Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 6.222
February 8, 1997

1) Bibliography (Hugh Denman)
2) Achron's "Stempenyu" (Ron Robboy)
3) Mazepa (Jota Piasecki)
4) Mazepa (Louis Fridhandler)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 22:36:52 +0100 (MET)
From: h_denman@maier.vol.at
Subject: Bibliography

While still basking in the giddy hubris engendered by the kind remarks
of our illustrious shames, perhaps I may make so bold as to expand a
little on this topic. Of course, we all want to be informed about what
is being published in, from and on Yiddish and we need these data in a
sufficiently precise form to be used not only as a basis for ordering
books both for institutional libraries and for our personal use, but
also to enable us to incorporate the details into reliable
bibliographies. If this information can be expanded to include brief
descriptions of the content so much the better.

Noyekh suggests this task could be entrusted to the Arbeter-ring. I
wonder if this is not asking a bit too much of them. They list only the
books for which they act as agents and they seem reluctant to cite more
than author and title. (Their descriptions, it should be said, are quite
useful.) But what we need is an on-line listing, appearing at, say,
six-monthly intervals giving global coverage and which we can simply
down-load into our own bibliographies and accessions lists. It would be
a sort of more exhaustive, more up-to-date on-line Yiddish RAMBI and
would complement the on-line catalogue of second-hand Yiddish books that
the NYBC is apparently planning.

Is this not an appropriate task for mendele? Noyekh has already
suggested that we might expand to having book reviews. Why not a
bibliographic service of this sort as well? I know what you're all
thinking at this point, 'nice idea, Hugh, go ahead and do it'. Well, no!
I'm not volunteering to do any such thing. It's too much for any one
individual who is fully stretched already, though I have told Noyekh
privately that if such a thing existed I would be prepared to
contribute, say, listings of everything relevant appearing in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland.

Perhaps we could get help from Zachary Baker at the YIVO Library and or
from the NYBC. Maybe volunteer mendelyaner would offer to cover specific
areas and perhaps, if every university that teaches Yiddish were
prepared to make a small annual contribution, we could even ask some
retired mendelyaner to coordinate the whole thing on a part-time basis.

Hugh Denman

hope mendelyaner will forgive me for raising a procedural point, but
among our circle there must be a fair number of people who, like myself,
are responsible for ordering books for institutional libraries. Hardly a
week passes without someone posting a message extolling the merits of a
new book in our field. This is most welcome, but somewhat frustrating if
it is done without mentioning the standard bibliographical data that are
indispensible for ordering the book in question. Could I suggest that we
make it normal practice when announcing new books to quote as many of
the following items of information as possible: Author and/ or Editor,
"Title", Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of publication, Number of
pages, ISBN, Price.

Hugh Denman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 11:33:59 -0800
From: rrobboy@cts.com
Subject: Achron's "Stempenyu"

I have finally received the CD "Stempenyu:  The Violin Music of Joseph
Achron" (Biddulph Recordings LAW 021), on which I gave a preliminary
description in Volume 6.162.  (The price may have changed in the
interim.)

Of the twenty-four selections, most are so-called concert miniatures
with no Jewish content, much less specifically Yiddish.  In addition to
the "Stempenyu" music, however, there is the famous "Hebrew Melody" as
well as a "Hebrew Dance," "Hebrew Lullaby," "Eli Zion," and "Scher."

The important news is that of the accompanying thirty-page trilingual
booklet:  English, Hebrew, and Yiddish.  *All* the information -- not
just Amnon Shaham's seven-page essay on Achron, but even details of the
Israeli recording production -- has been translated into Yiddish by the
estimable Gennady Estraikh.  A nice touch is the choice of a Frank-Ruehl
typeface for the Yiddish, followed by a David-style sanserif for the
Hebrew.

In 6.162, I reported that, "Weisser says that Achron originally wrote
his incidental music to 'Stempenyu' for a 1918 Petrograd production by
Alexander Granovsky."  Shaham's notes say that Achron wrote the music in
1929 for a production in New York, where he was by then living.  This
would certainly have been for Maurice Schwartz' production at the
Yiddish Art Theater, which opened in March of that year.  (One wonders
if he sold Schwartz used goods!)

Ron Robboy

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 01:39:56 +0100
From: jpi@it.lth.se
Subject: Mazepa

[More regarding Louis Fridhandler's query in 6.215]:

I report that the Polish theatre play 'Mazepa', written by the poet
Juliusz Slowacki, was written in 1840, thus much later than Byron's
'Mazepa' but much earlier than Sholem-Aleykhem's Mazepevke. Under
Slowacki's life-time (1809-1849) it was performed on the scene only once
and became well known later.  Slowacki's Mazepa has opinion to be quite
distant from the historical facts; its protagonist is the hetman I wrote
about; Slowacki dealt primary with M's youth. I was in error guessing
the historical Mazepa was a Pole by birth - he was a Cosack, even if a
Polish (unfaithful) subject; the title of hetman - or ataman - he seems
to have usurped as Chmielnicki did. The Polish source about Slowacki I
had at hand does mention Byron's work but say nothing about any
specifical impact of Byron on Slowacki's piece.

I could not unearth any opera or music about Mazepa. The film upon the
Mazepa theme I mentioned is by Polish film-avanguardist Walerian
Borowczyk living in Paris; the title of the movie in Polish is (I do not
know why) 'Biala' (white in feminine; in French it would be Blanche),
from 60-70-ies.

Some performance of Slowacki's Mazepa could have given, beside the
Byron's influence, an inspiration to Mazepevke.  Is Mazepevke translated
from Yiddish in some major language? I would like to be able compare its
story to Slowacki's play - and to the passage in Histoire de Charles XII
by Voltaire Goldie Morgentaler mentions [Mendele 6.220] as Byron's
source. The question seems to be: what was Voltaire's source on Mazepa?
French journals? Voltaire, 1694-1778, only 13 years old in 1708, when
Mazepa's revolt against Russia was News.

Jota Piasecki

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 16:44:50 -0500 (EST)
From: lfridhan@aol.com
Subject: Mazepa

Thanks to the Mendelyaners who advance my knowledge about Mazepe, and
about Byron's subject.

An interesting sidelight.  Mazepe is not included in Weinreich's
dictionary, but Harkavy [1928] defines mazepe as _slovenly person_,
consistent with other unpleasant associations to the character, and to
Sholem-Aleykhem's shtetl.

Louis Fridhandler

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End of Mendele Vol. 6.222