Talk:Jewish music

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It's an interesting subject, no doubt, but I don't really like the article from 190-whatever. The strandard, classic work on the subject is Abraham Idelsohn's Jewish Music (ISBN 0486271471). My own copy dates from 1929, but it has been reprinted many times, since it is considered a classic in ethnomusicology and in folklore. BTW, Idelsohn is also known as the composer of "Hava Nagila" and as an ethnomusicologist, is worthy of an article in his own right. I will look through the book and cull some information--his stuff on the Jewish connection to Gregorian chants is fascinating. Danny

I added a reference to Idelsohn at the end (does anyone know of a more recent edition than the one I cited?), and also to Irene Heskes's book. I also added a section on instruments used in the Temple. I would appreciate if some of you mavens would look it over and fix anything that needs fixing. Thanks, --Ravpapa 18:13, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to see someone add some content about modern Jewish choral music--both synagogal choirs and community choirs plus Jewish choral festivals, etc. --Susan Urban

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --PinchasC | £€åV€ m€ å m€§§åg€ 03:43, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Contemporary Jewish pop music

A whole branch of contemporary Jewish music is missing from this article, but I do not feel that I know about musical terms and styles well enough to fill in the gaps. I'm talking about popular Orthodox musicians like Yehuda!, Mordechai Ben David, Miami Boys Choir, who sing well known Hebrew verses (or English lyrics with religious themes) over keyboards, drums, and electronic sounds. If anyone knows more about this, please help!The Box 21:28, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I just added a small section to the article, but it really needs help from someone who knows more about the topic. The Box 22:21, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

There is an article on contemporaary Jewish pop music over at Shiny Shoe Music. Consensus has decided that that title is a misnomer, but no consensus has been reached on where to move that article (i.e., what to rename it). I just suggested there that it be merged into this article. Please feel free to continue discussion there about what to do with that article; or to continue discussion here about the general topic of contemporary Jewish popular music. Thanks!—msh210℠ 16:48, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

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This article needs a lot of work. It jumps around in time - from the temple period, to the middle ages, to synagogal music (when was that) then back to the temple, then to modern times. It is unclear when a lot of the developments took place.

But the biggest problem - the one that is pointed out in the beginning of the article - is that it is not about Jewish music. It is about Jewish liturgical music. As such, it is inappropriate for inclusion in the Wikipedia catalog of World music articles.

What we need to do is rename this article "Jewish Liturgical Music" and create a new article called "Jewish Music" which is an overview of the subject, with pointers to the various specific articles.

Since moving or renaming an article is considered a major event in Wikiculture, I feel reticent to do this without some discussion. So I am opening this to discussion now.

--Ravpapa 13:58, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

It certainly suffers from a certain schizophrenia: the disambiguation text at the beginning clarifies that the article is supposedly about sacred music, and directs readers interested in secular Jewish music to the article Secular Jewish culture. Yet a good deal of the music mentioned in the Contemporary Jewish Music section one would be hard-pressed to call sacred; neither, however, could it all be called secular -- so there's the problem: there's a good deal of music that takes its inspiration from religion or touches on religious subjects but which is not sacred music in the commmon sense of the term, including music which often formally resembles popular song but which treats of religious subjects. For this reason, I think it is too much to say that the article should be retitled "Jewish Liturgical Music," because not all religious music is either liturgical or even sacred. How about "Jewish religious music," which would cover liturgical, sacred and more contemporary music that is religious in theme or inspiration? --Rrburke 23:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)