Introduction: On the Definition of Jewish Music

Editor's Introduction Introduction: On the Definition of Jewish Music Ofer Ben-Amots Colorado College The field ofJewish music is a cross-disciplinary one, as rich, broad, and complex as the culture that has created it. As a subordinate topic within both Judaic Studies and ethnomusicology , Jewish music can be approached from different humanistic or artistic starting points. It involves the scholarship of musicology, ethnography, folklore, cultural anthropology, comparative religion, archeology, iconography, history, sociology, etymology and others. It is, thus, not surprising that the field of Jewish music, while growing steadily, is still one ofthe least researched areas of scholarship. One of the main problems with the research of Jewish music is the problem of its defmition. For the sake ofcomparison, let us imagine a group ofscholars embarking on research oftraditional music ofthe AustralianAborigines in the Northern Territory. The research will be conducted as fieldwork within the clearly defined region. It will start with a systematic collection of data such as field-recordings and photographs, the transcription of aurally transmitted musical, dance and narrative material, and close depiction oftribal ceremonies, as well as tools and instruments utilized by the tribe, and so forth. The research would continue with the analysis ofthe collected information, in order to understand its cultural context and give an accurate picture ofmusical life and tradition of the people in question. Centuries of limited cultural exchange and relative isolation have resulted in clearly defmed cultural identity and musical idiosyncrasies. Ultimately, the scale of such a project is determined only by the amount of access allowed by the people subjected to the research. At the outset, the definition of Jewish cultural life makes such an approach quite impossible. Which territory should the scholar explore in order to learn more about the essence of Jewish musical tradition? Should they start with the musical tradition of Yemenite Jews, Mountain Jews in Anatolia, the synagogal melodies in Kobe, Japan, or the Sephardic community in Tangier, Morocco? And what about the "fieldwork"? Would it be conducted among the groups ofHassidim in Borough Park, Brooklyn, the Reform temples throughout the West Coast ofthe U.S., or at the religious academiesYeshivot -in Jerusalem? As aresult ofthe Diaspora phenomenon, the discrepancies are far greater than the similarities in Jewish musical traditions worldwide. Even communities dedicated to the continuation and preservation of Jewish traditions have not escaped the musical influences of their respective hosting societies. In fact, Jewish musical traditions are often defined by the larger, non-Jewish cultural and musical context. 2 SHOFAR Summer 2000 Vol. 18, No.4 The questions listed above extend beyond the dilemma of Jewish music to the greater definition ofJews as an ethnic group ofcommon identity, whether thatbe racial, national, religious, cultural, or linguistic. While the "blood connection" aspect is an important element within Judaism, it is not an a priori condition to defining who is Jewish and who is not. Commonly, a Jew is a person who was born to a Jewish mother or converted according to the halacha. The act ofconversion, along with the debate on which halachic rules are acceptable and by whom, complicates the question considerably . Regarding Judaism as a religion is also most problematic in this case, since Jewishness cannot be measured by the level of piety or secularism of the individual. Thus, I would say that the complexity in defining Jewish music matches the difficulty of answering the question of"Mihu Yehudi?" or, "Who is a Jew?". The state oftoday's research ofJewish music is in transition. The few survey books on the subject are too old, too general, inaccurate at times, or irrelevant. A. Z. Idelsohn's book "Jewish Music in its Historical Development" is the first and still one of the most authoritative of its kind. While famous for its'pioneering efforts, the book is over 80 years old and thus does not reflect any of the modem research in the field. The most important attribute of Idelsohn's book, however, is in its methodology, combining historical and geographical perspectives. In order to give a fair overview of the subject, this approach remains indispensable. The new tradition ofscholarship in the area of Jewish music is evident in the publication of articles tending...