FW: Venting My Splean 2 - The Sequel

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Simon,


>2) You "NEVER HEARD Lamm's music directly".....>but you are so 
knowledgeable
>that you can tear it apart without hearing it or the fact that one MIGHT
>happen to enjoy it...for what ever reason it is that they do.  Since you
>brought up Wolf's name, do you think he isn't a "native Yiddish speaker"? 
How
>could he have been so shamelessly duped. I'm sure he appreciates the fact
>that you have put him back on the right track.

Simon, you missed the line I wrote that Kempin clearly stated that he is 
singing Lemm's
compositions.  My statement that I don't know where Lemm ends and Kempin 
begins is a nice way of giving Lemm the benefit of a doubt that Kempin may 
have possibly had some input in rendering these songs a bit differently 
than the way Lemm wrote it.  If you would read the comments, you see that I 
think the problems are structural to the songs.  It is theoretically 
possible that an ignorant singer would break up the rhythms and intonations 
every third or fifth word of every line the way Kempin did, but highly 
unlikely.  (I wasn't sure what the problem was when I heard him at the 
concert.)  Although Wolf sings his one Lemm composition a thousand times 
better than Kempin, I hear similar problems in every third and sixth 
melodic line of "Blayb gezunt mir Kroke" on Wolf's CD.  I don't think that 
Wolf would have chosen to sing the song this way unless it was written this 
way.  I don't have Kempin's concert songs available to me (I don't know if 
they are on any recordings), but I wrote up a whole analysis of Lemm's 
Kroke song yesterday.   I showed it to my husband who is a world class 
expert on these issues and what it basically comes down to is that there 
are two approaches to dealing with Gebirtig's texts.  One either follows 
Gebirtig's melodic style or one writes whatever the hell one wants.   I 
feel very strongly that, in the case of Gebirtig, if one is going to take 
his texts, one should follow Gebirtig melodic style (Meir Noy's approach) 
and Lemm a very modern free style approach to these texts.  Although the 
latter may be valid, I strongly disagree with this approach for this 
particular material, also because it is Holocaust related material.  If 
Lemm's compositions were some quirky new songs or if he had taken any one 
else's texts, I wouldn't bother to say one word.   Gebirtig is called a 
folk composer because his music follows the natural rhythms of the spoken 
word so perfectly.   To me it is incomprehensible to praise this very 
aspect of Gebirtig on stage the way Kempin himself did, while at the same 
time sing compositions that don't reflect the natural speech rhythms of a 
folk style.

I won't post the careful analysis I wrote yesterday, but I will just 
summarize it here.  To me, Lemm has written melodic lines in every third 
and sixth textual line of every stanza that are too short and this is why 
the words are rushed through.  The last phrases in those lines are 
basically lost, incomprehensible, or wasted.  I don't think anything in 
Gebirtig's texts are extra or dispensable.  Second, Lemm puts the stress on 
the first, second and fourth syllable in those lines.  The result is that 
odd and incorrect items get the stress on them (i.e., definite and 
indefinite articles, prepositions), in ways that go against the rules of 
the language.  In one case (third stanza), the meaning of the sentence is 
changed, i.e., the word 'shoyn' is stressed which makes it mean 
'immediately' and not 'already', a meaning that is not possible in this 
past tense construction.  Very, very few Yiddish folk songs do this.   Josh 
cites the song "A sheyn meydele bin ikh" as one of the rare Yiddish songs 
that does this.   But then this song's lines are short, in outline form, 
and the stresses on the indefinite article and prepositions is what makes 
the song funny, quirky, and child-like.  It is a kid singing it because 
only a kid would put the stresses this "incorrect" way.   (Stress in 
Yiddish sentences does not fall on the first syllable, unless it's a 
question or one wants to be emphatic.)  The content of "Zay gezunt Kroke" 
is not funny or quirky and this is not a song written from a childish point 
of view.

><<I think the reason why people say that Lamm and for sure, Kempin, don't
>understand the music they are singing is.......>>
>
>4) Do you know who those people are, let me just tell you who a few are in 
>that "ignorant" group.  Daniel Kempin's recording of "Krakow Ghetto 
Notebook"
>was a collaboration by Gratz College and The US Holocaust Museum in 
Wash,DC -
>I do believe that there is someone on staff there that IS a "native 
Yiddish
>speaker". I don't believe that this is the best Yiddish recording I have 
ever
>heard, but I can give you many more that I think aren't even as good.

