authenticity

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

You know, Ingemar,

To refer to someone who has made an album that brings pleasure
to an awful lot of people as "a pinchbeck plagiarist" is a 
serious charge. It is a personal attack on the people who enjoy
thae album, and a serious charge against the artist. One would assume
that it would only be brought where there is serious proof on
a serious matter. To the best of my knowledge, Patinkin was 
very upfront about what he knows and doesn't know, who helped
him, and has committed no plagiarism, whatsoever. 

Instead, we are at that sad place where personal insult is
substituted for analysis or thought. 

By "plagiarist," of course, you mean that as a non-native-Yiddish
speaker (indeed, as Patinkin notes in his liner notes, and as is
heard in his singing, not someone who knows Yiddish in any notable
particular), he is somehow stealing other people's work. And, of
course, by "_pretended_ authenticity" you mean that he tried to
pass his work off as other than it is--that those aforementioned
liner notes either don't exist, or secretly claim other than what
seems to be written.  

As I said, not criticism, but personal insult. A bit of rhetoric
that would sound good out of context. And, insofar as the facts are 
apparent, not true.

The problem with "inauthenticity" in this context is that it is
so inarguable--literature and the arts are, perhaps sadly (although
I think not) littered with great works written and/or performed by
people who "lacked authenticity" (and sometimes got things horribly
wrong as a result). The same fields are littered by even more works
that are authentic, but lack art. In real life, while it is absolutely
relevant to note the background that informs art (and where it is 
lacking), the word "authentic" tends to be used, as it was here, only 
as a means of shutting down discussion. (In that you have been
successful.)

It's not that authenticity doesn't matter; it's that authenticity
consists of so many factors--birth, life experience, places one has 
lived, the randomness of life experiences, lifestyle ... on some level, 
almost all of us, even Mandy Patinkin (and arguably even me) are at 
least authentically human. The nasty side of authenticity can be seen 
in Israel, where the rabbinic discussions over who is an authentic 
Jew have done much to embitter many Jews, but have provided very little 
light as to what a human, Jewish definition of that term should be.

There may be a way for you to write about music without deifying
those you admire, vilifying those you do not, and damning those
who see things differently from you. I hope that you find that voice.

To the extent that you choose to describe only by vilifying, this 
is not the place for it.

ari

Ari Davidow
The klezmer shack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/
owner: jewish-music mailing list
e-mail: ari (at) ivritype(dot)com