ethnomusicology texts

[Abigail Wood <A.C.Wood...>]

Khaverim,

I just found this unsent message replying to the person looking for
Jewish music in ethnomusicology texts. So, with apologies for the late
reply, here's the message I wrote:


I teach two introductory survey courses in ethnomusicology, and
currently both have a Jewish music component - nigunim in one case, and
klezmer in the other. In both cases, the Jewish music element is one
case study among four or five, i.e. about 2 lectures of a 12-week unit. 

I use a collection of different resources rather than a single course
text (as I do for all the case studies, not just the Jewish ones). 

In both cases, I have found that integrating practical elements into the
case study helps enormously. For nigunim, I began the class by making
everyone sing a nigun - one of Sruli Dresdner's, I think. I didn't
introduce this at all - I simply started singing once a few students
were in the room, and encouraged them to join in. As more students
arrived, they picked up the melody. Doing this meant that students both
had the experience of singing a nigun, and also of learning a melody
simply by joining in.

As supporting material, I used parts of Ellen Koskoff's _Music in
Lubavitcher Life_, and various hassidish recordings, plus a Hasidic
story relating kavannah, nigunim and musical aesthetics. This year I'll
also be showing parts of Menachem Daum's _A life apart: Hasidism in
America_ - there are scenes of weddings and farbrengens. Also, very
helpfully, Lubavitch have just revamped their website and posted loads
of sound/video clips of the Rebbe or groups of people singing nigunim.
While it's relatively difficult to buy recordings of unaccompanied
nigunim that sound 'authentic', there's quite a bit of material out
there if you look for it.

In the case of klezmer, I used bits of Rogovoy, Sapoznik and Slobin's
books, but again introduced the case study with a practical class - I
made all 45 students dance, and used that to explain the difference
between freylekhs, bulgar and hora rhythms. It was a lot of fun, and
again the practical knowledge really helped them to remember the
material. The biggest challenge, though, was simply finding danceable
recordings - there's not many out there which play a tune at the same
tempo (and the correct tempo for dancing) for long enough to teach
people to dance. I seem to recall using Budowitz's _Wedding without a
Bride_ and bits of KCB recordings.

I hope this helps,

Abigail



--Abigail Wood

Music, School of Humanities
University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Tel: ++44 (0)23 8059 5064    University network: 25064  



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