Yearning
Piano Music Album
As a musician, I am inspired by the depth and originality of Eastern European folk and liturgical music. It is nurturing and healing. Many of these melodies originated in Europe, and many others came from Middle East. These melodies were played and sung by the wandering People of the Book, and perhaps were carried by those ancient exiles who were forced to leave their land.
The photograph on the front cover was taken by Alter Kacyzne in 1929 in Warsaw, Poland. The photograph was entitled “Little Boys with Big Ideas. Student Boys Studying on their Own”. It was published in the West Coast Daily Forverts in a photo essay named “The Eternal Students”. Alter Kacyzne was a well-known editor, publisher, writer, poet, playwright, and photographer in pre-World War II in Warsaw. All his manuscripts, photo negatives, and prints in Warsaw were destroyed. The photograph in the front cover survived only because it was sent, along with some of his other photographs, to the Forverts before World War II. The three boys in this photograph were thirteen years old and would have been young adults at the start of World War II. Their fate is unknown.
I dedicate the music in this release to all people who are persecuted because of who they are.
Credits and thanks to the people that helped in creation of this CD Recording, editing, and wise advice: Don Ososke Website design, CD graphics design: Dilyara Breyer Front cover photo: by Alter Kacyzne with the permission of Forward Association
Music Sources: I.I. Zemtsovsky, Contemporary Composer Hazzan Richard Kaplan, Mart Heijmans |
Yearning, Suite No. 1, Op. 1101 – Part 1, Sleep, My Child Yearning, Suite No. 2, Op. 12– Part 1, Sleep, My Child, My Joy Yearning, Suite No. 3, Op. 1311 – Part 1, One Lamb 2 Yearning, Suite No. 4, Op. 1416 – Part 1, Sleep, My Daughter Two Klezmer Melodies, Op. 1723 – Part 1, Be Joyful Two Nigunim, Op.1825 – Part 1, Rav’s Nigun, Four Gates Yearning, Suite No. 5, Op. 1927 – Part 1, Only Mama
Proof reading of English text: Reuben Goldfarb Caring help: Chana Pollack of the Photo Archives of the Forward Newspaper Recording took place at the and with the piano of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Berkeley, Kensington, CA Piano tuning: Christopher Johnson and Mark Schecter Production: Disk Makers |
