CIDNEWSKI KAPELYE
KOILEN
Musical journey to the Empire's borders
This album is an invitation to embark on a journey into the vast world of Ashkenazi culture, and Klezmer music in particular. To create it, we have taken inspiration from historical recordings of music from a geographic area that corresponds to the far Eastern borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This area includes countries that now, in part, no longer exist – Galicia, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Podolia.
Koilen – Yiddish for coal – is the title of a song recorded by accordionist Mishka Ziganoff in 1919. Its theme recalls a Russian folk song that is, according to some, the basis for one of the most beautiful and important songs of Italian popular tradition: Bella Ciao. The presence of this theme in different cultures is evidence that music can break barriers, cross borders and oceans, and create links between distant cultures.
Music is like coal, Koilen – it fuels that journey which, for us, was the recording of this album.
Have a nice trip!
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The tracks, the journey
Each piece of this album is linked in some way to a geographic location. In some cases, there is a direct reference to a place name (Kiev, Berdychiv, Odessa). In others, the link is to those who made the historical records.
Naftule Brandwein (tracks 8 and 9), as well as Harry Kandel (track 2), Miska Ziganoff (tracks 6 and 10), Israel J. Hochman (track 5) and members of the Jewish Orchestra (track 4), carried out all their recordings in the US. These artists, along with many others, constitute the first generation of Klezmorim operating in the United States and represent the direct link with the old continent.
Among the few recordings from Europe, the Belf's Roumanian Orchestra's pieces (tracks 3 and 7) have been for a long time one of the rare records of instrumental music surviving the Second World War.
A valuable collection published in 2015 (Chekhov's Band: Eastern European Klezmer Music from the EMI archives 1908-1913) contains the recordings of the Czernowitzer Civilkapelle (track 1).
The only song taken from written sources is Dobranotch (track 11), which was collected on the field by the Russian ethnomusicologist Moishe Beregovski. Beregovski's work of collecting, classifying and analysing Jewish folk music constitutes one of the main sources of study in this field.
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Track list (the historical recordings are indicated in brackets)
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Kopitshinetser Khosid (Czernowitzer Civilkapelle, EMI archives, 1908)
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Kiever Bulgar (Harry Kandel's Orchestra, Victor, 1921)
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Bessaraber Hora (Belf's Roumanian Orchestra, Syrena, 1912)
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Berditchhever Khosidl (Jewish Orchestra, Columbia, 1916)
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Mitvze Tentsl(Israel J. Hochman Orchestra, Brunswick, 1921)
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Koilen (Mishka Ziganoff, Columbia, 1919)
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Nakhes fun Kinder (Belf's Roumanian Orchestra, Syrena, Bucarest, 1913)
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Der terk in America (Naftule Brandwein, Victor, 1924)
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Kolomeika (Naftule Brandwein, Columbia, 1923)
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Odessa Bulgar (Miska Ziganoff, Columbia, 1920)
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Dobranotch (Moshe Beregowski collection)
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We would like to thank Joel Rubin and Ilya Shneyweis for their help in finding the sources and for introducing us to some of the tracks on the album. Alan Bern and all the staff at Yiddish Summer Weimar for inspiration. All the old and new friends who have come to our gigs, danced with us and supported us with their love. Special thanks go to our friend Roberto Abbiati for the original drawings that perfectly represent on paper the spirit of the album.
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Credits
Clarinet Angelo Baselli
Violin Oksana Ivasyuk
Accordion Davide Bonetti
Double bass Andrea Bugna
Recorded, mixed and mastered on 18th November 2017 by Stefano Castagna at Ritmo&Blu Studio, Pozzolengo (Brescia).
Graphic design by Davide Bonetti e Angelo Baselli
Original drawings by Roberto Abbiati
Produced by Cidnewski Kapelye in collaboration with Associazione Alchechengi.