"The Golden Land" Words and Music: Elyokum Zunser (1836-1913) Choral arrangement: Binyumen Schaechter, after Maurice Rauch First published in the Yiddish Daily Forward in 1893 Filmed live in performance June 1, 2014 • Symphony Space, NYC Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus Binyumen Schaechter, conductor Soloists: Judith Bro Pinhasik, Gella Solomon, BethAnn Freed Website: http://www.TheJPPC.org Contact: information@thejppc.org While searching for music in YIVO's famous archives, our present conductor, Binyumen Schaechter, made a fascinating discovery: a bunch of choral manuscripts by our chorus's former conductor, the composer and workers' rights activist Maurice Rauch (1910-1994).  Rauch had arranged a whole collection of "American" songs -- all in Yiddish -- in time for the 300th anniversary of American-Jewish life in 1954.  These arrangements included some famous Yiddish folksongs about Jewish-American immigrants, such as "A Brivele der Mamen" and "Di Grine Kuzine."  But they also included some works that were entirely unknown to Binyumen. One of these choral works, "Di Goldene Land," describes the disillusionment faced by many Jewish immigrants who had been told that America was "The Golden Land," only to suffer through dangerous work-conditions, social inequalities, and poverty.  Binyumen felt this work had a huge amount of potential but wouldn't quite "work" in 2014 as Rauch had arranged it.  Back in the 1950's, our chorus was truly a "community chorus": there were no auditions, and our ranks swelled mostly with the musically untrained.  Despite having the talent to compose highly complex classical works, Rauch knew his singers, and he knew that he had to arrange this piece -- and his Yiddish choral music, in general -- in a relatively simple manner.  Rauch's arrangement of "Di goldene land" is also extremely short -- cutting out 5 1/2 of the 7 original verses -- and, in Binyumen's opinion, it simply wasn't *angry* enough.  Indeed, while Rauch's arrangement only mentions the suffering of factory workers, the original poem by Eliyokum Zunser (1893) goes on to critique the sufferings and social inequalities faced by coal miners, street peddlers, child laborers, newspaper boys, housewives, and others.  Indeed, it's hard to read the original, 3-page-long poem through to its end without imagining the poet screaming with rage, his face increasingly contorted with fury, pain, and disillusionment.  Binyumen felt that a slightly longer, more elaborate arrangement would better convey the emotions and the message not only of the original poem, but of Rauch's own political activism as well.  Rauch was deeply concerned about social and financial inequalities in America and viewed music as a powerful, and even necessary, vehicle for political activism. So, with this in mind, Binyumen completely rewrote the piano accompaniment and the vocal harmonies, and added another verse, a modulation, and a coda.  During rehearsals, he frequently reminded us that singers need to be actors and urged us to show the text's anger and frustration in our voices and facial expressions.  Perhaps, in this way, we have helped to fulfill Rauch's vision, written at the end of an impassioned article 50 years ago, that "the voice of the Yiddish worker will still ring out in the year 2014."

• published: 23 Jun 2014
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