Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Module 4 Blog-"A Sheinem Cholem" (Yiddish)
Title of Song: A Sheinem Cholem
Performers: The Meshorerim Choir
Culture of Origin: Jewish Religion/Israel
Instrumentation: Vocal, Piano, Percussion
Reflection:
This week I’ve chosen to share a video of a performance by The Meshorerim Choir. This performance took place in Spring Valley, NY which is right over the border from where I live in New Jersey. The lead vocalist in this video was a child who was singing in Yiddish. He was backed up by five adult singers who were also accompanied by a Piano and Percussion. It was not clear on the video if the instrumental music was live or was played off of a cd.
Jewish music stems from ancient prayer chants of the Levant some 3000 years ago. The musical notation that developed and that we find in the bible today is one of the most ancient forms of notated music. Jewish music has been constantly adapting to new conditions and yet retaining its identity in many widely differing ethnic, social and religious environments.
The study of Jewish music encompasses many genres of religious and folk music used in using Jewish texts and themes. The study of Jewish music combines the elements of musicology, ethnomusicology and culture. Jewish music today encompasses a wide diversity of musical traditions.
Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the pre-existing language of the nascent Ashkenazi community with an extensive Germanic based vocabulary. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized alphabet based on the Hebrew script.
In my reflection of the authenticity of this video, a few things came to mind. For starters, the dress of the children and adults seem authentic from what I have seen growing up in Northern New Jersey/Rockland County in New York which has a large Hasidic Jewish population. It also appears to me that this child has been involved in his Jewish Education at his Temple since he was a young child. He seems to be near the age when he will be preparing for his Bat Mitzvah. I hope that this child performer is not just concerned with the performance but the cultural meaning and significance of what he is singing.
Reading the Koops article made me think more about music being “culturally informed”. Koops stresses the importance of correctly representing the time, place and value system of the people who created it in the first place. I believe that the performers in this video were culturally informed of all the correct aspects as stated before by Koops. As I move forward in both this class and my teaching of music in the future, I will try to keep Koops four models of authenticity presented in that article in mind.
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Michael,
ReplyDeleteI too believe that this child has been involved in his Jewish Education for a while.
The presence of a young child at what seems to be a very formal event, and furthermore his lead singing, certainly demonstrate how, although living in Spring Valley NY, the Jewish culture and therefore the Jewish music can be understood and absorbed even when living overseas.
I wonder how close to a native speaker his Yiddish pronunciation is..
Thank you for sharing
Knowing very little of Jewish musical traditions, I'm interested in the change in style that occurs around 2 minutes, where the chant transitions to more of what I think of as an Central or Eastern European sound. This may be an incorrect interpretation on my part, but I do think that this raises an interesting point when considering Koops 4 strategies of authenticity, as some cultures have more than one historical/cultural influence. In this case with chants dating back 3000 years to the middle east, and more celebratory music (like Klezmer) that seems to have more European influence.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in hearing an adult sing the same example. I wonder if the timbre is specific to the child voice singing in chest at the top of his chest range or if an adult would also sing in the higher part of their register with similar force. The adult chorus accompanying the child do not seem to share his timbre. It would be interesting to compare this musical example to the reading of the Qur'an in Turkey or other areas of the Islamic world - clearly, the text is driving the music.
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