Re: What Is ...? (musings--P.S.)

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Heavens--My tax-deductible question was meant W/ A SMILE, owing to the not 
exactly vital nature of some of my previous musings.  IT WASN'T A SERIOUS 
QUESTION ABOUT TAXES (as I guess Tanya sort-of gathered [?])!! Um, lighten 
up, guys?!  And is Tanya's "It takes a village--I mean, a considerable 
degree..." sentence a fancy, politically sophisticated way of saying some of 
us have (or don't have, but are expending) TOO MUCH TIME! Just a (smily) 
thought ...--rlc  P.s. Trivia answers will be dealt w/ in time.


>From: tanya kalmanovitch <stump (at) home(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: Bacharach (was: What Is Jewish Music?)
>Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 12:52:36 -0700
>
>Hello list:
>
>I have been reading with interest the provocative posts on this topic. 
>Further
>provocation, below:
>
>
>S. Austen & B. Woods wrote:
>
> > One can think of Jewish music as having certain types of modal melodic
> > structures . . . However, Flamenco, Gypsy, Arabic and Indian classical
> > music also use this same scale. Thus, what makes something written in
> > this mode distinctly Jewish? Obviously other considerations, including
> > rhythmic variation, stylistic interpretation, and even spiritual 
>intention
> > come into play...
>
>Further to this: an ethno- (or otherwise) musicological analysis could be 
>used
>to determine what music is "Jewish". This would comprise of a rather
>traditional analysis of the movement of various musical structures and 
>Jewish
>peoples through the world, and for all the exhaustive work entailed, is a
>rather straightforward process.
>
>By way of contrast, a postmodern musical analysis would take into account
>(among other things) the culture and context of the music, the interests of
>the commercial music industry, the structures and interests of 
>institutions,
>and the psycho-social landscape of individual musicians and composers:
>something rather less tangible than a traditional structural/modal 
>analysis. A
>postmodern analysis of contemporary popular music could almost certainly be
>used to suggest that Burt Bacharach is, indeed, a Jewish composer, or by
>contrast, that Mendellssohn was not. Although, as much as I ascribe to 
>various
>shades of postmodernism in my thoughts, writings, playing and actions, I do
>feel compelled to comment that postmodernism is itself a privileged 
>position.
>
>As a musician foremost, I can attest to the musician's desire to transcend 
>the
>limits of genre politics. The task of being a musician entails a primary
>loyalty to the spirit of the music itself, and only secondarily to the 
>context
>of music making.
>
>Which is not to say that musicians do not engage in prolonged (often
>ludicrously so) deliberations on what music fits which label. Be-bop 
>players
>are prone to this. But it seems to me that, far from being the province of
>marginalized peoples/musics, such deliberations are the hallmark of 
>privileged
>peoples. It takes a considerable degree of education, economic power and
>liberty to engage in these discussions.
>
>Someone (I've forgotten who) commented that the tagline on the Bacharach CD
>("Great Jewish Music") was a marketing ploy, and I would have to agree. But 
>it
>worked, didn't it?
>
>
>Eliott Kahn wrote:
>
> > Why don't we applaud the people who really work with Jewish musical
> > idioms, themes and ideas (several people on this list) and just accept 
>the
> > fact that someone may be of a particular ethnic background but unless
> > they're exposed to, nurtured, or even vaguely interested in it, they 
>won't
> > necessarrily express themselves in that fashion.
>
>Why don't we accept that Jewish musicians make music, and their Jewishness, 
>to
>a greater or lesser degree, informs whatever music they make, even when the
>manner in which their Jewishness is expressed fails to correspond with
>institutional and political aims?
>
>
>rlc wrote:
>
> > Question: If you tax-deduct a proportion of your computer usage,
> > can any time spent reading or responding to this missive count as 
>remotely
> > work/professional-related?
>
>If you earn a portion of your income from music related work, a 
>corresponding
>portion of your computer use on this, or any other musical topic, should be
>tax-deductible. But the question remains, are we getting any work done?
>
>
>Tanya Kalmanovitch
>
>
>


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