Re:Three Weeks in Context

[Jennifer R Goodman <jjg34...>]

Hi, Itzik-Leyb (and greetings to the Jewish Music List; it's 
good to be back after losing track of my email between Texas
and New York. A sheynem dank, Ari; your help is much appreciated.

Itzik-Leyb Vulakh wrote about the importance of context for traditional
musicians. I agree that this subject deserves thought and
discussion. You have started me thinking by pointing out
that musicians from other traditions have similar problems;
this may be what draws folk musicians from different cultures
together in the first place, not simply the rise of the world
music business or its precursor, the folk song revival 
movement.  Could that be one example of what you mean by
context? (The relationship between klezmer and bluegrass would
fit in here.)

A second train of thought you bring up relates to the ethics
of a musician performing in a Jewish context, going beyond
basic halakhic questions of the kind one might settle easily
by asking a rabbi. (Though it's amusing to imagine the
responsa literature that might have been produced through
the ages if klezmorim had been given to writing to the
rabbinical authorities.) (I wonder if there is material on
this in the rabbinical literature. Is there?) This set me
wondering:what context are we talking about? The context of
the Jewish situation today? or the context of traditional
Judaism, or the context of the predicament of traditional
Judaism in 1997? Your definition of context, your sense of
where you are, might change your answer to the question.

And about new tunes for old prayers, let me add to the
chorus of complaints by objecting to the latest new tune
I heard for the sh'ma, which sounded to me like the theme
song of a TV Western series.

Genug shoyn! Lomir redn! I would enjoy hearing more about
this. It's an important problem.

Jennifer Goodman

Professor of English, Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843-4227
and
Visiting Scholar, East Asian Institute,
Columbia University
(New email address: jjg34 (at) columbia(dot)edu) - but my mail's being
forwarded from Texas A&M, so either one will do.)