adults, for relatives who would like to say something
secretely from us, the kids, and from 'goim-hazeirim', of course. But I
was inquisitive enough and mastered my Yiddish 'in silence'...

I graduated in St.Petersburg with degrees/diplomas from three faculties:
as folklorist I have gained from extended contact, both personal and
professional, with eminent Russian folklorist, professor Vladimir Propp,
with whom I studied for fifteen years, and he became my second father (my
own father was killed by Nazis in 1941); as musicologist and composer
simultaneously in our Conservatory. Now I'm a full professor, doctor and
so forth, head of Folklore Department of the Russian Institute for
History of the Arts, and Vice-President of the Jewish Musical Society of
St.Petersburg. I have already 19 books and about 400 scholarly articles
including a few of Jewish folk music (in Russian). My last publication -
"Jewish Folk Songs", St.Petersburg, 1994. 448 pages with music, in three
languages -- Yiddish, Russian, English. This is a gift edition with nice
illustrations. I hope the distributor of this book in the USA will be
John Rauch, President of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity,
Los Angeles. His address: 423 N.Palm Dr. # 102. Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
FAX (310) 479-3209. (He is a wonderful person, and contact with him
should be for your pleasure).

This book is the first and only anthology of Yiddish folk songs with
music published in Russia. The songs are published  as originally
documented, and interesting variants are provided  in the commentary. The
Yiddish texts are published in transliteration utilizing the Soviet
(sorry!) system of Yiddish romanization, for which a guide is provided.
Russian translations, most of them in verse, have been created for the
majority of songs, and English synopses are given for all selections.

You know, of course, the name of Moshe Beregovsky (1892-1961). It was I
who twice have saved his musical archives -- from Kiev to St.Petersburg
in 1966 and from St.Petersburg to the USA two years ago (thanks to the
support of the YIVO).

In 1992, October, on Chanukah,in St.Petersburg I organized the First
International Conference on Jewish Music. Now I am working on the
unpublished materials of Moshe Beregovsky, David Maggid, Michael Gnessin
and Zusman Kisselgof from Russian Archives. I would be glad to find the
archives of Lazar Saminsky, Jewish composer and scholar, partly because I
am Sominsky myself from one mother's side (from other mother's side I am
Berezin, and from father's side I'm Monosov and Zemtsovsky, --  all last
names are from Nevel).

As to my Yiddish, today it's a  passive enough, and that is so naturally
in my Russian-Soviet case. I'm much more familiar with Jewish music, and
my first Russian musicological publication in Yiddish song dated 22 years
back, in 1973. At that time it was a sensation, a kind of a bomb... Such
is my saga in brief. Being 58 years young, I start new life mainly in the
Jewish field and I feel myself 'at home',  but I am in need of the
Yiddish cultural society. Let it will be not so active but thanks to you,
I hope, I will be much more close to my linguistically hidden native
culture. My dream is to apply my big knowledge in Slavic-Turkic-Baltic-
Finnish musical field and to put it into my Jewish ethnomusicological
studies. Thank all of you in advance for your attention and support.

Izaly Zemtsovsky
kunanbay (at) facstaff(dot)wisc(dot)edu

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