Yiddish Choral SeriesSeries Editors: Samuel Seifert and Ludwig Böhme
Yiddish folk songs explore the complete range of human emotions, powerfully expressing all that the Jewish people have loved, embraced and endured. Since their origins in the 14th century, the songs have traditionally been passed on to each generation as words and melodies alone. The Yiddish Choral Series now makes this music available for the first time in stunning new arrangements for choirs.
Series Editors Samuel Seifert (a member of Ensemble Rozhinkes) and Ludwig Böhme (director of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir) have commissioned a range of renowned international arrangers to illustrate the huge variety of creative responses to Yiddish songs: from simple choral settings to expansive, through-composed concert arrangements, and from typical Yiddish harmonies to aleatoric composition.
The Yiddish Choral Series, which allows choirs everywhere to discover the fascinating world of Yiddish song, features:
- A range of choral styles and levels of difficulty, to suit all programming requirements
- Informative introductions to each piece
- Transliterated Yiddish lyrics, with poetic translations into English and German alongside the original Hebrew text
Ver Hot Aza Yingele? (Who has such a son?) is a 3-minute, lively, joyful folk song of Eastern Jewish origin. Full of pride, the mother sings a hymn of gratitude for her own child, who is, of course, the best child of all! Polina Shepherd’s arrangement for solo voice, SATB and piano adds authentic Yiddish ornamentation to the characteristic simple song melody. This creates a kind of onomatopoeia in the solo and choral parts; a sort of notated improvisation that should be felt with metrical freedom. Even for choral singers unfamiliar with Klezmer, this arrangement gives the opportunity to become wonderfully engaged with the style and—like the mother with her ‘Yingele’—will be richly rewarded.
