Re: Germans and Klezmer

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Hi all,

Because I'm in the middle of writing an essay on the phenomenon of
klezmer music in Germany, I actually wanted to stay clear of this
subject for the moment, but now that Monika has come out of the closet
(thanks, Monika) I couldn't resist:

Monika is one of a handful of non-Jewish Germans who, in my opinion, has
gained entry into the klezmer inner circle the hard way, which I think
is perhaps the only way. There are more have managed this, like Heiko
Lehmann (bassist extraordinaire with Wex, Kapelye, Budowitz BOW(?),
Adrienne Cooper), Christian Dawid, some members of Aufwind, and others
as well. I don't think anyone can deny thatthese people are important
members of the scene. What sets them apart from the other
(classification to follow) is what they all have in common: 

1) they've gone out of their way to make contact to Jews, Jewish culture
and Jewish history

2) They have braved an often difficult entry into the scene, which I
think for many involved being rejected and mistrusted by certain people
at first (and repeatedly)

3) Their interest and passion for Jewish culture centers on a
fascination with the content (aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual)
rather than the political mobilization of their positions as Germans
playing the music of the victims their culture tried to annihilate. Nor
do they get paid much for their work.

Having said that, it also needs to be said that the rest of the scene is
made up of 2 camps, the Feidman disciples on the one hand; and the
independents, who have contact to neither, but just have jumped on the
klezmer bandwagon and are good for a lucrative ride.

The Feidman camp has been the most powerful in Germany, though in the
past years, in terms of numbers the independents have taken over the
scene - you can't find a village anyway in Germany without its very own
klezmer band. No roots, no yikhes, no mentors and usually, no talent to
make up for the other missing necessities. But they do indeed, sport a
collection of revival records and a bootlegged copy of the Compleat
Klezmer to nosh on. 

I don't want to go into the Feidman phenomenon - that requires a book.
Suffice it to say that he has imprinted the entire German political and
musical landscape of what klezmer music has come to mean in Germany. But
this wouldn't be possible without the forces of other aspects of the
society, so we can't talk the meaning of klezmer music in Germany
without including the media, politics and the family. I want to include
some excerpts from my rather lengthy essay, to give an idea of this
labyrinth. The essay is far from finished, so these are only a few
selected portions:

The Destroyed, Lost And Forgotten Jewish Music.   
Do you need to pronounce a culture "dead" in order to receive a license
to do with it what you want? This justification system can be found not
only among the promotional image which new klezmer groups themselves
include in their portfolios, but also by journalists, who frequently
assume a central role as the self-proclaimed prophets of survival for
Jewish music. As a traditional group, we are frequently reminded by
journalists through their criticisms about the possibility of
modernizing ourselves. But try to explain to journalists that, in fact,
enough klezmer musicians had already immigrated to America prior to the
Holocaust in order to insure its flourishing marginal survival on
American soil. True, the Nazis did wipe out most of East and Central
European Jewry, but what about the East European music which had
succeeded in being transplanted before the war? It never seems to occur
to the German press that the basic materials which have made possible
the so-called ?klezmer revival? were the 78 r.p.m. recordings by Jewish
immigrants, mostly produced before 1928, i.e. well before the Holocaust.
It is next to possible to get this idea into print, because it is seen
to weaken the purport of the Holocaust. The road to historical
manipulation is paved with good intentions.

The media never rallies that the music was ?transplanted?, but rather
that it was ?wiped out, rediscovered and resurrected.? Therefore this
aspect of Jewish history as it appears on German soil is being rewritten
in a way which actually never happened the way it is now portrayed. 
Yes, it is true that Germans and Austrians were responsible for the
destruction of East European Culture. Yes, it is true that with this
destruction, the future of Jewish music on European soil was abrubtly
interrupted, even almost totally wiped out. But no, the music never died
-not on European and certainly not on American soil. And no, the
materials forming the basis of a renaissance of klezmer music could not
possibly have been gleaned from what was destroyed in Europe, but rather
from what has been preserved, mostly on American soil. And, there still
are people who can give us first-hand information about the musical life
of Jewish Europe before the war. So from where does the need arise to
have Jewish music crucified and resurrected?

