Re: Manuscript from Lithuania...PLEASE HANDLE IT WITH CARE!!!

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Thanks, Trudy.  Much appreciated.  Rest assured, nothing is going into
the mail except photocopies.



Trudi Goodman wrote:

>
>
> Chaverim:
>
> Whatever you decide to do with this manuscript...please have an
> Archivalist look at it FIRST. Someone from YIVO or the National
> Yiddish Book Center.  What you are describing at "violet" ink, is
> probably in fact Black or Blue ink that over the course of time has
> interacted with the acidity of the paper. It was probably home-made
> ink. It would be wonderful if this manuscript could be preserved as
> well as being used. If you are going to peruse it, bring it to an
> Archivalist first. My guess is that she/he will tell you that you
> should be wearing cotton gloves while you handle the pages so that the
> acid and body heat from your own hands will not compound the problems
> that already exist between paper and ink.
>
> I have seen manuscripts like this before. It is important to handle
> them correctly.  If you are going to send pages via the mails, they
> must be treated with care. The heat of postal machinery and other
> vagaries also compound issues. This is also why I suggest that you
> consult with an Archivalist before you do anything with it.
>
> As great as it is to look at this work, it is also IMPORTANT TO
> PRESERVE IT, for future use and future generations, even if it does
> turn out to be a copy, it is still Yiddishkeyt and still History.
>
> Trudi the G
>  >From: "Alex J. Lubet"
> >Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> >To: World music from a Jewish slant
> >Subject: Re: Manuscript from Lithuania
> >Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 15:44:36 -0500
> >
> >Thanks, Eliott. Does this mean I can have these folks send you a few
> pages for perusal? It would be much appreciated. What you're saying
> confirms my suspicions, but my friends would like to know considerably
> more, if possible.
> >
> >
> >
> >Eliott Kahn wrote:
> >
> > > Alex:
> > >
> > > I catalogued a book of manuscripts a few years ago that had
> three-voice choral texture. It was in our library's Sulem Miara
> Collection, which I found with Cantor David Putterman's papers. Miara
> was a hazzan/shochet in the Ukraine and these scores date from early
> in his career, ca. 1880-1890. My notes say that the book is marked in
> various places for "meshorerim" and "Hazan, Sanger and Bass." In the
> meshorerim 3-voice texture the two surrounding voices would be a boy
> or boys above the hazan or a bass singer below. If I recall correctly,
> Daniel Katz points out in his article that most often this music was
> all written on one staff, with indications for solos written for
> hazzan, sanger or bass. Everything else was improvised.
> > >
> > > I was surprised when I saw this manuscript, but apparently the
> three-voice meshorerim texture lasted in smaller shtetelach in the
> Pale beyond the mid-nineteenth century reforms of Sulzer, Naumbourg,
> and even late-19th century choral music of Louis Lewandowski.
> > >
> > > 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
> > >
> > > At 10:18 AM 6/24/02 -0500, you wrote:
> > > >Khaverim,
> > > >
> > > >A Twin Cities woman approached me this weekend about a very old
> manuscript in her possession. It belonged to her grandfather, a cantor
> in Lithuania. It's quite long, beautifully written in violet ink, and
> much of it is still readable. Other than that it appears to be in an
> Eastern European choral style, some of it into three parts, for a
> cantor and two assistants, there's little else I can determine,
> including whether it was composed by this gentleman himself or merely
> copied from someone else's work. This woman and her husband are also
> interested in knowing whether this manuscript might be of value to a
> collection somewhere, where it might be displayed.
> > > >
> > > >This is beyond my areas of expertise. Is there someone out there
> who might be willing to look at a few photocopied pages and see if a
> more in-depth identification might be made and/or might know whether a
> Jewish Museum could make use of this manuscript? This woman and her
> husband are lovely people whom I would like to help and who knows? We
> might all learn something.
> > > >
> > > >Shevua Tov,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
> > > >Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
> > > >Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
> > > >University of Minnesota
> > > >100 Ferguson Hall
> > > >Minneapolis, MN 55455
> > > >612 624-7840 (o)
> > > >612 699-1097 (h)
> > > >612 624-8001 ATTN: Alex Lubet (FAX)
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >--
> >Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
> >Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
> >Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
> >Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
> >University of Minnesota
> >2106 4th St. S
> >Minneapolis, MN 55455
> >612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)
> >
> >
>
>
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