Wednesday, January 03, 2007

From the Wikipedia article on Jewish Music

Any reactions to this? From my standpoint, it isn't a bad description of how I feel about this style of music in my more negative moods, but it gets some of the nuances wrong. Music mavens?
One type of music, based on Shlomo Carlebach's, is very popular among Orthodox artists and their listeners. This type of music usually consists of the same formulaic mix. This mix is usually brass, horns and strings. These songs are composed from within one pool of composers and one pool of arrangers. Many of the entertainers are former yeshiva students, and perform dressed in a dress suit. Many have day jobs and sideline singing at Jewish weddings. Others moonlight in kollel study or at Jewish organizations. Some have no formal musical education, and sing mainly pre-arranged songs.

Lyrics are most commonly short passages in Hebrew from the Torah or the siddur, with the occasional obscure passage from the Talmud. Sometimes there are songs with lyrics compiled in English in more standard form, with central themes such as Jerusalem, the Holocaust, Jewish identity, and the Jewish diaspora.

Some composers are Yossi Green; a big-name arranger of this type of music is Yisroel Lamm. Artsits include Avraham Fried, Dedi, Lipa Schmeltzer, Mordechai Ben David, Shloime Dachs, and Yaakov Shwekey.

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