Abv

abv

• Llanna -Studies have shown that the Covid antibodies only stay in your system for a short length of time
• Mona -there are those of us .. who would feel unable to sing w/ the chorus at all if we stop masking
• * masking in crowds of unmasked people is of limited efficacy...and a disability rights issue... The government has consistently and deliberately put pushing for capitalism-as-normal over public health and has helped normalize a degree of mass death that makes the head spin.
• Tim - I am not sure that "masking in crowds of unmasked people is of limited efficacy" for the masked person. And is the SC claiming the mantle of "public health" vs the government and the capitalists? That seems wrong, even dangerous. Isn't that what the right wing is doing with their "personal freedom" vs the government? If every subgroup of society says they know better than the CDC then we have destroyed the whole idea of public health and further damaged our already fractured society.

I got to watch Four Yiddish Folksongs - פֿיר ייִדישע פֿאָלקסלידער" at the Boston Festival for New Jewish Music! tonight. I was blown away, especially by the first piece. Wow we have an amazing conductor who is pushing the boundaries of Yiddish folk music. For us in ABV, every meditation, every breath we take and huuh and ta we utter is taking us closer to making music. I am inspired to practice and get better. I cannot wait to see you all even though this Sunday I'll be at Symphony Hall listening to the sound of my sweethearts french horn among the 91 members of the me2 orchestra.

smartscore-midi

rent strike

Jewish Currents recently shared this short play "Rent Strike" written by sweatshop poet Morris Rosenfeld (we have sung a few of his poems, including Mayn Rue Plats, Mayn Yingele, and Ikh Ver a Mashin). The play was written in Yiddish in 1908 and you can still hear its echoes in today's world. This English translation is by Eddy Portnoy, author of Bad Rabbi: strange but true stories from the Yiddish press.

I have also sent a note to the Yiddish Committee about making it a bilingual reading! Fun to get ABV folks and Yiddish folks together!

How about 11/15 to allow some time to decompress post-election and organize the reading? I am working on a bilingual script and figuring out how to address some of the differences between the English and the Yiddish. Would you like me to create a Google Doc with a list of characters for folks to sign up for each character in English or Yiddish? Thanks.

Sure. For the English readers, keeping it informal is good. No need to pre-read, just experience it straight through without any interruptions. (that was my philosophy when I taught humanities, we did 3-4 plays a year like that). Do you think we read the english line, followed by the yiddish?

Hi Tim, I agree that we should just read it straight through without interruption, with the English/Yiddish alternating by line. I am not sure what you mean by pre-read, but I would like to encourage all readers (English and Yiddish) to get comfortable with their lines on their own. Also fun to encourage including a prop or bit of costume consistent with their character (e.g., gavel, big hat, oversized coat, shawl, worker's cap, gaudy jewelry, etc.).

I have completed the bilingual script, which includes a sign-up sheet at the top:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fz4wqCTQVHz7rz7cgE6Jwvj_nt15pi4h_vVjkkzvk6U/edit?usp=sharing

Ready to send a notice about the date and sign-up for roles? Would you like me to do that?

I guess we need to settle on a date and time. I prefer November 15 to give folks more time to decompress post-election, but if you still prefer November 8, that's OK with me. 3 pm?

Thanks.

Hi Linda,

There is so much I do not know. To me, that translation looks like Hebrew. Is it? I was thinking it would be the kind of Yiddish that we see in chorus.

November 15th is fine with me.

When I was teaching at West Roxbury High we went through a lot of iterations on how to experience a play. The one that never worked was having the kids read it ahead of time and then come in for a read-through. I came to believe that plays (and poetry) should be experienced out-loud. My students were already into rap and spoken word but they never read anything. Out-loud plays and poetry became the link to reading and writing. It was exciting. Urban kids who averaged 450 on their SAT's were performing Shakespeare and Arthur Miller and August Wilson in read-throughs and racing to be the first to class each day to choose their parts (some trying for starring roles, some looking for the easiest part possible). Each May I had them write and perform their own plays.

That excitement and chaos was why I replied to your initial email about Rent Strike. I am sure that practicing and bringing "gavel, big hat, oversized coat, shawl, worker's cap, gaudy jewelry, etc" will be fun for a lot of people. But I am not really interested in that. In a way it is similar to my reason for not wanting to lip-synch to our old songs. I want to hear our voices, even the mistakes.

