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.

 

On "Oyfn pripetchik"