Re[2]: Variations on Adon Olam - What's Aprropriate?

[richard_wolpoe <richard_wolpoe...>]

Dear List,
        I think in general what's appropriate depends, it's subjective.   
Yet I think there is also such a thing as objectively offensive, and I 
think Wagner's music falls into that category.



        Now of course, one doesn't scream in the middle of the wedding STOP! 
you're using Wagner.  But I wouldn't hesitate to tell the cantor and choral 
leader after the service:  "Hey that service was beautiful.  BUT are you aware 
that you are using a Wagnerian wedding march and who Wagner was?"  I think most 
cantors and choirs who are properly informed would drop that music like a hot 
potato!


        Now the next question is: Is Wagner appropriate on Purim where 
v'nahapoch hu IS appropriate?  (v'nahapoch hu is hard to translate, it loosely 
means the opposite or the contrary, or the upside down).

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: Variations on Adon Olam 
Author:  <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org > at tcpgate
Date:    3/1/98 7:21 AM


yoel epstein <yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il> wrote:

>Why isn't it appropriate?  I was recently at a wedding here in Israel, 
>where the Rabbi - and we're talking serious Bnei Brak style orthodoxy here 
>- sang the seven blessings to the tune of Wagner's Wedding March.  I 
>thought about going up to him after and telling him that the tune was 
>written by the most vicious antisemitic composer ever, Hitler's favorite. 
>But I relented - if the tune has meaning and tradition for him, what 
>difference does it make?
>
>In the synagogue in Kfar Shmaryahu (also respectable orthodox, presided 
>over by one of Israel's leading orthodox rabbis) the choir sings the 
>liturgy beautifully to tunes by Verdi, Rossi, Beethoven.  Why is this 
>wrong?
>
>Yoel Epstein

It's obviously NOT wrong, for that cantor and that congregation. This is a 
judgement call type of thing -- I don't see any absolutes here. In my 
example (Beethoven) it was deemed inappropriate by OUR cantor, for OUR 
congregation.

The cantor has an enormous responsibility: not just to choose melodies for 
their esthetic appeal, but also melodies which will enhance the kavanah of 
the kehilla - to enable the davenners to achieve the concentration and 
state of mind necessary for proper prayer. The cantor is well aware that 
some people in the congregation are largely there to socialize and enjoy 
the music and a sense of fellowship with others. For them, no doubt any 
attractive melody is appropriate. But if even one person is there in order 
to connect with Hashem, then any melody that distracts, by calling up 
undesirable memories or associations, is inappropriate, even if the Shatz 
himself is somehow not distracted. Certainly it is difficult to imagine 
how, in your first example, the rabbi could sing Wagner without some 
awareness of a negative connection.

In my congregation there is a small but significant number of elderly 
regulars who were European born. Many of them escaped just in time, a few 
of them are survivors. To subject them, on Shabbat Kodesh no less, to 
melodies which might call up unpleasant associations, is unthinkable. Even 
if there were not such people in the congregation, and the occasion were a 
wedding rather than the Sabbath, I know that our cantor (or our rabbi, for 
that matter) would not sing Wagnerian melodies.

It makes no difference whether the cantor is Orthodox, Conservative, 
Reform, Reconstructionist or freelance - a sensitivity to the needs of the 
congregation is essential to the job. I'm not passing judgment on the choir 
that sings Verdi, Rossi, and Beethoven - that's appropriate for them. 
Wagner at a wedding, that's another thing entirely. The Orthodox don't have 
a lock -- they have as much ability to be inappropriate in such matters as 
the rest of us.

Wendy Morrison