Re: Yanni

[Basya Schechter <basya...>]

Hi,

    I actually can confirm what Sam says from personal experience.   For
three consecutive years I was  lead choreagrapher in my Orthodox High school
for our  "music and dance production."  For music we were only allowed to
use either Jewish music or "instrumental"  music.  These were the rules for
almost all Girls high schools, and for some reason, all of us discovered the
magic of Yanni, and how well it went with our censored movements.  Thousands
of people went to these productions, and heard this instrumental music; and
since it was different and "kosher" everyone wanted to know what it was, and
everyone had to buy it, or choreagraph to it.  Since there started to be
masses of people interested in the music, and Schools were concerned about
modest Jewish girls heading into "Manhattan" (the real galoos) they began to
carry it in Boro Park to keep them inside.  I must confess, however, that
when I discovered Yanni at 14, I thought it was the most brilliant music I
had ever heard, (along with Jean Michele Jarre, another personal and
community favorite) and was greatly inspired in my  choreagraphy.  My
family, now in Monsey, still sit and watch the video and are very proud of
me.
basya


-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Weiss <samweiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 11:54 PM
Subject: Yanni


>In his posting on Aderet's "Mostly Music" store in Boro Park,
><ro (at) panix(dot)com> wonders:
>
><<And, for reasons I cannot fathom - maybe someone can help me out here,
>they have Yanni.  No, they don't have any other "new age" kinds of
>artists, aside from an odd spacey piano treatment of some Chabad
>nigunim.  And you know what else is strange?  The Judaica shop in the
>Wesley Hills shopping center up in Monsey (which also has a great stock)
>carries Yanni too.  What am I missing here?>>
>
>The instrumentals by Yanni have been absorbed into the Frum culture as
>perhaps the only form of overtly non-Jewish music deemed kosher and
>useful for general consumption.  This did not come about by fiat, but is
>a long-standing de facto phenomenon.  Yanni's pieces are short,
>rhythmic, melodic (so to speak) and without any human voice or semantic
>connotations.  Thus his music is incorporated into school plays
>presented in girls' Yeshivas, used to choreograph that community's
>ever-increasing repertoire of dances, used as backgrounds for choir
>productions, taught to piano/keyboard students by private teachers,
>heard on telephones while on hold (when the proprietor wants to project
>a "modern" image of his business), etc.
>In fact, a couple of his latest selections have fallen off the kosher
>list since they include some female vocals (albeit without words).
>
>This development seems to represent the women's toehold in the popular
>music industry that serves the Yeshivishe community -- in contrast to
>the "by women for women" recordings and concerts which have a much more
>restricted function.
>
>______________________________________________________
>Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ
>
>

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