Re: Jewish Music Definition

[L_Cahan <L_Cahan...>]

I think that if you have an infinite number of monkeys on typewriters you will 
still
have an infinite amount of gibberish.  None will ever write Shakespeare, 
because we
are not talking about monkeys who refer to each others work in order to not 
duplicate
it.

Sorry, just a pet peeve.
Lorele

Leonard Koenick wrote:

> 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
>

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