with interesting interval steps, the song brings out curiosity and aesthetic pleasure.
“Hulyet, hulyet, kinderlekh” (Children Enjoy Yourselves!) sounds like a flowing stream. Here we have a melody in the natural minor which, together with the rhythm, calls the old as well as the young to dance.
The very first notes of “Motele” bring the memory of the heder and the rabbi. Your ears hear the sound of Gemorah melodies and the recitative.
Mordechai Gebirtig wrote his pearl – “Reyzele” in harmonic minor. The melody and rhythm overlap each other and are the best example of musical austerity. The chords, built on minor thirds, underline the Jewish typical character of the Yiddish song.
The ghetto song “minuten fon bitahon” (Minutes Of Confidence) is a vivid expression of Hasidic exaltation. Here we hear enthusiastic style and spontaneous fire. It looks as if, while writing this song, the poet still had confidence and hope for survival.
And thus in any of his songs, we can find a Jewish spark, the source from which he drew his deeply rooted and original Jewish music.
What were the forms and the rhythms of M. Gebirtig’s musical creations? What was the metric garb of his seminally Jewish songs?
The same foundations of form and rhythm were established in the general European music. They were primarily characterized by architectonic construction of the sounds. The notes were tightly bound with the words, the phrases - symmetric and of even length, and every song had a complete construction. The metric partition and rhythmic movements made his works lively and dynamic, as if he intuitively understood that sound without rhythm is dead.
A sentence in literature is a phrase in music. Several measures create a phrase, and two phrases – a period. Phrases often repeat themselves, but with the difference that, the first time they end with the dominant (the fifth tone, that is naturally challenging and demanding more and more), and the next time – with the tonic note (basic note, which points the end). This form happens often in Gebirtig’s songs: “Baym taykhele” (“At The River”), the lullaby “Shlof shoyn, mayn kind”(“Sleep, My Child”), “Hungerik mayn ketsele” (“Hungry Is My kitten”), “Kartofl-zup mit shvamen” (“Potato Soup With Mushrooms”), “Halutsim-libe” (“Love of Eretz Israel Pioneers)” etc.
He divides longer songs into three parts in relation to the form a-b-c, which means every part is being sung with its own melody. Such is the song “Kivele" (Akiva). The first part has sixteen measures; the second and third have eight measures each. Similar in construction is the song “Kartofl-zup mit shvamen." The partition of the measures here is different: in the first and second parts there are sixteen measures, and in the third – just four. Many songs are of two parts only: “Moyshele mayn fraynt” (Moyshele My Friend”), “Tri-li-tri-li-li”, “Hulyet, Hulyet, Kinderlekh” (“Enjoy Yourselves, Children”), “Nokh a glezele tey” (“One More Glass Of Tea”) and many others. The form of these songs is a-b, which means that the melodies of both parts differ.
From the point of view of musical art, the most interesting songs are not divided. They have just a few compressed and condensed measures but, at the same time, are juicy and rich melodiously. Such are songs “Kinder yorn” (Childhood Years), “Reyzele”, “Motele”, “Hey, Tsigelekh”, “Moyshele”, “S’brent”, - all of these fall into this category.
Gebirtig’s songs were sung in the traditional time takts of 4/4, ¾ and 2/4, some were even faster, in 3/8, 4/8 and 6/8. He used syncopation when it had just made its first steps in Poland.
Gebirtig created his songs in moments of emotional experience, in relation to his inner feelings and convictions, as if his spirit drafted them. They lacked clichés and conventional structures and forms, and radiated an aroma of improvisation and deep soulfulness. The songs were musical literary improvisations of a melancholic Jew who described the condition of the people in which he lived.
M. Gebirtig’s Literary and Musical Heritage.
Over hundred songs, published in different editions 