Re: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna"

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

  Yes, she has a very beautiful voice, but personally I find her 
over-earnest and boring.
   I could care that she mispronounced Yiddish....although on some level I 
do care, because I love Yiddish. Nu? I just am not carzy about her music.
Why am I explaining this to you? Different strokes for different 
folkies..okay?



>From: Leopold N Friedman <apikoyros (at) juno(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Fw: Re: "Donna Donna"
>Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 22:20:57 -0500
>
>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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>
>   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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