Yesterday, a blogger I like to read regularly wrote about a lullaby that has become a tradition in her family. It brought back a dear memory.
Back in 2016, I remembered a lullaby my father used to sing to me. I can still hear his
voice singing the refrain from the lullaby, in the language of his
parents (a language I, in turn, never learned). I said to myself,
"After all these years, I wonder if I can use You Tube and a search
engine to find the song?"
He passed away some 35 years ago but I still remember.
I have many childhood memories of my Dad. I remember, especially, walks
he would take me on some Sunday afternoons (no doubt, to give my stay
at home Mom a break). He would love to watch houses under construction,
and we would walk to the construction sites. He would look at the
houses-to-be. I would listen to Yankee baseball games on a tinny sounding
transistor radio.
Then, after my mother died, Dad raised me as a single father. Things
got rather stormy at times as I traveled through my teenage years, but he hung in
there.
Anyway, about that lullaby. It took about 20 minutes, but I found it, back in 2016. I'd like to reintroduce it to my readers.
The English name is Raisins and Almonds. Please enjoy this performance by violinist Itzhak Perlman.
The song "Raisins and Almonds" was written in 1880 for the Yiddish theatre and the lyrics tell of a widow in Ukraine who rocks her only son to sleep, singing of a white goat who goes to market to bring home raisins and almonds. In those days, in the "old country", both were luxury items.
This (with lyrics in both Yiddish and English) is is the original Yiddish version, as sung by actress Jane Seymour.
Jane Seymour, born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg, had a Jewish father. Two of her great aunts were Holocaust survivors. Who knows, maybe her father sung this song to her. My father sung this song to me, his only child, in Yiddish.
I never learned the lyrics, and I never sung it to my son. A shame, in a way.
A song, a memory...what song brings back memories for you?
Maybe you can sing it to your grandchildren! someday.
ReplyDelete...thanks for the memories, my father passed about 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother was an immigrant whose first language was Yiddish, and I do remember her singing in Yiddish (though not this song). But when I think about her, I don't think about a Yiddish song. I think about "Red Wing". It's a song she learned at a summer retreat. I found it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/irIpecROTrg
ReplyDeleteLovely. I remember hearing that melody, but I never knew what it was called.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful! It definitely needs to remain a tradition in your home!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy that my memory triggered yours! Your memories so often trigger mine! :)
Perlman took the music seriously, but never himself.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your memory with us. Is not the internet wonderful for finding things like this. I love Itzhak Perlman's playing and I have not heard this piece for a long time. I did not know it was the melody to a lullaby! You are awesome and have a marvellously Happy Day!
ReplyDeletewonderful memories and beautiful music - thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteWhat a great memory to have.
ReplyDelete