Re: Germans and Klezmer

[elliott <enr01...>]

I agree.
    elllllll

Joshua Horowitz wrote:

> > 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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