Lyric Counterpoint on a Theme

by Warshawsky.

This thematic paraphrase is based on OIFN PRIPITCHOK BY Mark Warschawski (1845-1907) born in Kiev, lawyer by profession but with a consuming vocational passion for folk singing.  This song from one of his published collections at the turn of the century became so imbedded in the cultural psyche of the people, it achieved folk song status.  Rollin has enhanced the traditional natural minor mode of the Ashkenazism with its flattened seventh degree of the scale by daring ventures into extreme registers, poignant harmonic sprinklings and cunning invertible counterpoint.  This captures the sweet nostalgic childhood reminiscence of the glow of fireplace embers as the Rabbi inducts the children into the mysteries and magic of the alphabet.