Re: Jewish Music Definition

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of <iss(dot)4021(dot)3af077ca(dot)109f3(dot)1 (at) 
mhub7(dot)tc(dot)umn(dot)edu>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> I'm still a bit exhausted from the last time the list took up this
> discussion, but Alex's proposed definition left me questioning.
> 
> Alex proposes:  "Music used by Jews to propagate Jewish life is Jewish
> music."  
> 
> I certainly agree with this, but I'm not sure you can use it as an
> all-inclusive definition.
> 
> Does it have to be used by Jews?  How about a klezmer band of non-Jewish
> performers that play for a non-Jewish audience-- could this be seen as
> propagating Jewish culture, though no Jews are present in the interface.
> Heiko's excellent article regarding klezmer in Germany particularly piqued
> my interest in this question.
> 
That Gentiles play klez for their fellow Gentiles doesn't change the fact that 
Jews use the same music to propagate Jewish.  If you want to hear something that
really makes me hurl, one of the big things among evangelical Christians these 
days is the use of 'Jewish dancing' in their revivals.  (I've never seen it and 
don't want to, but heard about it from an evangelical student of mine.)  
But, as the song says,  "No, no, they can't take that away from me."

On the other hand, we're all aware that Adon Olam can be sung to almost any tune
including Amazing Grace, at which time I'd submit it becomes Jewish music.

Let's bear something in mind.  I used to teach Elderhostels and it was 
particularly common in those courses for someone to say 'that's not music' about
anything s/he didn't like (usually rock music).  Of course the person who said 
that know that whatever it was they didn't like was actually music but by 
denying that they denied that music's owners/users were capable of a fundamental
human expression and on some level thus denied them their humanity.  Often I 
read folks on this list denying that something is Jewish music (usually Debbie 
Friedman) because s/he doesn't like it, although there is usually some other 
explanation, often nusach-related.  I'm not crazy about her stuff, but I'd never
deny that it's Jewish music.

So there's a bit of clarification, Pete.  Nonetheless, I remain unrepentant in 
my definition of Jewish music (and, for the benefit of any evangelical freilach 
dancers out there, in my Judaism).



Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

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