Re: "elevating" folk music

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

This ideal of "elevating" (Jewish) folk music was, of course, likewise an 
impelling idea--maybe _the_ impelling idea, in addition to collecting 
same--behind the formation of the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. 
Petersburg in 1908 (inspired by Joel Engel and, to an important extent, by 
Rimsky-Korsakov, and including such founding members as Lazare Saminsky, 
Solomon Rosowsky, and Ephraim Skliar--who, along with other early members, 
studied with R-K.).  An excellent source on them is Albert Weisser's THE 
MODERN RENAISSANCE OF JEWISH MUSIC.  BTW, Josh, what is the source for this 
musicological application of the first, second, and third worlds 
notion--i.e., what book/article/etc.? (By, I assume, Alfons Michael Dauer, 
whom you credited; I'm assuming he _applied_ this model to music and was not 
the source--which I assume is somewhere in political economy or 
whatever--_of_ the model!).  Thanks--Robert Cohen


>From: Joshua Horowitz <horowitz (at) styria(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: Buena Vista Social Club
>Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 10:41:32 +0100
>
> > Somehow I guess I have to find a "Jewish" connection to post to this 
>list. This is reaching. IF you have a Cuban Cd, You shouldn't play it on 
>Shabbos!!!???
>
>There is a larger context to the *mingle, pillage and elevate* case of
>folk culture plundering into which category the Cooder/Wender model
>falls, and this indeed includes Jewish culture by virtue of the fact
>that it has been subject to the same procedure, as Henry points out in
>the case of Tickle in the Heart and In the Fiddler's House.
>
>For the sake of argument, lets use the 3 basic classes used to describe
>the economies of the world, the first, second and third world (this
>model was proposed and developed by the musicologist, Professor Alfons
>Michael Dauer): Folk culture would fall into the 3rd world of music. It
>is seen by the first world as underdeveloped, primitive and weak, though
>its resources have potential. They only need to be taken up by the first
>world and put to use for the members of its highest class.
>
>Indeed this has been happening since the Renaissance when it became a
>fashion for the schools of counterpoint (Okhegem, De Prez, Orlando,
>Machaut, etc, etc) to utilize the French folk song melody, L'homme arme
>in all the masses and madrigals and canzones wherever possible. The
>quaint idea of *elevating* the primitives' music moves like a snake
>through western musical history, i.e. through Bach's use of the folk
>song, Kraut und Rueben in his quodlibet of the Goldberg Variations,
>Beethoven's trite pseudo peasant song in the 6th Symphony, Liszt and
>Brahms' *elevation* of Gypsy music, Bartok's entire corpus of works
>taking themes from Hungarian and Romanian folk songs and dances, etc etc
>etc. The modern world of classical music (still the first world) turns
>its nose up at the recognizable use of folk material nowadays, but the
>second world of music, namely the pop world, has taken on the
>responsibility of making consummable the folk music of the planet. In
>some cases, the old-fashioned first world (i.e Perlman, who can't be
>considered avante garde by any standards; and the Kronos Quartet, which
>represent the popular side of the modern classical world) still pretends
>to interact with their
>*source of inspiration*, in Perlman's case, with actual influence on his
>own playing.
>
>Whereas earlier the actual physical interaction of the two cultures (did
>Liszt ever play with Gypsies ?) seldom took place, our century has
>brought with it the brilliant idea of placing them on a testube stage
>together and watching the reaction. But the motives have remained.
>
>If you want a direct Jewish connection to all this, please observe what
>is happening in Germany now with the klezmer epidemic, uh, I mean fad.
>Whereas the musicological concept of
>*marginal survival* still exists in the musicological world (this is an
>observation that cultures which have been transplanted to foreign soil
>often preserve their original traditions more powerfully than they did
>on the original turf) modern musicology has yet to deal with the
>mechanics of *outsider propogation*, the idea that outsiders of a
>tradition may dominate and develop that tradition more omnipresently
>than insiders.
>
>This is the case of the Buena Vista phenomenon, and also with Tickle in
>the Heart, In the Fiddler's House and the entire
>German-Jewish music scene. Outsider Propogation, yup, that's what I call
>it. Claro señor Simone?
>Josh
>
>---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
>