Re: Rossi (et al.)

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

Responding to the message of <F272OGCvqQ7SzE2NSAW00018c70 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> I enjoyed Alex's mellow ('at a distance') reflections here.  And as it 
> happens, I've often made the (seemingly anomalous) comparison of Debbie 
> Friedman with Rossi:  to wit, they both set Hebrew texts in the musical 
> style (or, obviously, one of the musical styles) of their time.  I'm afraid 
> that will horrify those for whom the art music vs. popular/folk music 
> distinction is key--and, obviously, the comparison doesn't extend at all to 
> that dimension (whereas it does vis-a-vis Rossi and, say, Sulzer--and by 
> extension, as I've argued, Schubert).
> 
> BTW, and for what it's worth (sorry, FWIW), I don't myself feel a need to 
> "lay claim" to Rossi's music (or anyone else's) as Jewish; for me, it's a 
> straightforward recognition that his was the music (as, again, per Richard 
> Neuman) of the Jews of a certain time and place.  As Debbie Friedman's is, 
> today.  Both intended that their music be used *as* Jewish music--i.e., by 
> Jews in Jewish contexts.  Though, as Alex perceptively points out, that 
> wouldn't strictly speaking be necessary, if a Jewish community eventually 
> used their music Jewishly regardless of their intention--or of the music's 
> source.
> 
> I don't know if Schubert intended his piece to be used as liturgical music 
> in the synagogue, but it stands to reason that he did.  Certainly his friend 
> Sulzer intended Schubert's Psalm 92 to be used that way, or he wouldn't have 
> published it, as he did, in a volume consisting mostly of his own music 
> (i.e., his own settings of liturgical text).  And Sulzer *clearly* intended 
> *his* (Sulzer's) music to be used in synagogue.
> 
> Thanks for the comments, Alex.
> 
And thank you, Robert.  My concern with Neuman's definition (which differs only 
slightly from mine) is that there have been times and places when a particular 
music was largely the province of Jews, yet clearly not Jewish in its purpose.  
Professional songwriting in the US from Broadway through the Brill building was 
largely a Jewish business and yet I would be hard put to assign a Jewish purpose
to it.  However, it's one of several repertoires I perform with my group East 
Side Story, the others--Yiddish, Israeli, liturgical--all being more 
forthrightly Jewish in purpose.  We almost always perform for Jewish audiences 
and they feel comfortable with the juxtaposition, as if somehow Broadway is 
something they can claim as theirs.



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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