Re: Anniversary song

[Bill Barabash <billb978...>]

I've got a recording of the Feder Sisters singing the Anniversary Waltz with
a completely different set of Yiddish lyrics for which they credit Max 
Kletter.

-- Bill B.

Robert A. Rothstein wrote:

>Lori M Simon wrote:
>
>>  I was under the impression that this song was originally written in 
>>Yiddish.  Am I mistaken?
>>
>
>
>The original music was from an instrumental piece
>called "Valurile Dunarii" ("Waves of the Danube") by the Romanian composer 
>Iosif
>(or perhaps Ion) Ivanovici, first published in 1880 in Bucharest, and later 
>popular throughout Europe. According to James J. Fuld's _The Book of 
>World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk_, the English text of 
>"Anniversary Song" was written by Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin for "The 
>Jolson Story" in 1943, but Ron
>Robboy's citation of 1946 (MENDELE 7.050) and attribution to Chaplin alone 
>may well be
>more accurate.*
>
>
>Sheet music of "Der khasene valts," published by Metro Music and Hensley 
>Music Co.
>as "Der chasene waltz (The Wedding Waltz)" with a copyright date of 1963, 
>has
>
>Yiddish lyrics by Chaim Tauber. (The original copyright was granted to the 
>arranger, Henry Lefkowitch, in 1947.)  Tauber's text (including an 
>additional verse that may or may not be his) is as follows:
>
>       Akh, yene nakht, yene gliklikhe nakht
>       hot freyd on a shir far undz beyde gebrakht.
>       Tsum ershtn mol ven ikh hob dikh gezen [gezeyn],
>       geshpilt hot dan di muzik azoy sheyn.
>
>               Tsvey yunge hertser mir zenen geven [geveyn],
>               libes gefiln umshuldik un reyn.
>               Gedrikt hob ikh dir azoy tsertlikh tsu mir,
>               zikh ayngelibt bald in dir.
>
>               Koym zikh dervart, fun der shul nor aroys,
>               gefayert a khasene, glik azoy groys.
>               Gedenkstu di nakht, s'hot geshpilt di muzik,
>               dem zelbn valts fun glik.
>
>       Kum, tants mit mir undzer valts fun amol,
>       Gehat nor mit dir hob ikh glik on a tsol.
>       Biz in mayn toyt blaybt mir liber fun alts
>       fun yener nakht undzer khasene valts.
>
>Tsugegebener ferz:
>
>       Lebt nokh di nakht azoy frish vi amol,
>       freyd un layd durkhgemakht hobn mir on a tsol.
>       Khotsh zilber di hor un di fis oykh shoyn mid,
>       In harts klingt gor klor fun dem tants undzer lid.
>
>
>Some variants can be found in vol. 3 and 7 of  MENDELE
><http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/arc.htm>.
>
>Bob Rothstein
>
>
>*"As [Saul] Chaplin tells it in his book [_The Golden Age of Movie Musicals
>and Me_ (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994)], he
>needed something -- and he needed it fast -- for 'background' music for a
>scene depicting the wedding anniversary of Jolson's parents [for the film
>_The Jolson Story_].  Because Ivanovici's music was long since in the 
>public domain (lapsed copyright, no licensing fees), it seemed ideal, and 
>he quickly dashed off some lyrics to it (in English, of course).  Though 
>Chaplin thought he was only doing background music (his own critique of the 
>metrics and phonetics of his throwaway lyric is priceless -- see pp. 108-11 
>of his book), Jolson's
>recording of the song became a hit and was seemingly instantly absorbed
>into quasi-folk repertory as The Anniversary Song."
>

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