encounters with yosl

[BWerb <BWerb...>]

"Yosl yosl" also pops up as background music in an early Porky Pig cartoon
(early, before the character slimmed down).  The family of Nellie Casman
recently donated her collection to YIVO, where additional lyrics possibly
await.
Bret Werb
Washington DC
--------------------------------
Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:

> Speaking of Yosl, are there any more lyrics than that one verse, or
> chorus, or whatever it is?  It's so short.  What am I missing?  Is there
> a recitative, or something fun?  Or did Nellie Casman just run out of
> steam after the big effort?  What show was it from?

Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 19:58:25 -0500
From: "Robert A. Rothstein" <rar (at) slavic(dot)umass(dot)edu>

SICULAR (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

> there's also a glasnost'-era film about the NKVD in the 1930s which has
the
> melody of Yosl, Yosl in the background; it made me wonder if that tune
had
> been borrowed from a Russian folk song.  any ideas?

        Although there are at least two Russian texts set to the melody
(the
chorus) of "Yosl," one about a tractor driver in Birobidzhan named Yosele,
I
suspect that the melody went from here to the Soviet Union (thanks to the
popularity of the Yiddish or English versions) rather than vice versa.
(There
were apparently Finnish-language recordings of "Yosl" in the late thirties,
so
the melody did get around.)
            Bob Rothstein


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