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Unter Beymer [Beneath the Trees]

from Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos by Isle of Klezbos

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about

This lullaby was performed twice by cantor and Yiddish matinee idol Moyshe Oysher in the film "Der Vilner Shtot-Khazn" [The Vilna City Cantor, a.k.a. "Der Vilner Balabesl"] Oysher, whose screen role with this song was based on the true story of Cantor Yoel-Dovid Strashunsky in the 1840s, sings it first in his hometown of Vilna (Vilnius, today in Lithuania), as his young son goes to sleep, then later in an anguished, broken fragment onstage at the Warsaw Opera. The movie, shich was also based indirectly on an earlier play, presents the allegory of an artist who longs to embrace secular European culture while preserving his Jewish identity. But as produced in 1940 by European Jewish expatriates in New York (including dialogue by Jacob Gladstone, a.k.a Polish Yiddish poet Yakov Glatshteyn), this story was dispicted as tragey. Against the wishes of his traditionalist Jewish community in Vilna, Strashunsky (Oysher) is recruited by urbane non-Jews to star in the first Polish-language opera. Seduced by the beauty of the music's composition (and, int eh cinematic version, the wiles of the composer and conductor), he sings the lead in a nationalist work called "Halka," even shaving his beard to take the role. The first phrase of this lullaby resembles the opening of an aria that the cantor is about to sing when he hears that his son has died. In a daze, he misses the conductor's cues and then, to the scandalized ears of the 19th century Warsaw elite, the opera star begins to sing this Yiddish tune instead. The curtain falls; the cantor loses his voice, only to regain it once more on Yom Kippur before collapsing in his old synagogue in Vilna (not exactly "The Jazz Singer" of Hollywood).

lyrics

(Complete lyrics in Yiddish, transliteration and English translation are included in the PDF download for this album)
Beneath the Trees the grass grows,
Ay-la-lay-lyu-lyu,
And the cruel winds blow,
So sleep, my little son.

Don't sit by the window, my child,
Because you can feel the wind;
And I wouldn't want you, lovely one,
To catch cold.
The sky is already dark with clouds,
Just like here in my heart.

Ay-la-lay-lyu-lyu,
Sleep, my darling child,
Ay-la-lay-lyu-lyu,
And stay well.

credits

from Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos, released April 1, 2003

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Isle of Klezbos New York, New York

NYC-based ISLE of KLEZBOS approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. The soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women’s klezmer sextet has toured from Vienna to Vancouver since 1998. Repertoire ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies,Yiddish swing & retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking song, re-grooved standards, & genre-defying originals. ... more

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