Leibu Levin - a new Anthology of music to Yiddish Poetry
From Ruth Levin a few months ago:
Dear friend,
May I recommend for your Yiddish Music library a new anthology of music to Yiddish poetry—Leibu Levin. Word and Melody, published by I.L. Peretz Publications. Leibu Levin (1914–1983), called Yiddish Schubert, the late Czernowitz born Yiddish actor, singer and composer, was a real troubadour of Yiddish literature. Levin's compositions have been sung also by other Yiddish singers, but until now, there was no anthology of his work.
The new Anthology, compiled by Ruth Levin, the composer’s daughter, includes most of Levin's lifetime work. Piano arrangements are by Hanan Winternitz. All the texts are in Yiddish, English and Hebrew.
The Anthology can be ordered from Ruth Levin for 41 $ USA
0523-455860
E-mail Ruth Levin
The anthology contains 49 songs to poems by 21 Yiddish poets (I. Manger, H. Leivick, H. N. Bialik, M.-L. Halpern, Sh. Halkin and others), photos and drawings. Ruth Levin, the composer's daughter and renowned singer, provides a preface and an epilogue. The volume includes piano arrangements by Hanan Winternitz.
All the texts are in Yiddish, English and Hebrew
“… Presented to us here is not only an outstanding interpreter of the poetic word in Yiddish, but an actual revealer of worlds. And not just because he was the first to discover the true faces of poets from whom we possessed not more than a faded remnant, but rather, due to his incisive understanding and rare ability to comprehend and live literature anew, helit for us secret corners in well known literature as well, such as the fables of Eliezer Steinbarg, the writings of Moshe Leib Halpern, Moshe Nadir, Simha Schwartz, and above all – the poems of Itzik Manger. Leibu Levin apparently is the first one to read Manger …."—Haim Gininger
"… This composer did not know the music notation. But being an artist of the highest level, an artistic reciter and singer and an expert in Yiddish literature, he succeeded in creating a wonderful combination of poetry and melody where the music is a full partner with the existing poetic text. The tune grows from the words, and to those who hear these songs it seems that it was born with them…."—Dr. Hanan Winternitz
"… Leibu Levin's songs merit inclusion among the cultural treasures of European Jewish music, which is an integral part of European musical culture as a whole. And I am convinced that all lovers of poetry and music will draw from them not only pleasure and satisfaction, but also the sense that in their preservation and in their being heard there is, in addition, something of historic justice."—Prof. Tzvi Avni, composerThe Anthology can be ordered from Ruth Levin for 41 $ USA
0523-455860
E-mail Ruth Levin