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Fw: Re: "Donna Donna"
- From: Leopold N Friedman <apikoyros...>
- Subject: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna"
- Date: Fri 02 Mar 2001 03.25 (GMT)
Trudi,
What have you got against Joan Baez?
That she mispronounced an originally Yiddish word?
She sang us some beautiful songs and inspired
songwriters to write for her and still is a role model
for many younger women performers. One could do
a lot worse.
Lee
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Trudi Goodman" <goobietheg (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 23:17:09
Subject: Re: "Donna Donna"
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Message-ID: <F251IqtQvAauNjVuMhv00002cb5 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
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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>
>
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---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
- Re: "Donna Donna",
Robert Cohen
- Re: "Donna Donna",
Trudi Goodman
- Fw: Re: "Donna Donna",
Leopold N Friedman
- Re: "Donna Donna",
Robert Cohen
- Re: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna",
Trudi Goodman
- Re: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna",
WINSTON WEILHEIMER
- Re: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna",
Lee Friedman
- Re: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna",
Trudi Goodman
- RE: "Donna Donna",
Robert Cohen
- Re: "Donna Donna",
Joshua Horowitz
- Re: "Donna Donna",
WINSTON WEILHEIMER
- Re: "Donna Donna",
Messiah701