Re: Musicals/Jewish content

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Why does it surprise anyone that a no-talent bore becomes such a major success?
Like it's never happened before?



George Robinson wrote:

> Why are you all so surprised that a show written by the dreaded Andrew Lloyd
> Webber is devoid of Jewish content?
> The guy is a vocal born-again Christian whose Jesus Christ Superstar repeats
> the old canard of Jews as Christ-killers.
>
> The big surprise to me is that anyone so manifestly untalented as Lloyd
> Webber has had a massive career (and no, I'm not attributing it to
> anti-Semitism, just the stupidity of audiences).
>
> George Robinson
>
> "All of us have heard this term 'preventive war'
> since the earliest days of Hitler. I don't
> believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I
> wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came
> in and talked about such a thing."
>
>    --President Dwight Eisenhower, 1953
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Seth Austen" <klezmusic (at) earthlink(dot)net>
> To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 9:02 AM
> Subject: Re: Musicals/Jewish content
>
> > on 3/19/03 6:05 AM, Lori Cahan-Simon at l_cahan (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Speaking of Joseph, I'm always annoyed at how absolutely goyish this
> > > musical is.  There is nothing Jewish in it, to my mind, apart from
> > > whence comes the story.
> >
> > Are you speaking of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? If so,
> I'd
> > agree with you that it is mostly goyish, however there is one exception.
> > Close Every Door is a Jewish sounding melody in harmonic minor with
> > occasional touches of Freygish.
> >
> > I'm not defending this show, but it so happens that last month I played
> > guitar, mandolin and violin in a local production, thus I know the music
> in
> > this show all too well. Close Every Door was in Fmin, 4 flats, not a great
> > klezmer violin key. Way too much of the show was in 5 and 6 flats,
> obviously
> > not written by a stringed instrument player.
> >
> > Seth
> >
> > --
> > Seth Austen
> >
> > http://www.sethausten.com
> > email: seth (at) sethausten(dot)com
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

--
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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