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Yiddish Folksong "Dona Dona"

LouisLee

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1^# 大中小發表於 21-9-2008 16:41 只看該作者

Yiddish Folksong "Dona Dona"

Donna Donna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dona_Dona

"Dona Dona" ("Dana Dana", "Dos Kelbl") was a very popular song in America, and also in a number of other countries, for example, in Japan it has long been sung in schools.

History

The song has been written as "Dana Dana" in Yiddish, for the theatrical musical play "Esterke" (1940-1941); words written by Aaron Zeitlin, music written by Sholom Secunda. Both of them were Jews, and the song has been written in days of nazism. The song was prohibited in South Korea as a communist song .

The original is 2/4, in G minor for a duo of a man and a woman, choral with the orchestral accompaniment. Secunda wrote "Dana-" for the orchestral score and "Dana Dana" for the vocal scores. The Yiddish text was written with roman alphabet. He wrote for the choral score "andantino" (some slowly) and "sempre staccato" (play staccato always). The melody of the introduction was also used at the end of the song. He wrote "piu mosso" (more rapidly) for the refrain and some passages that emphasize the winds. First, a woman (Secunda wrote "she") sings four bars and then the man (Secunda wrote "he") sings the next four. They sing together from the refrain. Although singing the third part of "Dana Dana" (="Dana Dana Dana Dana...") the man sometimes sings lower than the melody using disjunct motions. The melody is refrained. Then "he" sings the melody, and "she" sometimes sings "Dana", other times sings "Ah" with a high voice or technical passage. Secunda wrote "molto rit." (gradually very slowly) for the ending of the first verse. There are some difference between the original and the melody that are well known. Secunda wrote "ha ha ha" for the choral score with the broken chords.

The first translation into English was made by Secunda himself but did not become popular. The song in English became well known as "Donna Donna" when it was translated approximately in 1956 by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz. The song became especially popular after the performance of Joan Baez in 1960 and Donovan in 1965, and was even featured on "More Chad & Jeremy", a Capitol Records compilation of standards sung by the British duo.

The song has been translated into many other languages including German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian.

The song has been sung by many singers including André Zweig, Joan Baez, Donovan, Chava Alberstein, Theodore Bikel, Hélène Rollès in duet with Dorothée, and Russian ensemble of the Jewish songs on Yiddish "Dona". It can also be found on the soundtrack to the anime-movie "Revolutionary Girl Utena".

Lyrics

Original Yiddish

Oyfn furl ligt dos kelbl,
Ligt gebundn mit a shtrik.
Hoykh in himl flit dos shvelbl,
Freyt zikh, dreyt zikh hin un tsrik.

Chorus:

Lakht der vint in korn,
Lakht un lakht un lakht,
Lakht er op a tog a gantsn
Mit a halber nakht.
Dona, dona, dona, ...

Shrayt dos kelbl, zogt der poyer:
Ver zhe heyst dikh zayn a kalb?
Volst gekent dokh zayn a foygl,
Volst gekent dokh zayn a shvalb.

Chorus

Bidne kelber tut men bindn
Un men shlept zey un men shekht,
Ver s'hot fligl, flit aroyftsu,
Iz bay keynem nit keyn knekht.

Chorus

Translation by Secunda

On a wagon bound and helpless
Lies a calf, who is doomed to die.
High above him flies a swallow
Soaring gaily through the sky.

Chorus:
The wind laughs in the cornfield
Laughs with all his might
Laughs and laughs the whole day through
An half way through the night
Dona, dona, dona...

Now the calf is softly crying
"Tell me wind, why do you laugh?"
Why can’t I fly like the swallow
Why did I have to be a calf,

Chorus

Calves are born and soon are slaughtered
With no hope of being saved.
Only those with wing like swallow
Will not ever be enslaved.

Chorus

Translation by Kevess & Schwartz

On a wagon bound for market
There's a calf with a mournful eye.
High above him there's a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky.

Chorus:
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night.
Dona, dona, dona...

"Stop complaining," said the farmer,
"Who told you a calf to be?
Why don't you have wings to fly with
Like the swallow so proud and free?"

Chorus

Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why.
But whoever treasures freedom,
Like the swallow has learnt to fly.

Chorus

[ 本帖最後由 LouisLee 於 21-9-2008 16:43 編輯 ]

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LouisLee

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2^# 大中小發表於 21-9-2008 16:46 只看該作者

Theodore Bikel - Dona Dona (Yiddish Version)

http://www.jewishmusic.com/sound/ydtbi40d_15.ra

呢個可能係 Dona Dona 現存最古老嘅錄音!!!

