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Re: ATTENTION - The German thing...
- From: Rachel Goldsmith <rgoldsmith...>
- Subject: Re: ATTENTION - The German thing...
- Date: Sat 05 Jul 1997 17.05 (GMT)
In Re the discussion about Klezmer being played in Germany, New ageists
doing Native American dance etc...
Incident 1:
I was once at a folk festival in south Wales (UK not AUS), where there
was a competition of gaelic, scottish and contra dance. Off to the
side, after competition, one group was doing some pick-up folk dancing.
I and my companions watched and were amazed to see this group of 20
clog-shod west-country maids break into a serious, constrained and
precise version of B'Chatzar Ha'Rebbe, a chasidic influenced fold
dance...
Incident 2:
A documentary about a Polish Christian who was trying to repair Jewish
cemetaries which had been trashed during and after the Holocaust showed
a Polish Polka band at the local Oktoberfest playing an oom pa pa
version of Hava Nagila, which the locals believed to be a polish folk
tune.
Moral of the story... the music will be taked out of context, changed,
played in uncomfortable situations and perhaps not understood there...
we have a role in explaining and teaching and showing and preserving,
but not in restraining or scolding.
- Re: ATTENTION - The German thing..., (continued)