|
Nov. 16, 2012
A tribute to her family
Myrna Rabinowitz’s new Yiddish CD is now out.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
The past and the future combine in Myrna Rabinowitz’s new CD, Lullabies and Longings: A Collection of New and Old Yiddish Songs. In it, Rabinowitz, backed by a group of very talented musicians, sings beautiful folk melodies, several of which she penned in memory of her parents and in celebration of her grandchildren.
“My parents were Holocaust survivors who escaped to Russian-occupied Poland after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. They spent the war years in labor camps in Siberia and in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Most of their family members were murdered and I always felt how much they treasured me and my sister. Because I grew up with no grandparents, they were like parents and grandparents combined,” shared Rabinowitz with the Independent about the sentiments behind the songs dedicated to her mother and father on Lullabies and Longings.
“I grew up in Montreal surrounded by other survivors and lived next door to my mother’s surviving sister and brother and their families,” she added. “My father’s only surviving brother lived nearby. Yiddish was the main language of communication in my early years.
“My parents came to Montreal with nothing and worked very hard to build a life for themselves and our family. Yet the love they showered me with provided me with a very stable home life and rich childhood. I was so very fortunate to have them as parents.”
In addition to “Mayn Tate” and “A Ziseh Mame,” there are three lullabies written by Rabinowitz on the CD of 10 songs. Dedicated to Judah, Noah and Lev z”l, Rabinowitz explained, “At present, I have two grandchildren – Judah (two and a half) and Noah (almost one year) – and I look forward to having more. I wrote the lullabies for them.
“When my eldest daughter Aliza was first pregnant, she asked me to record some Yiddish lullabies so that she could play them for the baby. I was delighted by the request and, much to my surprise, the following day, as I went for a walk, a lovely original melody for a lullaby came to me. That is how ‘Aye Lu Lu Lu’ was created and the idea for a Yiddish album of lullabies was born. I couldn’t wait to sing my first lullaby to my first grandchild. But, very sadly, Lev died just prior to his birth and I never did get to sing his lullaby to him.
“Luckily,” continued Rabinowitz, “my daughter gave birth to Judah almost two years later. About a week later, we were out in a park with the baby and the lullaby ‘A Yingele A Kleyns’ came to me just in time for me to sing it at his bris.
“The third lullaby, ‘Shlof Zhe Yingele,’ written for Noah, was the most surprising. I had already started to record the album and was hoping to complete the recording before Noah was born. But Noah arrived six weeks early and, as I was holding him in the hospital, the melody for his lullaby came and I was able to record it on the album.”
Love and gratitude for family infuses every song on Lullabies and Longings. As well, the CD features photos of Rabinowitz as a child with her parents, as a parent with each of her three children (babies at the time) and as a grandmother with her two grandchildren. Connecting the generations, she explained, “Becoming a grandparent was a very powerful experience for me. Because I didn’t have grandparents, I never experienced the grandparent-grandchild relationship. I remember asking my friends to tell me about their grandparents. I wanted to be the best grandmother I could be. But, when I became a grandmother (Bubby), I felt so much love for this baby, it was indescribable. It was different from the love I felt for my children when I gave birth. That was also a euphoric love but it carried the responsibility of being the primary caregiver. This love carried nothing with it but love and joy. That continues to this day and will no doubt continue for the rest of my life.
“Having grandchildren,” she added, “I now understand the joy my parents felt when I had my children and the love they had for their grandchildren.”
Rabinowitz has now recorded seven albums of Jewish music: three with Vancouver’s Tzimmes, two of Jewish sacred music with Shir Hadash and a solo album of music for Shabbat prayers and blessings for lifecycle celebrations. Lullabies and Longings is her first solo album in Yiddish.
“Not only is Yiddish my first language – my mameloshn – but some of my first memories are of listening to my father’s record collection of Jewish music, primarily Yiddish,” Rabinowitz told the Independent. “Yiddish is a language that expresses joy, pathos and humor brilliantly. The sound of the language and its words bring me much pleasure. Words like mekhaye and fargenign are beyond translation.”
Rabinowitz said that she has always wanted to record a Yiddish CD: “Not only is it my way of helping to keep the language alive, but I truly love the language.”
Rabinowitz explained further: “I had dreamt about recording a Yiddish album for many years. Just before I met Moshe Denburg and Tzimmes, I had started to work on the logistics, but put it on hold when I joined Tzimmes and created three albums of Jewish world music with the group. During that time, I started creating music for Yiddish poetry. One of the poems was Rokhl Korn’s ‘Fun Yener Zayt Lid.’ When my father passed away, the song ‘Mayn Tate’ was born. After my mother passed away, I started working on ‘A Ziseh Mame.’ Then came the lullabies for my grandchildren.
“The other songs on the album were songs that were meaningful to my family,” she continued. “‘Moyshele Mayn Fraynd’ was one of my mother’s favorite songs. The lullaby ‘Rozinkes Mit Mandlen’ was one that my mother sang to me and my sister, and I then sang to each of my children. I wanted to record a Holocaust song for my survivor parents and the song ‘Friling’ is one that I have always found particularly beautiful. ‘Mayn Rue Platz’ is a song about the needle trade, which my parents first worked in when they arrived in Canada.”
Lullabies and Longings was recorded at Mark Fenster’s studio, Autumn Studios. “It was Mark who recommended Mark Ferris, an extraordinary violinist and concert master of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra,” said Rabinowitz about the musicians accompanying her on the recording. “Mark also suggested Janelle Nadeau, the accomplished harpist on the album. I wanted cello on the album and was delighted that Eric Wilson could be part of this project. I had worked with Wendy Stuart before and knew her to be a superb pianist. I am thrilled that she was able to play on the album.” Rabinowitz’s younger daughter, Shawna Rothman Crockett, provides vocal harmony on some of the songs.
John Endo Greenaway of Big Wave Design, who did the artwork on Rabinowitz’s previous solo album, Hashiveinu, has done another masterful job of the CD packaging: the covering and the booklet that comes with the CD contain the lyrics in Yiddish and in English (in translation, as well as in transliteration). The photos are crisp and the overall look is inviting.
Rabinowitz has a concert scheduled in Montreal in November and she also has been asked to do a small concert in Israel in December. She said that, although she has retired from teaching English as a second language full time at Vancouver Community College, she continues to teach Yiddish part time, and she is still actively involved with Or Shalom. Last but definitely not least, she said, “At the moment, I am working on promoting my new CD, singing, traveling and visiting my grandchildren in California.”
Lullabies and Longings is available for purchase at myrnarabinowitz.com/2.html. Audio clips can be listened to at the same link. The album is also for sale at the Temple Sholom Giftshop, the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture, the Louis Brier Giftshop and Beth Tikvah.
^TOP
|
