Re: Germans and Klezmer

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

> I would be happy if the discussion in this thread in a group (which claims to
> concern music) wended its way out of that emotionally-charged arena of How
> Committed to the Memories of the Fallen Are YOU and back into musical
> questions.  

This theme is destined to come back again and again as long as the list
exists. I've already seen it a few times in various guises. I think its
one of the most basic and powerful controversies that contemporary
klezmer music has to offer. Virtually all of the sociological themes
that arise have a direct impact on the music itself. I don't see this at
all as a separate issue, and tried to give one example of what I saw as
a reason for the German klezmer groups preoccupation with pushing
klezmer style to its outer limits. I could go into the pressure from the
industry- how my group has continually been told to tell Hassidic
stories on stage, why we don't we preach a bit about Jewish culture or
how unhip we are playing traditional "...and besides, the German
audiences are sick of traditional...they heard enough of that when
Feidman got started, and that's why he was smart enough to change over
to Gerschwin and Pauline Olivieros..." etc etc. But I personally don't
want to be the only person to give my verbose analyses on th4ese things,
when we've got INSIDERS who EXPERIENCE these emotions and have lived
through the process of what it means to be playing Jewish music. Does
anyone else see that this element is missing?

The first question I want to ask is: Do we want dialogue on this list
with this particular theme?  

We had the embryo of a dialogue happening with some of the German
members of this list a few days ago. Yet, when the discussion got hot,
they became silent, which I can totally understand, given the nature of
the anger which was expressed. This is a delicate situation. I would not
like to change ANYTHING in its contents, except to invite the Germans to
give their side. Even if this ellicits a furious response from some on
the list, we could learn an incredible amount if we could let the
confrontation run its course.

I don't know how Ari feels about this or what the policy of the list is
on this "freedom of speech" clause. I would personally NOT ask the angry
members of the list to tone themselves down - their anger is part of
what's happening. It exists. Period. On the other hand, I don't want to
see the valuable side of the German members scared off by this. Is there
any way to include both sides and let the tape just roll?? Josh

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