Re: Friedman vs. Chazzanut

[Adrian A. Durlester <durleste...>]

Cantor Levin:

Well said! It's the discourse that is most important at this point, and
not necessarily the outcome.

Even in my tiny congregartion, it's no easy task to satisfy the wide range
of feelings about music during services. If we do too much "contemporary",
we get complaints. If we do too much "traditional"  (realizing that
"traditional" in this case refers to Sulzer, Lewandowski, et al) we get
complaints. What do we do? Well, between our (unordained) cantor and
myself, we do what the moment dictates. And, if some weeks, we're heavy on
traditional, and others, heavy on contemporary, and others, "just right",
well, so be it. We make a conscious effort to strive for balance, and if
that's not good enough....

I believe that, at least in the case of UAHC, the majority of
congregations would be classified as "small", and few of those would have
ordained cantors. So I'm not sure that the ordained cantors are really
getting out everywhere they need to be to really see and feel what's
going on. Sure, these issues exist in large congregations, and large
cities. But few smaller congregations have the luxury of doing as you
described with a multiplicity of services taking place in the same
localtion. (These comments tie in with some deeply held feelings I have
about American Jewry and its insistance on clinging to the old model and
living together in large cities-what I refer to as the American Jewsih
Pale.) So, our services are multiplicitous in and of themselves.

Just some more fodder to keep this wonderful discussion going.

B'Shalom

Adrian

  -------------------------------------------------------------------
durleste (at) plains(dot)NoDak(dot)edu                        Also Available at:
Adrian A. Durlester
Production Manager/TD                   durleste (at) badlands(dot)NoDak(dot)edu
Festival Concert Hall                   Compuserve: 72507,471
North Dakota State University           AOL:AdrianD
PO Box 5691                             USITT/CITT CallBoard:
Fargo, ND 58105                         adurlest (at) acs(dot)ucalgary(dot)ca

PHONE: (701) 231-7308     FAX: 701.231.2085
                           or  701.231.8043

"Lo alecha hamlecha ligmor v'lo ata ben chorin l'hivatel mimena"
"It is not your job to complete the task, neither are you free
 to refrain from beginning it." (Pirkei Avot)