[HANASHIR:12130] Re: What is "Great Music"?

[Chuckm1961 <Chuckm1961...>]

The music director at my temple recently gave me a copy of the Winter 2002 
CCAR Journal.  He supports the "new" music that we bring to services, and he 
said that reading the journal would probably make me mad.  On page 20, Samuel 
Adler states:

       "Our religious establishment has joyfully embraced the sound and the 
spirit of  
       popular culture, and the musical sounds pouring forth from our pulpits 
are either
       Chasidic ditties, written for people who are musically illiterate, or 
pop-sounding
       songs written by musical amateurs to make our congregants feel 'warm' 
rather
       than get the spiritual high that would result if they were ever 
confronted with
       great music."

My music director was right:  this made me mad.  I was suprised to find such 
a view out there in a "Reform Jewish Quarterly."  I imagine that some 
veterans out there are not surprised.  I just wanted to put this out there, 
and see what reactions people might have.  For my own two cents, I try to 
stay open to all points of view, but.... I thought we were making "great 
music," and I thought I was getting spiritual highs from pieces by Debbie, 
Craig, Dan, Danny and many others.


Chuck Mitchell
Religious School Music Teacher/ Songleader