When The Rabbi Danced
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Magnificent and infectious singing.

You might still hear Yiddish songs today, in concert or at social gatherings of Yiddish speakers. But their natural venue was the village or shtetl of Eastern Europe or America where you could hear them through open windows in courtyards, or from busy people humming their way from place to place. They were born and flourished in a world that is no more. They represent the joys and sorrows, dreams and aspirations of ordinary folk, the Jewish mother's dreams for her child, the poverty of the rebbe, the Jewish teacher, the freshness of young love and revolution, the joy of Jewish holidays which provided a welcome respite from the drudgery and hardships of daily life for Eastern European Jewery. Yiddish song reflects the richness of Jewish folklore, as old, vast and varied as the numerous regions which the thousand-year-old language and culture inhabited. It reached its greatest artistic expression in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. There are songs of work, love and lullabies; songs about great Jewish heroes and parodies about the same, songs about Hassidic rabbis, pogroms, the Messiah, the longing for redemption and the return to Zion, and of revolution. Political parodies abounded in the 20th century as did Yiddish theater songs in various genres: operetta, art song and Vaudeville. There were writers, poets and musicians throughout the ages who created this treasure trove, much of it still waiting to be culled. The Yiddish street singer was a common sight in the cities and towns of Eastern Europe, well into the 20th century. The broder zinger from Galicia heralded in an age of Yiddish folksong creativity that reached every continent on which Jews lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The poet Itzik Manger and, of course, Mordechai Gibertig, the most famous and popular of the Yiddish folk-poets, were heirs of that tradition. Gibertig "S'Brent," a vision of burning cities and a call to arms, written in 1938, proved to be all too prophetic. During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews were confined in ghettos across German occupied Eastern Europe. In the ghettos and even concentration camps, members of the terrorized Jewish population engaged in remarkable, organized acts of defiance. Determined to leave a record of their history for posterity, they secretly created archives, diaries, drawings, photographs and songs to document Nazi crimes against their communities. During the same period many European Jews defied their Nazi oppressors by actively taking part in an underground war of resistance. This partisan warfare, carried out by clandestine, irregular forces operating inside enemy territory, was particularly widespread in the dense forests and nearly impassable marshlands of Eastern Europe. In 1942, the Supreme Partisan Headquarters in the Soviet Union extended its authority over the majority of partisan units in Eastern Europe and young Jewish fighters who escaped the ghettos joined the Russian partisans. Jewish partisan units were established in 1943, and the Yiddish language was now used for military communication, as well as for cultural and folkloric expression, such as poetry and song. This is a delightful album, full of energy and wit. The singing is magnificent and infectious. The CD booklet contains full texts of each song in English.
Contents:
Robert De Cormier, arranger
Un Az Der Rebe Zingt
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Partizaner-libe
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Chassidisch
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Gideon Klein, arranger
Bachuri Le'an Tisa
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Zigmund Schul, arranger
Tavo-u El Ha'arets
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
A Geneyve
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Sha Shtil
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Der Rebe Elimelekh
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Dortn, Dortn
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Tumbalalayka
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Du Zolst Nit Geyn
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Elya Taytelboym
Troyer Past Nisht Unzer Ponim
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Eliahu Hanavi
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Shaul Shenker, composer
Nit Ayer Mazl
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Yome, Yome
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Di Mezinke
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
S'Brent
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Viktor Ullmann, arranger
Hala Yarden
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Modest Tabachnikov, composer
A Gib Zhe Khaver
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Gebirtig/Yampolsky, composers
S'Dremlen Feygl
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Tsum Besern Morgn
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Gene Glickman, arranger
Shtil Di Nakht
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Yiddishe Brigades
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Robert De Cormier, arranger
Zog Nit Keynmol
Counterpoint, Robert De Cormier, conductor

Review:
Review to come.
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