RE: demand for "authentic" ethnic

[Katherine Breslow <kbreslow...>]

Beautifully said.


-Katherine Breslow

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Velaires (at) 
aol(dot)com
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 1:19 PM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: demand for "authentic" ethnic


It's not the enthusiasm for an earlier form that I have a problem with, but
rather the attitude that comes with it that "authenticity" automatically
means "reflecting an earlier stage of development within the course of the
style".  And with that comes a provincialism about rustic authenticity
usually espoused by the academe.

I am an enthusiastic advocate of know and embracing any style of music and
of respecting and drawing on/from history.  In fact, I don't have much
respect for art that doesn't have its roots well-fed and intact.

What I find objectionable is the academic need to do unnatural things to the
organic growth of style and form.  As much distaste as I hold for this "the
more rustic the tone production, the more authentic and therefore better the
music", I hold the same  distaste for the side of the academe that enforces
modern techniques in music that have more to do with math than to do with
making music that moves people.  Both smell elitist to me.

I believe in my heart of hearts that if you care about music, you care about
all of music with equality and not impunity.  You care that its made
sincerely and well, not whether it's made of an Albert or a Boehm clarinet,
nor whether it can claim "serial integrity" or not not, etc.  "Authentic",
to me, is a smokescreen when it becomes an end.  Each artistic voice has its
own authenticity, if the artist speaks truly through it.  Is N.W.A. less
authentic somehow than Robert Johnson? I doubt it.  But if some guys from
Compton in the late 80s try to recreate an era they weren't part of, then
it's a bit less true.  I'm Jewish, and of Austrian ancestry, but for me to
try to recreate the concerns of my ancestry and claim authenticity in doing
so would be absurd.  I can echo some things in the course of my statement --
that's my releationship to my family -- but to try be THAT thing from back
then would be presenting someone else's truth as my lifestyle.

Similarly, when somebody holds up the old stuff and says "this is the truest
stuff" and ends the sentence there (or expounds further upon that in some
sort of thesis) makes for an interesting academic thesis, but has nothing to
do with the real lives that occur in a different time.  Music continues to
live and express.  If the music -- as a product of its world -- is falling
short, of what he hope for in music, maybe we should look at the world that
that music is formed by, and try to do something better about the world that
can hopefully make our cultural expression shine more.

sh




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