Yiddish Baroque Music Di Tsaytmashin

• 1 Tzu zingin Fraytig tzu Nakht 06:52
• 2 An Shabbes tzu ous Gang 03:02
• 3 Den er iz ouch Koudesh 05:08
• 4 Um Yom Kipper veRosh Hashone 07:06
• 5 Hob far nimt Moure an Sukkes un' Simkhes Toure 04:19
• 6 Di Khanuke Teg Akht 04:12
• 7 Ven shoun megn zayn Shikurim 05:39
• 8 Zu der kennin Gotsh Vunder zu Yisroel vun on Fang 05:34
• 9 Drinnen gfinshtdu guti Shmues 03:57
• 10 Dash Min Khutspe Lider zol lozn bleybin, khevresh Gzang zu Khasune un Bris Mile ton on shreybin 06:03
• 11 Zu vor ous ven man Sie tuet flekhtin 03:49
• 12 Denn Gotsh Dinsht guet vor alli Dingin 06:54
• Total Runtime 01:02:35

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Seyfer Simkhes Haneyfesh: (“The Book of the Rejoicing soul”) is an ancient Ashkenazi songbook, written by Rabbi Elkhanan Kirchen and published in Bavaria towards the beginning of the 18th century. It contains songs of morality for the Jewish home. The songs describe in very witty rhymes the diversity of customs for the Jewish holidays, the re ned moods resultant of following the Jewish tradition, and the joy of believing in God.

The language of the songs is West Yiddish, the language of the Jews of western and central Europe in those years. Although it differs from the modern Yiddish of today, it already bears many similarities to the more modern version of the language. The melodies of the songs appear in the book as a rather general structuring of a single melodic line. Despite the sparse voicing in the notation, the written music still manages to hint strongly at a remarkably unique musical pastiche, spanning from pure baroque polyphony to very spicy Jewish and European folk tunes.

Arranging the book’s music required the making of a couple of educated assumptions, without which the presenting of the book’s music as a work of art would not have been possible. The first one regarded the composer’s identity. I presume it was Rabbi Kirchen himself – an assumption that easily explains one of the peculiarities of most of the compositions in the book, which seem to appear rather “breathless”, as though composed by an amateur. The second thing which was essential to de ne was the identity of the person who, as a favor to Rabbi Kirchen, noted the tunes down. It is my opinion that the actual notation was done not by a Jew but rather by a gentile, who would not have been familiar with the nuances of the more Jewish melodies. This would account for the scriber’s haplessness when faced with the challenge of notating melodies of a more Jewish or Oriental nature. Whereas melodies of a more “German” character can be easily followed on the page, some others appear in the musical text in such a crooked and bizarre form, that it is unlikely that they were intended to be sung that way. After dealing with those two points it was possible to arrange this very intriguing work in the way in which I believe that Rabbi Kirchen and his diligent copier intended it to be. I thank those two for the challenge.

Di Tsaytmashin:
Avishai Aleksander Fisz, singing, harp, recorder
Bari Moscovitz, theorbo
Ayela Seidelman, cello
Daniel Hoffman, violin
Adi Silberberg, recorders, viola da gamba, krummhorn
Oren Fried, percussion
Guests:
Asher Blachmann, violin
Raffaello Negri, violin
Miriam Ben-Ami, violin
Amos Boazsohn, viola
Michael Klinghoffer, double bass
Eliav Lavi, baroque guitar

Avishai Aleksander Fisz
Musician and actor. Born and raised in Jerusalem, graduated from “Beit –Zvi” Theatre College (Israel), continued his studies at Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies, where he received certi cation as an instructor of the Yiddish language, and furthered his professional education at the Alfred Schnittke Akademie International in Hamburg, where he studied singing with Holger Lampson. He performs frequently in Israel and Europe with a repertoire which includes folk songs, Baroque music, 20th century chansons, and contemporary music, including many pieces that were composed especially for him. In Israel he is an actor at the Israeli National Theatre “Habimah”. Mr. Fisz is considered a leading authority in the eld of Yiddish folk song research, and is regularly invited to give lectures, concerts, and master classes in academic centers across the globe. He is active as a composer of music for theatre, and performs as both a soloist and member of ensembles in Israel and internationally.

Di Tsaytmashin (Yiddish for “time machine”)
Di Tsaytmashin Ensemble’s members are all graduates of high esteemed music academies in Europe and America, and they all perform regularly as soloists and as members of diverse music groups. Di Tsaytmashin was assembled by Avishai Aleksander Fisz in 2012, as a vehicle for the realization of “The Book of the Rejoicing Soul”.

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