The Art of Mascha Benya

One Never Used (in original cellophane wrapping) Audiocassette tape of songs sung by the well-known Yiddish language soprano. Musique Internationale CM 7375.

Masha Benya (Benyakonsky, Beniakonskyte), (1908-2007), was born in Lithuania, studied & performed in Germany in the 1930s until emigrating to the U.S. after Kristallnacht in 1938. She was recognized as a major figure in the "dynamic postwar Yiddish music milieu" & was a long time member & Governing Board member of the American Society for Jewish Music.

The 19 songs on this tape are a medley of classical western music, Yiddish folk songs & Hebrew songs.

Side 1: Dehm Vieni Non Tardar (Mozart); The Soldier's Bride (Rachmaninoff); Old Mother Hubbard (in the style of Handel); M'zogt Es Iz a Land Do (Yiddish song from the Hebrew verse of Shaul Tchernikhovsky); Unter Di Grininke Beymelekh (from a poem by Bialik); Fun Vanen Heybt Zikh On a Libe? (folk song arrangement); Royz, Royz (Hassidic folk song); Kh'ken Es Nit Farshteyn (lyrics from a poem by Yehoash); Khasene Lid (folk song); Ma Yisron (lyrics from the Biblical book of Koheleth [Ecclesiastes], Yeshiva of Navaradok Mussar melody);

Side 2: L'kha Dodi (lyrics by Shlomo Alkabetz, music by Moshe Nathanson); Hamavdil (Hassidic); Khavivele (lyrics from a poem by the Yiddish-American poet Aliza Greenblatt; music by Abraham Ellstein); Nerot Shabbat (lyrics by Yakov Rimon, music by Nissan Cohen-Melamed); Haderekh L'Elat (lyrics by Yekhiel Mohar, music by Shlomo Weissfish); Der Balegole (folk song); Dortn, Dortn (folk song); Az Ikh Dermon Zikh (folk song from the lyrics of N. Sternheim); Yerushalayim (lyrics by Avigdor Hameiri, music by Moshe Rappaport)