Re: Kurt Weill

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

At 07:29 PM 12/13/01 +0000, Lucy Fisher wrote:
>Does anyone know if his folk song settings have ever been transcribed?
>Someone just told me he did some and that the MS is in a museum somewhere.
>Lucy Fisher

Dear Lucy:

If you are referring to Weill's arrangement of folk songs of the Halutsim from 
then Palestine, they were published ca.1938 by the Hechalutz Organization of 
America and Masada, Youth Zionist Organization of America. The name of the 
series they were published under, with settings by other prominent Jewish 
composers, was called "Folk Songs of the New Palestine." I have found these 
scores to be quite scarce, although we do have one here at the JTS Library: 
"Bring the Bricks = Havu L'venim" published together with Darius Milhaud's "Day 
after Day = Gam Hayom." The complete title for the whole piece of sheet music 
is, "The Builders," and it's No. 3 from the First Series (of Folk Songs from 
the New Palestine.)

Weill's other contributions to this series  are settings of "There Comes Peace 
unto the Weary"  and "Song of the Emek = Baa M'nucha" from the First series, 
No. 5, entitled "Guardians of the Night = Hashomrim." This information is from 
the back of "The Builders," as we do not have the "Guardians of the Night" 
score in our library.

Hope that helps,

Eliott Kahn

Dr. Eliott Kahn
Music Archivist
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
3080 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
WK: (212) 678-8076
FAX (212) 678-8998
elkahn (at) jtsa(dot)edu

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+