Yiddish Songs, like all Jewish music, are diverse. There are Yiddish folk songs and Yiddish theater songs. But there are also classically composed Yiddish art songs. "Leyg Dayn Kop" (Lay Your Head) is a moving Yiddish art song composed by Solomon Golub, with a poetic text by H. Leivick. Rarely recorded, this Yiddish music is sung here by bass-baritone Marc Berman. Golub arranged the piece for voice, violin and piano.
Among the immigrant composers of Yiddish art songs that had wide popularity during the first half of the 20th century, Solomon Golub was one of the most beloved. Golub performed his own songs in formal classical concert format, with piano. Not infrequently, the audience would sing along.
Golub's songs were recorded (during his lifetime and after) by such leading singers as Emma Shaver, Mascha Benya, Sidor Belarsky, and even the renowned cantor Yossele Rosenblatt. One could also add the renowned American operatic tenor Jan Peerce to the list.
Golub was born near Riga, Latvia in 1887. His father was a local ba’al t’filla (lay prayer leader). His mother was also a singer. Golub’s mother was well acquainted with German lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and other classical composers. She evidently passed this musical knowledge on to her son. As a boy, Golub sang in the choir of the Great Synagogue in Riga.
Golub immigrated to the United States in 1906. He continued his musical studies. By about 1915 he began to compose. He interacted with in the United Hebrew Choral Societies of America and Canada—a short-lived North American federation of Yiddish choral groups. The Society was founded in 1921 at a conference convened expressly for that purpose, initiated by the Paterson Singing Society in New Jersey. The Society was founded in 1913, largely by Jewish silk weavers who had immigrated from Łódź, in Russian-ruled Poland. (Paterson, New Jersey at the time was known as the "Silk City," renowned, like Lodz, for its silk industry.)
Golub was disappointed by the coarseness of much of the Yiddish music of his day, He tried to create an alternative Yiddish song repertoire on a higher literary as well as musical level. He aimed for taste and dignity, yet with an emotional appeal that would resonate with Yiddish-speaking audiences.
At first, Golub wrote his own poems for his songs. And he continued to do so even after he was able to set the verse of prominent poets. Among the poets whose texts he composed for were the noted Avraham Reisen (1876–1953), Morris Rosenfeld (1862–1923), Mani Leib(1883–1953)and Moshe Leib Halpern (1886–1932). I “Many of poems [of these poets] would have remained unknown or become forgotten,” wrote the Jewish music publisher (and songwriter) Henry Lefkowitch in his introduction to a 1936 collection of Golub’s songs, “if Solomon Golub had not written music for them.”
Among the immigrant composers of Yiddish art songs that had wide popularity during the first half of the 20th century, Solomon Golub was one of the most beloved. Golub performed his own songs in formal classical concert format, with piano. Not infrequently, the audience would sing along.
Golub's songs were recorded (during his lifetime and after) by such leading singers as Emma Shaver, Mascha Benya, Sidor Belarsky, and even the renowned cantor Yossele Rosenblatt. One could also add the renowned American operatic tenor Jan Peerce to the list.
Golub was born near Riga, Latvia in 1887. His father was a local ba’al t’filla (lay prayer leader). His mother was also a singer. Golub’s mother was well acquainted with German lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and other classical composers. She evidently passed this musical knowledge on to her son. As a boy, Golub sang in the choir of the Great Synagogue in Riga.
Golub immigrated to the United States in 1906. He continued his musical studies. By about 1915 he began to compose. He interacted with in the United Hebrew Choral Societies of America and Canada—a short-lived North American federation of Yiddish choral groups. The Society was founded in 1921 at a conference convened expressly for that purpose, initiated by the Paterson Singing Society in New Jersey. The Society was founded in 1913, largely by Jewish silk weavers who had immigrated from Łódź, in Russian-ruled Poland. (Paterson, New Jersey at the time was known as the "Silk City," renowned, like Lodz, for its silk industry.)
Golub was disappointed by the coarseness of much of the Yiddish music of his day, He tried to create an alternative Yiddish song repertoire on a higher literary as well as musical level. He aimed for taste and dignity, yet with an emotional appeal that would resonate with Yiddish-speaking audiences.
At first, Golub wrote his own poems for his songs. And he continued to do so even after he was able to set the verse of prominent poets. Among the poets whose texts he composed for were the noted Avraham Reisen (1876–1953), Morris Rosenfeld (1862–1923), Mani Leib(1883–1953)and Moshe Leib Halpern (1886–1932). I “Many of poems [of these poets] would have remained unknown or become forgotten,” wrote the Jewish music publisher (and songwriter) Henry Lefkowitch in his introduction to a 1936 collection of Golub’s songs, “if Solomon Golub had not written music for them.”
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