Gideon Klein: Folksong Arrangements
Gideon Klein's settings of folksongs, for the prisoner choirs in the Terezin ghetto. (Arranged by Stephen Muir.)
| Type | Choir music |
|---|---|
| AKA | Úpravy lidových písní |
| Adapted From | Czech, Slovak and Russian Folksongs |
I: Na tých našich lukách (On our meadows)
II: Chodila liška (Fox walked in a rye field)
III: Poljuško, pole (Little field, wide field)
The first compositions that Gideon Klein composed whilst imprisoned in Terezín reflect the ban on using instruments. This prohibition was turned into a virtue, resulting in a preponderance of unaccompanied amateur choral music. These works, part of a group of Czech, Slovak and Russian folksongs, date from the spring of 1942, and were originally written for male chorus. These arrangements by Stephen Muir, for piano and girls' choir, were made in 2016 specially for the Con Gioia Choir (Madison Youth Choirs).
Poljuško, pole (Little field, wide field) is not strictly a folksong, but the well-known 1933 Red Army Song of the Plains, as it is sometimes also titled, originally composed by Lev Knipper, with lyrics by Viktor Gusev.
