RE: Jewish Music Definition

[Leonard Koenick <lkoenick...>]

It seems clear from all this that it makes no sense to try and define what
is Jewish music in the abstract.  It is impossible to define unless you
first state the purpose for which you want to define it.

        I am sure some will define it on whether the composer can be traced to 
an
appropriate matrilineal descendent; others to whether the composer was
shomer shabbos and then according to which authority; and others will fall
into the Mr. Justice Douglas (at least I think it was him) definition of "I
know it when I [hear] it."

Clearly some music would be easily classified regardless, but all composers
certainly draw inspiration from other sources.  Given ancient and current
migration and cultural mixings, any attempt at defining Jewish music without
also defining the purpose in do so is an endless exercise.

        And defining Jewish music by whether portions of a tune sound similar to
another may be meaningful and may not.  There are only so many permutations
and combinations of notes and eventually the monkeys at the typewriter
theory will succeed.

Leonard Koenick

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+