Re: somewhat pure klezmer

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

On Sun, 10 Aug 1997 12:53:27 -0400, Joel Bresler wrote:

>>All of these musical traditions develop and change, add new elements and
>>lose old ones, etc. But I think you'll find among the Eastern European
>>ones (just to keep it to those more closely related to klezmer) a certain
>>anxiety that things may be changing too fast. I recommend taking a look
>>at an excellent book _May It Fill Your Soul_ by Tim Rice, which deals
>>with these kinds of questions. Why the anxiety? Because folk music is
>>part of the "felt" definition of who we are -- I mean our own folk music.

>This was a fascinating post. A specific question about the book by Tim Rice
>-- does it deal with Klezmer music changing too fast, World music changing
>too fast, or things in general changing too fast? 

>Thanks for the clarification,

>Joel

Soory, Joel, I didn't mean to be cryptic, I just was writing too fast. The
book by Tim Rice deals with Bulgarian folk music in its relation to Bulgarian
society and the changes it has been through, especially from the 1930s to the
present. It examines in great detail how Bulgarian folk musicians have coped
with the radical changes in the contexts in which the music is performed. I
believe it will make a constructive comparison for anyone interested in what's
happened to Ashkenazic folk music, including klezmer. Our contexts have changed
a lot more than the Bulgarians' have, but the issues are similar, and it's a
really excellent study.

Itzik-Leyb Volokh (Jeffrey Wollock)