Jewish Studies and Music Study Group
Inaugural Session: AMS Indianapolis (2010)
Jewish Studies in Musicology
Thursday, November 4th 2010, 8:00-11:00 PM
Call for Short Papers
For our inaugural meeting (4 November 2010,
Indianapolis), we invite scholars to make short presentations (ca. ten-minutes)
that address the question of integrating Jewish topics into the historiography
of music. In the past, musicology has tended to remain silent about various
composers' ties to Jewish culture; or else, during politically tumultuous times,
has been overly loud about it. Both attitudes have created difficulties for
historians today.
In musicological studies, most Jewish topics appear under the rubrics
"Jewish music" and "Jewish musicians." The second category is notoriously
problematic. What (and, what is most difficult, whose) are the pertinent
criteria for inclusion in this category? The category of "Jewish music" is
perhaps even more slippery. As Edwin Seroussi has recently formulated, since its
inception in the nineteenth century, "the historical connotations of the
concept of 'Jewish music' have been undoubtedly a stumbling block in the
development of a solid musicological approach that addresses, from a panoramic
perspective, questions about music-making in Jewish societies (past and
present); about specific works and contexts of performance; and about music
makers (composers, performers, producers), where," he adds cautiously, "the
Jewish component is of relevance." No wonder that in the 1980 edition of the
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, under "Jewish Music" the authors --
Eric Werner, Edith Gerson-Kiwi, Israel Katz, and Shlomo Hofman -- limited the
topic to "the traditional music of the Jews, reflected in oral tradition as well
as written documents," and excluded "individual composers of Jewish descent
working outside the Jewish tradition" and "the music of Modern Israel."
Acknowledging new research in the field, in the revised version of the entry
(now online) the new, more extensive team of authors have widened the scope of
the entry to include "the contribution of Jewish performers and composers
within their surrounding non-Jewish societies, and the musical culture of
ancient Israel/Palestine." It is here, namely in "the contribution of Jewish
performers and composers within their surrounding non-Jewish societies" that
most musicologists, working on topics related to the history of Western music,
regularly encounter questions relevant to Jewish studies.
We invite scholars whose research has intersected with Jewish topics to reflect
on these questions and propose new approaches. Please send short (one-paragraph)
proposals to Klara Moricz (kmoricz@amherst.edu)
or Ronit Seter (rseter@mindspring.com)
by 15 September.
Program
Chairs:
Klára Móricz, Ronit Seter
Panelists:
Halina Goldberg (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Researching Jews and Jewishness in 19th-Century Polish Music
Steven Cahn (University of Cincinnati)
Not a Love Story: On Contending with a Historiographic
Stumbling Block
Florian Scheding (University of Southampton)
Ideological Battles in Exile and Beyond: Avant-garde Music
and Anti-Semitism in the Free German League of Culture
Jeremy Leong (West Whately, MA)
Honoring the Past: Jewish Exiles and Their Musical
Contribution in Republican China (1911-49)
Rebecca Cypess (New England Conservatory)
The Anxiety of Specificity, or What Musicologists Can Learn
from the Orthodox Jewish Diaspora
Eleanor Selfridge-Field (Stanford University)
Marcello's Orientalism
Alexander Knapp (University of London)
Jewish Art Music while Standing on One Leg: a Scholar's
Dilemma
Respondents:
Judah Cohen (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Ralph Locke (Eastman School of Music)
Researching Jews and Jewishness in 19th-Century
Polish Music
Halina Goldberg, Indiana University Bloomington
Much like Jews elsewhere in the Western world, Polish Jews first entered
mainstream professions of music in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Plentiful
and rich primary sources bear witness to this process, at the same time
presenting various historiographic and methodological challenges. The most
immediate question is how do we step beyond the existing scholarship, which has
favored Jewish sacred and folk music traditions? The participation of Jews
in art and popular musics, on the other hand, has been primarily the domain of
amateur researchers or scholars for whom music is of secondary concern.
Researching popular and art genres of Jewish music leads to further questions:
should mainstream music composed by Jewish composers be considered Jewish? How
do we talk about these composers beyond constructing �life and works�
narratives? How do we define the boundaries between popular and art musics and
if needed, how do we work across these boundaries? How do we address music that
is not composed or performed by Jews, but engages Jewish topics? How do we
deal with sources that tell us only one side of the story? I would like to
offer some observations pertaining to these questions by referencing my own
research that draws on Polish sources: approaching representations of Jews and
Jewishness in music through the prism of cultural studies methodologies.
Not A Love Story: On Contending with a Historiographic Stumbling Block
Steven Cahn, University of Cincinnati
In support of the point that the history of Western music suffers at numerous
critical junctures from its resistance to integrating Jewish topics, I would
suggest that this might have something to do with difficulties in both
historical narrative and aesthetics. I will focus on a few aspects concerning
the Viennese-Jewish subculture and what I have sought to do in my studies of
Arnold Schoenberg. I would also observe that it is at times uncomfortable to
integrate Jewish topics because there is so little support in the musicological
literature.
