Re: "Sound Check"(!)

[Sheldon Levin <slevin...>]

The never-ending question of WHAT IS JEWISH MUSIC? keeps many of us in 
"Jewish Music" debating over and over again.  My favorite definition is 
music by Jews for Jews.  However, this leaves out many things (Benedetto 
Marcello wrote a lovely Maoz Tzur but he wasn't Jewish) for example. Many 
of our liturgical settings are based on secular tunes from other cultures 
that make the Ein KElokenu sung to a EUropean drinking sung not-Jewish? 

I tend to think that music by non-Jewish composers sung in Hebrew is 
still not Jewish but I have performed Schubert's Hebrew Psalm settings or 
versions of Bach chorales with my Jewish choirs. I have heard synagogue 
choirs sing Handel, Haydn or Randall Thompson though these are clearly 
not Jewish. 

My synagogue has a policy of allowing a Jewish band to play Jewish music 
at a Bar/t Mitzvah of Shabbat afternoon. Does Fiddler on the Roof 
qualify? How about Barry Manilow tunes?  What about Israeli pop songs 
that are based on Greek or other western pop motifs?

Everybody's opinions on this subject are welcome but I doubt that we will 
easily find one definition.

Cantor Sheldon M. Levin
slevin (at) mciunix(dot)mciu(dot)k12(dot)pa(dot)us