Pomegranates & Figs

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS Sunday, December 5, 2010, 3pm Zellerbach Hall Pomegranates & Figs A Feast of Jewish Music PROGRAM Teslim Kaila Flexer violin, tarhui Gari Hegedus oud, mandocello, divan saz, violin, frame drum Special Guests of Teslim Shira Kammen violin, viola Julian Smedley violin Susu Pampanin frame drum, riqq, doumbek Caleb O’Reilly vocals, cello Sqwonk Jeff Anderle bass clarinet Jonathan Russell bass clarinet INTERMISSION North End Klezmer Project Ben Mink guitar, violin, mandolin Daniel Koulack double bass, guitar, banjo Nicolai Prisacar accordion Myron Schultz clarinet Victor Schultz violin Finale All of the above! Credits Paul Knight House Sound Engineer Kaila Flexer Artistic Director Catherine Rose Crowther & Sara Glaser Pomegranates & Figs Logo Design Cal Performances’ 2010–2011 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 27 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES A Feast of Jewish Music thing as one “Jewish music” that characterized all Jews living in the far-flung corners of the Earth, ODAY , THE THORNY QUESTION of what and that Jews sang and played a host of musical Tmakes music “Jewish” is often avoided (and traditions, almost all transmitted orally, which feared) by scholars, musicologists and cultural shared their traits more with the host non-Jewish As many of you know, I have been program- historians alike, but it does occasionally spark cultures than among themselves. This diversity ming Jewish music in the Bay Area for a long heated discussions on email lists and gathers the preoccupied Jewish intellectuals, whom in the time, and nothing pleases me more than to bring attention of bloggers worldwide. It is indeed a midst of the Romantic and nationalistic fervors together inspired performers. question with a thousand possible answers, and of 19th-century Europe were instead trying to Tonight, we include two wonderful groups. one that generates additional questions, which in prove, once and for all, the unity and distinctive- Sqwonk is a duo of bass clarinets (what an instru- turn end up blending and overlapping with one ness (and thus the intrinsic value) of Judaism. The ment!). They are young, gifted, curious, quirky another. Invariably, the answers fail to consider study of Jewish music by Jews themselves was and open-minded musicians. the world of sounds, and instead raise issues con- therefore initially aimed at creating a place for The North End Klezmer Project is a new cerning the many Jewish identities and cultures Jewish musical culture, and not just for its sup- group from Winnipeg formed by the founders that surround us. posedly ancient Hebraic construct, within the of Finjan, who performed for Klezmer Mania! on However, it was not so in the past, when canons of Western cultural history. This preoccu- this very stage several years ago. This is a fantas- European scholars—Christian and Jewish— pation, and especially the rise of Zionism, led to a tic new ensemble that has just released a debut shaped the modern notion of Jewish music, and progressive focus on the diversity of the oral tra- CD. Their sound is fresh and yet familiar. We are in a way almost invented it. The first interest in dition and on the importance of non-European thrilled to have them here. the musical world of the Jews—and especially Jewish cultures. During intermission, go! Have a nosh (snack) in what Jews sang in their place of worship, the In 1907, when Abraham Zvi Idelsohn in the mezzanine. Kibbitz (visit) with your friends synagogue—arose since the 16th century among (1882–1938), the founder of modern Jewish mu- ELCOME TO POMEGRANATES & FIGS ! a little. And then join us for the second half. Christian humanists, to whom we owe the very sicological research, moved to Palestine, he was W We’re so glad you came. notion of musica hebraeorum (in Latin, “music of confronted with an overwhelming variety of We hope that you are enjoying the holiday season. the Hebrews”). These scholars, who immediately Jewish oral traditions, which included liturgi- Our children are growing up, technology won’t Happy Hanukah! Fargin zikh (enjoy)! understood that the music of the Jews had long cal music, folksongs and instrumental practice leave us alone. As our lives speed up, sometimes been transmitted by way of oral tradition, hoped by Jews originating from Eastern, Central and to a blur, it’s nice to spend an evening enjoying Kaila Flexer to find within Jewish liturgy the traces of Hebraic Southern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, the live music together. antiquity, and thus the roots of Christianity itself. Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and Central Whether you’ve been following us from the Instead, what they found was a universe of diverse Asia. Already, then, the Eurocentric dichotomy days of Klezmer Mania! or are joining us for the sounds (a “world music” of a sort) generated by between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish musi- first time, we are honored that you chose to spend Special thanks to Lucy Flexer-Marshall and Abe the fact that Jews had lived in Diaspora for many cal worlds was proving insufficient: Arab music, tonight with us. and Bobbie Flexer. centuries. In the fourth volume of his Bibliotheca its modes (or maqamat) and aesthetic sensibili- Five years ago, Gari Hegedus and I formed Magna Rabbinica (Rome, 1693), Father Giulio ties were equally essential to Jewish musical his- the duo Teslim. Since then, we have recorded, Rugs on loan from Claremont Rug Company’s Bartolocci listed three different ways in which tory and required a whole new consideration. performed and written much music together. Claremont II: Outstanding original vintage and the Jews of his times chanted the Torah (the Throughout the 20th century, Idelsohn’s quest We’re thrilled to be joined tonight by a number of antique art carpets for the home. Hebrew Bible), and provided musical transcrip- for the unifying traits in this panoply of sounds special guests. When Teslim performs with these tions according to the “German,” “Spanish” and has morphed into a research field that combines talented friends, people have dubbed this larger Kaila Flexer photo by Cambria Lowe. “Italian” traditions, de facto stating the cultural musicology, ethnography and anthropology, and ensemble Teslim Extreme! differences between Jews who originated from that examines the variables of musical production ancient Palestine and those who lived in Central in the context of the cultures of the Jews in the Europe (also known as Ashkenazi Jews) or who global Diaspora. descended from the Iberian Jews who had been While the notion of “Jewish music” is clearly expelled from Spain and Portugal after 1492 a scholarly construct, the place of sounds and of (Sephardic Jews). Other Christian researchers musical practice within Jewish life is a fascinat- followed in this path, and by the 19th century, ing reality that presents itself in many different when Jewish scholars also became interested in guises. Since at least the beginning of the 20th the topic, it was very clear that there was no such century, Jewish music has existed in two parallel 28 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 29 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES arenas. On the one hand, it continues to be pro- that combine religious references and liturgical religious themes) like other folksong repertoires duced (and consumed) within the specific context Hebrew with nods to the international canons of in Jewish languages throughout the Diaspora, of communal Jewish life, and thus as part of syn- the “love song” repertoire. including Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish. agogue liturgy and life-cycle events, throughout The Jewish musical genres that have been the Beginning with the 19th century, however, the globe. The Holocaust and the creation of the center of artistic and cultural revivals are klezmer Yiddish songs started to be written by Jewish State of Israel have had a great impact on Jewish music and Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish (or Ladino) poets and composers both as theater songs—in musical traditions. The destruction of count- song. These genres are all prominently featured in the growing arena of Yiddish theater—and as art less European communities forever changed the tonight’s program through the interpretations of songs, and to involve a virtually endless variety soundscape of Europe, and the relocation of hun- outstanding performers. While music from their of musical styles, ranging from synagogue modes dreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from North repertoires is sometimes presented together, of- to tango, from Russian folk themes to jazz. The Africa and the Middle East equally changed the ten on the grounds of their shared “Jewishness,” revival of klezmer music has bridged the distance soundscape of the Islamic world. Reconstructed they belong to very different soundscapes and between these two genres, and today Yiddish Jewish traditions were subsequently recreated in social contexts. songs (with all their aesthetic implications) are Israel and the United States, where new musical Klezmer music is the instrumental rep- often considered an integral part its repertoire. expressions, including secular musical cultures, ertoire of the Jewish professional instrumen- Similarly, the genesis of Judeo-Spanish songs is have progressively been shaped. talists (klezmorim or, in Yiddish, “vessels/ the result of many layers of music and text. Their On the other hand, Jewish musical tradi- tools of song”) of Eastern Europe, who tradition- lyrics are in Judeo-Spanish, a language developed tions have been the constant object of study ally accompanied Jewish weddings and other fes- by the Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula and reinterpretation by Jewish performers and tive occasions, and also earned a living by playing following the edict of 1492, promulgated by the composers, primarily since the diffusion of com- at the weddings of their non-Jewish neighbors. Kings of Spain. Some of these lyrics originate di- mercial sound recordings.

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