Re: Shiloah

[SamWeiss <SamWeiss...>]

OK, I'll settle for "highly idiosyncratic".  My (admittedly stong) reaction 
was made in the context of selecting an introductory college textbook.  I 
did not intend to dismiss Shiloah's scholarship, nor even the contents of 
the book.  It is full of interesting facts, observations, and a plethora of 
sometimes meandering citations that, in my opinion, never add up to a 
well-written book.  As stated in the preface to "Jewish Musical 
Traditions," it is an abridged rendering of 800 Hebrew pages described by 
Shiloah as "...a personal statement of the diachronic and synchronic 
characteristics of the bulk of Jewish musical traditions."  Even if, for 
the sake of argument, the English version succeeds in its mission, I still 
think -- as I originally posted -- that it <<should be used, if at all, 
with caution>> by a college teacher.

At 01:48 PM 5/30/02, Judith R Cohen wrote:
>I must take exception to Sam Weiss' dismissal of Shiloah's book as something
>which resembles a poorly written PhD thesis. I think the original
>term "isiosyncratic" is just fine. There are organizational elements I 
>disagree
>with in the book, but it is one approach, and a valid one, and Shiloah's
>scholarhsip is indisputable, though not always even in each area.


_____________________________________________________________
Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ

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