Manfred Lemm & Ensemble - Der singer fun nojt. Mordechaj Gebirtig, Jiddische Lieder Vol.2

Today is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Army in 1945. The "Holocaust Memorial Day" is dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. 

This is the second collection of songs by Mordechaj Gebirtig in interpretations by Manfred Lemm. 

Mordechaj Gebirtig was a great Yiddish bard, folk singer and labour poet. He has not performed them himself, as Gebirtig was killed in 1942 in the ghetto in Polish Krakau. 

Gebirtig belonged to the Jewish Social Democratic Party, a political party in Galicia which merged into the Jewish Labour Bund after World War I. The Bund was a Yiddishist proletarian socialist party, which called for Jewish cultural autonomy in a democratic Second Republic.
From 1906 he was a member of the Jewish Amateur Troupe in Kraków. He also wrote songs and theater reviews for "Der sotsial-demokrat", the Yiddish organ of the Jewish Social-Democratic Party. It was in such an environment that Gebirtig developed, encouraged by such professional writers and Yiddishist cultural activists as Avrom Reyzen, who for a time lived and published a journal in Krakow. Gebirtig's talent was his own, but he took the language, themes, types, tone, and timbre of his pieces from his surroundings, in some measure continuing the musical tradition of the popular Galician cabaret entertainers known as the Broder singers, who in turn were beholden to the yet older and still vital tradition of the badchen's (wedding jester's) improvisatory art.
He published his first collection of songs in 1920, in the Second Polish Republic. It was titled "Folkstimlekh" ('of the folk'). His songs spread quickly even before they were published, and many people regarded them as folksongs whose author or authors were anonymous. Adopted by leading Yiddish players such as Molly Picon, Gebirtig's songs became staples of numerous regular as well as improvised theatrical productions wherever Yiddish theatre was performed. It is not an exaggeration to say that Gebirtig's songs were lovingly sung the world over.

German singer-guitarist Manfred Lemm became obsessed by the works of Gebertig and collected, researched and adapted all his songs. Lemm put poems to music and brought his collection together in a weighty book, including lyrics, translations and music notations through which a peek into the life of Gebirtig is visible.


Tracklist:

1 Der Singer Fun Nojt
2 Di Kortn-Lejgerin
3 Arbetloser-Marsch
4 Ich Hob Schojn Lang
5 Minutn Fun Bitochn
6 Undser Schtetl Brent
7 Huljet, Huljet, Kinderlech
8 Rejsele
9 Jankele
10 Motele
11 Schojn Schtil Is In Gessl
12 Oj, Bruderl, Lechajim Lechajim Klesmorim
13 Zu Majn Gelibter
14 Di Erschte Bletlech
15 Di Farfirte
16 Wig-Lid
17 Bejike
18 A Malech Wert Geborjn


Manfred Lemm & Ensemble - Der singer fun nojt. Mordechaj Gebirtig, Jiddische Lieder Vol.2

(320 kbps, cover art included