Re: Borrowing church melodies

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

Responding to the message of <F164dOXwHyqk4hPO1eV00002f76 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> Simon wrote:
> 
> >Isn't that somwhat like putting butter on a piece Kosher meat, it was
> >"Jewish" , but it "Ain't Jewish no more!"
> 
> You mean like at a "kosher style" restaurant?
> 
> Attn.  Left Hand:  Please get in touch with Right Hand.
> 
> Other than that, though, Simon's stretching to the limits of the 
> possibilities of borrowing melodies (a favorite subject) is intriguing and 
> raises some good questions.  Keep in mind, though, that in Smyrna, I think 
> it was, a few centuries ago (am not home; can document very specifically if 
> desired), Jews would actually visit churches prior to the High Holidays to 
> listen for, and swipe, melodies that moved them spiritually, to which they 
> would then sing some of the High Holiday prayers.  (More likely the Kedusha, 
> though, than Kol Nidre ...)  And this received rabbinical sanction 
> (approval), I believe--though, certainly, (many) other rabbis in other times 
> and places disapproved (strongly) of the whole practice, not even 
> specifically w/ respect to Christian melodies.
> 
> Keep in mind, too:  the High Holidays Ma'ariv "Bor'chu" *does* derive from a 
> church (Te Deum) melody.
> 
> And the (universally sung) traditional melody to "Ma'oz Tsur" is, I believe, 
> universally accepted to have been adapted from two (or maybe three) German 
> folk/popular melodies, one of which was adopted by Martin Luther (a great 
> friend of the Jews ...) as the first hymn of the Lutheran church.
> 
> So we're singing some church melodies liturgically even if we don't realize 
> it.  Of course, some rabbinical opinions/rulings on borrowing melodies for 
> prayer specifically say that it's OK as long as the kahal (congregation) 
> doesn't recognize that it's a borrowing!--i.e., isn't familiar with the 
> original.
> 
> Myself, I've always thought "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" is a sublime melody 
> and makes a beautiful Adon Olam at Xmas time--though even some liberal 
> havurahniks found that disquieting.
> 
> --Robert Cohen
> 
Thanks for this, Robert.  A lot of people find the melodies they know and love 
that were once Lutheran hymns to be very heymish.  That style characterizes much
of 18th-19th century German Reform and it's been imprinted in a lot of folks' 
consciousness as the epitome of Jewish music.  According to my utilitarian 
definition it is.  I'd say the same for the music of the Abuyudaya Jews of 
Uganda and Arnold Schoenberg's setting of the Shma in Survivor from Warsaw.  I'm
not keen on Debbie Friendman myself but I think her stuff resonates with a lot 
of people and that's 'good for the Jews.'

Sorry Simon, but hypothetical examples don't count. And Lori, if you think I 
said "any music written or played by Jews automatically becomes 
"Jewish Music," go back and look again.  It Ain't(Necessarily) So.

When I taught "Jewish Contributions to American Musical Culture" in Poland, I 
referenced 'White Christmas' (which, by the way, is very popular in Poland, in 
English).  Not that I think it's Jewish music, of course, but, like many 
American Jews, Berlin included, it's secular and patriotic (in being written on 
behalf of overseas GI's during WWII, especially in the Pacific Theater).  It 
also has an emotional frame of reference unlike any other Xmas music I know (and
was analyzed as such in the NY Times a few years ago.)  One can make a similar 
case for Easter Parade, and Phillip Roth did in a novel whose title I can't 
remember.  Roth claimed (tongue-in-cheek) that Berlin was attempting to 
secularize the most important Christian holidays in an effort to defuse 
anti-Semitism.

I would reiterate that when Gentiles have appropriated a Jewish text (musical or
otherwise), it does not diminish its Jewishness.  Look what they've done with 
Torah and it was still very Jewish last time I looked.



  

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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