[HANASHIR:15220] synagogue music conundrum

[erik contzius <contzius...>]

ah, the eternal challenge--give the congregation what
they want, or what they need (in one's estimation), or
something in between. people cannot live on a diet of
fast food--a nice filet mignon (or the vegetarian
equivalent) would be nice, no?

one way we dealt with the congregational issues at the
recent rozhinke retreat was emphasizing something that
hazzanim of 100 years ago did--especially folk like
rosenblatt: put in refrains for the congregation!
rosenblatt was infamous for ending many of his
recicatives with something for everyone to sing along
with. ben steinberg is excellent at doing this as well
(see his settings of "shiru ladomai" or "shomeir
yisrael" for examples). 

you might also want to use your choir (if you got 'em)
by putting them in the congregation to help reinforce
said melodies, cuz if they're new, they might as well
have been sung solo to some congregations, resistant
to change. the choir in the congregation just makes it
feel like everyone's singing along.

hope this helps.

erik


=====
Cantor Erik L. F. Contzius
New Rochelle, New York

COME TO THE ROZHINKE RETREAT: http://rozhinke.org/
http://community.webshots.com/user/eriklfc
http://soundswrite.com/swstore1.html#howexcellent
http://tinr.org/

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+
Hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network  http://shamash.org  
A service of Hebrew College, which offers online courses and an
online MA in Jewish Studies, http://hebrewcollege.edu/online/ 

* * FREE JEWISH LEARNING * *
Shamash invites you to join MyJewishLearning.com, a comprehensive,
objective, authoritative and interactive learning resource in all areas
of Judaism.  Free membership via http://www.myjewishlearning.com/shamash
------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------=