Re: Debbie Friendman in New Orleans (fwd)a question

[Matthew H. Fields <fields...>]

Hmm, I wonder, Henrique, whether you are struggling with an
artificial boundary between sacred and profane.

As a composer, I've had to come to grips with the fact that perceptions
vary widely.  What is a profane German march to me might be the holy tune of
Maoz Tsur to others... What is to me the marvelous intonations of the trops
might be boring mumbo jumbo to others... and for me to suppose that _my_
perceptions are yy's and somebody else's aren't would be, well, meshuguna.
Arrogant.

As a composer, and as somebody who works with performers, I've also had
to come to grips with the fact that anything that doesn't feel right to
the performer won't project right to everybody else.  That goes just as
much for a cantor soloing in bethaknesset as anybody else--and it also
goes for congregants davenning along.

So I guess that, aurally confusing as it is, the chaotic sound of (minimum
of 10) people davenning, each using their own melody, going at their own
pace, each crying out particular words with emphasis that are particularly
meaningful to them before settling down to their own hum---the sound of
hundreds of folks, some singing what sounds like haftarah trop, some
singing what sounds like highland reel, all massing together at key
points----this, to me, is the sound of Judaism above all.  As a composer,
I'm led to some rather Ivesian practices to try to capture it in an
orchestra...

Comments about one music of Jewish prayer being more appropriate for
davenning than another beg the question of "for who".

Apropos of the boy-with-the-flute story (which, by the way, I first
heard as a kid sticking his fingers in his mouth and whistling),
if my retarded niece sings Adon Olam to the tune of Achey Brakey Heart
because it's the only tune she knows, dayeni.