It is great to come up with things like Rent Strike to help keep us connected as a community. You have already done a lot of work and it has taken on a life of its own. Perhaps it is better that I bow out. I am fine with that.

https://jewishcurrents.org/rent-strike/

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Yankel Schwartz

A rich landlord, about 50 years old with a rotund body and a common facewe di

Mrs. Lempel

His sister, a poor widow

Bobe Gitele

Their mother; an old, sick, and poor woman

Leybe Gaytz

A tall, thin Jew; a real estate agent

Mrs. Tchotchke1

A wealthy landlady

Mrs. Knup

Mrs. Tchotchke’s housekeeper

Boodle2

A judge

Others

Landlords, strikers, people, police, etc.

intro

stage directions

aligning audio

Tim McKenna <mckenna.tim@gmail.com> Thu, Sep 10, 6:03 PM (19 hours ago) to Bob

I emailed them. I don't know. they may be doing what we are doing.

What if we tried a proof of concept.

• let's pick a recording, like maybe yugen himen from yiddish NY
• you sing it and record yourself while listening to it in a headphone
• send me the recording of you then I sing it and record it while listening to you
• then I/we fuck around with audacity and see if I can sych them up
• then I/we synch up the videos based on timestamps from audacity

if that works we try stage 2:

• we get Peri or Jenny or Linda to do the same thing for other voices
• then I/we fuck around with audacity and see if I can synch them up
• then I/we synch up the videos based on timestamps from audacity

If we could develop some kind of process for learning new music, I think I would stay involved. Maybe:

• Derek introduces a new song and we learn pronunciation, rhythm, melody and our parts while muted.
• Section leaders follow up with recordings we can have in our headphones while we sing, eventually recording ourselves.
• We listen to each other and talk about it.
• Mini's or section leaders do the same process and create recordings of all 4 voices
• We start to sing with the other voices, eventually recording ourselves again

resources

https://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~simond/pub/2005/ismir05.pdf

https://aphl.artsrn.ualberta.ca/?p=768

audacity

goto https://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl add https://lame.buanzo.org/ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/time_shift_tool.html

shotcut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL4yjMVZlfg

python

https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/getting_started/effects.html#effects

 my_clip = VideoFileClip("some_file.mp4")
 my_clip.set_start(t=5) # does nothing, changes are lost
 my_new_clip = my_clip.set_start(t=5) # good !

Time representations in MoviePy

Many methods that we will see accept times as arguments. For instance clip.subclip(t_start,t_end) which cuts the clip between two times. For these methods, times can be represented either in seconds (t_start=230.54), as a couple (minutes, seconds) (t_start=(3,50.54)), as a triplet (hour, min, sec) (t_start=(0,3,50.54)) or as a string (t_start='00:03:50.54')).

printing labels

• If you have a template file you don't need to know anything about 'avery label/number' in Word
• The template has field names Fname, Lname, section, the excel file has First, Last, Section and a bunch of hidden fields. One way to deal with that is to copy all the rows into another sheet(2) rename the fields you need and delete the columns you don't.
• Open the template file, go mailings/select_recipients, find the excel file then select sheet2.
• You might then want to go mailings/edit_recipient_list and just select a page worth of names to check that everything is OK
• Goto mailings/preview/preview_results and then mailings/preview/finish&merge/print_documents.
• If everything is copascetic goto mailings/preview/preview_results again and toggle preview off then go back to mailings/edit_recipient_list and select all the rest. Then preview and print the rest.
• If you are using the single column labels, they need to be centered in the paper feed tray.

abv calendar

Perhaps improvements in formatting of sheet music is in order. I don't see like I did when I was 35. When I look down to get the next words it takes a long time for the very tiny text to come into focus both in Arbeter Froyen and Geyt Gedankin. It is particularly hard on Geyt Gedankin as the piano music spreads the syllables to sometimes be an inch apart. That's a big and unnecessary scan.

smartscore-midi 2019-20 season

2019 concert

2018 concert

Dzhankoye

Az men fort kayn Se-va-sto-pol
Iz nit vayt fun Sim-fer-eo-pol dzhan
Ver darf zu-khn, S'i-iz a stan-tsye,
I-in dzhan-koy, Dzhan-koy-e-dzhan

Ver zogt az yi-dn kenen nor han-dlen
E-sn fe-te yoykh mit man-dlen,
ken-en zo-gn Yi-dn, shpayt zey
I-in dzhan-koy, Dzhan-koy-e-dzhan

There you'll find a col-lect-ive farm
all run by husky Jewish a-arms
And it's called dzhan-koy, Dzhan-koy-e-dzhan

When you go from Sevastopol
On the way to Simferopol
There's a depot known quite well
Called Dzhankoye dzhan

Aunt Natasha drives the tractor
Grandma runs the cream extractor
While we work, we all can sing our songs
Who says that Jews cannot be farmers?
Spit in his eye, who would so harm us.

