Re: Germans and Klezmer

[elliott <enr01...>]

A very interesting letter. I'm not nearly as knowledeable  in this area
,(music and German politics) but it sounds very logical to me. I grew up in
NYC in the 30's and 40's, in a Jewish community with a commitment to Eastern
European Jewish culture.
    elliott
        elllllllllll

Joshua Horowitz wrote:

> 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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