RE: Dona, dona

[music <music...>]

I have a number of sources that refer to "Esterke" as having
been produced for the "1940-41" season.  I can find nothing
more precise for now.

--Robert Cohen

P.S.  I was once told that Joan Baez was shown the song
in a version that had the syllable written "Dona" or "Donna",
which she vocalized as "Dohna"--whereupon the whole world
started singing it that way.  I don't know if earlier recorded
versions (i.e., in mainstream LPs) also used that pronuncia-
tion; but I continue to believe (though some have doubted me,
including on this list!) that it was Joan's recording, on what
was then the largest-selling LP by a woman artist ever, that,
more than anything or anyone else, spread this song around
the world.  (That doesn't mean, I fully realize, that it hadn't
been sung previously in both Jewish and folk circles.)


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: Dona, dona
> From: "Lori M Simon" <lorelecs (at) juno(dot)com>
> Date: Tue, December 09, 2003 11:10 am
> To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Cc: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> 
> Robert, you confirm what Mashe told me that Sholem Secunda told her.  I
> just happened to look on the back of a piece of Metro Music published
> in
> 1937 and it has listed under "New Publications of Jewish Folk Songs
> and
> Classics" the song # 309, "Dana, Dana, Dana" by Zeitlin and Secunda. 
> Anyone know when Esterke first appeared?  I wonder when it changed
> from
> Dana to Dona.
> 
> Lorele

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