Re: synagogue music, old and new (continued)

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

I hope that Robert is right that we have come to a consensus that it
is important to learn and to use traditional nusah.  I share his
concern that "most non-cantorial  service leaders don't know it" and,
therefore, are likely to use nusah for Shabbat on weekdays or holidays
or not at all.

I agree with him that nusah (and even trope) has evolved over time,
but it seems that this evolution has been slow and that has generally
been a good thing.  (I might compare this to the common law principle
of stare decisis -- giving respect to precedents.)  After all, the
Jewish prayer book is called the "siddur" has at its Hebrew root the
word for "order".  (I do know some Hebrew even if I made a "simple"
mistake earlier.)  I believe that we should retain a coherent
structure not only in the  framework of Jewish prayer, but in its
music as well.

Non-nusah liturgical melodies (what Robert identifies as nigunim) have
changed much more, and I think that here, too, that has generally been
a good thing.  As I observed before, the text of the siddur has
changed (Robert refers to several piyyutim and even Talmudic passages
are included).  This has kept our prayer dynamic rather than static.
(I see change as an essential element of Judaism and hope that, even
had the Second Temple never been destroyed, that we would have found
substitutes for animal sacrifice rather than staying true to that
tradition.  I think that change is part of our tradition.)

My emphasis on nusah to this point has been an attempt to establish a
common ground on its importance.  If that common ground is
established, I think that we might considere whether it leads to other
conclusions.

For example, here are two observations on the posts below:


1. We should be careful not to confuse nusah and nigun.

In part 3), second paragraph of Robert's post, he talks of a "nussach
Americanski" and expresses a personal preference for
"Hassidische-style niggunim".  I'm not sure that Debbie Friedman has
really attempted to create a nusah as we have defined nusah.  (One
possible exception might be her melodies for Havdalah.)  I think that
the term is being used by Jeff Klepper and was used in the Debbie
Friedman article to refer to "niggunim" rather than nusah.  And I hope
that we can have both, not just one to the exclusion of the other.  I
fear that in many services nusah is being elimated (perhaps a
byproduct of a reduction in silent prayer).


and

2. Nusah should inform our musical judgment as to the success of a
melody in Jewish liturgical music.

To the extent that non-nusah melodies are "un-Jewish" (Robert)
or "based on ... on Germanic drinking songs" (Winston), perhaps we
should replace these melodies, even if they are "traditional", with
more "Jewish" melodies.  Perhaps that is precisely where contemporary
writers of Jewish liturgical music can make their greatest
contribution.  And perhaps that contribution will be most successful
(as a means to meaningful Jewish prayer) if it is written by composers
who are steeped in the language of nusah.  Maybe then it is most
likely to have a Jewish ta'am, whether we can define that
musicologically or not.

Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cohen <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Thursday, April 22, 1999 3:15 PM
Subject: synagogue music, old and new (continued)


