Theo: An Autobiography

17: From Jerusalem to Jerusalem

From Jerusalem to Jerusalem ...,--HE H..OLE OF TEVYE CAME NATUltALLY TO ME for a nunlber of I reasons. The musical tradition I inherited fronl nlY fanlily was that of the shtetl and of the later emergence fron1 it. These were the songs of the Pale of Settlenlent, of atnclzo, the sin1ple \vorking people, of things sacred and of things secular. The songs were the product of two cultural processes, one sin1ple and one con1plicated. The sinlple one related to the cycle of days and l1lonths; of weekdays and of Sabbaths ; of the festivals; of births, betrothals, and l1larriage. Jewish life, more than any other, was regulated and dOl1linated by the calendar. The complicated process had to do with the abandoning of the safe cocoon of carefully ordered lives by halachic (talnludic) precepts while retaining Jewish awareness and ethnic pride. Venturing beyond the t'chum, the borders of the Jewish enclave, was at first a bold step. Jews were warned by the elders and rabbis that looking beyolld the shtetl and the shtibl ("little roon1," or house of study) meant endangernlent, and touching what lay beyond n1eant contan1ination. Still, during the years of haskalah (enlightenn1ent), son1e Jews of Eastern Europe insisted on looking and touching, at first because of intellectual curiosity , and later because of political awareness, socialist leanings, and Zionist longings. These were what had n10ved my father as he sang for nle his Jewish songs of labor and of longing. 356 • THEO In the diaspora, the melodies vvere often borrowed fronl the nlusical 1110des surrounding the Jews. I learned a Yiddish song fronl nlY father, the Labor-Zionist, which I assumed to be a Jewish original. The words certainly were, but I soon found out that the nlelody was purloined fronl the Russian tune"Stenka Razin": Groyser Got mir zingen !ider / Unzer hilf bistu aleyn / Ne,nt tsltn0Y..f di snopes, brider / Biz di ZlU1 vet ulltergeyn (Great God we sing to you/Our help are you alone/Gather up the sheaves, nlY brothers/Till the setting sun IS gone. The early settlers in Palestine brought with thenl precious little baggage. But they brought poems, songs, and 11iggunirn-wordless melodies. The early nlusic of the chalutzinl (pioneers) leaned heavily on a Russian idiom. Even though the language of the songs was Hebrew, the tunes were nothing if not derivative. The sanle held true for the later wave of imnligrants, notably fronl Poland, Gernlany, and Austria. But then the borrowed nlelodies began to intermingle with what was already there, including the lilting tones of the Arab shepherd 's flute from across the valley. Soon Israeli conlposers, even though they hailed fronl Eastern Europe, leaned heavily toward Middle Eastern modes. As must be evident even to the casual listener, today's song of Israel has its own texture and pattern. To be sure, there is froDl time to tinle a detectable whiff of antecedent melodies. But by and large there is a new body of music that draws its inspiration both from history and geography. Liturgy often furnishes the text. Even the most irreligious of Israelis-and there are more of thenl than of the other kind-are fanliliar with chapter and verse-not with prayer as prayer, but with prayer as poetry. Jews arrived in America from the 1870s on, some seeking to find a new style and a new life, others to continue the old life in a new land that prolllised freedolll-if not froln discrinlination then, at least, from persecution. It also pronlised streets paved with gold. Alas, for nlost of the imnligrants di goldelle medi11e, the golden land, did not live up to its promise of bounty, and lllany of the songs give evidence of the immigrants ' disappointnlent. Morris Rosenfeld sang of the father in the sweatshop who never got to see his little son because he was still sleeping when Papa had to leave for work, and had long been in bed when Papa callle hOllle. But even in bitterness there was humor. Di grine kuzine, the greenhorn cousin, arrives in America, pretty and hopeful, with a laughing face and dancing feet. Not too much later she is seen, no longer pretty and vivacious but bone-weary. The question "How are you?" she answers only with a sigh. But her demeanor indicates that, for all she cares, Columbus's Promised Land could go to hell. Jewish song in America today-wherever it...