RE: "Di soyne"

[Leopold Friedman <apikoyros...>]

I was at a Holocaust commemoration 
ceremony last year in an American city 
with a large Jewish population. Part of
the program was a poetry reading by two
young women in Yiddish. I had met their 
teacher and was aware of their efforts 
at learning the language with little or
no home background, so I could easily
overlook the few errors they made in
their presentation. They performed well.

Another part of the program consisted of
"zog nit keynmol" sung by someone who
appeared to be Jewish and a professional
singer. It bothered me immmensely that she
slurred words she had forgotten and appeared
not to have the faintest idea of what she was
singing. This occurred in a synagogue and was
a desecration as surely as any other act that
demeans with disrespect born of presumption.

Sensitivity is required in order to tune your
instrument if you intend a good performance.
(And not just by Germans who aspire to be 
klezmorim.)

Lee


------Original Message------
From: Itzik Gottesman <itzik (at) mail(dot)utexas(dot)edu>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: March 1, 2000 6:41:22 PM GMT
Subject: "Di soyne"


An early German Klezmer group (early 1980s) sang "Shtil di nakht iz
oysgeshternt" and when they came to the word "soyne", they clearly were
reading it in english and pronounced the initial "s" as a "z" as in German,
so "dem soynes karavan" [the enemie's caravan] became "dem zoyne's karavan"
[the prostitute's caravan]. - Itzik



-----------------------------------
Dr. Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman
Assistant Professor, Yiddish Language and Culture
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Texas at Austin
EPS 3.102
Austin, TX 78704-1190
NEW PHONE NUMBER (512)232-6360 work
(512)444-3990 home

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