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[HANASHIR:4832] Re: [4824] HANASHIR digest 763



Neil:

No one here is denigrating the "official" ordaining institutions.The
question is not if HUC/UJ/JTSA provide proper training. They certainly do.
The question is, if there are other institutions capable of providing
equally proper training, should their ordainees not be recognized and valued
as much? If one Can get equal training through non-institutional means, then
why not? Someone can learn all 23 Kaddish melodies outside the classrooms of
HUC/JTSA/UJ, because there are people outside the institutions who know them
and are willing to teach them.

Worried about pastoral training? It can be a requirement. But does one have
to have all one's training from one institution?

Technical knowledge is not the proprietary property of HUC/UJ/JTSA. Lo
bashamayim hi, our Holy Torah tell us.

Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org [mailto:owner-hanashir (at) 
shamash(dot)org]On
Behalf Of BZcantor (at) aol(dot)com
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 11:35 PM
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject: [HANASHIR:4829] Re: [4824] HANASHIR digest 763


Folks,

The issue is not one of elitism, but rather one of the huge amount of
technical
knowledge that someone needs to carry on the ancient traditions of Nusach.
Now, I will be the first to say that 90% of what I do on a weekly basis
barely
scratches the surface of what I was taught at JTS.  However, every now and
then
I dust off an arcane music book or open a scholarly text, and feel thankful
that
I payed attention in Ethnomusicology or some other academic course, because
some situation arises where I need that technical knowledge.

During my recent job search, I auditioned at a shul where I was asked to
daven
something I literally had not looked at since I graduated, because most
shuls
don't do that text.  It was there in my head when I needed it, even if I
never daven
it again during the rest of my career.  Would I be a good Cantor If I never
learned
that neglected piece of liturgy?  Sure, but it was nice to know that I could
do it
in the right (i.e. traditional) Nusach when asked with no warning.

Another example:  in my student days, we had to learn some 23 Kaddish
melodies to graduate.  Listening to what goes on in some shuls, one could
get
the impression that all Hatzi Kaddish texts are sung like Friday night, and
all Full Kaddish texts are
sung in Major.  Well, what about the other 21 or so?  I have always worked
in
shuls which are "middle-of-the-road" liturgically, not too traditional but
not too liberal when
it comes to the texts available to daven.  Yet, each year, I use literally
18
of those Kaddish melodies on various occasions!  When someone asks why I use
so many different melodies on different liturgical occasions, I compare it
to
the fact that we use different trope melodies for Torah - Haftatah -
Esther -
Lamentations - Ruth.  It
helps show the different mood of each holiday, and it's like wearing
different clothes depending on the formality (or lack thereof) of the social
setting.  My compromise with reality is to forego the 5 really odd Kaddish
melodies which are only done once a year.  It seems to me that Jewish
worship
would be a lot more boring if everything were sung in just a few musical
modes, rather than the rich variety of our tradition.
It would like coloring with only the 8 colors in the small Crayola box,
rather than the
64 or 96 colors in the big boxes.

Does one have to attend a school to learn all this?  Obviously there were
very knowledgeable Cantors before there were schools, since the oldest
schools are
barely 50 years old.  However, a lot of oral tradition was lost in the
Holocaust, and
with the strong influence of popular music in this country it is hard to
pass
on the
oral tradition in a non-supportive environment (like the expectations of
most
shuls).
I see the schools as the repository of those traditions, doing their best to
pass on
to future professionals a body of knowledge which is far larger than they
will ever
need or use in real life.  It's like a good lesson plan in a school - we are
told to always have more ready than we will probably use in class that day.

When I am in a pessimistic mood, I say to myself "Why bother?  No one cares
about this music anyway; why not just take the easy way out and do
everything
in easy sing-along tunes and forget about all those arcane traditions?  In
50
years
there won't be any Cantors anyway, and few Rabbis too if the Havurot are any
indication of where we are headed."  Do-it-yourself Judaism doesn't worry
about
which melody should be used for Sukkot versus Tisha B'Av, because who
observes
those odd holidays anyway?  Certainly most shuls are not full on either
occasion!

When I am in a hopeful mood, I take the other view:  "This is really neat
stuff!  When
I find someone who is interested (like at a CAJE Conference), I'll teach
them
as much of this tradition as they want to learn, so someone else can help
keep it alive
a few more years.  Meanwhile, I'll keep up these traditions in my little
corner of the Jewish world and hope that some of my congregants get
something
out of it."

Therein lies the role of the non-school method for learning these musical
traditions;
passing on the oral tradition complete with an attitude which says "it
matters".  If
the student only learns 12 of the 23 Kaddish melodies, that is probably 10
more
than most people know!  If the student agrees with the concept that there is
value
in matching the occasion with the appropriate Nusach, then the details will
follow
(as long as the teacher is hooked into these traditions in the first place).
In any case, there is probably room for both schools and non-school learning
for as long
as shuls still want to hire Cantors; my hope is that we all keep the
traditions alive
for as long as we can.

My apologies if all this offends anyone.  OK:  ready, aim, fire!

                                              Cantor Neil Schwartz


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