Re: Three Weeks in context

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

On Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:38:48 -0400
Ari Davidow wrote:

> It =is= true that one reason we discuss Jewish music specifically, and
> not all musics and all contexts, is because it is through the specifics
> of this particular context we can address broader issues.

Just a note of clarification. I did not mean to suggest we should discuss
all musics and all contexts. I did mean to suggest, however, that there are
undoubtedly things we can learn from musicians from other traditions who
have had to deal with their own contextual problems. Not problems of
halakha, obviously, because those are specific to our own Jewish tradition,
but plenty of other problems about changing contexts, which may be analogous.
I would not suggest this if I didn't think it would CLARIFY problems of
Jewish music. Sometimes you can see your own problem more clearly when you
notice that someone else has an ANALOGOUS problem, and sometimes the other
guy has figured out a solution where you haven't, or has had some interesting
insights which you might be able to apply to your own situation, etc. I'm
trying not to go into specifics now because I don't want to divert this
discussion in fifty directions. My main point is that CONTEXT is a very
important issue for Jewish music -- and I thank you Ari for "making the
penny drop" by posing your question.

Finally, these halakhic issues ARE very important, but there are many
important contextual issues for Jewish music that have nothing to do with
halakha, but only with ethics. Many such issues have come up before and many
more will undoubtedly come up in the future, and I only wanted to suggest
that we look at them under the general issue of "context." Just to take
one example, back in May, Sheldon Levin wrote of a tune sung in some
synagogues to Aleynu,

>The melody sounds like the Intsy Wintsy Spider to me and I hate hearing
>in a prayer service.

Eric Goldie wrote in:

> For a while my synagogue was using "Edelweiss" melody for L'Chad Dodi. It
> drove me crazy. If I hadn't already hated the tune I would have learned to.

This isn't a halakhic issue, but some people have a problem with using tunes
like this -- cutesie or schlocky tunes that have no Jewish character -- in
such a context. (I'm one of those people.)

Yes, Ari, your question was:

> what are the limits that being a Jewish musician plays
on where or when one accepts gigs.

but my point is, this is a subcategory of the question "what are the limits
(of action) that "being a Jewish musician" implies, with regard to Jewish
music. In other words, the Jewish musician's ethical and perhaps halakhic
obligations with respect to Jewish music.

Itzik-Leyb Volokh (Jeffrey Wollock)