Re: Jewish Music terminology

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Judy:

I didn't even include the archivists terms for terming klezmer and its
offsprings, though obviously, from your point of view, the terms used
should be as precise as possible, precisely because their function in
your catalogue is to help *people find the music they are looking for*
It's ironically vice versa with commercial klezmer terminology, whose
function it is for the *music to find the people its looking for.* I'm
sure that theme will come up in London, as the question beckons, "who
needs the label in the first place?" To be honest, in spite of my
interest at the moment, as a musician I usually don't have the patience
to deal at length with the question of labels. It's frustrating  because
you want people to take for granted that you are unique and special and
loveable and all that, and therefore no label can possibly designate the
object it refers to - and certainly not when it's supposed to be
referring to *me, me, me.* 

I will be at the London conference, reading a paper on the mishegoss of
playing Jewish music in Germany. I sent the proposal in long ago, but
may want to change it to a paper on the klezmer accordion (which I'm
finishing next week) , proving that indeed, the accordion was given to
Moses on Mount Sinai. If you place the (remaining 14 lost) tablets side
by side, what do get? Yup, accordion bellows. Moses got their first, and
I'm gonna prove it. See you there... Josh


 
> Musically however, BOW is already gone to that next step you've described
> beyond the established mainstream. Alan is quite right that there is more
> to their (BOW) music than the stricter definitions of "klezmer," most
> especially in that they attempt to define new formal schemes and
> structures. Very exciting to look forward to what else will be coming
> up..... As with much other music in the past, structure and form may yet
> wind up as the root for defining terminology, not "sound style"....(but
> that remains an interesting proposition for the future)
> 
> I think there will be quite a bit of discussion about cataloguing and new
> terms of Jewish Music at the London Conference. Are you planning to attend?
> It may be very useful if you could come.
> Judy
> 
> At 11:22 AM 12/31/99 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> . A search is made for a new term
> >to label the music, which will set them apart from the newly established
> >mainstream with which they no longer identify, and so they make a new
> >sub-label (see below "New Jewish Music", or "Radical Jewish Culture")
> >which will inevitably still fall under the umbrella term of of the old
> >label, only to be considered a
> >sub-label of it. It's usually hoped that this sub-label will become a
> >new genre in and of itself, yet this is only possible when the new
> >sub-label term undergoes the same process as the original label did,
> >which means that it will end up exactly in the same place where it
> >began, defeating its own purpose, but perhaps enjoying a heyday, which
> >is felt as being at its peak precisely at the moment that it's imitators
> >emerge and are noticed as much as the "originators." To name something
> >is a very powerful thing to do. As soon as you name something, it is
> >released into the domain of the public, and you no longer have control
> >over its usage anymore. Josh
> >************************************************************************
> >> When Brave Old World released Blood Oranges in 1997, we were in agreement
> >> that a scholarly consensus was developing to adopt a narrow definition
> of the
> >> term "klezmer," including Yiddish instrumental repertoire but excluding
> folk
> >> song, for example. We also agreed that there were good reasons to adopt
> that
> >> usage. When we then considered our own repertoire, it was clear that it was
> >> broader than klezmer music, understood in this narrow sense. For that
> reason
> >> we left the term "klezmer music" off the cover and instead plastered the
> term
> >> "New Jewish Music" all over the place. (The graphic is even of a label,
> meant
> >> to be a semi-ironic comment on the function of musical labels). That term
> >> seems to have caught on in some places, judging from the titles of some
> >> current radio shows, conferences, etc.
> >>
> >> I recommend the term "New Jewish Music" as one which can include both
> >> instrumental and vocal, compositions and arrangements, of Ashkenazi and
> other
> >> Jewish traditions. To me it seems less polemical than a term like "radical
> >> Jewish culture," not the least because today's radical is often tomorrow's
> >> traditional.
> >>
> >> Alan Bern
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> 
> Judith S. Pinnolis
> Reference Librarian,
> Coordinator for Publications and Training
> Brandeis University Libraries
> P.O Box 9110  MS045
> 415 South Street
> Waltham, MA 02454-9110
> phone:781-736-4705
> fax: 781-736-4719
> email: pinnolis (at) brandeis(dot)edu
> 

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