Re: Debbie Friedman article

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Adrian,

I don't think that the issue is the songwriting of Debbie Friedman.
(We may or may not think that it is good.  But I don't think that it
would matter if the quality was that of Irving Berlin.)  I think that
the issue is what use is made of her songs.

Perhaps we can all agree that if Jewish kids are singing "The Latke
Song ("I am a latke")" instead of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that
is a very good thing for the Jewish people.  However, if they are
singing the Debbie Friedman "Bar'chu" on Shabbat instead of the
traditional nusah, I think that it is not.

In other words (as I have written to the list before), praying as Jews
is more than just singing songs.  Many of the songs we sing as Jews,
such as "Had Gadya" and "I Had a Little Dreidel" are no more connected
to nusah than a Debbie Friedman song.   They have probably become a
part of Jewish tradition more as a result of use and acceptance due to
simple repetitive melodies (and their texts) than due to any inherent
Jewish tam (flavor) in the music.

But if we acknowledge the power of music (and I assume that we do --
that's why we're all on this list), then perhaps we can agree on the
power of nusah to connect us as a Jewish people to Jews from other
places and other times.  That is what tradition is all about.  It is
shared cultural, historical, and religious memory -- a means to
survival.  As a people the importance of a shared musical tradition
can hardly be overstated.  (I write a week after Yom Hashoah.)

Every year we read in synagogue the same Biblical passages that we
read the year before.  Every Yom Kippur we sing the "Kol Nidre".  Some
might say "Boring".  But we say, "Tradition".  Whether or not we think
that the music's innate quality is worthy of preservation,  nusah is
the means by which we preserve our people.  It is knowing that at the
same time of year, centuries ago, in other places, on continent, other
Jews were singing the same words to the same melodies.

Certainly the issue of what music is appropriate in the synagogue has
been debated for centuries.  And the question goes beyond music in
Judaism -- that's why we have books with titles like "Tradition and
Change".  That's a sign of the importance of the question.  The test
for me is, when I walk into a building and close my eyes, how do I
know that it's a synagogue?  The music may be catchy, a collection of
hits reflecting popular melodies of different places Jews have been.
But if there isn't a substantial core of identifiably Jewish music I
feel that something important is missing.  What I hear may even be
great songwriting, but it is not a new nusah.

I am not trained by a cantor's institute, but I do know that it is
through nusah that, with my eyes shut, not even hearing a word, I can
tell where I am in Jewish time -- the Jewish day (e.g., holiday,
shabbat, weekday) and the time of day (e.g., morning, evening).  Nusah
is our leitmotif (yes, we had it before Wagner).  Nusah is a Krazy
Glue that binds us together.

I have more to say about the positive value of the music of Debbie
Friedman and others -- Debbie Friedman may even be a tasty matzah ball
added to the chicken soup of nusah.  (Although we certainly have had
enlightening discussions even on what makes for a good Adon Olam
melody.)  But for now, I'd like to keep the focus on the fundamental
importance of tradition and nusah.

Perhaps Adrian and I agree much more than we disagree and that my
reaction to his post is largely a matter of emphasis.  I hope so.

Bob



-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Durlester <durleste (at) home(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Monday, April 19, 1999 12:13 AM
Subject: RE: Debbie Friedman article


>I am somewhat disturbed at this penchant many seem to have for
decrying the
>lack of traditional nusach modes in the works of contemporary
songwriters
>(like Debbie Friedman.)
>
>Having just had another go around of reading Werner, Idelsohn,
Schleifer, et
>al for a paper I was writing on comparative histories of Jewish and
Xtian
>liturgical music, I cannot comprehend how anyone could still believe
that
>this issue is any different now than it had been for the last 2000
years!
>
>In "Sacred Sound and Social Change" edited by Larry Hoffman and Janet
>Walton, Samuel Adler starts off an article entitled "Sacred Music in
a
>Secular Age" with a wonderful quote from T.S. Eliot (we can all
remark on
>the irony of that some other time) about the over-importance we
assign to
>our own time which he then translates into its relevance for
liturgical
>music - the gist of which is that we have always been grappling with
this
>issue of secular and sacred sound-our time is no different than any
other.
>
>If we recognize this truth then we realize that this same scenario
has been
>played out time and time again - our own version of what is now
traditional
>was once the challenger.
>
>It's fine with me if someone chooses to use a personal aesthetic
sense to
>judge certain music and deem it less suitable to their tastes. It's
another
>matter entirely to call upon the "weight of tradition" to back your
own
>personal aesthetic. Let's not confuse the two. Mozart and Beethoven
and
>Rossi and Novakowsky wrote some dreck too.
>
>We just don't know what music Moshe Rabbeinu and Miriam Ha the
Prophetess
>and the people sang on the other side of the Reed Sea. For all we
know, it
>could have been the same melody as "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown" or "Louie,
Louie"
>or the tune of one of the many contemporary renderings of these
Biblical
>passages by Freidman and others.
>
>A "new American nusach" is developing. Is that inherently bad, or is
it part
>of what has been the secret all along to Jewish survival? If it is
appealing
>to our young people, is that not a good thing?
>
>It would indeed be a sad thing is what we have come to think of as
the
>traditional nusach were to be forgotten and lost. But it would be
even
>sadder if there were no one left to forget it.
>
>If the music of Friedman, Klepper and Freelander, Cotler, Taubman,
Glaser,
>Silver, etc. can make someone feel as if they themselves had been
brought
>out of Egypt, then it has earned its place in the pantheon of Jewish
>liturgical music, replete with a lack of "traditional" nusach" or
not.
>
>Adrian A.
>Durlester------------------------------------------------------------
-------
>-----
>Adrian A. Durlester  -  durleste (at) home(dot)com
>http://members.home.net/durleste/
>Student, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
>http://divinity.lib.vanderbilt.edu/vds/vds-home.htm
>Music Director, Congregation Micah, Nashville, TN
>http://www.micahnash.org/
>Home phone (615) 646-9788
>Nextel cel-phone (615) 207-2661
>You can page me from http://www.nextel.com
>List-Owner for hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org; Co-Owner for L-Torah (at) 
>shamash(dot)org
>http://uahc.org/hanashir
>Editor, Bim Bam (for Torah Aura Productions)
>http://www.torahaura.com/
>Alternate Email: aad (at) iname(dot)com  adriand (at) aol(dot)com
>
>
>
>
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