Re: Olympic music

[Cantor Neil Schwartz <schwartz...>]

In article
<Pine(dot)SUN(dot)3(dot)91(dot)960802123730(dot)2919C-100000 (at) 
gigue(dot)peabody(dot)jhu(dot)edu>,
fredj (at) peabody(dot)jhu(dot)edu wrote:

> Just an observation: Has anyone elso watching the Olympics Gymnastics 
> noticed that much of the Eastern European/Slavic music has been Jewish? 
> In fact, One Romanian girl's music was "Havenu Sholem Aleikhem" (played 
> on pan pipes with a traditional Romanian folk ensemble)! 
> Just today (Friday), a Ukrainian girl's Rhythmic Gymnastics music was a 
> Klezmer recording from, I think, Eyal Sela's recording (I may be mistaken 
> about that because I only have a poor dub of it, not being able to order 
> it in this country).
>          This use of Jewish melodies by Communist countries 
> (even tho they have kicked the commies out, it will take time to reverse 
> the cultural and educational trends, so I still use this designation) is 
> a legacy of the totalitarian state's effort to forcibly assimilate 
> minorities by stealing their melodies and re-arranging them in various 
> forms (such as with a Romanian band) while providing them with new, 
> nationalistic lyrics. In my band's (Machaya Klezmer Band) KLEZMER CLUB we 
> often have Russian emmigres come to enjoy themselves and they tell us, "I 
> never knew that was a Jewish tune!". They grew up with many patriotic 
> songs which were actually Shers, Freilakhs, etc. Now we in the US are 
> being treated to a first-hand demonstration of the insidiousness of the 
> Communist Totalitarian State's ethnic policies. I.e., if you can't murder 
> 'em all, take away their heritage.
> 
> Fred Jacobowitz
> Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory and
> Machaya Klezmer Band in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area

Interesting observation.  Since I am one of the few Americans who managed to
totally ignore the Olympics, I did not notice this.  There may be a simpler
reason, however:  if one knows where to look, recorded Jewish music is more
available than music of most other Eastern European ethnic groups.  While I
fear we don't do a good job teaching it to our kids, at least it is recorded.

-- 
Cantor Neil Schwartz

schwartz (at) enter(dot)net