RE: Max Bruch, Penny's worth

[combrink <combrink...>]

Dear all

At the risk of offending every-one on the list, my penny's worth. I am
Catholic but work at a Jewish School in South Africa. Why should it seem odd
for a non-Jew to write a "Kol Nidrei", and why would it have to be placed in
a "repulsion-fascination" paradigm? If I was a great composer I would
CERTAINLY write a "Kol Nidrei"! The Jewish music and religious tradition is
not of meaning to only Jews. My encounter with the "Kaddish" and prayers
such as "Avinu Malkeinu" (The last at one of Fay Singer's courses held by
the SA Music Center) have enriched my spiritual life immensely - to the
point where my Christianity could no longer function without that link to
Judaism.

I am a musician, and musicians simply respond to powerful music, powerful
concepts. I believe that the power contained within the text and the context
of great spiritaul landmarks such as the Kol Nidrei simply BEG for musical
expression, and not only by bona fide Jewish people.Certainly I believe that
African Musicians make better "African" music than most "non-africans", but
the works I'm talking about have a specific as well as Universal meaning. I
think the context is important - I have never heard of Bruch's works being
performed in religious context in a synagogue, so therefore, surely it is a
"Western Classical" work informed/infused with Judaic sentiment.

When I listen to it I am aware that I am in the company of an exalted being,
an enormous spiritual essemnce I can hardly begin to grasp. I do not think
that it is "Jewish" or "Non-Jewish".

I also do not understand why there is this need to classify people as Jewish
or Non-Jewish. Christians only really do that to understand a composer's
motivation, as in the case of the Verdi Requiem, written by an avowed
agnostic - surely one of the most intensely spiritual requiems in existence.

I just accept that the words are meaningful in many contexts, and that
people from other traditions respect, enjoy, appreciate and LOVE Jewish
music, its tradition and its people, and the way in which the spirituality
is "contained" in so much of its music.

respectfully yours
Albert Combrink

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+