Re: Lena from the Chasidim

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

This is fascinating!  But:

1) Sam, do you know of any recordings of "Ashre Ayin" as a Hassidic niggun? 
and

2) I'm puzzled at your reference to a *text* being a contrafact of the 
refrain of a piyyut.  In general musicological usage, sfaik, a contrafact is 
a (usually new) text set to a tune "borrowed" from another, already existing 
source.  (E.g., among zillions of familiar examples, "The Star Spangled 
Banner," "Mine eyes have seen the glory, etc.," "This Land Is Your Land," 
dozens and dozens of examples from [probably] tehillim as well as piyyutim, 
zemiros, etc., etc., etc.)

I'm not sure what you mean by (apparently--or am I [probably] misreading 
this?) referring to this text as a "contrafact _of_" -- another text?  
What's that mean?

Please enlighten, and thanks so much for the post!

--Robert Cohen

One of these "nationalities" were the Chasidim, among whom
>this
>2-section "Rikud'l" was a standard.  The name of the tune is "Ashre Ayin"
>after the Yiddish/Hebrew lyrics "Ashre Ayin ver s'hot dos gezen" applied
>only to the repeated two bars of the second section (corresponding to "Lena
>is the queen of Palestina").  The words mean "happy is the eye that beheld
>it..." the enigmatic phrase perhaps referring to the wonders of the
>Rebbe.  (The text, BTW, is a contrafact of the refrain of a Piyyut in the
>Yom Kippur "Avodah" liturgy, referring to the eye that beheld the splendor
>of the Temple in Jerusalem.)


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com

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