Klarinet Archive - Posting 000864.txt from 2003/08

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gezunt or Gezint
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 11:06:58 -0400

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Dan Leeson wrote:

> So what Eclef probably means is that klezmer is a cultural phenomenon
> and to do it well, one must be part of the culture. To which I suggest,
> "culture, schmulture," it is a learnable skill.

This is such a 'fun' topic. The materialist anthropologist in me is just
dying to point out how no skills are truly a product of culture - that
everything is learnable - and this is a great example.

For starters, what is the culture we're talking about? "Jewish" culture is
not a definable entity. I live in NYC now, but I grew up as a secular Jew
in Tucson, Arizona. Since moving here, it's become clear that thousands of
WASP's on the Upper West Side know a lot more Yiddish than I do; my
girlfriend, who is Jewish and was raised in the suburbs of the city, is
always amazed at the Yiddishisms I don't know that other New Yorkers take
for granted.

[Of course, this isn't even getting into the differences between
Ashkenazim and Sephardim, or even the differences between Kiev Jews and
Galitzia Jews...]

Am I more qualified to play klezmer than the Goyim-on-Hudson? Or
conversely, should they be more qualified than I am, because I grew up in
an area where the folk culture was mariachi music and folklorico ballet?

Many of the top klezmer players are not Jewish, and some have had little
exposure to the culture before picking up the music. Others went to
yeshivas (religious schools) and have spent their entire lives devoted to
religious practices.

Does any of this affect the end product - the music they make?

Instrinsically, the answer is no. Practically, those who have been exposed
to sabbath liturgy and festival prayers their whole lives will of
course have an advantage, but one primarily based in volume of repertoire.

Anyone who devotes the necessary time to listening to the music -
critically - can develop the skills to replicate it accurately. This is
why you cannot learn klezmer music properly from sheet music. You have to
learn it by ear, because a transcription in western musical notation does
not accurately represent what is heard by the ear - in terms of rhythm,
tonality (or microtonality), and ornamentation.

Now, I have been playing klezmer music for about two years, and have
learned a fair amount of tunes in that time. My teacher belives my playing
is of a high enough level that she asks me to fill in for her on gigs she
cannot do, but the other members of her band want to play. Is this because
of my Jewish blood? No, it's because I listen to klezmer music constantly
- almost to the exclusion of everything else in the last year - and do my
best to replicate what I hear when I practice.

-jeremy
http://klezmer.org

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