[HANASHIR:9083] Re: wedding music & the organ

[Erik L. F. Contzius <contzius...>]

>I know I'm gonna get clobbered for saying this, but say it I must:
>
>I think it can make a difference whether the person playing the organ (or
>the piano or digital keyboard, or guitar, or human voice, for that matter)
>is Jewish, has a Jewish soul, and understands the Hebrew in the original.

Adrian--

thanks for the posting! i agree with you very much, however, 
unfortunately, and especially given the present trends and influences 
going on in the reform movement today, very few jews are seeking 
occupations as synagogue musicians, let alone players of organs 
(unfortunately, imho).

you should know that my CD, How Excellent is Thy Name, was 
spearheaded by Kimberly Marshall, a very big wig in the AGO, AND, A 
JEW! She converted to judaism and the reason i met her was she was in 
my congregation during yom kippur one year & invited me to record. in 
her liner notes, she talks extensively about the jewish use of the 
pipe organ, and that's why we made the recording.

i don't feel overly frustrated, however. the church is suffering from 
the same problem: fewer and fewer people are studying the organ, and 
less people are taking jobs as church musicians. the problem is 
pandemic.

in the ideal world, the GTM would be filled to the brim with jewish 
accompanists, the likes of which had not been seen since Freed, 
Janowski, and Helfman. I pray for a renaissance, but...

and regarding your comment about experiences with non-jewish 
musicians/accompanists, i think the key to making a good meld between 
cantor, choir and accompanist is a cantor or music director who can 
educate. if one considers opera as an example, the actors on stage 
have to inhabit a character and make it real, without being the 
character in real life. the synagogue musician has that 
responsability when they are not jewish. i think of myself as an 
"acting" coach for the spirituality of my organist and paid choir. 
ok... "spirituality" coach. and my musicians have responded 
wonderfully. i teach them the meanings of songs, what kavanah is, the 
function of the prayer modes, etc., much of which our own congregants 
do not get, explore, or understand. as well, despite our best of 
intentions on the pulpit, many are not ready to pray when before the 
kahal. there is many a time i stand before my congregation and 
inside, i am bereft of kavanah. however, through prayer i can, over 
the course of that hour, raise my own spirit and eventually "get it." 
so to, can the non-jewish musician, if for nothing else, but out of 
necessity.

i relate this to the jew who sings the St. Matthew Passion (Bach), O 
Sacrum Con Vivium! (Messiaen), Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart) and the 
like. I have found that, although i take issue with the theology of 
works such as these, that i can still relate to the spiritual sense 
of such works. it is a universality found within great works of art. 
even the hassids could find the jewish in the secular wrt music. thus 
i believe that the non-jew in our midst within prayer can find the 
spiritual and transcend the particularistic nature of some of our 
prayers and find the universal. it will be through that window that 
such musicians and such congregations will then be praying rather 
than singing.

in the end, Adrian, i'm not hurling any tomatoes your way. i agree. 
and if i could hire someone like Kimberly marshall to be my organist, 
i gladly would in a heartbeat. we just have to breed them!
-- 
Cantor Erik L. F. Contzius
Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel
Elkins Park, PA
contzius (at) home(dot)com

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