Theodore Bikel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Bikel

Theodore Meir Bikel (born May 2, 1924, Vienna, Austria) is an Academy Award- and Tony Award-nominated character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for an Academy award for his role as the Southern Sheriff in The Defiant Ones (1958).

Biography

Bikel's family moved to Palestine following the Nazi occupation, where Bikel started acting while in his teens. He co-founded the Cameri Theatre there—which has gone on to become one of Israel's biggest theaters—before moving to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[1] In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the parts of both Stanley Kowalski and Mitch in the West End premiere of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.[2] Bikel graduated from understudy to star opposite the director's wife, Vivien Leigh, who would go on to recreate her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version opposite Marlon Brando.

After several plays and films in Europe, Bikel moved to the United States in 1954. He was the U-boat first officer to Curt Jürgens in The Enemy Below (1957) and played the captain of the Russian submarine in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). Bikel was screentested for the role of Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). The screentest can be seen on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD released in 2006. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappa's 1971 film 200 Motels.

On Broadway he originated the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1959, for which he received his second Tony nomination. In 1964, he played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect expert, in the film version of My Fair Lady. Since his first appearance as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof in 1967, Bikel has performed the role more often than any other actor (2094 times to date).

In the 1950s, Thedore Bikel produced and sang in several albums of Jewish folk songs, as well as Songs of a Russian Gypsy, in 1958. He was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival (together with Pete Seeger and George Wein) in 1961. In 1962, he heard Bob Dylan give his premiere performance of "Blowin' in the Wind." Bikel then went to his scheduled performance and became the first singer besides Dylan to perform the song in public. Bikel (with partner Herb Cohen) opened the first folk music coffeehouse in L.A., The Unicorn. Its popularity led to the two opening a second club, Cosmo Alley, which in addition to folk music presented poets such as Maya Angelou and comics including Lenny Bruce. Bikel became increasingly involved with civil rights issues and progressive causes, and was a delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention.[3]

In addition to scores of appearances on film and on the stage, Bikel was a guest star on many popular television shows since the 1960s, including The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, Columbo, Charlie's Angels, Little House on the Prairie, Dynasty and Law & Order. He appeared on the game show Super Password as a celebrity guest in 1988.

In the early 1990s, he appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the episode "Family", playing Sergey Rozhenko, the Russian-born adopted father of Worf, who, as a petty officer on the Starfleet vessel Intrepid, had found Worf at the site of the Khitomer Massacre and taken him home to raise as his son. Bikel performed two roles in the Babylon 5 universe. The first was as Rabbi Koslov in the first season episode TKO. He later appeared in the TV movie, Babylon 5: In the Beginning as Anla'Shok leader Lenonn.

Theodore made a most memorable guest appearance in the 1992 PBS special, Chanukkah at Grover's Corner. Bikel made latkes with a talking puppet named "Mozart" and wore a pink sweater, much to the delight of "Terry A La Berry".

Other work

Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America, and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the National Council for the Arts in 1977 for a six year term. On January 28, 2007, he was elected to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA. Bikel is also a lecturer. Bikel's autobiography Theo was published in 1995 by Harper Collins, and re-issued in an updated version by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2002.

[edit] Partial filmography
The African Queen (1951)
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Never Let Me Go (1953)
The Little Kidnappers (1953)
Betrayed (1954) (uncredited)
The Colditz Story (1955)
Above Us the Waves (1955)
The Pride and the Passion (1957)
The Enemy Below (1957)
Fräulein (1958)
I Bury the Living (1958)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
I Want to Live! (1958)
Woman Obsessed (1959)
The Angry Hills (1959)
A Dog of Flanders (1960)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Sands of the Kalahari (1965)
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Sweet November (1968)
My Side of the Mountain (1969)
200 Motels (1971)
Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV)
The Stingiest Man In Town (1978) (TV) (voice)
The Return of the King (1980) (voice)
The Final Days (1989) (TV)
Shattered (1991)
Shadow Conspiracy (1996)

References

Interview

Theodore Bikel: "In der Mariahilferstraße hatten wir Nachbarn, die waren sehr nette und anständige Menschen". In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (eds.): Aufbruch ins Ungewisse. Österreichische Filmschaffende in der Emigration vor 1945. Vienna: Wespennest, 1993.