You don't think I know this Simon?
I personally have never heard this record, but did Bret Werb of the USHMM 
tell you that when he asked the Mloteks to review the recording, Chane 
Mlotek strongly panned it?   She wouldn't write a review for the Museum. 
 They went ahead with putting out the record anyway.  According to Bret at 
that UN concert, the reason why he used Kempin is because Kempin was the 
only one to accept the low budget the Museum was willing to pay.  In other 
words, it was almost a freebie.   Bret is the Museum's ethnomusicologist 
and he doesn't speak Yiddish and wouldn't know the problems.   I have no 
idea whom else he asked, but I can tell you that there are no Yiddish 
instructors at Gratz, no less Yiddish music experts.   I told Bret that I 
didn't think he understood Chane's message when she panned it.  She has 
been one of the foremost experts of Yiddish music for the last 30-40 years 
and her opinion can be wholly trusted.

><<because they sing Yiddish with German intonation and rhythms.>>
>
>5) Do you think that might be because....THEY'RE FROM GERMANY??? When was 
the
>last time you heard a German Jew speak Yiddish....I mean one who lives in
>Germany today, not one who came to the US 50 years ago.

Simon, don't be ridiculous.  I am not talking about incorrect 
pronunciations or foreign accent, but rather false stress, rhythm, and 
intonation which are structural features of a composition.   If you want to 
write music to Gebirtig's folk style poetry, you write music to fit the 
line and you use the natural flow of the language to guide you.  You can't 
write short lines and then try to stuff the extra words quickly at the end. 
 You also have to know the rules about a language's stress and rhythm. 
 Peter Shikele/PDQ Bach once did a great version "Take me out to the ball 
game" for his Julliard composition students where he begins the song by 
putting the stress on the wrong syllable and the text runs out before the 
melody finishes at the end of the song.  Great exercise.

FYI, I have heard at least 15 non-Jewish Germans speak an excellent 
Yiddish.  I have know/met 5 German Yiddish instructors whose Yiddish is 
excellent, one or two superb, and indeed my standards are very high.  You 
should know that Germans are usually the very best students in the Oxford 
Yiddish program.   I have also heard recordings by non-Jews from all over 
Europe and no one does these kinds of things to the music.   Being able to 
speak a foreign language is not required for singing in a foreign language, 
but a composer better know all linguistic rules if the melodies will work. 
 I don't think these do and I doubt that many people really like them.

><<Every song I heard Daniel Kempin sing (and I believe that they were all
>Lamm's compositions)>>
>6) I don't know what you heard in concert, but every recording Kempin has
>made consists of traditional songs, including an entire CD of Gebirtig>

Well, if you know only recordings Kempin made of traditional songs and I am 
not talking about the recordings, than we are each talking of completely 
different things, are we not?   I made no reference to any recordings until 
now.  I am speaking only of a concert Kempin gave at the UN in 1995.  The 
concert I heard had no Gebirtig compositions of Gebirtig's texts.  Kempin 
sang Lemm's compositions of Gebirtig's texts at this occasion.  I don't 
believe Kempin said any of the compositions were his own, but if they were, 
they were only one or two songs.

Let me just explain why Kempin and Lemm get me so riled up and I am sorry 
that I have not said this earlier.   If this was only a concert I went to, 
I would have forgotten about it.  But this was the first occasion I knew of 
in which the UN did a blessed thing for Yiddish music, no less Yiddish 
itself.   The concert was followed by a formal, ceremonial half hour formal 
event, with speeches, awards, and photo sessions in which Kempin and Lemm's 
compositions were honored for their brilliant contributions to Yiddish 
music.  That made it truly surreal and perverse for me.  I could have 
thought of a several candidates whom I would have substituted for such 
honors.  I don't think that a regular member of the Jewish music community 
would have gotten honored, no less invited to perform for the UN Music 
Society, no matter how gargantuan that contribution would have been.   I do 
believe that it was the Germanness and non-Jewishness of the performers
that made this _international_ event worthy of _international United 
Nation_ recognition.  I can tell you that both the Jewish and UN arrangers 
of this distinguished event as well as and the official UN presenters of 
the award, didn't speak a word of Yiddish or knew Gebirtig's other songs. 
 Believe me, I checked about that.

><<These two can "compose" Yiddish music only in a Europe devoid of real
>Yiddish speakers and a world unfamiliar with the spoken language.   People 
>who depend on translations to understand the words may like their singing
>or passion, but Yiddish speakers quickly understand that these two "don't
>know the language".>>
>
>9) What do you know about this man. For your information. Kempin is Jewish 
>born in Mainz Germany, "studied music in Darmanstadt, followed by Jewish
>Studies in Frankfurt and a "Talmud college" in Jerusalem.....Intensive 
courses
> in Yiddish in the Israel and UK <<talk about a Yiddish accent>>.

