Re: thoughts from Alex

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

Responding to the message of <3B222CBC(dot)6206AEAA (at) yorku(dot)ca>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> Alex (as he so often does) has provided some more grist for the thinking
> mills -
> 
> > 
> > That 'Music is surely for the whole world to enjoy' is a pleasant 
> > sentiment, but
> > not one borne of a careful survey of the world's music, insofar as 
> > aesthetic 
> > position you cite is foreign to the outlook of many peoples and many 
> > genres.  
> 
> Right on. And very often, for example, listeners from India will find
> WAM (my abbreviation for Western Art Music) boring because it lacks the
> intervallic and rhythmic subtlety of Indian art music; or WAM listeners'
> ears aren't trained to catch these subtleties in Indian art music and
> they miss the complex harmonic structure of WAM. Neither is "better"
> than the other. But they're not a "universal language".
> Often I enjoy the SOUND of people speaking a language I don't understand
> when I hear them on a bus, for example - similarly, I might enjoy the
> SOUND of a certain kind of music without understanding its referentials
> or even really appreciating its "language". 
> 
> 
> > There are repertoires throughout the world that are in some way private, 
> > that 
> > is, not meant to be heard by certain people.  
> 
> Absolutely.
> 
> 
> > Sometimes musics are shared willingly, but they are also appropriated, used 
> > 
> > without permission, sometimes for purposes that offend or harm the original 
> > 
> > owners.  It is easy to ignore this and pretend there is parity of power and 
> > 
> > social status if you are a member of the majority or the powerful culture.  
> > 
> Again, I couldn't agree more!
> > 
> > 
> > those students who have 
> > approached me about Jewish music tend to want to use it in Christian 
> > contexts 
> > that are often triumphalist in a manner that I perceive as damaging to 
> > Jewish 
> > interests..... .........
> >  the pentecostals who do 'Jewish dancing' at their rallies do not 
> > have Jewish interests in mind when they appropriate our expressive forms to 
> > 
> > threaten us with eternal damnation if we don't embrace their evangelical 
> > message.  Contacts such as that make me a little less generous with my 
> > culture, 
> > something I want my friends in more powerful and more evangelistic faith 
> > traditions to understand.
> > 
> I have a couple of anecdotal comments on this tricky one. One is that in
> Portugal, Jews for Jesus are very active, probably because they see the
> cofusing situation of the Crypto-Jews ("Marranos") as very fertile
> ground. Several times, a couple of them, have approached me at events,
> including after I've been singing, and told me they are trying to learn
> Sephardic songs or have learned some; without actually saying so in so
> many words it was pretty clear from the context that these songs would
> be used in a proselyting situations.
> 
> Or, in New MExico in March, when we were giving a concert for the new
> National Hispanic Culture Center (apparently the first official
> socio-cultural event bringing together the region's Jews and 
> Hispanics), we were invited to hear an acquaintance's friend sing
> Sephardic songs - at an avowedly "non-denominational" church. The singer
> had learned - apparently from a woman rabbi in New MExico - songs for
> the Yom Kipur and Rosh Hashana, and she felt it appropriate to sing
> these as well as several Sephardic love songs, as PART OF THE SERVICE in
> this church, which as far as I could see, was a church, "denominational"
> or otherwsie. Was this promoting understanding? appropriating? 
> 
> Finally, Alia Musica's last few CD's sing mostly material in Hebrew,
> mostly religious texts; they sing very well indeed but they sound like a
> highly-trained church ensemble and the music, as they interpret it,
> sounds like church music in Hebrew. They are having tremendous success
> in both Spain and outside it. 
> One of invented Jewish festivals in Spain, for its theatre-"wedding",
> now has the songs sung by a choir composed partly of members of the
> local convent choir and directed by the church's choir conductor, who'se
> never heard Sephardic songs. People who attend take this as "real"
> Sephardic music.
> 
> Creativity? artistic license? appropriation?
> 
> Music as a universal language???? cheers, Judith
> 
Thank you, Judith.  You bring something rare and precious to this list and 
elsewhere:  the theoretical savvy of an ethnomusicologist combined with a depth 
of knowledge of Jewish repertoire and a passion for Jewish peoplehood and Jewish
survival.

One of the unusual things about Jewish culture is that we have a framework for 
intellectual life that lives largely beyond the purview of mainstream academic 
life, supported by institutions such as shuls (and their schools), JCC's, and 
our own publishers.  The institutions encourage a way of knowing Jewish culture 
that is (often blessedly) removed from the methodologies of academia.  
Nonetheless, there are nuggets of knowledge (mostly research tools) to be 
gleaned from disciplines such as musicology, ethnomusicology, and anthropology 
which are not as widely disseminated among knowedgeable Jewish musicians (among 
them cantors and klezmorim) as would be useful.  Many talented Jewish scholars 
and other musicians could bring a great deal to Jewish life but have chosen to 
focus their energies elsewhere.  Having been such a person for a long time, I 
feel like I have gaps in my Jewish knowledge, although I think my (extensive) 
secular training does enable me to say something useful once in a while (thanks,
J, high praise from one such as you).  To have someone like Judith on the list, 
who is both a scholar of ethnomusicology and a first-rate musician and is 
totally devoted to Yiddishkeyt is a real blessing.

I couldn't make much of the music I make without Gentile musicians and there are
few in town (music directors and both Reform and Conservative congregations) by 
whom the Twin Cities are truly blessed.  But Jews need to set the rules of 
engagement when others want to position themselves as purveyors of 
manifestations of our culture.

One more thing.  While Judith is absolutely right about how bewildering a 
foreign music (hardly a universal language) can be (I lived in India for a while
myself), I was referring to something else.  The point I was addressing was 
that the thread I was addressing assumed that music is everywhere an object for 
aesthetic contemplation and this is by no means a universal idea.  Music is 
often regarded as an implement of life's functions which we in the West often 
regard as rituals, although I think it's fair to say that that is a lesser 
estimate of their power in their cultures than culture bearers themselves have.

This is perhaps easier to explain in terms of visible art.  Westerner often 
display in art museums implements of practical daily life from places such as 
Africa where the idea of going to a gallery to admire masks mounted on walls is 
far from an indigenous concept.  We also like to simply listen to music for 
pleasure that was not originally intended for that use.  The dance music we 
currently call klezmer is but one familiar example.

That took more of your time than I deserve but, he, it's my 47th birthday today,
so I'm appealing for a little slack for an alte kaker.

Git shabes,

   

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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