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Re[9]: Der yidisher tam & itsy bitsy
- From: richard_wolpoe <richard_wolpoe...>
- Subject: Re[9]: Der yidisher tam & itsy bitsy
- Date: Tue 17 Mar 1998 22.27 (GMT)
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Subject: Re: Re[7]: Der yidisher tam
Author: <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org > at Tcpgate
Date: 3/16/98 11:03 PM
:
1) A baal tefillo in yeshiva sang unseaneh Tokef to alouette and hayom
te'amtsienu to Mendelsohn's weeing march (no NOT Wagner's). At what point in
time can they be considered intrinsically jewish?
_____
Well, my point was not fully expressed in that message, but if we go to the
next one, you'll understand my answer. To (1): As a craftsman-musician in a
tradition of E. European Jewish music, I can only say that IF and WHEN they
are considered "intrinsically Jewish" in this tradition, it certainly won't
be MY fault and certainly would represent a deterioration of the tradition.
My job is to do my best to keep that from happening.
Dear I-L,
I condensed the above (true) story. Let me elaborate a bit. The
baal tefilloh was of Eastern European background and was a very frum
rabbi in a yeshiva. I'm not sure why he was chosen to be the baal
Mussaf, since he was basically ignorant of music. He actually had NO
IDEA WHATSOEVER that he was selecting alouette or Mendelsohn's wedding
march; totally clueless. Somehow he picked up those niggunim from
someone else. Had he davened in a sheltered little shtibel where no one
knows a lot about music, it might have gone over ok. However, since he
davened in a North American yeshiva, we were utterly flabbergasted to
hear parts of the holy unesaneh tokef sung to a French children's song
such as alouette!
This goes back to itsy bitsy. I'll bet that zillions of
worhsippers have no clue of the musical connection between the aleinu
and the itsy bitsy. And given a few generations, it COULD very well be
considered genuinely (or intrinsically) Jewish. Then, if we yidden
migrated to Tasmania, we MIGHT think that these are ancient traditional
jewish melodies and they would take ona a certain aura of authenticity.
It could have happend to my alouette story too, had the yeshiva
not been populated by modern boys including about 20 from Montreal!
My point is, when it comes to the itsy bitsy; it's sort
of pareve. it's not holy, but it's not terrible either. IMHO I see no
reason to throw it out, unless the congregation itself finds it
objectionable. however, I see no mitzvo to perpetuate it either,
especially if there is a valid, perhaps superior alternative.
Back to the Lubavich use of the "bar song". While it has the
rebbe's seal of approval, I would find it questionable whether it should
rate as a "genuine" Jewish piece outside of Lubavich circles. Don't
forget, that many people would be aware of its lewd overtones.
On a way out tangent,we once sang an unesaneh Tokef at a
concert and it was sung with Dorei Mato (lower) going up the scale and
Dorei Maalo (upper) going down the scale. I voice a half-serious
objection pointing out that the music was in effect contradicting the
words. Many educated modern cantors would sense that this was out of
sync, and some tradiional types with less formal education might stick
to it because chazzan so-and-so sang this in Bialystock in 1913. So the
modern, sophisticated cantor might opt for certain revisions despite the
fact that a piece has been accepted for a long time if it presents
certain problems.
Best Regards,
Rich Wolpoe
- Re[9]: Der yidisher tam & itsy bitsy,
richard_wolpoe