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Buchenwald Commemoration CD
- From: JeffSchan <JeffSchan...>
- Subject: Buchenwald Commemoration CD
- Date: Wed 09 Apr 1997 13.57 (GMT)
Below is an announcement for my recently-released CD. Of particular interest
to people on this newsgroup will be my use of "Shlof In Der Ruikeit," a
Yiddish lullaby from Vilna, as the basis of one of the movements. The store
release date is still about 2 weeks away, but I thought I would post this in
the middle of a discussion on music and the Holocaust. The CD can be ordered
directly from the record company at this time.
Jeffrey Schanzer
No More In Thrall
Sirius String Quartet with Kevin Norton, percussion
CRI CD 748
This work commemorates the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the
Nazi
concentration camp at Buchenwald, where the composer's father was a
prisoner.
Buchenwald was unique in that it was liberated by the prisoners
themselves,
saving thousands of lives in doing so.
Each movement of this work is based on a folk or traditional melody and
reflects
the ethnic and political diversity of the camp. The first movement,
"Red Army
Song," commemorates the Red Army prisoners, who were singled out for
barbaric treatment usually reserved only for Jews. The second movement,
"Shlof
in der Ruikeit (Sleep in Peace)" is taken from a Yiddish lullaby from
Vilna,
which also had a heroic history of armed resistance to the Nazis.
During the
liquidation of the camp, the Jewish prisoners were the first sent out on
death
marches. The third movement, "Which Side Are You On?," based on the
American union song, commemorates the lives of five civil rights and
union
activists murdered by the American Nazis and Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro,
North Carolina in 1979. The fourth movement, "Traurige Cerheni (Sad
Star)," is
taken from a Roma (Gypsy) melody sung in the concentration camps. The
Roma
and Cinti peoples were considered "inferior" races which the Nazis
wished to
exterminate. The final movement, "The Internationale," is based on the
international socialist anthem. The Internationale was sung by the over
20,000
survivors on the day after liberation.
The CD is on the Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) label (CRI CD 748).
For
more information, visit CRI's web site: www.composersrecordings.com.
- Buchenwald Commemoration CD,
JeffSchan