Klarinet Archive - Posting 000898.txt from 2003/08

From: "eclef.com" <eclef@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gezunt or Gezint
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 10:34:17 -0400

New release CD Klezmer Music . Group of soloists Izrael Symphony Orchestra
perform well know tunes klezmer music. (string quentet). to purchase Cd
please call at 718 769 0365.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy A Schiffer" <schiffer@-----.edu>
Subject: Re: [kl] Gezunt or Gezint

> 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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