און מיר זינגען זיך אַ ליד פֿון אַ לאַנד, אַ וועלט, אַ נײַע
So a couple of weeks ago ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gaudior invited me to a Yiddish sing being held this afternoon at the Somerville Community Growing Center and it turned out to be run by the Boston Workmen's Circle and I knew about half the songs in their packet and had a wonderful time even with the ones I didn't and the upshot is that I kind of accidentally auditioned into their community chorus. Which was not how I was expecting this afternoon to go, but I will very definitely take it. I felt I had a somewhat fragmentary answer when asked where I learned my Yiddish songs: my mother sang some as lullabies to me even though she did not herself know Yiddish and we had Theodore Bikel's records in the house when I was growing up and then I got to college and discovered the Klezmatics and last year skygiants threw Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird at me and in the meantime I found and listened to a lot of different things on my own time and occasionally performed them professionally. I got Partisans of Vilna (1988) from selkie. It's a folk tradition. I interact with those. I have pointed out to Tiny Wittgenstein that they often come in fragments.
Afterward I had very nice dinner and conversation with Gaudior and walked home by way of Gracie's and a cone of cardamom and honey cornbread ice cream. I just got back to the internet.
Look at this kraken.
gaudior invited me to a Yiddish sing being held this afternoon at the Somerville Community Growing Center and it turned out to be run by the Boston Workmen's Circle and I knew about half the songs in their packet and had a wonderful time even with the ones I didn't and the upshot is that I kind of accidentally auditioned into their community chorus. Which was not how I was expecting this afternoon to go, but I will very definitely take it. I felt I had a somewhat fragmentary answer when asked where I learned my Yiddish songs: my mother sang some as lullabies to me even though she did not herself know Yiddish and we had Theodore Bikel's records in the house when I was growing up and then I got to college and discovered the Klezmatics and last year skygiants threw Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird at me and in the meantime I found and listened to a lot of different things on my own time and occasionally performed them professionally. I got Partisans of Vilna (1988) from selkie. It's a folk tradition. I interact with those. I have pointed out to Tiny Wittgenstein that they often come in fragments.Afterward I had very nice dinner and conversation with Gaudior and walked home by way of Gracie's and a cone of cardamom and honey cornbread ice cream. I just got back to the internet.
Look at this kraken.
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Thank you! It was completely unexpected and really great!
One of them asked where I had learned all these, and I could only stare at her and stammer something incoherent -- I don't know? I just learned them? They're just songs I know? My parents and my parents' records and the Fireside Book of Folk Songs and summer camp and filk circles and a good ear for joining in, that's where, but it's hard to cobble that together in the spur of the moment.
Right! I used to read Rise Up Singing for fun when I was in elementary school. I still every now and then hear a song for the first time and recognize the lyrics even though I never knew what it sounded like. Do people not just do that?
At any rate, I am very glad that you have an outlet for singing Yiddish songs on a regular basis, and letting that particular folk tradition stretch its wings in your life some more.
Thank you. I'm really looking forward to it.
Also, that is a very excellent kraken.
It was basically the first thing I saw when I got home and looked at the internet. I consider it a continuing omen of the day.