[HANASHIR:14692] Re: secular music

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, Joseph H. Firestone wrote:

> I am also left wondering what is the definition of
> Jewish music.

There exists a lot of secular Jewish music; nobody
questioned that.

The discussion was not whether certain certain pieces
of music are Jewish or not, but whether we should use
secular music in the context of Jewish education.

> In fact the foundation of most of
> the choral music that we perform is western church music.

Is this a fact? Most of the "classical" Jewish choral
music I'm aware of is based on the harmonic idiom of
romantic composers such as Mendelssohn (Lewandowski) or
opera composers such as Verdi (Naumbourg).

Or do you want to say that Mendelssohn and Verdi based
themselves on Western church music?

> How about using music because it is good and
> conveys an important, significant and relevant message?

In itself there's nothing wrong with such music, but
again, as Sholom put it:

"The more we play secular music, the more we give the
message that our Jewish tradition has nothing to say on
the matter."

In the context of Jewish education we should give
priority to music that is based on our Jewish
tradition. That's all.

> To those who choose to attack, please use your delete
> button instead.

As far as I'm concerned, this is only a civil debate on
what the priorities of Jewish education should be.


 Groeten,
 Irwin Oppenheim
 i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl
 ~~~*

 Chazzanut Online:
 http://www.joods.nl/~chazzanut/

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