Re: Adon Olom--and borrowing melodies generally

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Another example of a country-style Adon Olam--and then some general 
remarks about borrowing melodies for this piyyut (hymn).                        
                                                            
First:  Cantor Sherwood Goffin recorded a country-style "Adon Olam" 
(complete with Nashville studio musicians) on his album _Mimkomo_.  It's 
his original (uptempo, as one could imagine) melody.                            
                                                       
Having written, essentially descriptively but on the whole 
celebratorily, about borrowing melodies for Jewish prayer (in Moment 
magazine), I certainly don't generally disdain the practice.  But 
borrowing--and this I also teach in workshops I've conducted on (new) 
music for prayer--should be done (except, indeed, at Purim) with 
thoughtful care and with respect for the content of the prayer or hymn 
in question.  "Adon Olam" is a sublime affirmation of faith, 
historically sometimes recited at a deathbed (and, in the same spirit, 
more routinely at bedtime).  That _doesn't_ mean every setting should be 
appropriate to that context; but every setting, I think, should be 
appropriate to a hymn that can be and _is_ sung in that context--even if 
it's an upbeat, exuberant setting like "When the Saints Go Marching In" 
(is that the one someone mentioned?), which I don't think I'd ever dream 
of doing, but in New Orleans, picking up on the spiritual exultation of 
the tune in that atmosphere--OK.  But I can't see how "She'll be Coming 
Round the Mountain" invests "Adon Olam" with _any_ spiritual emotion or 
overtone whatsoever--joyful or contemplative,  outwardly exuberant or 
inwardly devotional--and that's what a good setting, original or 
borrowed, should do.


>From owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org Wed Feb  3 11:50:56 1999
>Received: (qmail 13695 invoked from network); 3 Feb 1999 19:52:17 -0000
>Received: from shamash3.shamash.org (HELO shamash.org) (207.244.122.42)
>  by shamash.org with SMTP; 3 Feb 1999 19:52:17 -0000
>Return-Path: <ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com>
>Delivered-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>Received: (qmail 13576 invoked from network); 3 Feb 1999 19:51:56 -0000
>Received: from rmc1.crocker.com (root (at) 204(dot)97(dot)12(dot)50)
>  by shamash.org with SMTP; 3 Feb 1999 19:51:56 -0000
>Received: from [205.246.4.230] (iplink242.crocker.com [205.246.4.242])
>       by rmc1.crocker.com (8.8.6/8.9.2) with ESMTP id OAA13471
>       for <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>; Wed, 3 Feb 1999 14:50:34 -0500
>X-Sender: ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com (Unverified)
>Message-Id: <v04003a02b2de5645d87d (at) [205(dot)246(dot)4(dot)230]>
>In-Reply-To: <v01550100b2dd3f3268f2 (at) [216(dot)41(dot)29(dot)178]>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 14:48:11 -0500
>To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>From: Joe Kurland <ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com>
>Subject: Re: Adon Olom (was Jewish Cowboy Music)
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>Sender: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.2.06 -- ListProc(tm) by CREN
>
>Jacob,
>
>I'd love to hear it before passing judgement on it.  By the "rita rita 
rita
>rita"  it could be one of those chassidic nigunim (wordless melodies) 
that
>conveys as much meaning as a prayer with words.  As I imagine setting 
the
>words below to music, it would start as a slow, joyous khosidl--a 
wedding
>dance, as befits a song welcoming the Sabbath bride.
>
>I suspect, also, that if your grandfather came from Eastern Europe, he
>would have used Ashkenazic (l'kho dodi, (or doydi) likras kaleh)
>pronunciation rather than Sephardic.
>
>Zayt gezunt (be healthy),
>
>Yosl (Joe) Kurland
>The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>Colrain, MA 01340
>voice/fax: 413-624-3204
>http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn
>
>>Joe,
>>
>>I agree with you.  And yet, I have an affection for the few things I 
know
>>that were passed down from my grandfather Jacob (the Talmud chachem 
for
>>whom I was named), and one of them is a version of L'Cha Dodi that 
turns it
>>into "meaningless syllables set to tunes that don't support musically 
the
>>feelings of the prayers."
>>
>>It goes:
>>
>>Oy vey, L'cha day
>>Oy vey, dee likrat
>>Oy vey, kallah p'nay
>>Oy vey, Shabbat nika
>>Rita rita rita rita rita rita
>>Rita rita rita rita ritata
>>Rita rita rita rita rita rita
>>Rita rita rita rita rita
>>BLAH!
>>
>>Of course, I don't sing it very often,
>>
>>Jacob
>>
>>>Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 23:06:32 -0500
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>>From: Joe Kurland <ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com>
>>Subject: Re: Adon Olom (was Jewish Cowboy Music)
>>
>>>This is what Purim was invented for.  At other times, God may be 
pleased to
>>be praised with humor, but I can't feel that I'm praising God with 
tunes
>>that make me feel the words are meaningless syllables set to tunes 
that
>>don't support musically the feelings of the prayers.
>>
>>>Call me out of step with the times, but that's why I love the 
recordings of
>>the old time cantors. They put their hearts into their singing.  They 
made
>>the prayers come alive.  You could feel their meanings even if you 
couldn't
>>understand the words.
>>
>>
>>>Yosl (Joe) Kurland
>>The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+