Re: Papirossen

[Asya Vaisman <klezmer...>]

The following is from the Mloteks' "Pearls of Yiddish Song":

"Popular song written by Herman Yablokoff (1903-1981). In his memoirs ...
Yablokoff recounts the history and popularity of the song. In 1922, he
witnessed the misery of lonely orphans who were struggling to survive. It
reminded him of the German occupation of Grodno during World War I, when
he as a child peddled cigarettes. When he came to the United States, he
conducted a radio program on WEVD and, in 1932, introduced part of the
song 'Papirosn' at the end of a program... Yablokoff was invited to sing
the song on other radio stations and thousands of copies of the song sheet
were printed. The song became very popular in Europe as well. Part of the
melody was incorporated into a song 'Nemile' by Leib Neidus.
"During the Holocaust, the words and music were adapted for two ghetto
songs, one by Rikle Glezer, 'Es iz geven a zumertog'... The other ghetto
song using this melody is 'Di broyt-farkoyferin'... Both songs were
published by S. Kaczerginski in 1948. Gold Jacobson... indicates that the
melody was sung to a Russian song: 'Po Kartotshnoy sisteme'... Professor
Robert A. Rothstein cites a Bulgarian song with a very similar melody: 'Az
sim dosho khubevetsa'. Also Sarah Benjamin sings a Russian song 'U nas
rossiya Matushki' with the same melody."

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Lionel Mrocki wrote:

> Can anyone tell me the date that Papirossen was written.  I'm
> told there are uncanny similarities between the melody of
> papirossen, and a French song "Pourquoi, Pourquoi" written/made
> popular at a similar time.  Anyone have any more info on this?
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Lionel Mrocki

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