RE: "elevating" ("improving") folk music

[Joel Epstein <yoel...>]

I would be interested in seeing a catalogue of your archive.  Specifically, I 
have been looking without success for Saminsky's arrangement of "Shlopf Mein 
Kindt" for soprano and string quartet.

Any other chamber works are of interest to me (I have a fair collection 
already).

Thank you,

-------------------------------------------------------
Yoel Epstein, etses gibbers consultants
POB 8516
Moshav Magshimim 56910
Israel
tel:    972-3-9333316
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email:  yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il



-----Original Message-----
From:   eliott kahn [SMTP:elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU]
Sent:   ä éðåàø 06 2000 1:03
To:     World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:        Re: "elevating" ("improving") folk music

Robert:

RE: The Society for Jewish Folk Music. There were quite a few branches but 
the two most important ones were at Moscow, founded by Joel (Julius) Engel, 
and the one at St. Petersburg, founded a little later, in 1908, by a few 
composition students at the Conservatory there (L. Saminsky, S. Rosowsky, 
E. Skliar).

An interesting anecdote: When author Sholom Aleichem was first informed of 
the St. Petersburg Society's goals of collecting tunes in the Pale of 
Settlement and using them as the basis for art songs and chamber works, he 
warned the members to make sure (I paraphrase) "that the tunes don't freeze 
on the way to St. Petersburg." According to accounts by S. Rosowsky and L. 
Saminsky, however, he soon became an ardent supporter of the Society's 
goals. During its brief ten-year existence (1908-1918), The Society gave 
over 1200 concerts to adoring masses of Zionists throughout the Pale of 
Settlement. They were proud, indeed, that what were once considered 
"kitchen songs" were now works of art in very sophisticated, yet 
accessible, chamber music and art song settings.

The folks here who frequently refer to the Beregovski Collection should 
realize that the core of the collection that Beregovski cataloged, 
transcribed, and annotated in the 1920s-1930s were the cylinder N.Y. 10027


At 01:15 PM 1/5/00 -0800, you wrote:
>That's exactly what the Society for Jewish Folk Music in 
>turn-of-the-century Russia (I think I have name and time right--not near 
>my books) sought to do:  "elevate" (by its lights) folk music into "art 
>music."  FWIW, I share Joshua's distaste for that ethos and 
>aesthetic--passionately.  But I think some such transformations or 
>incorporations of folk music "work," probably because the composer 
>respected and did not demean the original:  Vaughan Williams' ENGLISH FOLK 
>SONG SUITE, for example, and some of Bartok.  Maybe APPALCHIAN SPRING, 
>too, and I'm sure there are other successful examples. -- 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: Meaning of "Klezmer"
>>Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 17:35:34 +0100
>>
>> > Josh,
>> >
>> > Which attempts to integrate klezmer music into modern compositions are
>> > you thinking of? Bob
>>
>>I wasn't trying to be specific, but was more taking a definite, very
>>opinionated standpoint about the effort as such for myself. I won't
>>single out any compositions I've heard, in spite of having been asked
>>ocassionally to write reviews. I feel too jaded to trust my own opinion
>>on a public platform outside of the realm of a discussion like this. But
>>I think my main qualm about using folk music for the basis of *serious
>>music* is an implicit meaning that the serious music world is
>>*improving* upon the music of the *natives*. I've never been able to
>>hear a derivative composition without getting past that reaction. Maybe
>>my ears are clogged though, I don't know. Josh
>>
>
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