Re: [jewishshulmusic] Scarborough Fair

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, raymond goldstein wrote:

> The famous "adon olam"  listed as item no. 17 appears
> in the Gerovich volume Shirei Zimra [vol 4 of the
> Sacred Press out of print classics] , specifically
> lists it as an A.W. [ Alte Weise]- Old Tune. [ Har
> Sinai melody- Ancient trad.  etc]

That's weird. I checked a 1948 edition of 'Schirej
Simroh' and just could not find it... However, I'm
well aware of the Ephros arrangement. I'll try to find
a copy of the Sacred Press edition. Thank you for this
information.

> What is amazing is that the original is far more
> interesting than the run down oral version sung by
> the non- music reader singers of our illustrious
> congregations.

That's dafka not amazing: unfortunately it happens all
of the time. Just compare how Sulzer wrote down his
"Vayhi Binso'a" with how the average community sings
it. I think that Sulzer with his sense of style and
grandeur would be sincerely shocked. Since it's sung
everywhere around the world in the same erroneous way,
I'm wondering who popularized this version.

> Long gone are the days of through composed
> compositions alla Sulzer and Lewandowski, the "modern
> Jew" doesn't have the patience to sit through
> laborious compositions at the end of the service;

Sam Englander complained already before the War in
an interview that people tended to take the start of
Yigdal as a sign they could leave the Shul! And at that
time Englander conducted the best shul choir of Europe.

BTW: Do you know of an original edition of the popular
"Eits Chayim Hi" that's often attributed to N. Blumenthal?


Groeten,

  Irwin Oppenheim
  i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl
  www.chazzanut.tk

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