Re: Does placing klezmer in the university remove it too far from its original context?

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Really, the question you ask is a subset of the larger question: does placing 
klezmer in the concert hall remove it too far from its original context?

I guess I would have to answer, yes, but what's the alternative?  If to many 
people, it's still Jewish wedding (and, yes, bar mitzvah) music, that's good.  
If it stops being used in the cultural context, should it then be ignored?  I 
think it should be encouraged to flourish how ever and where ever, but with 
mindfulness of the types of concerns Francesco raised in his email.  

Any culture and any people's music is accorded recognition and increased status 
by being the subject of academic inquiry, to my way of thinking.  Whether that 
preserves the "traditional" form, well, that was the topic of an interesting 
ethnomusicology seminar I took once.

It also touches issues raised in an interesting talk given by Boris Sandler 
(editor of the Yiddish Forward) at the 2000 YK2! Festival in LA (yes, shameless 
plug!), where he compared the evolution of Yiddish language and culture in the 
US and the Soviet Union by pointing out the impact which centering Yiddish 
intellectual culture  in academia had in the US (cultural isolation, emphasis 
on preservation over evolving culture) to the situation in the Soviet Union 
where new Yiddish writers were trained and accorded some status.  Check out the 
article this past Wednesday in the NY Times about campus a cappella singers.  A 
non-campus a cappella musician is quoted as complaining that campus a cappella 
groups lack "soul" and are interested primarily in technical perfection.  I 
think those sorts of criticisms frequently apply to any situation where 
academia becomes the primary mode of transmission for any folk cultural aspect, 
including music.

Shira Lerner
Yiddishkayt LA

At 07:41 PM 4/26/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello,
>Thanks to all who responded to the question, ?Does klezmer have a place in
>academia??  As I previously stated,  I am currently working on a project
>which explores issues regarding klezmer music in academia and would like to
>gather opinions of members of this list regarding some related issues. 
>Some of your responses have already touched on the next question which is
>stated in the subject:
>
>Does placing klezmer in the university remove it too far from its original
>context?
>
>

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