559641 bk Schoenfield 8/20/09 2:14 PM Page 16 “Get up, man! The day breaks!” Revel, dance, you hangmen! the beam of light tells me, It won’t be long, I hope. AMERICAN CLASSICS “We’ll soon walk with joy, in a bouquet of light— Once there was a Haman, The promise of springtime is peace! His fate awaits you, too. Its bright glance will soon bring the flowers to field, And joyous and free, soon, will be the whole world— Revel, dance, you hangmen, For everyone! Even you Jews.” Jews know what suffering means; The most demanding labor PAUL SCHOENFIELD ! Moments of Confidence (Minutn Fun Bitokhn) Won’t tire us in the least. “Sweep!” you tell us? So we’ll sweep! Jews, let us be cheerful! But as long as you remain, Camp Songs • Ghetto Songs It won’t be long, I hope— There is no point to sweeping— The war will soon be over, This place will not come clean! And soon their end will come. GERARD SCHWARZ: Rudolf and Jeanette Be cheerful and don’t worry! “Wash!” you tell us? So we’ll wash! Don’t carry on in grief; But Cain’s red mark, Have patience and have confidence— And the blood from Abel’s heart, Take hard times in your stride. Cannot be washed away. Music of Remembrance Drive us from our homes! Remember: patience, confidence— Cut away our beards! Don’t let slip away Jews, let us be cheerful— Those ancient weapons that unite We’ll see them go to hell! Our people to this day! Also available from Music of Remembrance: 8.559219 8.559379 8.570119 8.559641 16 559641 bk Schoenfield 8/20/09 2:14 PM Page 2 Paul Schoenfield Futile our prayers, To him we owe thanks (b. 1947) We’ve slipped past God’s reach, That the world is on fire— Camp Songs (2001) The heavens are locked tight Gling Glong! Gling Glong! Poems written in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by Aleksander Kulisiewicz As the core of the earth. Not long, now! Not long! English translation from the Polish by Katarzyna Jerzak His downfall will come! 1 Black Boehm 4:24 The heavens are locked tight, 2 The Corpse Carrier’s Tango 4:56 And fearfully dark; 9 Our Springtime (Undzer Frilinge) 3 Heil, Sachsenhausen! 6:13 Without question or doubt, 4 Mister C. 3:23 This tortures our hearts. Springtime in the trees, in the fields, in the forest, 5 Adolf’s Farewell to the World 6:45 But here, in the ghetto, it’s autumnal and cold, Angela Niederloh, Mezzo-soprano • Erich Parce, Baritone Without question or doubt But here, in the ghetto, it’s cheerless and bleak, Music of Remembrance The secret’s disclosed: Like the house of a mourner—in grief. Mikhail Shmidt, Violin • Laura DeLuca, Clarinet • Walter Gray, Cello There is no more justice, Jonathan Green, Double Bass • Paul Schoenfield, Piano There is no more God. Springtime! Outside, the fields have been planted, Here, around us, they’ve sowed only despair, Ghetto Songs (2008) No peace or solace, Here, around us, guarded walls rise, Poems written in the Kraków Ghetto by Mordecai Gebirtig Just hardship and pain. Watched like a prison, through the darkest night. What will be become of us? 6 Shifrele’s Portrait 4:37 What will be our fate? Springtime, already! It will soon be May, 7 Moments of Despair 3:52 But here, the air’s filled with gunpowder and lead. 8 Tolling Bells 4:08 9 Our Springtime 4:00 8 Tolling Bells (Glokn Klang) The hangman has plowed with his bloody sword 0 A Ray of Sunshine 3:24 One giant graveyard—the earth. ! Moments of Confidence 4:18 The bells are tolling— Gling Glong! 0 A Ray of Sunshine (A Zuniker Shtral) Angela Niederloh, Mezzo-soprano • Morgan Smith, Baritone Gling Glong! Music of Remembrance Like someone were asking: A ray of sunshine has appeared on my bed, Mikhail Shmidt, Violin • Laura DeLuca, Clarinet • Walter Gray, Cello How long, now? How long? Of cherished springtime, the very first herald— Jonathan Green, Double Bass • Paul Schoenfield, Piano How long, now? How long? And gently it calls me awake: Will man be a beast? “Get up, man! The day breaks, Gerard Schwarz Will man be so shameless? the rooster is crowing! (b. 1947) Will man be a mere tool Springtime, the regent of love and delight, @ Rudolf and Jeanette (2007) 15:05 In the hands of the Devil? Approaches from earth’s every corner.” How long, now? How long? Music of Remembrance How long shall he reign? “Get up, man! The day breaks!” Leonid Keylin, Violin 1 • Jeannie Wells Yablonsky, Violin 2 • Susan Gulkis Assadi, Viola the beam of light tells me, Mara Finkelstein, Cello 1 • Julian Schwarz, Cello 2 • Jonathan Green, Double Bass Scott Goff, Flute • Benjamin Hausmann, Oboe • Paul Rafanelli, Bassoon • Laura DeLuca, Clarinet The bells are tolling— And warms me with love, with a tender caress; John Cerminaro, French horn • David