Re: Scarborough Fair tune/simkhe dissonance

[Wholesale Klezmer Band <ganeydn...>]

I feel the same way as Lori about many bar / bas mitzve parties that 
I've attended as a guest.  I mean, do they really have to play YMCA? 
Is the Macarena a song that reflects Jewish values and traditions? 
Even at Jewish weddings where they play the obligatory "hora" set, 
and spend most of the time with pop music I feel that something is 
lost.

We try to educate our customers about Jewish traditions and bring 
those traditions to the celebrations we perform at.  If the customers 
don't want that, we decline the gig even though it hurts the wallet. 
We have a workshop in our repertoire called, "How to dance at a 
Jewish Wedding."  Recently, at the Conference on Judaism in Rural New 
England, instead of doing that workshop, we recreated a whole (well 
almost whole) traditional wedding during our evening concert time, 
including khosn's tish, kale bazetsn, badkhones, broyges tants, etc., 
teaching the meaning of the various customs to the conference 
attendees.

It's a bit too long to put into this email, but everyone is welcome 
to read what we have to say about bar mitzves in our guide to 
traditional music and dance for bar and bas mitzve celebrations at:
        http://www.WholesaleKlezmer.com/bmitzve.html
and I, too, would love to hear others' thoughts and experiences are.

Zayt gezunt (be healthy),

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.WholesaleKlezmer.com
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At 11:23 AM -0400 7/16/02, Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:
>How about singing Adon Olam to "Stairway to Heaven"? ;-)
>
>Meanwhile, in order to respond to your serious question, I'd need 
>some more information--what sort of cognitive dissonance to you 
>refer to?  Do you mean that the musicians you refer to don't take 
>the simkhes seriously?  If so, I will say that many of the b'nai 
>mitzvah parties I've attended don't seem to be serious expressions 
>of entry into adulthood, but rather more of a kids' party, with 
>games and prizes, etc.  It's fun, but hard to take that kind of 
>thing seriously, but musicians need to make a living and play what 
>the client asks for.  Perhaps that attitude transfers over to all 
>events of this ilk.
>
>Perhaps the parties are structured in this way because they don't 
>know what else to do at them, not to speak of peer pressure--the 
>kids want a party just like everyone else's party--which brings us 
>back to the dance question.  I have found that young people enjoy 
>doing the traditional dances when they have a leader who shows them 
>how.  If they were taught to dance the Honga or Sher instead of the 
>Hip-Hop Cha-Cha (I'm sorry, I don't know the name of that 
>omnipresent recording), I'll bet they'd do it and like it.
>
>I'd like to know what others' thoughts and experiences are, too.
>Lorele

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