Re: "Donna Donna"

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

  Ah yet another reason to not like Joan Baez


>From: "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: "Donna Donna"
>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 21:00:24
>
>I think I can shed light on a few of the points (I'm catching up) raised in
>connection with this song (which was indeed written by Aaron Zeitlin with
>music by Secunda).
>
>Teddi Schwartz was (indeed) the co-composer (with Arthur Kevess; I think I
>have the spelling right) of the most well-known translation--i.e. (see
>below), the one sung by Joan Baez.  I *think* it was from her--I met her
>once and asked her about the song--that I learned:
>
>*that Zeitlin (not Secunda, who just wrote the music) appropriated the
>syllable "Dona"--which I believe she told me he intended should be
>pronounced "Dunna," as in "gonna"--to resemble the sound (i.e., vocable) of
>Polish peasants dancing.  That matches what Reyzl was told by her own
>excellent informant; and
>
>*that he--Zeitlin--was amused at all the speculation (beginning, I gather,
>some time ago) regarding the "meaning" of the vocable--esp. in re the
>resemblance/allusion to a name of G*d.  It had no (such) "meaning" at
>all--at least, none that Zeitlin intended.
>
>Now:  How come the whole world--other than on knowledgeable Yiddish
>recordings--sings it "Doe-na Doe-na"?  ("Doe" as in a female deer, etc.)
>
>Well, this *is* the "folk process" at work--but as modifed, substantially,
>by commercial media:  specifically, the phonograph.
>
>When Joan Baez was shown the song--I am almost certain in a printed
>version--by a Boston-area folkie, she evidently decided it should be
>pronounced "Doe-na"--and that's how she said it.
>
>Her first album, on which "Donna Donna" appeared, was the largest-selling 
>LP
>by a woman singer in history to that date (since exceeded by Carole King 
>and
>subsequently by Madonna and who knows now).  Solely, I think, as a result 
>of
>that record--I don't think Bikel really had much to do with it--the song
>went around the world, appearing in countless songsters and collections,
>sung in coffeehouses, at camps and campfires, among adults and teens, etc.,
>etc., etc.  (Teddi Schwartz showed me a letter from Joan's office thanking
>her for the translation and advising her that the song was the single most
>requested song of Joan's [!] in Europe.)
>
>So people (other than knowledgeable Yiddishists, mind you, but including a
>lot of them too, when they're singing in adult camps and other
>settings--I've heard them) sing "Doe-na" because that's the way Joan sang
>it.  Purely and simply.
>
>Hope that's illuminating and ties up some loose ends.
>
>--Robert Cohen
>
>
>
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