RE: Rothko

[Jewish Music Institute <jewishmusic...>]

Sitting in the Rothko room in the Tate Gallery in London I have always had a
strong feeling that the paintings would resonate much more with the addition
of music. It is one of my aims to have a concert of Feldman?s Rothko?s
Chapel in the Tate Gallery Rothko room with the BBC singers.  Well, some
things have to stay on the back burner till the opportunity comes along?.

Geraldine

Geraldine Auerbach MBE
Director, Jewish Music Institute
The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Tel +44 (0)20 7898 4308   Fax +44 (0)20 7898 4309
E-mail jewishmusic (at) jmi(dot)org(dot)uk
Website www.jmi.org.uk



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of JeffSchan (at) 
aol(dot)com
Sent: 16 April 2002 21:01
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: klose but no klez (Kurt Weill)

In a message dated 4/15/2002 12:08:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
elliott_simon (at) dca(dot)net writes:



is Weill jewish-music?...after all he was a cantor's son...anyway, if anyone
saw either of those 2 klez shows would love to hear thoughts about
them....and if Weill is jewish-music, would love to talk about that
too...elliott


I was hoping someone else would respond to Elliot's question first, but I
will get started.  We've had discussions on the list on whether everything a
Jewish composer writes is Jewish music, and the consensus is not
necessarily.  However, I think Weill's "The Eternal Road," while musically
derived more from European art music than traditional Jewish sources, is
Jewish music since it deals with the themes of the Jews' plight under the
rise of Nazism.  Similarly, Arnold Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron" is very
much within Schoenberg's 12-tone style, and yet there is something extremely
Jewish about the piece, above and beyond the fact that it relates a story
from the bible.  Both the music of Weill and all of Schoenberg's school were
declared "degenerate" by the Nazis and labelled as "Jewish music."  Not that
we should define Jewish music by what the Nazis decided, but there is
something to the notion that music which is new and challenging should be
associated with Jewish musicians.

Speaking of the great variety of choices of music last Saturday night in New
York, if I had the energy to get out of the house, I would have gone to a
performance of Morton Feldman's "Rothko Chapel."  This is the only of
Feldman's pieces I know of where he brings in Jewish-sounding material:  a
beautiful melody on the viola (which he labelled "Hebraic").  Although he
didn't use Jewish material in most of his work, Feldman was very conscious
of his place in history as a Jewish composer.

Jeffrey Schanzer