[HANASHIR:12171] Re: What is "Great Music"?

[Sholom Simon <sholom...>]

At 12:09 AM 9/9/2002 -0400, Batiya5723 (at) cs(dot)com wrote:
>In a message dated 09/08/2002 12:12:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
>Chuckm1961 (at) aol(dot)com writes:
>>"...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."

In keeping with Adrian's urging for us to continue to be civil:

1.  Many in our congregation _are_ musically illiterate.  What's the point 
of "great music" (whatever that is) if most don't "get it."  Just because, 
e.g., James Joyce's "Ulysses" is great literature (so I am told) doesn't 
necessarily mean it's appropriate for everyone.

2.  There are hundreds of thousands (at least) of Chassidim who strongly 
believe that many of the niggunim they sing give them a _major_ spiritual 
high.  (I daven in a Chassidic shul -- I've seen it, and experienced it, 
first hand).

3.  Isn't "making congregants feel 'warm'" awfully similar to "getting a 
spiritual high"?  How does one make that distinction?

I do agree that there is lots of pablum today -- but there probably was 
lots of it 75 years ago too -- it's just that what's survived since then is 
mostly the good stuff (kind of survival of the fittest -- I would not be 
surprised to see, as someone else has pointed out, D Friedman's "Mi 
Shebeirach" be considered a classic in future generations).  And I do agree 
that if we insist on going with the latest musical fad (and, gee, how many 
of them have there been since the 1950's), we will lose our musical 
connection to the past.

I am a major proponent of teaching the "Jewish classics".

That said, however, (as well as saying that I haven't read the article), it 
sure seems like some major stereotyping is going on here!

-- Sholom


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