Re: What is Jewish Music?

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

Responding to the message of <200106052052(dot)PAA118036986 (at) 
smtppop1pub(dot)verizon(dot)net>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> As the person who asked this question,
> >
> >> >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 now feel involved in this discussion.  The composition referred to is
> something that I'm still in the process of conceiving.  I am considering
> using pre-existing Jewish music as part of the piece, or perhaps composing
> original music in the style of Jewish music, i.e. klezmer.  I still have not
> decided whether or not to do this.  I am trying to be sensitive in each
> decision that I make.  If I do use Jewish music, whether it be pre-existing
> or not, I don't think my composition could be considered Jewish.  One could
> perhaps say that it is in the style of Jewish music, but any religious music
> has a spiritual aspect which is outside of the music itself.  As a non-Jew,
> I could not pretend to weave that spiritual element into my music.
> 
> Dr. Ron Averill
> 
> 
> 
> That sounds like a very sensitive viewpoint.  

I have to say that I worry a lot about 'Holocaust' pieces, performances, and 
events.  Although I've been involved in several I thought were appropriately 
done (my play with music, Bosnia Blues, and a Wallenberg memorial concert), 
others have left me quite distraught, particularly if I thought the Shoah was a 
tool for marketing something that wasn't very good.  I won't identify the event 
I attended recently that I found so disturbing, because I don't want to vilify 
the artists (both Jewish and non-Jewish), but I felt like I was simultaneously 
being asked to critique the work's merits (as an audience member)--to decide 
whether or not I 'liked it'--and being reminded of its associations with the 
Holocaust in a way that made that kind of evaluation a combination of irrelevant
and impossible.

Elie Weisel has written on this subject.  As I recall, he's pretty circumspect 
about much of the 'Holocaust art' done by non-survivors.  As a non-survivor who 
addressed the unspeakable, I'm curious as to the experiences of others on the 
list.


  

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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