Re: Dona, dona

[Lori M Simon <lorelecs...>]

This sheet music was certainly earlier than that.  Teddy Schwartz told me
that Joan Baez was considering a few songs from Teddy's Tumbalalaika book
of singable translations (pub.1956), and she suggested Dona to Joan.  In
that book the title is Dona Dona, not Dana, Dana.  Interestingly, her
attribution in the book for the author is I. Katzenelsen, not Zeitlin. 
So, if one mistake, perhaps another, but I'm suprised there are mistakes
at all.  Perhaps that was Teddy's way of transliterating the "ah" sound? 
And, you are certainly correct about the popularity of Joan's recording
spreading this lovely song around the world.  Didn't we establish earlier
that she may have heard it originally at folksong get togethers with
Mimi?
Lorele

On Tue,  9 Dec 2003 12:39:50 -0700 music (at) sterlingmp(dot)org writes:
> 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
> 
> ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org 
> ---------------------+
>