Old World Transplants
Weeks 6:
-The emergence of Irish-American dance and vaudeville traditions; Jewish-American klezmer and Yiddish Theater.
10/6 Rebecca S. Miller (1988), “‘Our Own Little Isle’: Irish Traditional Music in New York,” New York Folk Lore, Vol XIV, Nos. 3-4, (101-113).
10/8 Mark Slobin (2003), Fiddler on the Move, Chapt. 1: “Under the Klezmer Umbrella,” (1-9).
Optional:
Henry Sapoznik (1997), “Klezmer Music: The First One Thousand Years,” Music of Multicultural America, (49-70).
“In 1984, kapelye had the singular distinction of being the first band to bring traditional Yiddish music back to Europe. Among the countries we played were France, Switzerland, England, Belgium, and Germany. It was in Germany that I experienced some of the most profound and unsettling feelings I have ever felt. Here, in the birthplace of the most massive campaign of organized genocide in history–where Yiddish culture was born and very nearly destroyed–Yiddish music found a new and enthusiastic audience. The stark contrasts of wanting to share my music with those who loved it as much as I did was tempered by a belief that cultural ownershp might claim certain boundaries. Could the children and grandchildren whose community orchestrated the Holocaust take part in the revivification of a culture that was almost obliterated? Had they abrogated their right–or, as I’ve also thought, who better–to make cultural amends for the mass murder by reanimating this nearly annihilated civilization? It is a conflict that I still harbor.” pp. 68-69.
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