Jewish Heritage Walking Trail Sheffield

Music Recordings by 7 Hills Kapelye

These are live recordings made by Sheffield’s new Klezmer Band, the 7 Hills Kapelye. The band members vary for individual tracks and all sing. Produced by Phil Tomlinson.

7 Hills Kapelye is a Sheffield band. It was formed from musicians who started playing together at events for the Seven Hills Reform Synagogue. They are all experienced musicians with a passion for klezmer music. The combination of three violins brings a unique texture to the band’s sound, and Yiddish songs also form a central part of the performance. The recordings you can hear on the app, and which you can listen to in full here, have been made live in a non-studio setting which brings a sense of immediacy to the sound.

The members of the band are:

Maya Brown – violin
Max Munday – double bass
Ruth Nicholson – violin, piano
Phil Tomlinson – voice, guitar
Josie Wexler – violin, viola

Oyfn Pripetchik

Song by Mark Warshavsky ( 1840 – 1907)

Recorded in Sheffield by the 7 Hills Kapelye

This is a famous song about the importance of understanding Jewish History and the Hebrew alphabet.

Translation:

In the hearth, a fire burns,
And in the house it is warm.
And the rabbi is teaching little children
The alef-beys (alphabet).

Refrain:

See, children, remember, dear ones,
What you learn here; Repeat and repeat yet again,

Komets-alef: O ! Learn, children, with great enthusiasm.
Just as I tell you;
Whoever learns Hebrew faster –
Will receive a flag.

When you grow older, children,
You will understand by yourselves,
How many tears lie in these letters,
And how much lament.

When you, children, will bear the Exile
And will be exhausted,
May you derive strength from these letters,
That is where to look!

Besarabishe Ora

Traditional

Recorded in Sheffield by the 7 Hills Kapelye

This klezmer tune comes from the Kiselgov-Makonovetsky collection of tunes from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Kyiv. This collection is the archive from a large project in the early 20th century collecting Yiddish folk music in Ukraine. This lay almost forgotten through the Soviet era and beyond, and only relatively recently has access been gained to the approximately 1400 tunes there which are now spreading through the Klezmer music world. This tune can be found on the CD Fun An Altn Klezmer Heft, by Susi Evans and Szilvia Csaranko.

Fun Tashlik

Traditional

Recorded in Sheffield by the 7 Hills Kapelye

This tune was recorded by the famous klezmer clarinettist Naftulie Brandwein in the early 20th century, and there have been a good number of other recordings since then.

Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder

Traditional

Recorded in Sheffield by the 7 Hills Kapelye

This song, about the hardship of workers in the tailoring industry, originates in the early 19th century. The performance aims to project the spontaneity of a group of people singing as they work.

Summary:

This is how a tailor sews…
He sews and sews and sews,
And earns only sickness not bread.
This is how a tailor sews…
He stitches and stitches,
And neither dies – nor lives.

Belz

Text: Jacob Jacobs (1892-1972), Tune: Alexander Olshanetsky (1892- 1946)

Recorded in Sheffield by the 7 Hills Kapelye

This is an early 20th century song lamenting the loss of one’s home town, and expresses the longing of exile. It was written for a Yiddish play in New York in 1932.
Translation: “Tell me old man, tell me quickly, Because I want to know everything now: How does my little house look that was once sparkling, Does the tree I planted still bloom?” “The house is old, overgrown with moss and grass. The roof falls in, The windows without glass. The attic is crooked and the walls bulging: You wouldn’t know it anymore. Belz, my home town Belz, The home where I spent my childhood years. Belz, my home , Belz In the poor little house Where I laughed with all the children. Every Shabes I ran to read by the river. Belse, my little home, Where I had so many dreams.

Sher Un Redl

From “The Ternova Sessions” by Pete Rushefsky and Jake Shulman- Ment
Pete Rushefsky – tsimbl (hammered dulcimer) and Jake Shulman-Ment – violin, are two of today’s foremost interpreters of klezmer music, very busy performing and recording around the world with many famous klezmer collaborators. We chose this track because of its haunting old-world evocation – and the album it comes from is steeped in authenticity. Our thanks to them for giving us access to this recording for the App.

Freylekhs

Recorded by the Ukraine SSR State Ensemble of Jewish Folk Music. Date unknown, early C20th.
There are many, many freylekhs (freylekh means happy or jolly), and a freylekhs is the name of a lively dance with a simple step that forms the backbone of many a Klezmer dance event. Not all have names, and some have several, depending on their sources.

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