Trope / Real Jewish Music

[Jeff Finger <uupsi!mv.us.adobe.com!jfinger...>]

>> And how many people agree with me that the best way to study a haftorah
>> is backwards -- that is, learn the last posuk first?  That way instead

Learning a parsha backwards is the only way to fly for me, for the
reason you state.

REAL JEWISH MUSIC:

It seems to me that the whole discussion of what is and is not "real Jewish
music" leads nowhere except to hurt feelings and flamage.  It does not
really matter that there be a precise definition "Jewish music" or that it
even be quantified exactly "how" Jewish a given piece or performance is or
is not.

I did, however, get angry at a klezmer group for purposely *deemphasizing*
the Jewish nature of their music. They were presenting their music to their
concert audiences as Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and oh yes, a little
Jewish.  I asked one of them about this after the show and he told me, "We
try to emphasize the international quality of the music."  Right. I have no
words for my contempt at such an approach. We poke our own eyes out and then
beat ourselves because we can't see.

She'koakh to those who put this group together!

-- Itzhak "Jeff" Finger --

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