Re: music for the whole world?

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

Responding to the message of <13(dot)16f5d6e4(dot)2858f1c4 (at) aol(dot)com>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> 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. 
> 
When I started chiming in on this thread I had in mind a former (Gentile) 
student who decided he would write a suite of pieces based on Chanukah tunes as 
part of a benefit for a pretty admirable but nonetheless definitely Christian 
charity, one the nature of whose work I could support but not in the religious 
context of that organization.  He had numerous questions for both me and my 
chazzan, ones I don't think a Jew would have felt the need to ask, mostly about 
whether one could or couldn't treat the tunes in some particular way.  (Suffice 
it to say, I use traditional melodies all the time and never worry about whether
my treatment will or won't be Jewish.  I have perfect confidence in the 
Jewishness of what I do.)

In any case, all I could think about while suffering through his lessons was 
that those tunes were hugely evocative to me, that they resonated with memories 
of Chanukahs past and anticipation of Chanukahs future.  I just don't see how 
those melodies can mean to a Gentile what they mean to me and I felt like my 
possessions were being handled brutishly.  This was not a function of the music 
produced (although I would have done it quite differently myself) but of the 
attitude.  I'm sorry if this hurts the feelings of Gentile contributors to this 
list and I won't even say that my attitude is right or wrong, but it is powerful
and undeniable.  It is not a reaction I can change.

On the other hand, whenever I think of Pesach, I'll think of the Seder I 
conducted for my (Catholic) colleagues and students in Lublin.  It was an 
absolutely beautiful and thoroughly moving event and my friends learned a great 
deal about the culture and people tragically murdered in their country.  It is a
loss I know that this particular handful of people will always feel for having 
been given a taste of Pesach by yours truly.  (In addition, it was the only 
event in the history of the Art and Music Departments that was attended by a 
university president.  I always feel a bit defensive when I talk about how much 
I love my Polish friends, but there are great people everywhere, even in the 
shadow of Maydanek.)



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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