Bernd Franke

Veyn nisht - Don't Cry

Veyn nisht for SATB a cappella is a 6-minute setting based on the melancholic lullaby Kleyner yosem (Little Orphan) by the legendary Polish-Jewish songwriter Mordechaj Gebirtig (1877-1942). In his interpretation of the Yiddish song, Bernd Franke uses a broad tonal language including aleatoric and scenic elements. The piece begins with a haunting whisper, which gradually grows into a touching four- to eight-part choral sound. Only at the end does the original melody return, integrated into a four-part polyphonic choral movement.

Yiddish Choral Series
Series Editors: Samuel Seifert and Ludwig Böhme

Yiddish folk songs explore the complete range of human emotions, powerfully expressing all that the Jewish people have loved, embraced and endured. Since their origins in the 14th century, the songs have traditionally been passed on to each generation as words and melodies alone. The Yiddish Choral Series now makes this music available for the first time in stunning new arrangements for choirs.

Series Editors Samuel Seifert (a member of Ensemble Rozhinkes) and Ludwig Böhme (director of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir) have commissioned a range of renowned international arrangers to illustrate the huge variety of creative responses to Yiddish songs: from simple choral settings to expansive, through-composed concert arrangements, and from typical Yiddish harmonies to aleatoric composition.

The Yiddish Choral Series, which allows choirs everywhere to discover the fascinating world of Yiddish song, features:

> A range of choral styles and levels of difficulty, to suit all programming requirements
> Informative introductions to each piece
> Transliterated Yiddish lyrics, with poetic translations into English and German alongside the original Hebrew text.