Re: Folk Liturgy/New American Nusach

[Carol Delton <carold...>]

I hope Judah Cohen is enjoying this, too!

re: Folk--I think an aspect here is as a stylistic designation which
includes melodies of limited range--i.e. easier to sing w/o a
classically trained voice-- and more easily repeatable.  

re: American Nusach--I first heard a related term in Joseph Levine's
book "Synagogue Song in America," published in 1989.  I am curious if
Klepper et. al's usage is connected with Levine's "American Way of Life
Motif."  

While Levine makes a number of points that I think are far-fetched
(speculating about vocal quality in the Second Temple, for example), he
has an interesting method of using motivic analysis for a broad range of
Jewish music, including both nusach and cantillation, demonstrating how
motives from one "mode" may show up in another.  He uses this same
analysis to look at the "influence of American folk and popular music"
on synagogue music, showing how some of the motives from secular
folksong show up in some of the tunes that have become camp and
synagogue standards.  

Some of these are songs I love, but at the same time I am concerned with
the assimilation of our ears to squared rhythms and major keys, with
leading tones in the predictable places.  Certainly, Jewish musical
traditions--Ashkenazic, Sephardic and Mizrachi--have all changed and
evolved over time, and certainly all Jewish communities have picked up
music from the surrounding cultures--but it does disturb me when I hear
too much (for my sensibilities) music in a service that but for the
words, sounds like "Christian folk rock." 
 
CLD