Re: "losing the composer"

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

I share Lorele's interest (she is *not* alone!) in ascertaining the real 
composer of the "Dreydl" tune, though I'm not sure we're going to succeed!  
Have to say I no longer consider it awful or insipid--probably because I've 
heard so many inspired versions of it:  doo-wop/a cappella/calypso/reggae.

Otherwise, Judy's account of melodies that "lost their composer" is one I'm 
familiar with from many examples, and I enjoyed her narratives--esp. re 
Gebertig, which I was not familiar with.  (I _was_ familiar with Rabbi 
Goldfarb's reported frustration at not being credited with his now nearly 
universal melody; before his death, he was advised that it was being sung in 
_India,_ where it was regarded, of course, as "traditional.")

Moshe Nathanson supposedly recounted a similar tale (to Gebertig's) with 
regard to his benching (Grace after Meals) melody; and Shlomo Carlebach, 
z"tl, of course, was victimized (or, in some ways, honored)by this practice 
continually; he apparently stopped singing his melody for "Eilecha, Hashem 
Ekra" from the 30th Psalm (which is really Chanukah music, by the way) after 
the Pirchei boys choir recorded it, sometime in the late 60s (maybe early 
70s), I think, without attributing it.  (He started singing it again in his 
last few years, and I had the privilege of joining in that singing at his 
shul.)

I once told a lecture audience about the phenomenon of songs losing their 
composer and becoming accepted as "traditional" or "anonymous" (or, 
certainly, "folk") songs.  A member of the audience asked me afterwards if 
I'd like to have an LP of early Orthodox folk music that she didn't need (to 
which I eagerly assented, of course, as I collect every liturgical folk 
music LP I can find); when she sent it to me, I found two Shlomo 
tunes--noted, respectively (I kid you not) as "traditional" and "anonymous." 
  And one had only been *composed* by Shlomo maybe six months before they 
issued the record!!

Then again, Mark Warshawsky's "Oif'n Pripichek" ("The Alef-Bet Song") was 
being sung and maybe published, I remember reading, as a "folk song" 
throughout Eastern Europe maybe six months after he wrote it.

--Robert Cohen




>In the case of this, (in >my opinion, awful insipid) melody, (if it's the 
>one I'm thinking about) it's likely it came from some children's music, and 
>possibly not even originally Jewish at all, but possibly adopted, given the 
>strict metrical nature, ababcdcd phrase form, and the upbeat and accent on 
>1st downbeat.

I have known for a fact, for example, that melodies composed very late in
>the game, such as even in the 1930s and 1940s, and supported by the State 
>of
>Israel, and that were first _published_ in state-run journals, even in the
>50s --- even those melodies, the original authorship even of those songs 
>was
>lost in a few years, and attributed to "folk" melodies. People were NOT
>careful about such things most of the time, especially among Jewish
>organizations and in many publications. For example, the song I told you
>about, "Shalom Aleichem" was clearly a composed melody. But those who used
>it published it, left off the author for whatever their motives, 
>probably...
>and mostly... neglect...even though they asked permission of Goldfarb to
>publish it....to the point of frustration to Goldfarb. He complains about
>this in his documents ...that even those people who _knew_ he composed it
>and asked him _permission_ to publish it, left off his name! So, there you
>go... it's not an easy thing to trace.
>
>There's a great story of the wonderful Yiddish song writer, Mordechai
>Gebertig, once hearing a man singing his song that he had written, but
>getting some of the song wrong. Gebertig went up to the man, (who did not
>know who he was)... and Gebertig told him how the song really went. The man
>argued with him, and said "I've been singing this song this way for 20
>years... who are you to tell me how this goes!"... Gebertig just shrugged
>and let it go. The song now had a life of its own.
>
>As you know, that's the way things become part of the 'folk' culture.


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