In my remarks, I will discuss some of the views (A Elon, M Grunwald, P Mendes-Flohr,
MA Meyer, R. Musil, M. Rozenblit, et al.) informing my Schoenberg chapter in the
Cambridge Companion to Schoenberg (�Schoenberg, the Viennese-Jewish
Experience, and its Aftermath�) in which I attempt to integrate a view of
history, a theory of identity, musical analysis, a Jewish aesthetics, and a
consideration of religious development. The aesthetics question is one I develop
further from my review of Michael Cherlin�s
Schoenberg�s Musical Imagination;
L. Batnitzky�s perspectives on Hermann Cohen provide a counterpoint to Cherlin�s
view along a Greek-Jewish divide.
Ideological Battles in Exile and Beyond: Avant-garde Music and
Anti-Semitism in the Free German League of Culture
Florian Scheding, University of Southampton
In 1989, the East German Academy of the Arts staged an exhibition in East
Berlin, the capital of the dying GDR. Entitled �Free German League of Culture,
1938/39-1946,� it commemorated the half-centenary of one of WWII�s largest
�migr� organizations. The League was founded by German refugees in 1938 as a
center for �migr� artists and intellectuals. Based in London with branches
throughout Britain, its goal was to promote an image of German culture in
opposition to Hitler.
Musical events were a frequent feature of the League�s cultural programs. Yet,
the avant-garde was strikingly absent�a paradoxical omission given that many of
the avant-garde�s foremost protagonists were Hitler refugees. I identify several
reasons for this. First, as a spearhead of progressive thinking, avant-garde
music was ill-equipped as a vehicle for nostalgia. Second, avant-garde music was
deemed to alienate the more conservative forces of British society. Third, the
avant-gardes of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and others were difficult to reconcile
with the beliefs of the League�s powerful Communist core. Even more striking
than the omission of the avant-garde is the anti-Semitism evident among parts of
the League. In 1943, around forty Jewish �migr�s left the League in protest of a
pamphlet they considered Judeo-phobic. After the war, the League was absorbed
into the East German Kulturbund, which significantly influenced the GDR�s
cultural and political life. In the emerging Cold War, anti-Semitic undertones
became more vociferous. Accusing Jewish circles of conspiring in the West�s
�reactionary� ideology, the League stated in 1946: �The Jews are in a state of
crass ideological confusion.�
While the exodus of many of Europe�s foremost figures during the era of European
fascism has been richly documented, the League and its legacy have received
scant attention. As the case of the League exemplifies, far from presenting a
united front, �migr�s were increasingly entrenched in ideological battles that
cut to the heart of debates concerning race, and the relationship between art
and politics. The League�s complex history reflects the heterogeneity of the
�migr� community, moving us beyond monolithic aggressor-victim notions of exile
toward a more nuanced understanding of Europe�s musical �migr�s.
Honoring the Past: Jewish Exiles and Their Musical Contribution in
Republican China (1911-49)
Jeremy Leong, West Whately, MA
While there is an increased interest by music historians to examine the
contribution of Jewish musicians and composers in Western societies, research of
their contribution in Asia remains woefully wanting. Following the
Anschluss
and Kristallnacht of 1938, many Jews ended up in an unusual haven
nestled in the east coast of China. Shanghai became the new home for more than
18,000 Jewish refugees that came mostly from Germany and Austria. Among the
newcomers were some of the most talented musicians and music historians in their
native countries. These musical talents not only transformed the music scenes of
the metropolis but also raised the level of music appreciation for many Shanghai
residents. Some of these musicians also relocated south, to the province of
Fujian. How did Austro-German Jewish exiles retain a sense of their musical
heritage amidst the Sinitic environment? As educators, what influence did
Austro-German Jewish musicians and music historians have on Chinese music
education? Were they interested in Asian music? Politically, how did
Austro-German Jewish musicians and the Chinese use music as a form of cultural
propaganda against Japanese hegemony during the Pacific War? I will address
these questions in some detail in hope of broadening our musical understanding
of the Jewish diasporic community in China and of the importance of their
contribution to the history of Western music.
The Anxiety of Specificity, or, What Musicologists Can Learn from the
Orthodox Jewish Diaspora
Rebecca Cypess
The lines between musicology and ethnomusicology have become increasingly blurry
in recent years, and members of both fields have called for a reassessment of
the definitions of the fields and their methodologies. The Orthodox Jewish
diaspora presents a model for fusing the disciplines. Members of the religious
community itself engage in an ethnography of the secular Other, attempting to
understand and assess knowledge and products of the host society�and music is
among the most potent and culturally charged of these products�to situate
themselves both within their own community and in relation to the secular world.
