Manfred Lemm & Ensemble - Majn cholem. Mordechaj Gebirtig, Jiddische Lieder Vol.4

Today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the passage of 80 years since the January 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet soldiers. Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau were the extermination camps where an estimated 1.1 million people - mostly Jews from across Europe, but also political opponents, prisoners of war, homosexuals, Roma and others  -were killed in gas chambers or by systematic starvation, forced labor, disease, or medical experiments. About 200,000 camp inmates survived the ordeal. Today, a number of heads of states and aging survivors will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary at the site in Poland, now maintained as a museum.

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.

This is the fourth collection of songs by Mordechaj Gebirtig in interpretations by Manfred Lemm. It was recorded at Radio Krakow Malopolska ind 2005 and 2006.

Tracklist:

1 Majn Cholem 2:43
2 Glokn-Klang 0:53
3 A Suniker Schtral 2:28
4 Blumke Majn Shiduwke 3:30
5 Schlojmele Liber 2:58
6 Schtern Ssortn 1:40
7 Sog Mir Lewone 2:46
8 Sun Sun Sang 1:31
9 Mojschele 3:47
10 Geforn Ganz Wajt 1:35
11 Chaluzim Libe 3:17
12 Freds' Mechaje 4:32
13 Die Nacht Kumt On Zu Schwejbn 2:08
14 Trili Trilili 3:47
15 Di Neschome 1:35
16 A Tog Fun Nekome 1:34
17 Fun Wanen 0:44
18 Majn Tate A Kohen 2:16
19 Majn Hejm 4:35

Manfred Lemm & Ensemble - Majn cholem. Mordechaj Gebirtig, Jiddische Lieder Vol.4

(320 kbps, cover art included)