[HANASHIR:1711] Re: lecture

[Judah Cohen <jcohen...>]

I'll agree with that!  (And respond finally to a question posed earlier):
Idelsohn's book is truly an impressive feat for any era, though with its
caveats.  Among the problems:  Idelsohn holds a staunch belief that Jewish
music has a notatable "essence" (i.e., the idea of a "purity scale" of
Jewish music; later, this was later taken up by Eric Werner), and thus
tries to classify certain communities as being closer to the "original"
Jewish music than others [the Yemenites are a prime example of this]; it
also should be noted that he collected his orally transmitted examples in
Jerusalem, and not in the communities' countries of origin.  Aside from
these and a few other issues, though, the book shows an enormous amount of
knowledge about, and open-mindedness toward, the study of Jewish music.

>I was asked to do a lecture on Jewish Music 101 for the federation book fair
>here in sunny Fort Myers FL.  Although I knew people would expect me to play
>and sing I chose to go with the advertised topic and give a little history
>about Jewish music.  I found a wonderful source and thought my fellow
>musicians might enjoy reading it.  It is Jewish Music its Historical
>Development and Jewish Liturgy and its Development both by Abrahem Z.
>Idelsohn.  Although the author died in 1938 and much has happened since they
>offer some wonderful history. Dover was the publisher.
>Rebecca Howe-Pinsker


Judah Cohen
Music Department
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
jcohen (at) fas(dot)harvard(dot)edu
(617) 628-4783

"...I do not feel that my research suffered unduly from the fact that I
enjoyed it." -- Daniel Miller, "Modernity--an Ethnographic Approach" (p. 6)