[HANASHIR:15217] Re: High Holy Day choices

[Lisa Baydush <LisaB...>]

< it seems to me that succumbing to pressure to shorten services or dumb
them down is a mistake.  Wouldn't it be better to bring the congregation to
a new level?  If we respect ourselves and the service than others will
respect it too.>

I really object to this implication that singing newer melodies is a form of
"dumbing down" our services!  It seems to me that there needs to be a
balance between cantorial performance, and congregational prayer... a
balance that weighs heavily towards the congregation being able to
participate.  If the music is mostly suited to the cantor's professional
singing ability and is difficult for the congregation to sing, then instead
of being uplifted by prayer, one is reduced to merely listening, and often
chatting with one's neighbor.  While I would never want to entirely
eliminate traditional and beautiful melodies, I think it is important to
find ways to incorporate singable melodies to every service.  I
wholeheartedly agree with several of you who expressed that a service is "an
active practice, not a concert, and not a spectator sport," and with what
Judy Ginsburgh said about songs like Danny Maseng's Mah Tovu.  Afterall, the
last thing you want to do is have people leaving services feeling restless
and dissatisfied because they felt disconnected to the worship experience.
Lisa Baydush


-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Ferguson [mailto:allenderl (at) acm(dot)org] 
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 4:52 PM
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject: [HANASHIR:15206] Re: High Holy Day choices

At 09:17 AM 9/1/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>The only reason I find somewhat of a pull away from, as I like to call
them,
>Cantorial Gems, is that people in the congregation want to sing along.
Time
>and being in a hurry does not seem to be a factor where I sing.  They want
>to be touched, they want to pray and they want to be a part of the process.
>However, I hope the day will never come when I will have to give up singing
>Janowski's Avinu Malkeynu or have an entire congregation singing along with
>me during Kol Nidre.

Actually, in Max's congregation in Chicago (KAM Isaiah Israel), where I 
grew up, we all sang along with the choir when they sang his Avinu 
Malkeinu. The soloists were amazing, and the sound carried well from the 
choir loft, and so we were mostly quiet during the solo parts, but when the 
choir was singing we would always join in as a congregation.  (The same was 
true for his L'cha Dodi, which was done as a soloist + choir + congregation 
+ Max's amazing improvisation on the organ.)

If I had to explain it, I would say that Max's congregation was a singing 
congregation probably because he taught us new melodies and songs every 
week.  The weeks before the high holidays he would teach us the music that 
we were going to hear on the holidays.  On Friday's we almost never sang 
Adon Olam, instead, sometime around the sermon he would teach us a  song 
and then we would sing it at the end of the services in place of A.O. or 
Ein Keloheinu.  I have always preferred this style because I think it 
promotes a musical intelligence in the congregation.  And because of his 
efforts, we were a singing congregation, despite the fact that we RARELY 
sang any of the folk style melodies -- which he objected to. (Other 
influence meant that I grew up loving both his classical and the folk 
styles of Jewish music.)

It would be hard to reproduce this exactly, but I think the idea of 
teaching a new song every week is the most important concept.  I think 
people need to be taught to expect change -- but just a little at a 
time.  This leads me to the strong conviction, that in a service 
congregational singing should always be encouraged -- no matter what type 
of music you are doing.

Lastly, while services may need to change occasionally, it seems to me that 
succumbing to pressure to shorten services or dumb them down is a 
mistake.  Wouldn't it be better to bring the congregation to a new 
level?  If we respect ourselves and the service than others will respect it 
too.

For example, I lead a long Passover seder, but people don't complain -- in 
fact they love it -- why?  Because I took the Haggadah, restructured it 
(with in the order) and added meaning back into our homebrew 
Haggadah.    It's longer, but they love it more....  One thing I figured 
out in doing this, things don't seem long if they "accelerate".  That is, 
if the content is front loaded and the end of the service is faster, there 
is a sensation of speed or maybe even "flow".  So for Passover, I put lots 
of content before the first glass of wine & before the second.  But the 2nd 
and third glasses occur close together.  The third and the fourth are one 
page apart.  And yet we still tell the Passover story 4 times!

Laura Ferguson





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