What is Jewish Music?

[JeffSchan <JeffSchan...>]

I just got back from a few days in the Adirondacks and caught up on several 
days of digests.  So, I may be responding partly to what people were saying a 
few days ago.  I know John Zorn, although not very well, and on his 
motivation for classifying Bacharach as a Jewish composer, I think that 
people have to understand that Zorn is an iconoclast.  So, besides liking his 
music, he probably wanted to release the CD in order to push the boundaries 
of what people think is Jewish music, both in terms of Bacharach, and in 
terms of the musicians who did the covers.  I don't care for Bacharach, so I 
haven't heard the CD.  I know George Robinson reviewed in for Jewish Week, so 
if he has time, he might be able to contribute his opinion.

Although I don't share Zorn's aesthetics, I think what he is doing is very 
important.  (BTW, for those of you who are more observant, you can write him 
off on another level - he is only half-Jewish, and that on his father's 
side.)  Many of us in the downtown New York music scene happen to be Jewish, 
and yet, except for those specifically involved in the klezmer revival, there 
is little or no connection with the Jewish community at large.  I think what 
Zorn is trying to do is to say that what we are doing is a legitimate part of 
the Jewish culture and should be recognized as such.

In general, the American Jewish community is extremely apathetic to 
contemporary music, and this astounds me.  If you look at the history of art 
in the 20th century, I don't think you can find another art form which has 
been as significantly influenced by Jews as music.  Arnold Schoenberg 
completely changed the face of 20th century music with his 12-tone system 
(not necessarily a good change, but that's another discussion).  Yet one very 
seldom hears any of Schoenberg's music which relates to Jewish themes being 
played at official Jewish functions.  Meanwhile, Marc Chagall, although a 
great artist, did not have a similar impact on the visual arts.  However, the 
US Jewish community seems to have no problem supporting the work of Jewish 
visual artists who work in a modernist style.  So while a Jewish visual 
artist can do away with traditional concepts as perspective, etc. and still 
get a showing in a place like the Jewish Museum in New York, but if a Jewish 
composer doesn't write a melody that the audience can hum, they are written 
off the similar institutions.  (I was once told by the Jewish Museum that 
they were not interesting in promoting contemporary music.)  If anyone has 
any insight into this double standard between visual and musical arts, I 
would be glad to read them, since this subject has always baffled me.

Reyzl raised some very interesting points, as usual:

<There seem to be two distinct and 
interesting categories - "Jewish music" and "music created by Jews" just as 
there are two other categories "Jewish composers" and "American composers 
of Jewish heritage".   Since some composers write Jewish and non-Jewish 
music, they may fall into both of the latter categories.>

I agree with a good deal of this.  When setting the stories of my mother and 
cousin (both Holocaust survivors), I used instrumentation and modalities 
which have a Jewish resonance to me.  Much of my other work I would not 
classify as Jewish.  However, here is a trickier problem.  When I work in 
improvisational settings, I myself certainly hear a Jewish component to it.  
Many others don't hear it at all.  I try to play from the heart when I 
improvise, and a good part of that heart has to do with my Jewish heritage.

On another level, however, I subscribe to the great Duke Ellington's 
philosophy: "There are just two kinds of music: good and bad."  I try to 
write and play the best I can, and leave it to other people to classify what 
it is or isn't.

Jeffrey Schanzer

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