The Importance Of Being Taken Ernestly
One guess is that a revival of Jewish music on German soil by Jews (if
this were possible) would implicitly give Germans a back-seat role in
its resurgence. For some Germans, it is already difficult enough to
explain to family and friends their motivations for playing Jewish music
in the first place.  The responsibility which young Germans often
willingly take upon themselves in dealing with their parents? and
grandparents? past would lose its definition if the culture they were
reviving were not first pronounced dead. Their responsibility of being
the main agents of survival would be made irrelevant, rendering the
clean-up job of the holocaust unnecessary, or at least exclude their
role in its ocurrance. The most convincing method to do this is Avant
Garde rehabilitation. In the midst of the typical German inhibition to
delve deeply enough into Judaism by avoiding direct contact with Jews,
we find a justification system at work, which claims implicitly that to
insure the survival of Jewish music we must develop it to its outer
reaches, thereby proving its potency by showing that the music itself is
timeless enough to stand reworking by people whose ancestors were
responsible for its disappearance. This renders unnecessary the
importance of learning in depth the traditional apsects of the style. 

Several years ago a well-known non-Jewish Austrian violinist came to me
in Graz to learn traditional style in order to improve his group, which
performs klezmer music and Yiddish songs. As we were working on a Hora,
I showed him where one would typically place glissandi to begin to sound
Jewish. He told me he would rather skip that ornament where I suggested
it, as he could not continue to play it with the fingerings he had
chosen for that particular line. I told him to change strings to make it
easier, and he said it was too unusual for him to do that, and would
require too much work. All he wanted was to sound ?Jewish? but not to
change too much. I tried to make it clear to him that to ?sound Jewish?
required rethinking his musical system (which we have all needed to do
when learning this music) as it required quite a different soundscape
than what he was used to. It is a situation which I have often
encountered in workshops and seminars in Germany and Austria ?...Just
show me what I need to fake it and let me do my own thing after that.?
But implicitly there is the thought in the background that noone knows
anymore anyway, so why bother? You won?t get a citation if you don?t do
it right.

But the media's role in manipulating the history of klezmer music, and
indirectly, German-Jewish history should not be underestimated. For
those who think that censorship is no longer an issue in so-called
democratic countries, look again. Alone the fact that radio and
television stations state clearly that political subjects are to be
avoided in non-politically oriented shows makes impossible the broadcast
of the inner politics of the klezmer phenomenon by virtue of the fact
that it is classified as entertainment. The quickest way to have your
comments hit the cutting room dust-bin is to mention the Holocaust.
Journalists themselves can do it, but don?t try yourself. The newspapers
and radio/TV stations don?t want letters pouring in. On a talk show for
German television (on a panel with Monika Feil as well) I made 3
comments which were cut so promptly that the rest of my comments
remained incoherent, due to the lack of correct context. Anyone who has
been quoted by the media will know trick:

1) When asked why Klezmer music was so popular in Germany I replied that
it was a strange phenomenon, which had a symbolic basis in the youth?s
rebellion against their controversial forebearers, and pointed out,
however that Klezmer music was not really played in Germany before the
war, and that we thus have the Holocaust to thank for it?s being there
now. CUT!! CENSOR!!

2) When asked whether relations between Germans and Jews have improved
through their connection to Klezmer music, I replied mischievously, "oh
yes, nowhere can you observe this trend towards normality so clearly
than in the behavior of record companies, agents and the general German
music industry?s toward Jews: We get ripped off as reliably as any
non-Jews." CUT!! CENSOR!!

3) When the host of the talk show asked her prize question about Feidman
and what we thought of him, my first reply was, I thought he was healing
the healthy. After all, it?s not the Nazi?s who come to klezmer
concerts, but rather an audience who may tend to accept the transferred
guilt of their forebearers, and Feidman absolves these poor innocents of
the sins they never committed. CUT!! CENSOR!!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. It's a big subject, and whether you
want to accept it or not, the center for klezmer music in terms of
practitioners on this planet is Germany. The reasons for this are
complex, but traceable. And straightahead Yiddishkayt is not the message
that's usually being conveyed in the foreground. Still, while being
critical about the phenomenon of German klezmer, I think at the same
time its important to embrace those who are sincere, passionate and
serious about Jewish culture in a non-romantic, non-political way,
regardless. So, its a small selection. Nu? Hand-picked strawberries
always taste better.  Josh Horowitz

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