Papers by Robert Fleisher
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2000
2The imperfect term "art music" (also called "serious" and "classical" music) may be unfamiliar e... more 2The imperfect term "art music" (also called "serious" and "classical" music) may be unfamiliar even to many who enjoy one or more of its various repertories. The definition found in Webster's Third New International Dictionary-"music composed by the trained musician as contrasted with folk music and often with popular music"-serves in the present instance to denote work by professional musicians schooled in the art ofmusical composition through both private instruction and in conservatory environments, whose musical ideas are conveyed through notated scores which are interpreted by performers and conductors. The unprecedented cross-pollinations characterizing our musical world in the twentieth century have lessened the potency ofsuch designations as "art," "folk," "traditional," or "popular" music, but terminology is less important here than the range ofexperience, aesthetics, objectives, and techniques that serves to unite Israeli art-music composers and distinguish them from other communities of musicians. 31 use "Israel" in references to the modem state which won its independence in 1948. In references to this region prior to Israeli statehood [ use "Palestine," the political designation of the British mandate that succeeded Ottoman rule following World War I.
Ethnomusicology, 2000
Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance among Syrian Jews, by Kay Kaufman Shelemay. Chicago a... more Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance among Syrian Jews, by Kay Kaufman Shelemay. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998. xvi + 266 pages. Refs. to p. 278. Index to p. 291. $65 cloth; $25 paper. Reviewed by Robert Fleisher The term contrafactum denotes the practice in early vocal music of replacing an existing song text with a new one, usually of different character. Kay Kaufman Shelemay's illuminating study examines the Syrian-Jewish pizmon, a modern hybrid version of the contrafactum that combines the melody of Arab popular songs with Hebrew devotional lyrics. Shelemay is professor of music at Harvard University and president of the Society for Ethnomusicology. The book is based on field work, including 36 interviews conducted during the period 1984-93 and 11 music sessions recorded between 1984 and 1985. An accompanying compact disc includes many examples discussed in the text, most of which also appear in musical transcription. The introduction situates this study at the intersection of multiple disciplines through which the author seeks "to move ethnomusicological inquiry more directly into the domain of memory studies" (p. 6). The chapters explore various aspects of the pizmon tradition, including Syrian-Jewish migration, musicians and music theory (maqam), and the processes of commissioning, composing and performing pizmonim. Following traditional Arab musical practice (mirrored also in the vocal improvisations that often precede pizmonim), each of the six chapters is preceded by a "prelude" featuring a single pizmon that exemplifies the focus of the chapter, and by a discussion of an occasion on which the author heard it performed. These vivid descriptions and the many interview excerpts throughout the book provide an intimate sense of the contexts in which these songs are heard, as well as the multiple meanings they bear. Shelemay's central focus throughout is "the role of the pizmon as a carrier of individual and collective memory, as a source for social history, and as a locus for future studies of the relationship between cultural and cognitive processes" (p. 14). In its essence, the pizmon reflects the (minimally) dual identity of Syrian Jews and the extent to which their heritage is inseparable from Arab culture. Popular Arab (often Egyptian) songs generally provide the musical framework, though a small number of pizmonim (e.g., "Frere Jacques" and "God Bless America") use melodies of other origins, including European classical (vocal and instrumental) works. The "compositio" of a pizmon substitutes a hymn of praise for the typically secular lyric of the Arab song, while the original rhyme and assonance schemes are retained by the new Hebrew text. …
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Papers by Robert Fleisher