[HANASHIR:7980] Re: Percussion in services

[Rachel Gurevitz <gurevitzr...>]

 As a non-guitar player, drums are my only form of accompaniment when I lead 
services.  However, I have to make an assessment of whether they 'fit' with the 
community I'm leading with.   Many of the services I do these days are Jewish 
renewal, where drumming has long been central, as an accompaniment to Jewish 
chant particularly.  Dumbek or frame-drum is more easy to integrate into a band 
of instrumentalists accompanying synagogue music and is more likely to be 
accepted by a community as part of an 'ethnic' backing.

I learnt recently that, in Yemen, for hundreds of years drums were the only 
accompaniment permitted in the synagogue for prayer services - they were not 
interpreted by the Yemenite Jews as falling within the category of instruments 
that were not to be played for services after the destruction of the temple.  
If you pick up a CD of historical Yemenite Jewish recordings (UNESCO put out an 
excellent one) you'll find that drums are only instruments you'll here on the 
recordings.

Rachel Gurevitz
--

On Sun, 21 Jan 2001 03:00:04  
 Jewish Songleading/Music wrote:
>
>                           HANASHIR Digest 1123
>
>Topics covered in this issue include:
>
>  1)  Re: Help with 7th Graders...
>       by Chazzzan (at) aol(dot)com
>  2)  Percussion usage
>       by RRBP (at) aol(dot)com
>  3)  Re: Percussion usage
>       by GOOGLEMOP (at) aol(dot)com
>


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