Re: "Sound Check"(!)

[Rita Klinger <rklinger...>]

Yes! It is probably true that we will never agree on one definition of 
Jewish music. Jewish music to someone from Morocco has a totally 
different meaning to a Jew from New York or Germany. Music is 
culture-bound, and similarly, musical tastes are culture-bound. What one 
person thinks of as characteristically "Jewish" (in music as well as 
other things!!) is probably dependent on tastes, preferences, 
and...cultural associations. If you grew up with certain melodies in your 
synagogue, then those are the melodies that sound "Jewish" to you. If 
YIddish was the language your grandparents spoke, then Ladino is not very 
"Jewish" to you! As for classical compositions on Jewish texts or themes, 
I think it is not particularly relevant whether they were written by a 
Jew or non-Jew. Mahler was born a Jew and coverted to Catholicism (more 
than once, if I recall my music history classes...). Are his symphonies 
Jewish simply because he was enculturated as a Jew???
I have performed the CHichester Psalms three times: Once in a choir in 
which I was the only Jew, and the only one who could coreect the 
conductor's mispronunciations, and a second time as a member of the Rubin 
Academy Choir in Jerusalem. Perhaps the experience should have been more 
"Jewish" for me in Jerusalem? (It wasn't, but it brings up another issue. 
Would Jewish music performed by non-Jews be less "Jewish" or menaingful?

I just purchased a CD called _Songs of the Sephardim_ by a group called 
La Rondinella. I took a chance, and it paid off. The group is an early 
music ensemble near D.C. who don't normally perform this repertoire. One 
member of the group used to perform with Voice of the Turtle (so say the 
program notes). So, the group is not "Jewish," yet this is one of the 
best researched AND performed collections of Sephardic music I have come 
across.

I don't have any answers here, but THANK YOU for finally opening up some 
discussion on this group that isn't about or responding to "korn!"

Rita Klinger
Seattle, WA

On Wed, 7 Feb 1996, Sheldon Levin wrote:

> 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
> 
>