Re: Jewish Folk Music?...Adon Olam, et al

[DanielKare <DanielKare...>]

My dear music friends:

Regarding this discussion on the inappropriateness of singing Adon Olam to
irreverant tunes, my question is: where do we draw the line?  Are we not to
sing any serious prayer to an upbeat rhythm, or to a "modern" or even a
commonly known tune?  And which prayers are serious, and which are not?  And
who decides what is appropriate or not, the "melody police"?  The nature of
melodies as silly or too lighthearted is largely a matter of taste.  I, for
one, have often been told that the songs I write are too serious, too slow.
Some people find faster tempos and happy melodies spiritually uplifting.  How
sad if we are to place a limit on the tunes to which we may sing certain
prayers...songwriters and artists of every type provide us constantly with new
ways of expressing the same old idea or emotion....and I hope that continues.
In fact, with my own songwriting, I am part of this expression, so I do not
wish to limit it.  

If only I could remember where I learned this, and I hope someone of you can
enlighten me on the facts, but I once heard someone say that many of the tunes
we sing in the synagogue, which we hold as the "right, true" melody for this
or that prayer, are in fact relatively new, or borrowed from some other
culture, and only seem right and true to us because that is what we are used
to.  Our traditions and cultures have changed over time, the foods we eat,
clothing we wear, etc. changing as our people moved from place to place,  and
possibly so with our music as well.  

Whether to call what Friedman, Klepper and others do "contemporary Jewish
music" or "new  American nusach,"  I don't know the answer, but I do know
this: I believe the words of the Shema, Adon Olam, and other prayers are holy
and reach God's ears in any tune....

-Karen D.