Re: Yanni

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

Jeez, Basya, why didn't you use Soft Machine?
                                        EK



----- Original Message -----
From: "Basya Schechter" <basya (at) ultinet(dot)net>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: Yanni


> 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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