Re: Dreydl

[Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan...>]

I would like to think that the Yiddish text came first, as "I am made from lead"
makes so much more sense than "I made it out of clay".  I read an article in a
publication called "Being Jewish" (Center for Relevant Judaism) by the
granddaughter of Samuel Goldfarb, whom she names as composer, and S. S. Grossman
as lyricist.

This woman, Susan Wolfe, also claims that Sam and his brother Israel wrote the
melodies for Shalom Aleichem, the Friday night Kiddush, Adon Olam and the
"traditional" Birkhat Hamazon.

On the other hand, I think I remember seeing Gelbart books that have him down as
composer for tunes I have seen attributed to others.  He was so prolific and
wrote so many lovely and memorable melodies.  Anyone have inside info?

While I'm at it, I think I'll beef about Velvl Pasternak's Songs of Israel (I
think that's the name.  A friend of mine has it)  I was incredibly annoyed to
see Yiddish songs in this book in Hebrew.  No Yiddish lyrics were present.
Another thing that bugs me is the lack of attributions as to lyricist/composer
in many of his publications, including this one.

Lor(see how easily bugged I am?)ele


lenka lichtenberg wrote:

> >From what I understand, Ben Aaron wrote the Yiddish text, and Michl Gelbart
> the tune, (as in the Workmen's Circle "Yontefdike Teg" collection), even
> though Gelbart also lists the song as quite his own (no Ben Aaron) in a
> different collection (in Yiddish). Who wrote the English text? I know there
> is some controversy if in fact Gelbart wrote the music or not, but he
> certainly presented himself as such in these two publications, that were put
> out by people that knew him, and where he himself worked full-time - he
> could have hardly only "pretended" that he wrote it, to them? dunno.
>
> happy spinning,     lenka
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org>
> To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 2:20 PM
> Subject: Dreydl
>
> > This has been bugging me for years.  Why do the English and Yiddish
> versions
> > of "I am a Little Dreydl" and "Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl" have the same
> tune,
> > different words (obviously), but have different people listed as being the
> > composer for each version?  Which came first?  Who is the plagarist?  Who
> > should be sued and who should be paid?
> >
> > This can't be a coincidence.
> >
> > Lor(the easily bugged)ele
> >
> >
> >
>

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