Re: Associations

[Joe Kurland <ganeydn...>]

Excuse me please, but according to Idelsohn's Jewish Music it's History and
Development p.136 those melodies that are called missinai (handed down on
Mount Sinai) originated somewhere in Southwestern Germany a few thousand
years later.  Kashruth is specified in Halakha, but are melodies?  There
are even differences in the rules of Kashruth for Ashkenazim and Sephardim
and differences in the order of the prayers.  The Talmud records both the
majority opinion and the minority opinion.

Now I may have a favorite style for the music of the prayers.  I do believe
that certain melodies express the feelings and the dignity our of prayers
better than others and that in many cases the ones I like best are in the
style of the older traditions (whether the melodies are that old or not.)
But do we have the right to tell people that this nusakh is right and that
one wrong?  Sometimes I wish we could.  And since our congregations,
especially in rural areas, are made up of people from a great variety of
traditions we have to respect the music that all of them consider their
traditions because we can't say, "oh, I'll go to another shul where I like
the music (or rabbi, or people) better.  But I think we can only learn as
much as we can about Jewish music and educate our congregations about the
richness of our musical traditions and hope that they will choose the most
beautiful and evocative music (meant as a collective noun, not to indicate
only one type of music) rather than the trivial.

As for itsy bitsy spider, I don't know how old that melody is, but where I
grew up it was never sung.  Shehu noteh was always davened
individually/semi-silently until the khazn came in with bayom hahu.

And leaving Purim aside, I've learned a beautiful Sephardic Adon
Olam--can't remember whether it came from Bulgaria or Sarajevo.  That's
part of our heritage too.

Finally, there are some melodies that I thought I couldn't stand for
prayers--they just don't sound "Jewish" to me, but when I've heard them
sung by certain people, they sound like they could have been handed down at
Sinai.

Gut shabbos,

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn

At 2:59 AM 3/6/98, Alex Jacobowitz wrote:
>B"H Munich
>
>Does somebody own Adon Olam?
>>yes. Klal Yisrael.
>
>Do you believe it has always been sung to one particular melody?
>>But that's not the point, is it? Every Shabbat liturgy ever heard of
>uses Adon Olam. Agreed? So we can admit that there's a "convention"
>of sorts - across the spectrum. Now, if there's a similar convention
>for the notorious itsy-bitsy melody, why disrupt it?
>
>What if 15% of mashgichim (supervisors of kashrus standards)
>one day decided that this "gantse megillah" (whole story) about
>separating meat and milk was "childish," and sought alternatives -
>each to his/her own tastes?
>
>One decides it's okay to mix meat and milk only on Mondays and Thursdays.
>
>Another decides that mixing meat and milk is okay *anytime, as long as it
>is
>"spritually uplifting" - for instance, as long as you make a bracha
>(blessing) over it.
>
>Yet a third takes the Talmudic concept of "battul b'shishim" (that one
>quantity
>inside another is considered negligible if found in less than a 1:60 ratio)
>- meaning
>that you can mix meat and milk once every two months! (Gregorian, of
>course...)
>
>Please, ladies and gentlemen of the musical jury, keep your hands off our
>traditions, even if you think you know where they came from. Because once
>you remove the boundaries, we'll no longer know what's ours anymore - and
>what isn't.
>Wanna sing "Adon Olam" to melodies from Carmen? Then sing it in the shower,
>please.
>Except for the last line - the one that mentions His name. According to
>Halacha,
>that's not allowed to be said (let alone sung) while naked.
>
>To not know the difference between "bless Mordechai" and "curse Haman" is a
>mitzva
>ONLY on Purim - NOT the rest of the year...
>
>a freylach Purim!
>
>Aj