Jews, Race and Popular Music (original) (raw)

Journal of the Society for American Music, 1 (3). pp. 367-92, 2007

Over the past three decades, klezmer music has undergone a revival and a radical transformation from virtual obscurity to a staple in the European American world music scene. Although the fusion of instrumental and vocal genres under a single musical umbrella is a significant marker of change between the Old World and revived klezmer repertories, the extension of the boundaries of the klezmer repertory to encompass vocal material has largely been overlooked by practitioners and scholars. This article reinstates song in the narrative of the klezmer revival, exploring how and why it has assumed its prominent position. In case studies of three ensembles, song gives insight into the sensibilities of individual musicians and offers a prism through which to consider contemporary klezmer as both an American Jewish heritage music and a world music genre. Reinstating song into the discussion of contemporary klezmer provides a more nuanced account of the global klezmer phenomenon. xxx

Extending the Tradition: KlezKanada, Klezmer Tradition and Hybridity

Musicultures, 2012

This paper examines the way in which klezmer revival institutions, particularly KlezKanada, contradict many of the notions that are generally held of revival movements. Both historical klezmer music and its revival have long histories of incorporating musical styles both of other minority groups, as well those of the dominant majority culture. This paper shows how the communities created within the klezmer revival are constantly recreating their "tradition," and are responsible for an environment in which musical experimentation is not only accepted, but valued. Résumé : Cet article examine la manière par laquelle les institutions de renouveau du klezmer, en particulier KlezKanada, contredisent nombre des idées que l'on se fait en général des mouvements de revival. La musique historique klezmer et son renouveau ont tous deux de longues histoires d'incorporation de styles musicaux, tant des autres groupes minoritaires que de ceux de la culture majoritaire dominante. Cet article montre comment les communautés qui se créent au sein du revival du klezmer recréent constamment leur « tradition » et sont responsables d'un environnement dans lequel l'expérimentation musicale est non seulement acceptée, mais valorisée.

Extending the Tradition: KlezKanada, Klezmer

Diaspora Identity and Klezmer in America

Jewish identity has undergone major changes in the American Diaspora. Relentless oppression in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries meant that immigration to America surged, particularly during 1880-1924 (Netsky 2002). Immigrants found themselves in a country of greater equality, prosperity and opportunity, but one in which assimilation and cultural survival were problematic. This essay presents a tripartite schema for the role of Klezmer in American-Jewish identity, in which music serves as a conduit for survivalist discourse, moving from particularism to assimilation and returning anew to particularism during the revival of the 1970s and 80s. Firstly, it connected America’s working class Jewish population both to their past and to each other, maintaining a particularist Jewish identity (Slobin 2000). Secondly, under assimilatory pressures, the next generation broke with their European past to connect to an American future. Here, Klezmer provided a cultural platform for assimilation while maintaining a modicum of Jewish identity (Sapoznik 2006). Thirdly, with mass assimilation and gentrification Klezmer was re-employed, as a middle class reaction to the boredom of homogeneity and the search for a new Jewish identity. This essay will first consider identity theory, and then seek to validate this Schema.

Migration and Remembrance – The Sounds and Spaces of Klezmer Music ‘Revivals

2008

This article discusses the cultural meanings of recent revivals in Yiddish music in the USA and central Europe. It does this with reference to Adorno's critique of lyrical celebration of the past as a means of forgetting. It examines the criticisms that recent 'Jewish' cultural revivals are kitsch forms of unreflective nostalgia and considers the complexity of meanings here. It then explores the ways in which klezmer might be an aural form of memory and suggests that revivals can represent gateways into personal and collective engagement with the past. It further argues that experimental hybrid forms of new klezmer potentially open new spaces of remembrance and expressions of Jewish identity.

From Folksmentshn to Creative Individuals: Klezmer Transmission in the Twenty-First Century

During the mid-1970s, American Jewish musicians active in a variety of musical genres took an interest in eastern European Jewish roots music. This efflorescent enthusiasm for it came to be known as the klezmer revival. In 1985 Henry Sapoznik founded the first klezmer institute. Since then, numerous institutes have sprung up across North America and Europe. Despite their emergence as one of the most popular formats for the enactment of community and for learning Yiddish cultural expressions, klezmer transmission has rarely been the focus of scholarly attention. This article contends that revivalists and subsequent generations have created an ethos for a music culture through transmission processes, demonstrating veneration both for an "authentic" Jewish cultural heritage and for individualized cultural expressions. Résumé : Au milieu des années 1970, les musiciens juifs américains pratiquant divers genres musicaux commencèrent à s'intéresser aux racines musicales des Juifs d'Europe de l'Est. Cet enthousiasme bourgeonnant envers celles-ci en vint à être connu sous le nom de renouveau du klezmer. En 1985, Henry Sapoznik fonda le premier institut klezmer. Depuis lors, de nombreux instituts ont fleuri à travers toute l'Amérique du Nord et l'Europe. Bien qu'elle soit apparue comme l'une des formes les plus populaires de représentation communautaire et d'apprentissage des expressions culturelles yiddish, la transmission du klezmer a rarement fait l'objet de l'attention des chercheurs. Cet article soutient que les acteurs du renouveau et les générations suivantes ont créé un éthos de la culture musicale par le biais de processus de transmission qui fait montre d'une vénération à la fois pour un patrimoine culturel juif « authentique » et pour des expressions culturelles individualisées.

Migration and Remembrance – sounds and spaces of klezmer revivals

This paper discusses the cultural meanings of recent revivals in Yiddish music in the US and central Europe. It does this with reference to Adorno’s critique of lyrical celebration of the past as means of forgetting. It examines the criticisms that recent ‘Jewish’ cultural revivals are kitsch forms of unreflective nostalgia and considers the complexity of meanings here. It then explores the ways in which klezmer might be an aural form of memory and suggests that revivals can represent gateways into personal and collective engagement with the past. It further argues that experimental hybrid forms of new klezmer potentially open new spaces of remembrance and expressions of Jewish identity.

Can Blacks Play Klezmer? Authenticity in American Ethnic Musical Expression

1998

What makes a musical performance authentic in a given style or tradition? Are lived experience and musical and cultural immersion sufficient inroads to musical authenticity? While a musical style may have definite origins in a particular ethnic community, can that community claim sole propriety of that music? If we do allow for the acquisition of ethnic musical competence by individuals outside of the given ethnic community, by what means can we authenticate their musical expression? What differentiates the process of musical “authenticization” by an out-group musician, the legitimate musical tribute and trade that makes genres vibrant and dynamic, from the more reprehensible act of musical appropriation and exploitation? Can a black musician have a Jewish soul? Don Byron is a black clarinetist, born and raised in the Bronx...

Jews, Race and Popular Music (original) (raw)

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