[HANASHIR:11671] Re: Music sharing (Digest #1577)

[Burton A. Zipser <zipmusic...>]

        With all due respect to the many members of this discussion 
group, I find it hard to believe that hearing a song with Jewish 
ideas or melodic musical motives in a church situation is going to 
cause someone to jump on board the evangelical bandwagon.  I am more 
worried about Jewish youth who do not know their own heritage, 
literature, and history (much of which they are not currently 
experiencing in Jewish religious schools).  To show that it is a 
two-way street, Bloch used (Catholic) Gregorian chant in his "Sabbath 
Service". A recent publication emphasized that popular musical 
culture in America owes a debt of gratitude to the Jewish composers 
who created the "standards" heard on the Broadway stage for decades, 
and specifically regarded "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin as an 
outstanding example.
        If the evangelical who is interested in your compositions 
also understands what makes Judaism unique and different from 
Christianity (which you should have been able to explain to them), 
why should you worry?  A lot of changes have taken place in America 
since the 1960s, and one of them is the fact that ministers who give 
invocations and benedictions are quite willing not to include a 
reference to the name of the Christian deity when they are speaking 
to a mixed or diverse audience.
        (A brief plug:  I have submitted a proposal to CAJE to 
present the initial outline of a Jewish music curriculum which is 
based on subject matter which relates to Jewish history and 
literature, not often found in curricula now in use which are 
"text-based". If approved, you may find the idea useful and assist in 
rounding out the final version.)
        B'shalom,       Burton Zipser, Dir., Intl. Archive of Jewish Music


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