Irving Joseph Massey's Oral History

Front cover of Ida Maze Yiddish book Denah (cropped)

Uncropped version of AR500_1065.

Front cover of Yiddish Ida Maze book.

Front cover of Yiddish Ida Maze book.

Same as AR500_1068.

Close-up of Yiddish autograph of Ida Maze in a book.

Performance of Di Nakht (by Helen Greenberg with Ida Maze text) by The Rottenberg Chorale - Chamber Choir with conductor Elayne Robinson Grossman.

Irving Massey singing in Yiddish, "Likhtiker Shayn." It's the only musical setting (among many) for any poem of his mother's (Ida Maze) that Irving really likes. He doesn't know who the composer was; possibly Shlomo Shmulevich, composer of "A Brivele der Mamen" and close friend of Ida Maze, but doesn't really sound like his style.

Soprano Margaret Burton with pianists Ruth Palmer and Tom Bartch performing Dos Goldene Fayfl (The Gold Flute) by Helen Greenberg, with words from poems by Ida Maze and Udica Zoffer.



"Ai liu-liu" - Ida Maze

"Mayn Goldn Fayfl" - Ida Maze

"Shikh" - Udica Zoffer

"Der Vint" - Ida Maze

Popular folk songs in Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew, German, and Russian that had been sung by family members and others. Becky Duchow, the singer, provides commentary throughout, explaining the stories held in the words of the songs. Becky was the wife of Irving's cousin Marvin Duchow, dean of the music faculty at McGill University in Montreal; she was also the sister of Rita Briansky, a well-known artist in Montreal who works on Jewish themes. Becky, nee Briansky, was from Bialystok; she re-visited her native city once in later years. Her father had served as a shokhet when they first arrived in Canada, in northern Ontario.