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. |