Re: Fwd: A new klezmermusical in Berlin

[Paul M. Gifford <PGIFFORD...>]

"Kame'a Media" <media (at) kamea(dot)com> wrote:
> 
> I don't think this is correct.  Minstrel shows were not "satires" as you 
> claim.
> 
> They were more of an indication of the lack of commercial white musical
> creativity in this era and area.  The white entertainer,  latching 
> on to a good (marketable) thing when he saw it,  sought to "cover" 
> black repertoire and style, but the racist and conformist
> social climate of the times made it  extremely unseemly for a white man to
> comport himself in the manner of a black man (by performing his
> all-too-emotional and earthy music).
> 
> There was also the issue of blacks not being tolerated in all-white settings,
> including performance venues.  Racist white people were more at ease
> with a white man in blackface than the real thing.  And, as paralleled today
> with Jewish music,  most people couldn't tell the difference (in 
> performance quality) seldom, if ever, having been exposed to the 
> authentic music or language. > 

Sorry if this is off-topic, but I had to respond. On the contrary---
in the U.S. prior to 1820 or 1830, fiddlers for dances were usually
black. And in later years, musicians at dances and parties held in
urban white homes were often black. Society orchestras frequently 
consissted of black musicians. Perhaps the best-known was Francis 
Johnson, of Philadelphia, who played the keyed bugle and led his own 
orchestra in the 1830s and later. This tradition was still true in 
the early 20th century. Farmer's Orchestra, of Detroit, was just one 
of many. Wolf's statement is way off base here.

Since whites thought blacks had "natural rhythm," and because dancing
was often thought as sinful or sexual, playing for dancing was one 
niche acceptable for blacks. Same for minstrel shows, except that it 
incorporated an exotic element. This attitude is still around today,
in a different form---not "natural rhythm," but "authenticity," etc.
The same niche offered opportunities for Gypsies, Jews and other 
minorities in Islamic cultures and, in a different way, in Eastern 
Europe.

Paul Gifford

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