Re: defining the klez

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

Responding to the message of <p0510031ab7628e0083df (at) 
[192(dot)168(dot)1(dot)103]>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> I have to disagree with the request to eschew labels, if only for purposes of 
> 
> discussion. Like many people on this list, my own tastes are quite catholic
> (sorry--just love using that word in this context). But when trying to 
> describe
> something that is happening, or a type of music, it is often useful to use
> a label to try to construct a matrix of similar-sounding, or similarly 
> inspired
> music. 
> 
> Of course, for labels to work, there has to be some shared meanings. Let me
> add my own two cents.
> 
> >new jewish music - contemporary Western art music by jews with jewish
> >musical origins
> 
Whoa!  I never defined 'new Jewish music' this way.  I just used it as the name 
of one of my concerts, never meaning to exclude anything else.  However, the 
term new music to apply to art music by contemporary composers is extremely 
common parlance within the classical music community, which happens to intersect
to some degree with the people on this list.  In that context (which would have 
been clear to anyone who read the rest of the publicity on the concert), the 
meaning of Jewish as having an influence on the stylistic content would have 
been obvious, too.

It would seem that not many people on this list have encountered the idiom 'new 
music.'  As a label that is attached to a specific genre with certain (albeit 
broad) stylistic assumptions, I don't think the term is used anywhere outside of
the classical music world.  Maybe we should go back to talking about Rossi.

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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