Re: What is Jewish Music?

[Alex Lubet <lubet001...>]

>A while ago, Alex Lubet--or maybe it was Wolf, cited by 
>Alex--offered the imaginative definition of Jewish music as "music 
>used by Jews to propagate Jewish life."  Though I think that's an 
>intriguing addition to our files, as it were, I've been meaning to 
>take (some) issue with it--as I think motivation is always a 
>difficult and problematic thing to assess.
>
>What if music with some traditional or traditional-sounding 
>(whatever that means) Jewish content, or music without (discernible) 
>such, at least in the minds of a given listener or listeners, was 
>created by the composer as a means of expressing his own Jewish 
>identity--and/or his relationship _to_ Jewish identity, or Jewish 
>culture and music, or Jewish history, or whatever; but (s)he lacked 
>the specific intention of "propagating Jewish music."  Is the result 
>Jewish music?
>
>I'm thinking, for example, of many of the compositions that come 
>under the (anomalous?) rubric of "Radical Jewish Music"--from the 
>composers around the Tzadik label, the Knitting Factory, and such. 
>I don't know that any--or, anyway, some--in that scene particularly 
>intend to propagate Jewish life--and that's not a typical motivation 
>for composing music (or for most artistic work) in any case.  But of 
>course one *could* argue--though this, too, would be a 
>variable/subjective/problematic judgment--that their music does, *in 
>fact,* help propagate Jewish life.  Indeed, one could perhaps say 
>one or both things about Wolf's music itself--soon coming to Tzadik, 
>as it happens (though only he could really settle the first 
>question, obviously).
>
>What say you--Wolf, Alex, et al.?   Do you really have to intend to 
>propagate Jewish life for your music to be Jewish music?
>
>--Robert Cohen

At the risk of sounding a bit like Bill Clinton, who rose to his own 
defense by asking his interrogaters to define words like 'is,' the 
definition I provided is intended to problematize ownership (the 
'your' the Bob refers to).  The example you give, of 'Radical Jewish 
Culture,' is unambiguous insofar as, John Zorn, the reigning honcho 
of the Tzadik label and its Radical Jewish Culture series, clearly 
intends to propogate Jewish life through these recordings.  I think 
it's self-evident in what he chooses to call them.

Needless to say, that's not going to end debate about Zorn, Tzadik, 
Wolf's music, or any other music, nor was it intended to do so, as 
that would be foolish.  What constitutes Jewish life is hotly debated 
and will be for the forseeable future.

Speaking as a composer who has taught composition to many, many 
students for nearly a quarter-century, I've seen numerous motivations 
for composing and no one has to be limited to any one, nor can we 
always be sure what anyone's motivations are, including oneself.  Who 
among us really comprehends the social (and other) forces that 
motivate our decisions.  On the other hand, I've done plenty of music 
with what I and numerous others would regard as Jewish content.  I 
think constantly about the social ramifications of the music I 'do' 
(a carefully chosen ambiguous term that includes, but is not limited 
to composing and/or performing.  Do I do what I do to propagate 
Jewish life?  Absolutely!  (It's also the way I make my living, I 
like doing things that make people happy, I like to do music I enjoy 
myself, and I like doing things I think I do well.  Doubtless there 
are other forces that motivate me that I don't fully comprehend.)




-- 
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
100 Ferguson Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 (o)
612 699-1097 (h)
612 624-8001  ATTN:  Alex Lubet (FAX)

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