It is impossible to ignore
the importance of "muzik" in Jewish life. Mandy Patinkin will be
performing his acclaimed "Mamaloshen" (Mother Tongue) at Carnegie Hall
on June 16.
Patikin said, "...I began
singing the song 'Youssel, Youssel,' and I found that it had a hook like
a fishing hook
that grabbed your kishkes (innards) and
threw you all over the room like a big Pike being pulled out of the ocean."
The concert will also feature the female klezmer band, "Mikveh."
We can never forget Abraham
Goldfaden, Sholem Aleichem, David Kovanovski, Theodore Bikel, Jan Peerce,
Sammy Cahn's "Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen," and, more recently, David Hyde
Pierce ("Spamalot") singing "You Won't Succeed on Broadway If You Don't
Have Any Jews." Malka Lee writes about how the Jewish passengers
rose simultaneously and sang "Hativah," as they greeted the "golden land" with
song.
I fondly recall the
Finale from the Broadway
show "Milk and Honey," starring Molly Picon (music and lyrics by Jerry
Herman):
Shalom, Shalom,
You'll find Shalom
The nicest greeting you know;
It means bonjour, salud, and skoal
and twice as much as hello....
"People are hearing music
("muzik") in more spaces," explained Mike Pears, CEO of MusiKube, the Manhattan-based
company behind SongLink'd. SongLink'd is the latest iPod-era gimmick.
This "muzik" lover can now whip out her cell phone, dial 866-SONG-411,
and in a few seconds get a text message with the name of the song, the
artist, and a link
to a Web site where she can buy the
CD, download a ring tone of the music, and find other information...all
for 99 cents a song. (There is no cost if the service can't ID your
song.) Their database, according to Lindsay Singler, includes 2.5
"milyon" songs.
So, I'm going to test
SongLink'd by supplying a few lines from "akht" (8) Yiddish songs and see
if they can identify the title of the song. (The correct answers
can be found at the end of the article.)
1. A young man is deep in thought, And
he wonders whom he ought to take as wife for all of his life, To take as
wife
for all of his
life,
2. In the holy Temple, all alone in
a corner, Sits the old widow, the Daughter of Zion. And she rocks
her young son,
lying there in
the cradle, And sings him to sleep with this sweet lullaby:
'Neath the cradle of my young
son Stands a goat, Yes, a pure white one.
The little goat has been fated
to wander,
That will be your fate, too.
3. My Mama had
three little boys, Three little boys had she, With tender, rosy littlecheeks,
All Smooth
and satiny.
The first was,
he was called Berele,
The second, Chayim
Shmerele,
The third one he
just called for A brand-new pair of shoes.
You really want
to know who the third one can be?
It really is not
hard to guess That little boy is me.
4. Rent is due, and oy, oy, oy,
Rent is due, and
boazhe moy
(Russian for "My
God!")
Rent is due, and
it's no joy,
Rent is due; time
to pay up.
5. My heart
with pain
Does overflow again,
When at Castle
Garden
I give a glance.
Where folks of
all stations
from so many different
nations
Sit dreaming of
better chance.
6.*O, my dearest Mama,
You ask how I'm doing,
You ask what I do here
in
this golden land,
I cannot write, Mama
dear,
lies in my letter,
So I'll write the truth
with a
trembling hand.
7.*Dearest Mama, dearest Mother,
My dear heart, let me
explain.
Do you know
Why I cry so bitter,
and the depth of all my pain?
I'd be all my riches
giving,
If I could see you a
new.
For you, I'd gladly give
up living,
If I could come back
to you.
8. Streams of blood and rivers of tears,
Hotly flowing deep and
wide,
For our old and terrible
torment is once more at our side.
Listen there to Mothers
weeping, and to children's awful shouts, corpses lying on the sidewalks,
sick ones falling all
about.
*According to Aaron
Lansky ("Outwitting History"),
thirty or forty titles concerned themselves with immigrant mothers:
"A Letter to Mama"; "A Mother's Heart," "A Mother Is the Best Friend";
"When There Is No Mother";
"Mamenyu, Buy Me That"; "Can a Mother Be
Guilty?"; "A Mother's Nakhes"; and "A Mother's Tears."
KEY
1. "Tum Balalaika"
2. "Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen" (Raisins
and Almonds)
3. "Dray Yingelech
4. "Dire Gelt"
5. "Kesl Gardn"
6. "Dem Pedlers Brivl" (The
Peddler's Letter)
7. "A Briv Fun Amerika"
8. "Hot Rachmones" (Have Compassion)
___________________________________________ Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
