Re: music for the whole world?

[Balalaika5 <Balalaika5...>]

When I made my original contribution to this discussion, I  prefaced it with 
my credentials - as a non-Jew. I was careful not to say Christian. Although I 
was brought up strictly as a Catholic, for many years my personal beliefs 
have not encompassed any form of Deity. I can however empathise with the 
strong feelings expressed by several contributors apropos being part of a 
minority. As a Catholic child in a largely Protestant country, sent to a 
distant Catholic school when all the other kids on the street went to the 
local primary school, one received a fair share (or should I say a grossly 
unfair share) of discriminatory behaviour by one's peers. Anti-Catholic 
prejudice could be pretty fierce in the working class England of the 1940s.

Perhaps I should also say that in my contribution on cross-fertilization of 
music, I was thinking about secular music rather than liturgical (although I 
am intrigued and fascinated by subsequent contributions). Now I know that I'm 
on tricky ground - the more I get to know about "Jewish" music, the more I 
find religious roots. So I guess that I shouldn't be surprised to find so 
much discussion of religion in this group .

I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to say. But it is something like this. I 
don't need to believe in a deity to be either spiritually uplifted  - or 
excited - by great music. I believe that I share a similar experience to a 
religious person when I listen to or play music, whether it be sacred or 
secular. And who is to say which of us is more spiritually uplifted and 
rewarded, since none of us can read each other's minds? For the same reason I 
don't think it is possible to state that one values one's own music more than 
a person who professes a love for that music but whose 
cultural/religious/ethnic roots are from elsewhere. 

Paul

PS Help please! Is it OK to play Esches Chayil at the Khupah when the bride 
circles the groom? If not any alternative suggestions? Our Jewish band member 
isn't too clued up on this.  

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