Consistent with trends in contemporary academic ethnography, the
community-members' process of self-definition is de-centered, multi-voiced, and
fully participatory.
In Orthodox Judaism music carries great cultural weight. Because of the
community's ongoing dialogue with halakhic (Jewish legal) texts from
the past, the Talmud's warnings against the dangers of music�that it has the
potential to lead to spiritual downfall�must be taken seriously, and lead some
to reject most music altogether. In other circles music constitutes a sort of
mystical key to the understanding of Divine secrets. The left-wing movement
known as Modern Orthodoxy views the fine arts, including music, as a means for
human beings to appreciate the Divine in the world, and to fulfill the
commandment of joining in the process of creation.
The nature of the Orthodox diaspora�perched between past and present, and
straddling geographic and cultural boundaries�necessitates study that is both
ethnographic and historical; that considers musical texts, works, and
performances alongside cultural contexts; that accounts for both top-down
authoritative voices and grass-roots interpretation and mythologizing of ideas.
At a moment when ethnomusicologists themselves have begun to wonder whether we
need the "ethno" prefix any more, consideration of the meanings and practices of
music within the Orthodox Jewish diaspora suggests that the divisions between
the disciplines are blurring with good reason.
Marcello�s Orientalism
Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Stanford University
The 50 Psalms of David by Benedetto Marcello (8 vols., 1724-26) constitute the
bulwark of his fame, not only within his lifetime but also for a
century-and-a-half after he died (1739). Yet they stand completely apart from
other psalm repertories of his or adjacent centuries because they were not
designed for liturgical use. They were, like much of the rest of Marcello�s
music, academic exercises intended to stimulate rational discussion and redirect
music towards the musical values of antiquity.
He acknowledged that his aim was not so much a literal realization as an
analogical one. The practical question was how to situate the values of the
remote past within the musical resources and practices of the present. In the
current singing of Hebrew communities in Venice, Marcello found that �evidences
of ancient practice� were easily identified. While no written examples were
available, he obviously had enough contact with the three principal Jewish
communities near his family�s palazzo to transcribe quite a few examples.
Marcello�s capture of chant melodies has served recent scholarship well. Edwin
Seroussi has recently shown (as Israel Adler suggested decades ago) that, by
transcribing them at all, he made a valuable contribution to ethnomusicological
and diaspora studies. While questioning how truly �antique� some of the sources
may be, Seroussi has detailed the continued circulation of certain melodies in
Sephardic congregations throughout Europe, the Middle East, and South America.
It is possible (but not provable) that Marcello also gleaned residues from the
academy established by Leon of Modena (1579-1648) before the plague of 1630.
The continuing study of diverse aspects of Marcello�s Psalms (Bizzarini,
Barbieri, Harran, Seroussi) has brought into partial convergence two completely
different threads of scholarly inquiry. One is the indivisible amalgam of
�ancient and oriental music� that was popular a century ago but was perhaps
expressed best by Egon Wellesz (1885-1874), whose account in the 1952
New
Oxford History of Music has stood the test of time well. The other consists
of the experiments in the performance of monophonic music carried out by the
Studio der fruehen Musik led by Thomas Binkley (1931-1995). That the results of
their experiments (elaborately rendered chant) were diametrically opposed to
those of Marcello (who eschewed ornamentation and emphasized strict adherence to
�rules�) highlights how much territory remains to be explored in the elastic
relationship between the music of the antiquity and the living traditions of the
Near East.
Jewish Art Music while standing on one leg: a scholar's dilemma
Alexander Knapp
When, in the mid-1990s, I was invited by Dr Stanley Sadie, the Editor-in-Chief
of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second Edition) to
write entries on Western Jewish Art Music from 1789 to 1939 and from 1945 to the
present day, and on Jewish Popular Music of the 20th century, I accepted with
innocent alacrity. However, it was only when I began to consider the musical,
cultural, social, linguistic, religious, political, economic, historical and
geographical complexities of this astonishingly rich and volatile period of over
200 years, beginning with the French Revolution (my brief did not include World
War II), that the enormity of the challenge finally registered - not least as a
consequence of the 3800 word limit. How to be succinct without being
superconcentrated; whether to survey general movements or individual composers
or a combination of the two; how to define a Jewish composer: by birth, by
intention, by incorporation of traditional materials. And what about the
question of ethnicity as viewed from within and without: Jewish-born composers
who converted to Christianity and, conversely, the music of those not born
Jewish reflecting a deep affinity with the Ashkenazi or Sephardi tradition?
These were some of the issues about which decisions had to be made. In this
short presentation, it is my intention to share something of the initial
struggle; to debate a variety of methodologies, with their pros and cons,
advantages and disadvantages; and to argue that, in spite of all these
intellectual processes, it is only the intuitive approach that can produce a
solution.