Re[9]: Der yidisher tam & itsy bitsy

[richard_wolpoe <richard_wolpoe...>]

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
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