After some initial heeing and hawing, Kempin personally told me at this 
concert that he wasn't Jewish.  Whom should I believe, you or him?  I don't 
know if he converted in the last five years.  I think that some of the 
Germans have learned to say that they are Jews, to give themselves more 
legitimacy or else to at least avoid that automatic resistance they usually 
get singing Yiddish music outside of Germany.

><<I have wondered why no one in the post-War years took on the role of
>writing "Gebirtig" style melodies to his his texts.>>
>11) That is because they know that no matter what you do, rather than 
being
>appreciated, you will always be reminded of your shortcomings, real or
>imaginary.
>When Many Patinkin released his Yiddish recording, Mameloshen, he got
>lambasted , "and how dare he do it, he had to learn it phonetically 
because
>he doesn't understand Yiddish". SO WHAT!! I was not particularly fond of 
this
>CD at all, but it got people interested in Yiddish music whether YOU or I
>like it or not. Hopefully, that Cd which they only bought because it was
>Mandy Patinkin, will get the individual interested enough in Jewish music 
to
>expand their horizons and try other things. That has been the case at
>Hatikvah  many times. People's tastes do mature, and they should be 
encourage
>to learn. You don't kick their teeth in because you are and expert "Native 
>Yiddish Speaker" << at first I thought that meant that you were an Apache 
who
>spoke Yiddish>>.

Sorry to disappoint you Simon.  I wasn't one of the lambasters.   I am not 
a fan of Mandy's English singing, but made sure to go see his Yiddish 
Broadway show.   I most happily paid my money, had a good time, and made 
sure to personally tell him how much I appreciated what he was doing after 
the show.  I told him the same thing at another live performance of his a 
year earlier.  I was also one of the people who complemented Mandy and made 
sure to encourage him to sing more Yiddish after he sang "Yosl Yosl" at a 
YIVO benefit in honor of Joe Papp.  That was Mandy's first performance of 
Yiddish music 11 years ago.  So I don't know what you are talking about 
Simon.  My husband wouldn't go to see his show. but no one has ever heard a 
negative word about Mandy Patinkin out of him, so I don't know why you are 
complaining to me for.  I didn't buy his CD because I didn't think I would 
replay the music that I already knew so well and I think others sing 
better.  I don't really have to justify not buying that CD, do I, Simon?

>>>
<<So the hell with waiting to hear Lamm directly in order for me to be 100% 
accurate to make this particular criticism.   98% percent is good enough. 
Your comments Simon confirm this again......I think Jews record Christmas
music for a whole other reason.>>
12) Oh how wrong you are!!! Any recording you own, Jewish or not is a
"business", from the artist, publisher, writer, etc. Who is going to
manufacture Jewish music if no one buys it? That unfortunately is the whole 
thing in a nutshell. Somebody has to pay for this. The Jewish community 
does
not support this. Why is it that so many artists  state on the CD that the
project was funded from one grant or another. We ONLY have 8,000,000 Jews 
in
this country, and yet your average Jewish recording will not Soudscan at
2,000 units. That, Reyzel, is the shame, NOT that the only artists who are
willing to make these recordings aren't up to your standards...and should
somebody actually make a Jewish record, they get their teeth kicked in,
mostly from people who will only go to a "free concert" to see them. (I'm
sure many of the artists on this list can verify that).
>>>

Simon, I don't know who got you angry in your store that day, but you are 
taking out your anger at the wrong person and nothing that you wrote has 
anything to do with what I wrote.   I have produced Yiddish records pro 
bono and so has my husband, who is again in the process of putting out a 
new Yiddish CD.   I know he called you yesterday to ask your opinion on 
something.   We are the record buyers, but I don't owe it to anyone to buy 
Lemm's compositions and wouldn't even accept a free copy of his recordings 
if someone were to give it to me.  The only reason why I wrote that I have 
been waiting to hear Lemm sing these very songs is to check 100% that he 
sings these songs the same way in order for me to finish writing Wolf's 
review.  WE BUY OUR RECORDS Simon, but I haven't bought any from you yet. 
 I haven't even heard the last 14 new cassettes I bought last summer or the 
4 CD's that various people sent me.

I think you got me mixed up with the person who asked someone to send her a 
copy of Bikels recording of "mu aspru".  I am the one who told her to buy 
the record because it was worth having.  Remember?

>Lastly, the name is not "Lamm", it's Lemm. You should at least know who
>you're ripping!

Thank you for the correction.


Hope you have a better day today.


Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky



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