INTERNATIONALE

Avanti dannati della terra
Avanti prigionieri della fame [Italian]

Kipit nash razum vazmushony
I v smertny boy vesti gatov [Russian]

Du passé faisons table rase
Foule esclave, debout, debout [French]

Fun frayhayt, glaykhhayt a gan-eyden
Bashafn veln arbetslayt [Yiddish]

Refrain:
Dos vet zayn shoyn der letster
Un antsheydener shtrayt.
Mit dem Internatsional
Shteyt oyf ir arbetslayt.

Dividends rise and so does the cost of
Health care, gas and rent. (first two lines everyone together)
It all works out (soprano and alto only)
For the rich but not (bass and tenor only)
For the 99 per cent (all parts)

a) We reviewed and then drilled the pronunciation for the four different languages used for the second verse. We will not review the pronunciation again at rehearsal but the practice MP3s include singing all four languages for each part. b) We also drilled all the tough transitions in the song: from Internationale to Di Shvue, from Di Shvue back to the Internationale (starting with Italian), and then fro the Internationale into Which Side Are You On. At the next rehearsal we will just focus on putting the whole song together so please drill those transitions on your own. c) Lastly, it seems that clarification was still needed for who sings what for Which Side Are You On. Please read the following explanation from start to finish as this may be different from what you have done in the past! If you are NOT in the mini-ensemble, then you sing the melody and all the words for both the refrain and the verse. The refrain is just "which side are you on" four times. The verse is as follows. You'll notice that there are two lines that are split by part. This is because the key, which is determined by the key of the Internationale, is not a very good key for us. By the time we get to the third and fourth lines (it all works out for the rich but not) it's either too high or too low, depending on your starting point. So everyone ends up changing octaves -- which requires a big leap at some point. To make the change of octaves easier, each part gets a break before they leap.

Dividends rise and so does the cost of
Health care, gas and rent. (first two lines everyone together)
It all works out (soprano and alto only)
For the rich but not (bass and tenor only)
For the 99 per cent (all parts)

DZHANKOYE

Reminder: THIS SONG MUST BE MEMORIZED!

There is one verse, in English, written on the score. We will sing that verse and then repeat the section with the Yiddish verse below:

Ver zogt as yidn kenen nor handlen
Esn fete yoykh mit mandlen,
Nor nit zayn kayn arbetsman?
Dos kenen zogn nor di sonim
Yidn, shpayt zey on in ponim
Tut a kuk oyf dzhan dzhan dzhan

This verse is followed by the refrain and then we go straight to the coda. We will review and practice the whole structure at rehearsal. After a few rounds at rehearsal, everyone will be asked to close their notebooks!

The second Yiddish verse is already written on your score. It follows the same harmonies as the first Yiddish verse. The English verse has a different format and what I neglected to include was an answer to the question about whether we will sing the Aunt Natasha verse. The answer is, I don't know. But practice with it, and we'll evaluate at rehearsal on Saturday.

Aunt Natasha drives the tractor
Grandma runs the cream extractor
While we work we all can sing this song.
Who says that Jews cannot be farmers,
Spit in their eye who would so harm us.
Tell them of Dzhankoye, dzhan.

Abi Gezint

Ale Mentshn

(This is our tentative closer; it is possible that Guy and I will decide on a joint number instead)

Dzhankoye

(This is our likely solo opener)

Hermanas

(There have been changes to the score since our summer rehearsals per Guy's request, especially to the tenor part. And since our last rehearsal Margery has corrected some small errors.)

In Kamf/Di Shvue

(Everyone should print a new Page 1. Otherwise, except for a few small typos, the only change is the last measure on the Bass part in measure 35.)

Ishmael

(Do NOT print a new copy until you get an email from me later in the week. There will be changes per requests made by Guy that Margery still needs to incorporate.)

S'falt a Shney

(Being included per Guy's request!)

Shnirele Perele

Undzer Nigndl

Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern

Volt Ikh Gehat Koyekh

Still don't have an encore number.

Mon. 1/16, 2-3:15pm (location tbd) 1/21 1/28 2/4 2/11 2/18 2/25 3/3 3/10 3/17 3/24 3/31 No rehearsal because of BWC seder 4/7 4/14 4/21 4/28 It is also quite possible that during the last two weeks of April we will need to schedule a dress rehearsal with our collaborators. (After the show we will take a break and return to less frequent rehearsals.)

Set List (order not yet decided):

Daloy Politsey

Bread and Roses

Ikh Bin a Mashin (I Am a Machine)

The Internationale (Di Shvue and Which Side Are You On)

Bella Ciao

Brudershaft Lid

Barikadn

Rise in Protest is a maybe

We may end the show with a sing-along including Pie In the Sky (an IWW song) and Ale Brider