"A Search for Spirituality..." NYT 2/28/99

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Today's New York Times (2/28/99) has an extended article by Matthew
Gurewitsch, apparently a "secular Jew", called "A Search for
Spirituality Is the Stuff of New Disks" (Section 2, p.39).  It refers
classical works by many contemporary classical composers (e.g.,
MacMillan, Kancheli, Rautavaara, Gubaidulina, Part), but, unless we
include a reference to the "Requiem of Reconciliation" in memory of
the victims of World War II and passing references to Schoenberg's
"Moses und Aron" and Haydn's "The Creation", he mentions no "Jewish"
works, either by composer's faith or by content.

Is this an oversight, a personal antipathy of the author to Judaism
("Raised beyond the pale of organized religion, I choke on
doctrine."), or have there been no noteworthy works of Jewish
spirituality since the Sacred Services by Bloch and Milhaud?  What do
you think?

Bob Wiener

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