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When Even Listening contact and discussions with students out- to Music, Dancing, side of my home university,” diplomatically and Escaping from stated Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Professor Auditoriums is Educational. of Ethnomusicology at Harvard University, in our short interview. The block course Ethnomusicology at the led by Shelemay entitled Jewish Cultures Faculty of Humanities through their Musics was held between 16 and 22 May at Charles University’s According to the head of the program Faculty of Humanities. Using the music of doc. Zuzana Jurková, the evolution of various Jewish communities (Ethiopian, ethnomusicology at our faculty is progress- Syrian, and American) for her material, ing like a partly-controlled improvisation. prof. Shelemay focuses on a couple of gene “I started out with just a couple of over- ral topics, for instance on the role of music view courses. Now it is an all-round in our conception of memory. For her, to be proper program. This semester we opened an anthropologist means “both an obliga- 15 courses, out of which eight were led in tion and a privilege to discover the borders English by lecturers such as prof. Shelemay between different cultures.” Some stu- from Harvard University, prof. Reyes from dents, including myself, thought of this Columbia University, or prof. Radulescu course as sort of a challenge, for it gave from Universitatea Națională de Muzică them an opportunity to meet the author of in Romania. Last year, we published Soundscapes, the book we translated (and a book entitled Pražské hudební světy, some still do) as part of our Language whose English version Prague Soundscapes Skills Exam. was distributed by Chicago University Press. And we also held an international Block Course at Times in Hebrew and conference whose materials are in print with a Yarmulke on Your Head at the moment,” says docent Jurková The course began on Saturday by visit- adding that in her opinion, “There is no ing the Jerusalem Synagogue in Prague. university-level ethnomusicological pro- We had an exceptional opportunity to gram in Europe that is this dynamic.” personally witness a part of an orthodox Ethnomusicological courses at FoH pre- Jewish service during which men read dominantly focus on the music of the from the five Books of Moses, a scroll of marginalized and on urban spaces. The Torah. It is uncommon to allow access to approximate form of education of future people from outside of the community. We ethnomusicologists is indicated by the put on our disposable yarmulkes and the recently concluded summer school of men and women separated. Separating Jewish music. men and women for the service by a sym- bolic see-through wall is part of the Jewish Musics tradition of Orthodox Judaism. Thanks “It was amazing to come back to Prague, to this experience, many of us discovered where I had already spent some ten days how little we could speak Hebrew (the a couple of years ago. I am enjoying the whole service was held in this language),
371 REPORT that books can also be read from right to Theresienstadt concentration camp, we left, and that even Orthodox Jews like to headed into this fort town for a concert by chitchat about profane things during the House of Freedom. It is strange how much service. Theresienstadt does not seem repulsive The acquired anthropological know nowadays. Bathed in the spring sunlight, ledge is, of course, much less banal than it does not seem like the sort of place where it may seem from my description so far – dozens of people would die every single even though it stems from the analysis of day. Visitors enjoy the idyllic sights not the same banal sense of everydayness. The dissimilar to those from the propagandist subsequent theoretical class we attended in films made for representatives of the Red the afternoon helped us to make more sense Cross, whose purpose was to show them of the proceedings in the synagogue, as how great the life of Jews was during the well as to put these experiences and mech- war. Nevertheless, when an excerpt from anisms in the broader context of Jewish the children’s opera Brundibár by Krása cultures. Thanks to prof. Shelemay’s eth- was played in the museum, it was difficult nographic experience with a community not to feel a lump in one’s throat. of Ethiopian Jews, we had a chance to see The main concert took place in the how abstract terms such as ritual, identity, Theresienstadt riding-hall. The roof of the memory or community stem from behavior building has a beautiful frame-work which, legitimized by practice. Our knowledge considering the occasional hungry peeping thereof gave sense to the fact that in the is home to at least several avian families. synagogue that morning, some women had The concert was mainly dedicated to the their heads covered while others did not. musical output of composers who had And to the question why the men counted been through the ghetto themselves. The themselves over and over again, and if there disturbing and emotionally broken pieces were less than ten of them present they composed by Viktor Ullmann and others could not continue reading the holy text. were played by an orchestra and accom- It gave us the reason why a little girl was panied by commentaries setting the music allowed to dally under the altar in the men’s into the context of its time. The only down- part. And revealed how (un)substantiated side is that the organizers forgot about the the first impression that women never get Czech language. Those in the audience who involved in religious life is. did not speak English unfortunately did not understand a word. The hall was quickly The Theresienstadt Ghetto Is at Peace brimming with people, mostly foreign- In Theresienstadt, the Sunday of 17 May ers. But there was also a couple of living belonged to the memorial meeting com- witnesses of the Theresienstadt hell. For memorating the last execution which instance, I saw Helga Hošková‑Weissová, took place here on 2 May 1945, virtually who spent the nightmare of her ghetto only several days before the liberation. childhood drawing pictures, and who After a lecture given by docent Jurková was one of the few lucky ones to sur - on the topic of Jewish musical life both vive Auschwitz. Apart from the Czech in interwar Czechoslovakia and in the Republic, her childhood drawings have
372 REPORT been exhibited in Austria, Switzerland, this approach, “Right now we are follow- Germany, Italy and the United States. ing up with the so-called Small Summer The following week, lectures were held School focusing on Romany music. My about pizmonim, the traditional musical dear friend prof. Speranta Radulescu is genre of Syrian Jews which records the expected to arrive. She has amazing expe- memories of the whole community, about riences from the field and has managed to Leonard Bernstein and his Bostonian tape the most phenomenal field recordings Jewish roots, about Czech Jewish commu- I know. In June, we have already scheduled nities, and also about more abstract terms two previously tested block courses led by such as identity, memory, and community. prof. Adelaida Reyes from Columbia Uni- We had a chance to visit Jewish cemeter- versity. Prof. Reyes is not only an incredibly ies, Jewish dance classes, or – for all of its kind person, but also one of the greatest depressing success – an exhibition about intellectuals I know. Kay Shelemay, who is the historical context of the work of Viktor her former student, has this to say about Ullmann. her, ‘Everything I know I learned from Adelaida.’” The Small Summer School The Faculty of Ethnomusicological of Romany music took place before this Studies article was published. I and colleagues of The intensive course ended on Thursday, mine, mostly students coming to Prague and I have to pose the question if simi- through erasmus program, received free larly experiential and multimedia forms guest passes to the Romany music festi- of education should not be a standard val called Khamoro, so from Monday to practice at all universities. According to Saturday we familiarized ourselves with doc. Jurková, it seems that the FoH depart- Romany music from all around the world. ment of ethnomusicology is indeed taking Sometimes it truly is great to be a student.
Jaromír Mára Translated by David Koranda
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