And We're All Brothers: Singing in Yiddish in Contemporary North America

218 Pages·2013·1.15 MB·English

by  Abigail Wood

And We’re All Brothers: Singing in YiddiSh
in ContemporarY north ameriCa
to Geraldine Auerbach and Jennifer Jankel,
and in memory of Adrienne Cooper z”l (1946–2011)
Zol zi hobn a likhtikn gan-eydn.
And We’re All Brothers:
Singing in Yiddish in
Contemporary north america

abigail Wood
soAs, University of london, UK
and University of haifa, Israel
© abigail Wood 2013
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
abigail Wood has asserted her right under the Copyright, designs and patents act, 1988, to be
identified as the author of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing Company
Wey Court east 110 Cherry Street
Union road Suite 3-1
Farnham burlington, Vt 05401-3818
Surrey, gU9 7pt USa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Wood, abigail, 1977-
and we’re all brothers : singing in Yiddish in contemporary
north america. – (SoaS musicology series)
1. Songs, Yiddish – New York (State) – New York – History
and criticism. 2. Klezmer music – New York (State) – New
York – History and criticism. 3. Music – New York (State) –
New York – 21st century – History and criticism.
i. title ii. Series
782.4'262924-dc23
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Wood, abigail, 1977-
and we’re all brothers : singing in Yiddish in contemporary north america / by abigail Wood.
p. cm. – (SoaS musicology series)
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-4533-3 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4094-4534-0 (ebook) – ISBN 978-1-
4094-7303-9 (epub) 1. Jews – Music – New York (State) – New York – History and criticism.
2. Folk songs, Yiddish – History and criticism. 3. Songs, Yiddish – History and criticism. 4.
Klezmer music – history and criticism. i. title.
ml3776.W66 2013
782.42089'924073 – dc23
2012039070
ISBN 9781409445333 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409445340 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781409473039 (ebk – ePUB)
II
Contents
List of Examples vii
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Part I ContemPorary Frameworks For yIddIsh song
1 Becoming Yiddishists 19
2 Narrating a Canon 49
Part II yIddIsh song and the ‘klezmer revIval’
3 From Local to Global: A New Stage for Yiddish Song 83
4 A Space for Reflection: Creative Encounters with Europe 105
5 Encountering the Yiddish Other: Hasidic Music in Today’s
Yiddish Canon 135
6 Technology, the Sonic Object and the (Re)Construction of
Yiddish Music 165
Conclusion 181
Bibliography 187
Index 201
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List of Examples
3.1 ‘Reefer song’ verse melody 101
3.2 ‘Reefer song’ linking passage 101
3.3 ‘Ot azoy’ melody 102
4.1 ‘Ikh heyb mayn fus’ nign melody (opening) 121
4.2 ‘Ikh heyb mayn fus’ verse melody (second phrase) 121
4.3 Mogen Ovos voice leading progression 127
5.1 Metric fluidity in nigun performance 154
5.2 ‘Ma’arash’ 154
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List of Tables
2.1 Comparison of the categorisation of contents in five
songbooks (figures in parentheses indicate the number
of songs in each section) 59
2.2 New Yiddish songbooks published between 1935 and 2005 68
6.1 HipHopKhasene: construction and instrumentation 173