Re: What Is Jewish Music? (revisited!)

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Robert, I think you misread my original posting.  I am NOT suggesting that 
"I know it when I hear it" applies to all Jewish music.  Rather, I have 
found that there is a perception among Americans as to a style of East 
European simkhe music, which they perceive as "klezmer".  I have alot of 
fun with the kids when I play them straight-up Roumanian doinas and other 
East European folk styles which they "hear" as "Jewish".

As to definitions, I'll go with Skip's.

Shira

At 02:24 PM 12/14/99 -0800, you wrote:
>"I know it when I hear it" is a good guide to the question (alluded to by 
>Seth Austen recently) "What do I like?  What moves me/speaks to my heart 
>(or head or whatever)?"  But it's a *terrible* guide to "What Is Jewish 
>Music?" since, as I point out to classes and lecture audiences all the 
>time, ancient or "exotic" Jewish music--ancient Sephardic that "sounds 
>like" Gregorian chant; (ancient) Yemenite music, Moroccan or Tunisian 
>Jewish music, etc., etc., don't "sound like" Jewish music to our (that is, 
>most of my audiences') Western/American, 20th-century, Ashkenazic Jewish ears.
>

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