Gordon, Trumpet • Valerie Muzzolini, Harp Gling Glong! “Arise now, and spread the good news! Mina Miller, Artistic Director, Celesta and Piano Gling Glong! Make the word known over forest and field, Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Like someone were answering: Let every bird know, every man in the world— Not long, now! Not long! News of salvation long waited!” All works commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Mina Miller, Artistic Director Not long, now! Not long! This recording was made possible by the generous support Will the Devil make merry— of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences 8.559641 2 15 8.559641 559641 bk Schoenfield 8/20/09 2:14 PM Page 14 5 Adolf’s Farewell to the World A guitar plunked, Germania sighed, Paul Schoenfield (b. 1947) Victoria froze on the tundra. Camp Songs • Ghetto Songs By Volga’s waters, chasing the Russkies, And Adolf’s axis broke like Bardia, The noble troops are fleeing. And once again he’s an outcast. Camp Songs Kulisiewicz, a non-Jew, survived the Holocaust. After Und immer forward and immer weiter, And once again he’s an outcast. liberation, he dictated hundreds of pages of his and his The Russkies chasing the Fritzes. World première of English version: 8th November, fellow inmates’ songs to his attending nurse at a Polish Und immer forward and immer weiter, 2004, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA, at Music of infirmary. In the 1950s, he began amassing a private The Russkies chasing the Fritzes. Ghetto Songs Remembrance’s Kristallnacht Commemoration Concert. collection of music, poetry and artwork created by camp Texts written in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners. Much of this was gathered via correspondence Farewell to Moscow, farewell Samara, Poetry by Mordecai Gebirtig; by Aleksander Kulisiewicz (b. Kraków, 1918-1982); and hundreds of hours of recorded interviews. After his My Leningrad in the distance. English translation from the Yiddish by Bret Werb translated from the Polish by Katarzyna Jerzak. Camp death in 1982, the Kulisiewicz Collection was acquired by The party’s over when in Crimea Songs was commissioned by Music of Remembrance the Archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial They’ll beat the crap out of my pants. 6 Shifrele’s Portrait (Shifreles Portret) and is dedicated to the organization’s founder and Museum in Washington, D.C. I discovered this The party’s over when in Crimea artistic director, Mina Miller. extraordinary collection in the Museum’s archives during They’ll beat the crap out of my pants. On the wall, to the left of my bed, one of my research visits, and knew immediately that I Hangs my daughter Shifrele’s portrait. In the camp, I tried to create verses that would serve as wanted Paul Schoenfield to do something with it. After Farewell my mountains, my Ural Mountains, Often, in the middle of the night, direct poetical reportage. I used my memory as a living Schoenfield accepted MOR’s commission, we met in July And you, too, Ruddy Armada. When I think of her, and miss her so, archive. Friends came to me and dictated their songs. 2000 in Washington, D.C., and with the guidance of You’re manly Stalin, Stalin of steel, I see how she looks at me, —Aleksander Kulisiewicz USHMM musicologist, Bret Werb, delved through the Oh, I am the impotent Adolf! I hear what she says: collection. You’re manly Stalin, Stalin of steel, A journalist by profession, Aleksander Kulisiewicz was Composed between July and December 2001, Camp And I am the impotent Adolf. “Daddy dear! I know that you’re sad, denounced for antifascist writings and arrested soon Songs is a setting of five texts written by Kulisiewicz Und immer forward und immer weiter… But the war won’t last too very long; after the German takeover of Poland. Sent to the during his internment in Sachsenhausen. Black Boehm, the Soon I shall return to you— Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, first in the cycle, mocks the short, hunchbacked Kapo Prashtchay dear Europe, my gracious Europe, Peace will soon knock at the door.” Kulisiewicz wrote 54 songs over the course of nearly six Boehm, who had a distinctly charred appearance due to Forgive my Arbeit und Freude. Smiling lovingly, so speaks years at the camp. He was liberated in May 1945 and the wild enthusiasm he brought to his job tending the Some other time, some other place, Shifrele’s portrait. devoted most of the rest of his life to collecting and camp’s crematorium. In 1941–42 alone, Boehm helped I might yet marry you, darling! documenting the songs and music created in cremate 18,000 Soviet prisoners of war at Sachsenhausen.