Re: long story about today

[Seth Austen <klezmusic...>]

on 9/16/01 10:12 PM, DAVID CHEVAN at dchevan (at) snet(dot)net wrote:

> But what occurred today was, I think, an example of that irrational fear
> factor that is going on all over America.  There is a fear of anything that
> is remotely Arabic in nature and that includes anything Jewish that smacks
> of the Middle East.

Thanks David, for sharing your story of this difficult situation with us. We
personally haven't encountered any problems as of yet (that I know of)
playing klezmer music in our gigs this past weekend, however, ever since
Tuesday I've felt an acute awareness of hightened possibilities of
encountering negative responses when playing Jewish music due to this type
of prejudice and fear. Not that this will keep me from expressing myself in
freygish, however, I do think we are entering difficult times ahead as
musicians expressing our melodic creativity in the beautiful middle-eastern
modes of our heritage.

I'd imagine that very few of us working musicians on this list likely play
for Jewish-only audiences. I live in a rural area, and thus play klezmer
music for audiences that are primarily non-Jews. People seem to like the
music well enough, of course it is nothing new for musicians to play music
of their heritage (or not of their own heritage for that matter) for
audiences who are not of that same heritage. More often than not, I've
attended a blues performance where the only visibly African-American person
was the person sitting on the stage with a National resonator guitar.

Beverly and I performed/taught at Fiddleheads Music Camp this past weekend,
a local NH music weekend that takes place at a rustic camp on Newfound Lake.
We performed a klezmer medley as part of our short concert set, taught a
klezmer workshop, all without incident (or too many wrong notes <g>).
Perhaps the best part of the camp was the wonderful experience of coaching a
student band formed that afternoon to perform two klezmer pieces later that
same evening. We taught them Moshe Emes and Ma Yofus, and our group of three
fiddles and two cellos performed wonderfully!

On Sunday morning I played for a UU church service in North Andover,
Massachussetts. I had been originally hired to play klezmer music for Rosh
Hoshannah, the Jewish New Year which starts tonight. Due to the weeks'
tragic events, they changed the service to be a memorial, but decided to
keep the music originally planned as well. I played a number of slower
klezmer melodies (mostly nigunnim) on mandola or fiddle, with accompaniment
by the churchs' music director, an old friend, on mandolin or mandocello. We
decided at the last minute to play Shalom Aleichem for the offeratory, as I
thought that what I had picked was too dark, and I thought that a familiar
melody was important in that spot. Many people commented to me later on how
appropriate they thought the music was. In both above instances I felt truly
blessed to have the opportunities to offer a little love and light into the
world with my music.
 
It's been truly frightening to see/hear the news of numerous instances
demonstrating irrational fears some people have been expressing regarding
both Jewish and Islamic peoples. Please keep up the wonderful and obviously
very important work that you're doing both with Warren Byrd and the
Afro-Semitic Experience. The need for music that speaks to the
brother/sisterhood of humanity couldn't be greater than at this time.

L'shanah tovah,

Seth


-- 
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth (at) sethausten(dot)com
klezmusic (at) earthlink(dot)net


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