I have a confession to make: I enjoy Christmas songs.
Not the sappy elevator music on the pop charts. I mean the hard-core stuff. The traditional religious hymns sung in four-part harmony. I don't need to name names. You know what I'm talking about.
Don't think you've caught me in some clandestine Christian sympathies, chas v'shalom. This is about music, not religion. The melodies are simply beautiful. But I never get past the first couple of bars before I choke on the lyrics.
I admit I never felt this way growing up. Christmas was an annoyance, an all-encompassing, smothering influence, a constant reminder of my position as a religious minority. It conquered everything from the shopping malls to the sitcoms.
One of the comforts of living in Israel is being part of the religious majority in society. The major festivals here are Pesach and Sukkot, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Christmas passes with barely a notice, except in the dwindling Christian areas. (Bill O'Reilly was right: American Jews who are offended by the public pervasiveness of Christianity have the option of moving to Israel. When you're a tiny minority, it's presumptuous to object to the ubiquity of the majority culture.)
With the comfort and self-confidence of a Jewish Israeli, I can now objectively state that many Christmas songs are beautiful. They have a majesty and grace rare in Jewish music.
Taking Chanukah at random, Maoz Tzur is about the only song which fits that description. Otherwise, Chanukah songs fall into three categories: festive neo-Chassidic tunes designed for furious dancing, children's songs about dreidels and candles, or heretical songs written by secular Zionists.
There are also some lovely Shabbat zemirot, and I always enjoy learning new tunes for them, but then a holiday comes around and suddenly everyone sits around the table at a loss for something worth singing. Is it appropriate that our festival meals are less musical than our Shabbatot?
Pesach melodies are either unimaginative chants (Dayenu!) or thinly-veiled drinking tunes suitable for the fourth cup of wine (Chad Gadya). On Purim you're lucky to stay in key. And it's a good thing for Hallel or we'd hardly have anything at all to sing on Sukkot.
Could it be that we instinctively feel that if Jewish music is beautiful and harmonic it sounds goyish? (Certainly much modern Ashkenazi synagogue music was adapted from Christian styles, if not actual melodies.) At least the chassidim of Modzitz don't think so. They're known for their love for music, especially for marches and waltzes.
Lest I sound too gloomy (post-Chanukah blues?), let me leave you with the dulcet tones of the Kol Zimra "vocal simcha ensemble" from Englewood, New Jersey. Audio and video of their performance at the White House menorah lighting is available here. They sang a beautiful rendition of Maoz Tzur, followed by... assorted children's songs.
Oh, well.
6 comments:
Oh Biur. If you still read my blog you would have been introduced to Solomon de Rossi. He was an Italiam Jew who wrote the sort of music you crave.
Biur, you write:
"I admit I never felt this way growing up. Christmas was an annoyance, an all-encompassing, smothering influence, a constant reminder of my position as a religious minority. It conquered everything from the shopping malls to the sitcoms."
For me, it was different. Growing up in a predominantly Christian country (and Catholic at that), I never felt smothered as a minority. Of course I "knew" I was in a minority, but I never "felt" that way.
I wrote about it in my blog, following Charles Krauthammer's article in the WP about the "de-Christianization" of Xmas in the US.
That's funny. I thought I'd never read something like that here. But I'm glad I did, because I feel the same way. After years of yeshiva and uninspiring music in the shul where I grew up, I went to college and fulfilled my dream of singing in a choir. (This was 30-something years ago, long before the current proliferation of choral and a cappella ensembles in today's Jewish day schools.) The first piece to actually move me to a higher realm was one called "O Magnum Mysterium" by the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomas Luis da Victoria. My subsequent experience with the exquisite and sublime loftiness of the church masterpieces of the Renaissance, all employing mind-numbingly gorgeous vocal polyphony, enabled me to experience moments of spiritual ecstasy that I had not imagined to be possible.
Fast-forward to the present: I am now a cantor in a Reform synagogue, having along the way been introduced to the beautiful music written for the Jewish service by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Ernest Bloch, and Salamone Rossi, who lived circa 1600 in the area of Venice and was himself no doubt influenced by the likes of Palestrina and Josquin des Prez.
So we do have majesty and variety in our Jewish music, and it's now my job to find the best of it and share it with my congregants. But.....when I hear "In Dulci Jubilo" I still tend to sing along!
Dov,
Thanks for the tip. I haven't had much time lately for blog-reading, so I've been concentrating on my favorites.
Sharvul,
Maybe I exaggerated a bit. I certainly agree with your post on the subject. I meant to say that I always felt distinctly out of place, and was annoyed that I couldn't even watch my favorite shows without Christmas intruding. I agree that this is natural and appropriate, and that Jews should accept that with understanding.
Nice blog!
Chanaleh,
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I'm glad you've found beauty and majesty in Jewish music. My dilemma is that I'm also put off by Jewish music that sounds too churchy. I often felt that way in shul when I lived in London. If it's too harmonic and in a major key, I think, "Yuk! Church music! That's not Jewish!"
I've been singing in a chazzanut choir for two years now in Israel, and I've learned a lot about the variety of Jewish music. Most of the "good" stuff, though, isn't familiar to the public and certainly isn't popular. A shame.
Biur --
How wonderful that you are singing in a chazzanut choir and immersing yourself in beautiful Jewish music. I'm guessing you're doing a lot of "classical" stuff by Lewandowski, Sulzer, and Naumbourg. And you're right to say that you won't hear this stuff in most "traditional" shuls. But please don't get caught up in "If it's Jewish it has to be in a minor key." Couldn't be farther from the truth. We do, however, tend to get stuck in our comfort zones. Anyway, you are branching out and that's good. There are many wonderful recordings of this classical Jewish choral music. Listen to some Rossi while you're at it!
Having said all of that, my current Jewish music obsession is a young singer/composer named Ari Goldwag. It's sort of frum pop, for lack of a better term. Amazing sweet voice and the tunes he writes are great. He also collaborates with some of the best musicians in the Jewish world. Check him out too.
Dov,
Thanks for the tip. I haven't had much time lately for blog-reading, so I've been concentrating on my favorites.
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Hello. I am your favorite. Don't be coy with me, Biur.
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