>The discussion re traditional and new liturgical music has been a
>thoughtful and rewarding one; I thought I'd add just a few footnotes
>to previous contributions rather than an additional essay.  1)A small
>point:  _tam_ is Hebrew for "simple"--as in the _tam_, the simple
>son/child, at the Seder table--or "innocent," "wholehearted," "pure":
>Jacob is described in the Bible as an "ish tam"--a simple/etc. man.
>Music (or anything else) w/ a Jewish flavor, OTOH, has a Jewish
>"ta'am"--two syllables.  These are two different words (spelled,
>indeed, w/ different initial Hebrew letters), and I bring this up
>because we're likely on this list to refer to a Jewish "ta'am" in the
>future.  2) It should be borne in mind that piyyutim (hymns) like Ein
>Keloheinu and Adon Olam--let alone seder tunes like Chad Gadya!!--are
>really not governed by the requirements of nussach (i.e., the
>characteristic musical mode governing different prayer services), so
>even nussach-upholding traditionalists will generally not mind new,
>singable melodies for such texts....The "traditional" Ein Keloheinu,
>BTW, was composed by Julius Freudenthal after a German church hymn;
it
>has a very specific "provenance" in the first hymnal of the Reform
>movement (Germany, 1843).  The music historian Alfred Sendrey calls
it
>"the most un-Jewish of all Jewish liturgical hymns," and I too find
it
>shallow, sung (or dittied) to death, and beyond uninspiring.  I like
>Shlomo's Ein Keloheinu so much, OTOH, that I put it on OPEN THE
>GATES!, and other old and new EK's have been recorded.  (It was
>probably the best-known song of The Voices Four, Arbaah Kolot, one of
>the first contemporary Jewish folk/pop groups.)  3) There's been, I
>think, an evolving partial/near(?) consensus in the discussion to
date
>w/ respect to traditional nussach vis-a-vis contemporary niggunim
>(melodies for prayer):  Our traditional nussach is important to
>preserve (and, I would add, to teach; most non-cantorial service
>leaders don't know it), but nussach is fluid, not rigidi, and can
>evolve and grow.  Just to add a conspicuous case in point:  The
Ahavah
>Rabbah mode--which A. W. Binder observes, "contains the augmented
>second interval that has become so characteristic of Jewish music"
>(just sing the first few notes of Hava Nagilah)--this mode, notes
>Idelsohn, does _not_ (i.e., notwithstanding its characteristic, even
>definitive Jewish ta'am) derive from the Biblical cantillation modes,
>as some other nussach does; it was _not_ used in ancient times.
"This
>mode," concludes Idelsohn, "was originally unknown to the Jewish
>people" and was only adopted many centuries later, when our prayer
>music absorbed influences from the Tartars and from Mongolian,
>Persian, and other sources.
>     These melodic elements, writes Idelson, became part of our
prayer
>music because they "nestled [themselves] in the fertile soul of the
>receptive Jewish soul" and "became a real channel of Jewish
>expression."  So if then, why not now?--as I think Rabbi Hillel must
>have said (or should have).  An American-style (Debbie et al.)
mode--a
>"nussach Americanski," as Jeff Klepper used to put it--is clearly
>becoming part of our prayer music (notwithstanding that I personally
>often respond more to Hassidische-style niggunim--irrelevant); the
>question is whether cantors and other musical custodians will
>incorporate the new style while retaining, rejuvenating, and
>attractively presenting and teaching traditional modes or will just
>reject it out of hand (or reject the traditional modes out of hand),
>thereby assuring its pre-eminence.




-----Original Message-----
From: winston weilheimer <taxrelief (at) bitstorm(dot)net>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Monday, April 26, 1999 7:49 AM
Subject: RE: Debbie Friedman


>excuse me!  you may not already realize this, but many of the
melodies you
>already use if you are ashkanaz are based on Gregorian chants and
some even
>on Germanic drinking songs.  Lewendowski's music is very remoniscent
of
>"church" organ music, and it is used extensively in the litergy.  So
who is
>to say that some of the modern music wont get into the litergy and
fifty
>years from now, be standard.  35 years ago, when I was in USY
(showing my
>age) the alte's in the congregation did not like some of the melodies
we
>brought in, but now are standard.  Open your minds and your hearts
and you
>will see that some of this music is not "Christian Rock" but
contemporary
>inspirational music.  Take (or leave it alone) her Oseh Shalom.  It
may be
>the flip side, but it is not that far from Shlomo's music. Or perhaps
is it
>that it is a woman's voice that offends??????
>
>Winston Weilheimer
>Lay Rabbi
>Temple Israel of Deland (Fl)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Reyzl
>Kalifowicz-Waletzky
>Sent: Monday, April 26, 1999 6:48 AM
>To: World music from a Jewish slant.
>Subject: RE: Debbie Friedman
>
>
>>While the thought of Jewish music reaching the level of "Christian
Rock"
>>apalls me, I can not deny its (Christian Rock's) appeal to its
followers.

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