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Re: contemporary liturgical folk music

 

As the proud owner of 55 Carlebach albums which I've collected from the early 70's I find it difficult to dismiss him as a "summer camp music" composer.  His melodies circle the globe all the way from the Kotel to India.  Today, some six years after his passing in October of '94, Shlomo's music is becoming more widespread and relevant than ever before.  By comparison, who really listens to the cantorial music help in high regard by the effete snob set?

>From: "Robert Cohen"
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant
>Subject: Re: contemporary liturgical folk music
>Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 03:32:45
>
>I have no more or less insight than Ari with respect to what Jews
>will be
>singing 100 years from now--I don't have the slightest idea. And
>such
>predictions--or, as it were, counter-predictions--are usually, I'd
>venture,
>foolish.
>
>What we _can_ do is observe what Jews are singing, and davening to,
>in our
>(various) lifetime(s) and wonder, thoughtfully and open-mindedly, if
>we can
>project forward.
>
>The melodies of Shlomo Carlebach, z"l, were--and in some circles and
>by some
>champions of high-art liturgical music, still are--dismissed as so
>much
>"(summer) camp music": gornisht ditties, nothing more.
>Astonishingly, Macy
>Nulman's otherwise fine ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH MUSIC, published in
>the
>mid-70s, doesn't even have an *entry* for Shlomo, whose melodies
>even then
>were being sung by Jews all over the world. But it did have many
>entries
>for numerous composers of cantorial or "art" music settings whose
>music is
>virtually *never* sung, or recognized, by Jews *anywhere* in the
>world. But
>Cantor Nulman, along with many of his colleagues, deemed this music
>worthy
>and Shlomo's unworthy.
>
>Now, well over 40 years since Shlomo started "composing" melodies,
>and,
>sadly, 5/6 years after his death, his melodies are sung ever more
>widely,
>from one of the Jewish world to the other. And many melodies in the
>"neo-"
>Hassidic style Shlomo inspired--by such composers as Shmuel Brazil,
>Abie
>Rotenberg, and Baruch Chait--have also become classics of Jewish
>liturgical
>and para-liturgical music. So have several of the Hassidic melodies
>of Ben
>Zion Shenker of Moditz.
>
>Will Debbie Friedman's melodies, and others in that more lyrically
>American
>style, enjoy the same shelf life? Who knows (as Shlomo was wont to
>say)?
>But they're certainly being sung far more widely today than when
>_she_
>started composing, a quarter-century or so ago. And, via both the
>medium of
>recordings and such conclaves as CAJE conventions, Jewish retreats
>of
>various sorts, Hillel conventions, and even Federation annual
>meetings,
>they're spreading _beyond_ her own origins in the Reform movement
>and that
>movements' NFTY, etc., summer camps.
>
>These are just some musings without a bottom line; somewhat more
>developed
>reflections on the same phenomenon will be available in the
>compilation CD
>I'm producing with David Shneyer--halevi it should be out this
>(secular)
>year!!
>
>And my thanks, too, to Ari for his provocative thoughts and
>subsequent
>re-considerations and further musings.
>
>--Robert Cohen
>>From: Ari Davidow
>>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant
>>Subject: Re: Debbie Friedman and shtetl redux
>>Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 20:33:55 -0500
>>
>>Again, I apologize for responding to a nit and begging time to
>>think more
>>about the general issues you raise.
>>
>> >But but but, I finally come around to saying: Baruch Hashem for
>>people
>> >like Debbie Friedman. I may not care for her take on it, but
>>clearly
>> >it is a voice that speaks to many Jews and speaks to both their
>>heart
>> >and their heads. I don't know who her audience is, but obviously
>> >she's got one.
>>
>>Let me be clear that while I am not a major fan of Debbie Friedman,
>>I =do=
>>concur with you: baruch hashem that she has written prayers that
>>speak to
>>so many people. The point I was trying to make, and perhaps I'll be
>>able to
>>make it better here, is that folkie religious music =does=
>>represent a
>>break with the melodies and nusakh of the past. That doesn't make
>>it bad,
>>but I'm not convinced that makes it music that will speak to Jews
>>100 years
>>from now the way that I would expect more traditional melodies to
>>be
>>around.
>>
>>The hard part, at least for me, is the transformation of Jewish
>>practice,
>>given that, with all the respect that I am indicating for those
>>wonderful
>>traditional prayers, as written, I won't say some of them, and
>>others I
>>have grown used to editing in my head as I daven. So, if I had
>>descendents,
>>and they were following Nusakh Ari, how likely is it that =they=
>>would be
>>davenning Nusakh Ari or its descendetn 100 years from now--the time
>>span I
>>used to dismiss Debbie Friedman.
>>
>>I don't have an answer yet. I may never have one. But, rightly or
>>wrongly,
>>I am convinced that some paths are =not= the answer. Whether the
>>one I have
>>chosen truly has a heart, and whether that heart can be passed on,
>>I dunno.
>
>>ari
>>
>>
>>Ari Davidow
>>ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
>>list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>>the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/
>
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