RE: Jewish music history course ideas

[Cantor Neil & Katie Schwartz <schwartz...>]

>
>First thing, I would suggest that the emphasis should be the other way
>around, that a course on Jewish music is about 90% of what happened in
>the past (and how it related to the time and place from whence it came)
>and perhaps 10% related to contemporary American Jewish issues. I think
>it would be somewhat of a stretch to say "here is this wonderful fabric
>of Jewish music that has come down to us over the course of a couple of
>thousand (or a couple of hundred) years and the important thing about it
>is how it relates to contemporary American jewish Issues"
>
>>
>>I'm looking for advice, materials, suggestions, kind-hearted flames that
>>might assist me in the development of a basic college level course on
>>jewish music.  We're in the process of developing a Judaic Studies minor
>>at my institution (Southern Ct. State University, New Haven CT) and I've
>>been asked to develop a bibliography and tentative course outline on
>>Jewish music with a FOCUS (but not exclusive attention) on contemporary
>>>>American Jewish issues.  Sounds tantalizing doesn't it?  Of course the
>>library at my school is currently rather weak.  I've been assured that
>>any books I recommend for acquisition will be purchased (if in print),
>>so ideas for bibliographic materials would be wonderful.  In addition,
>>if any of the readers of this list have either taken or taught a course
>>like this I would certainly appreciate a look-see at syllabi and the like.
>>I am enthusiastic but a little daunted by this task.  I hope that some
>>of you will be tantalized by the project I am starting and can send some
>>suggestions my way.
>>

Some public comments to both of you, and to all other readers here.

Many of us would dearly love to teach such a course, so on behalf of all
of us who don't get the chance (except for adult educ. in synagogues) I
wish you a hearty "Mazal Tov" and good luck with this project.  If this
is for September, you don't have much time to prepare thoroughly for a
truly huge topic, especially since the sources are often hard to find.

Any graduate of a professional Cantorial School has taken courses like
the one you are preparing, except in far more detail than you need.  We
get separate courses on such topics as cantillation and Jewish choral
music, and these are only portions of your one "basic" course.  Also,
many of us accumulated good professional libraries while students, and
some of us have continued to update our libraries.

The book list is large, but not easy to find.  Rather than my putting it
all in a mesage here, how about if you list the books you now know about
and we all will supplement in the areas you need.  This could actually be
a wonderful resource for all of us, and we each have areas of expertise
in which to contribute.

What I will do now is simply list authors "off the top of my head" to
get you started:

A.Z. Idelsohn, E. Werner, A.W. Binder, R. Rubin, J.K. Eisenstein,
P. Gradnewitz, H. Avenari, A. Sendry, V. Pasternak, C. Vinaver,
H. Sapoznik, J. Levine, M. Slobin, M. Nulman, Encyclopedia Judaica

Believe it or not, that is just a start, and not all of these sources
are still in print.  However, anyone with a decent library of Jewish
music should have many if not most of them.  The really good stuff is
long out of print, and you'll have to spend time in NYC at the JTS
and HUC libraries if you want to see most of those sources.  Last I
saw, the Hebrew Arts School also had a good music library, but that
institution may be under a different name now (Goodman House?).

The sources listed above are of two types:  books about an aspect of
Jewish music, and music books with substantial commentaries.  These
latter tend to be on one particular aspect of Jewish music, such as
Klezmer or Chassidic.  When I assembled a program which purported to
give a historic overview of Jewish music, I identified at least 24
distinct genres or sub-genres to explore.  A good start on a course
outline would be simply identifying the genres.  If you want to do so
publicly here, we can all add our 2 cents about what we think you may
have missed, since we all specialize in different areas.

Now for the comments quoted at the top of this long message:

While I agree that 90% of Jewish music sources precede the current
era, there has been an explosion of new material since Israel won the
Six Day War in 1967.  I do have a large professional library, but much
of the music in it was published since the 1960's.  Therefore, I will
respectfully disagree with the above comment about discerning  "how it
relates to contemporary American Jewish issues" - in my mind, there is
a very clear connection.

Look at the subjects of modern American Jewish popular music.  I have
long thought that one could illustrate a course on Jewish history
with just the music of Safam alone; practically every other song they
write has a clear historical reference of some sort, and the ones in
between often deal with Jewish life cycle concerns.  Much can be seen
about contemporary American Jewish issues in the music of Jeff Klepper
and Debbie Friedman, if one thinks "outside the box" about what is
really going on beneath the surface in our community.  Example:  who
would have thought in the 1930's that 50 years later a graduate of
HUC Cantorial School would write a song about Kashrut?!  The fact that
not only was it written but it became popular reflects the fact that
more non-Orthodox American Jews keep kosher now than in 1950, as well
as the uptick in Orthodox affiliation among former Conservative Jews.

Look at the sociology reflected in just one modern song:  in the 50's
Jews were still trying to blend in and flee the "anacronistic" ways
of their parents and grandparents.  In the 70's it became "cool" to be
publicly Jewish (partly thanks to renewed Black ethnic pride), and
some of us baby boomers rebelled against our parents by becoming more
observant than they were.  Another clear example:  the Jewish healing
movement is both reflected in and fueled by the new music Debbie F.
is writing on that subject.  My Conservative shul now sings her "Mi
Sheberach" every Shabbat, and it really seems to move my congregants.

Enough for now; I hope that the tie-in is clear between Jewish music
and modern Jewish issues.  We haven't even touched how the changing
music which came out of each Israeli war reflects the differences in
how Israeli society experienced those wars ("Al Kol Eleh" 1982 versus
"Shir HaPalmach" 1948).  Israel's Lebanese "Vietnam" in 1982 was a
vastly different scene than the pride of 1967 or the shock of 1973.

Good luck, and I hope that you'll share your thoughts and plans as
your course develops.  Every reader of this list can learn a lot as
you go through the process of gathering info and deciding what to
actually include in this course.
                                          Cantor Neil Schwartz

P.S.:  Please don't forget that it all started with Cantillation -
      the oldest Jewish music of them all.