Re:Music and the Holocaust

[Joe Kurland <ganeydn...>]

>
>So, now I am curious to hear your ideas about how musicians today
>are finding ways to cope with the Holocaust.
>
>Jenny Goodman
>Department of English
>Texas A&M University
>College Station, TX 77843-4227
>jenifer (at) unix(dot)tamu(dot)edu


Dear Jenny,

We've just come out with a "post Holocaust" recording, "Tfile far a
tsebrokhener velt: Prayer for a Broken World."  While it deals only
peripherally with the Holocaust (one of the tracks is a Holocaust lullabye
which I perform with a mixture of gentleness and bottled up rage) it is
infused with our feelings of what it means to be, and to find meaning as, a
Jew, or a human, after the Holocaust.  It was conceived as a response to
how human's can still commit atrocities after the Holocaust, and the
question of how G-d can allow atrocities to happen.

For those readers in the Northeast, we are holding an album release event
at the

                        Iron Horse Music Hall,
                        20 Center Street
                        Northampton, MA 01060
                       Wednesday, May 14th, 1997 at 7 pm.
                        413-584-3177

You can find out more about this recording on our website:
        http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn
and now you can order it online from Tara Publications at:

http://www.jewishmusic.com/cgi-bin/vsc/wkball.htm?L+tarashop+cruv2145+858763
147


I'm enclosing below a press release about the recording for you and others
who may be new to the list.  Those of you who've seen it before, please
forgive me for cluttering up your mailbox.

I'm interested in seeing what other musicians have to say.

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204


*******************************************************
For immediate release:

Tfile far a tsebrokhener velt
Prayer for a Broken World

How does a Jew respond to genocide in the post-Holocaust world?

The Wholesale Klezmer Band decided to use its music to speak out against
genocide, and support those working for peace and reconciliation among the
religious and ethnic groups involved in the conflicts. As an outgrowth of a
concert of Yiddish music, story and poetry to raise funds for the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's non-sectarian relief work in Bosnia
and Rwanda, Wholesale has just released a recording of that concert
material, "Prayer for a Broken World"

"To me," says Wholesale's lead vocalist and violinist Yosl (Joe) Kurland,
"being Jewish does not mean indulging in self-pity as the victims of
persecution throughout the ages. Rather, it means that we identify with all
victims of oppression, as we are commanded in the Torah, "You shall not
oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were
strangers in the land of Egypt."

The new recording of 11 traditional and original songs and stories has been
broadened to address war and genocide around the world.. Yet for all the
seriousness of its subject, "Prayer for a Broken World" doesn't present its
subject without hope. A medley of songs dating from both world wars ends
with a rousing musical celebration of a soldier returning home, and the
album ends with a couple of upbeat selections.

The album's title song, composed by Kurland, suggests the partnership
between God and humankind in which we are responsible for making peace in a
world that has been made beautiful for us.

In the heavens among clouds stars are being born
Nearby in a neighboring land, children are being lost.
Deep in the darkest corners of space suns become bound together.
And in sad cities, childhood itself becomes lost.

Your children argue, fight, and kill each other,
While on sunny days people sing songs of hatred.
Between painted mountains, tearful cities die.
Under autumn-reddened trees, people fall like leaves.

Dear G-d, you are so busy, making pretty lights for us,
And you have sanctified us with your commandments,
That we should fix the world you created.

Blessed art thou dear G-d, you make pretty lights for us,
And you have sanctified us with your commandments,
That we should fix the world you created.

Another song by Kurland, "Avrom Tate," addresses reconciliation between the
Jews and Arabs, using the tradition of midrash, or an original story based
on a Torah story, in this case , that of Isaac and Ishmael.

"Hineni" ("Here I Am ") is a compelling musical offering composed by and
featuring clarinteist Sherry Mayrent. The selection, writes Mayrent,
"expresses how as musicians we stand before our audiences and attempt to
draw both them and ourselves nearer to God, and how as human beings we all
need to stand and take responsibility for tikkun olam, the repair of the
world."

Other selections too, like a recitation of the dark-humored verse, "The
Spear and the Needle," carry through with the band's attempt to bridge
cultural differences. "We want our music to bear witness to our
responsibility as Jews and as human beings, to oppose intolerance,
oppression and genocide, and to promote peace, reconciliation and justice,"
says Kurland.

Since its inception in 1982, the Wholesale Klezmer Band has performed
throughout the Northeast, shared the Carnegie Hall stage with Pete Seeger
and Sweet Honey in the Rock ... and played at Bill Clinton's 1993
presidential inaugural. In a review of the group's first album, "Shmir Me,"
the folk magazine Dirty Linen said, "It is the balance they achieve between
social understanding and social satire that marks The Wholesale Klezmer
Band as a truly great klezmer band."

While "Tfile for a tsebrokener velt" is the group's second album, other
recordings by Wholesale members include "Hineni Original Klezmer Music by
Sherry Mayrent," and "Zogn a Nign Original Klezmer Music by Sherry Mayrent
" In coming months, Wholesale also plans to release a third album by the
ensemble, "Yidn fun Amol."

For information and copies of the recording, please contact: The Wholesale
Klezmer Band Gan Eydn, Adamsville Road, Colrain, MA 01340 Phone/fax:
413-624-3204 http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn

*******************************************************

A Review of Tfile far a tsebrokhener velt (Prayer for a Broken World) by
Ari Davidow
     can be found at:   http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/index.html