Re: What is Jewish Music?

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

Responding to the message of <3B1D2903(dot)8B086C0B (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> Relax, it wasn't a challenge!  I just wanted to know what you all felt.  This 
> is a
> discussion forum, isn't it?
>
Forgive, me!  I'm used to nasty verbal attacks and it's a reflex that isn't 
always useful.

Per your question, I don't think I have enough information to even give my 
opinion, especially since the piece hasn't even been written.  I will say 
thought that non-Jewish composers who appropriate Jewish source materials often 
give me the willies.  I get requests like this pretty often (and it's a bit 
complicated to refuse to share musical knowledge with a student who asks for it 
in a public university) and they often want to use Jewish sources to pursue some
kind of explicitly Christian agenda.  If that's the case, there's no way I could
consider it Jewish music, a conclusion I would hope would be shared by others on
the list.  When a non-Jewish student does this I often feel like that person is 
coming into my house uninvited and helping himself to my most precious 
possessions without asking.  Such a person can't possibly value what I teach him
in the same way I do.



 
> Alex Lubet wrote:
> 
> > >How about the case of the man who asked a question of our list recently 
> > about
> > >klezmer music to be referenced in a work being written to honor Holocaust
> > >survivors, written by someone not Jewish:  is that Jewish music?
> > >
> > I could provide an answer to this particular case, but in the long
> > run that would be unproductive.  It would be better for you to
> > attempt to apply the definition and come up with your own answer.
> >
> > I attempted to provide a means to evaluate cases which I stated was
> > fluid and contingent and which permitted many variables of agency
> > regarding the 'use' of music.  I had no intention of providing a
> > formula that was failsafe and upon which everyone engaged in this
> > debate would agree.  If one attempts to answer this question on a
> > case-by-case basis in which only the composition and the composer are
> > considered, I would recommend revisiting the definition, because
> > using music and composing it are neither the same thing nor mutually
> > inclusive.  I'm also not interested in playing stump the band with
> > people who want to poke holes in the definition I provided.  I'm
> > personally quite happy with it and pleased that it continues to
> > provoke discussion, which is may be as much as one can ask of an
> > idea.  In my experience of having debated the definition of Jewish
> > music for many years, I've found that most people who don't like my
> > definition either provide one that is far more limiting (often
> > revolving around nusach or liturgy) or throw their hands up in the
> > air and say it can't be defined.
> >
> > If you don't like my definition, come up with your own.  I'm actually
> > quite capable of generating my own problematic cases and my own
> > ambivalent answers.  Since there's no universally accepted definition
> > of either music or Jewish, the problem a complex.
> >
> > --
> > 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)
> >
> 
> 
> 
> .


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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