Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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On "Oyfn pripetchik" - (2016)
for piano
"Oyfn pripetchik" (Yiddish: אויפן פריפעטשיק) is a song written in Yiddish by poet and songwriter M. M. Warshawsky (1848–1907), who published his collection, Yiddishe Volkslider, in Kiev in 1900. In transliterated Yiddish, it reads:
Oyfn pripetchik brent a fayerl
un in shtub is heys.
Un der rebbe lernt kleyne kinderlekh
dem alef-beyz.
Gedenkt'zhe, kinderlekh,
gedenkt'zhe, tayere,
vos ir lernt do.
Zogt'zhe nokhamol un take nokhamol,
komets alef-o.
M. M. Warshawsky
A fire burns on the hearth / and it is warm in the little house. / And the rabbi is teaching little children / the alphabet. / Remember, children, / remember, dear ones, / what you learn here. / Repeat and repeat yet again, / komets alef-o. The "komets" -- kamatz -- is the pronunciation sign which appears beneath a vowel in Hebrew, though not in the Torah scroll nor in Yiddish which adopted another way of spelling vowels, often with double vowel symbols.
3 pages, circa 5' 30" - an MP3 demo is here:
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano score.
