My Stuff

https://umass-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/rwolff_umass_edu/EkxJV79tnlBDol82i7bXs7gBAUHadkylrmLgWbXv2nYq_A?e=UcbbW0

Coming Soon:

The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





Total Pageviews

Friday, December 6, 2019

DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH


As I have mentioned several times before, I am the Precinct Representative of the building in which Susie and I live in this Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC.  This is the only thing I have ever been elected to, and I won in a landslide because no one else wanted the job.  On Sunday afternoon, our building will hold its annual Christmas tree trimming party, and I have made the fateful decision to entertain my fellow housemates, while they trim the tree, by playing Christmas carols on my viola.  Yesterday, I opened the viola case for the first time in five years or more, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the instrument was in tune.  I had no idea whether I would be able to play at all, but I discovered that I actually could.  What is more, I had forgotten what a beautiful tone the instrument has.  Since I have no music, I am limited to carols I know by heart and can play without difficulty.  Here is my tentative play list.  I hope I do not make a total fool of myself.

Playlist

Silent Night
Good King Wenceslas
Jingle Bells
Adeste Fidelis
Jingle Bells
We Three Kings of Orient Are
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Joy To The World
Ding Dong Merrily On High
Go Tell It on the Mountain
The First Noel
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear


21 comments:

jgkess@cfl.rr.com said...

Please!---not, "Jingle Bells", twice. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is always a favorite, notwithstanding the lyrics.

s. wallerstein said...

Couldn't you include something Jewish in honor of Hanukkah and something secular and inspiring like Beethoven's Ode to Joy?

I was thrown out of 4th grade for leading a rebellion of the Jewish kids in the class against
singing Christmas carols. When we reached the line of silent night, "Shepherds Quake", I loudly sang "Shepherds Quack" and that set the rebellion off. I guess I haven't changed all that much since 4th grade.

Dean said...

If you're taking requests, may I ask for Praetorius's "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen"? Play in German or English, as you prefer.

David Auerbach said...

You could throw in the Internationale. And dreidel, dreidel. (Actually my favorite Yiddish melody is Hine ma tovu manayim or (gosh it's hard to find a good version) הנה מה טוב ומה נעים

Charles Pigden said...

To play 'Jingle Bells' once Professor Wolff may be regarded as a misfortune; to play it twice looks like carelessness.

Warren Goldfarb said...

David,
Surely you're making fun! HIneh ma tov umanayim is Hebrew not Yiddish.

Now Ravel wrote a pair of songs he called Deux melodies hébraïques neither of which is Hebrew: one is Aramaic (Kaddish) and one Yiddish (Die alte kashe).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ9ZTCyjFko

Anonymous said...

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer ought to be on that list. Rudolph served the greater good and got accepted for it. Win-win. –Fritz Poebel

Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D. said...

Dr. Wolff, that's a good set list. I was going to say 'knock 'em dead,' but given the venue maybe not. Have fun!

Jerry Fresia said...

I'm glad you have rediscovered the tone of your instrument. Good luck with the project; you are adventurous.

decessero said...

David, Warren,

re: HIneh ma tov umanayim

The actual Hebrew meaning of those words is “behold how good it is – the sitting of brothers together”. Its broader interpretation (and it is from Psalm 133) is something like “how good and how pleasant for people to live in unity”. [We may all color it with our own rainbow of inclusiveness.] HALEVAI!
So David – you sure picked a lovely but very Yiddish, minor key, rendition for this upbeat thought. I grew up with this one, but also another, more jazzy melody which I cannot seem to find right now.

Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D. said...

Can Suzie videotape your performance?

Robert Paul Wolff said...

God forbid, Chris!

David Auerbach said...

@Warren, I was thinking of the melody (which my mother sang beautifully) which to my ear is typically yiddish minor key. (Mildly a propos: When, decades ago, I would try to get my mother to like the music I was listening to she would unerringly pick the most yiddishe tunes. E.g., "Paint it Black" or "Girl".

Warren Goldfarb said...

@david, decessero. The traditional melody for Hineh ma tov may be of Hasidic origin; at least Chabad claims it is (well, they would, wouldn't they). I never felt its Yiddishkeit, possibly because the groups with which I sang it surrounded it with other Zionist songs. It was adopted by Zionists, who took the "brethren dwelling together" as referring to the ingathering, although I too prefer decessero's interpretation.

I wonder if the jazzy version decessero refers to is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt_dL_9fQtg

David Auerbach said...

Fortunately my memories of it predate its colonization by the Zionists.

decessero said...

@Warren, well, no, not that one. I guess I misspoke when I said "jazzy". It was not in a Yiddish setting, no "colonization", no "Zionists". It was ever so many decades ago, long before Israel, in a classroom in Tel Aviv. Possibly the melody [ironically the Hebrew word for which is "nigun" (yes, also "manginah) - now taken to mean "a Jewish religious tune"] was written by our composer-teacher. It was fun to sing it.

marcel proust said...

I regret not checking the blog over the weekend. There are some superior versions of several of these songs, as well as others, here. I grew up with these versions, in part for being Jewish, in part because my family was visiting close friends of my fathers in Berkeley at this time 45 years ago. More information can be found here

marcel proust said...

Aach! The link is not linking. Here it is, unveiled.

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=free+speech+movement+christmas+carols&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

marcel proust said...

And of course "45 years ago" s/b "55 years ago".

Rayesti* said...

Christmas Tunes:
Charles Brown, "Merry Christmas Baby"
Babs Gonzalez, "BeBop Santa Claus"
Billie Holiday's, album "Lady in Satin"

Business Leads World said...
This comment has been removed by the author.