I'm going to focus on Jewish music for at least part of Chanukah, which started tonight. The underlying question is what exactly makes a piece of music Jewish (or not). There are certainly some fairly unusual answers to that. Including the group I saw tonight (at The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. For those who are unfamiliar with it, I'll note that there is a free show of some sort there every night at 6. The part that amazes me the most is that they actually print up and hand out a program for each of those free shows.
Tonight's feature was The Sinai Mountain Boys. What they specialize in is Jewish bluegrass, which they call "Jewgrass." There are samples on their website, so you can hear for yourself.
I was not really sure what to expect, especially as I am not really much on bluegrass. I went largely because the idea just struck me as interesting, I may prefer less twangy music, but I had to admire their energy and I enjoyed the show. What strikes me as particularly incongruous, though, is hearing Jewish lyrics in major chords. We have been said to be the only people in the world who are happy in minor chords. Of course, we also lament in minor chords. You mean language wasn't invented just so we can kvetch?
Yai diddle dai, yippee!
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel