Music

     Performing music at any joyous occasion is considered a religious obligation and a wonderful mitzvah (good deed). The music style matches the cultural tradition. So this should be easy...right? Maybe a little Jimmy Buffet mixed in with the bridal march? Not really.
    Jimmy Buffet would be fine, but the bridal march heard at most American weddings is out. The piece is from the opera Lonengrin, which was written by Wagner, who was a known anti-Semite whose music was played at Dachau as the Jews were forced into the gas chambers. Clearly, we need something a bit different for the procession.
    There are some tradition Jewish tunes played at weddings that are based on the poems from Song of Songs set to music. There are some beautiful choices from these partly mystical, partly lyrical, slightly sexual biblical verses.
   Dodi li, I am my Beloved's:

And then there is Erev Shel Shoshanim


     The words are lovely and the melodies remind me of songs just beyond my thoughts. Songs I seem to know even though I have never heard them, as if the musical riffs are coded in my DNA, or perhaps they are my DNA code. I remember the medicine woman I studied with telling me that when we are in tune with our spiritual voice we can remember the lessons our elders left behind, even if we have never heard them. So maybe this is a good sign.

     This is especially poignant for me now, because we leave for Israel in less than a week, and I know that the stones in the ground in the walls will sing to me. When we were there four years ago I realized that the stones in Israel sang to the ancient Jews the way that the rocks in Mesa Verde sang to the ancient Anasazi. The stones sang to us, and we took those songs and sang them back as prayers. And for thousands of years those rocks both in the ground, and those making up the walls and fortresses have been listening to the prayers that echo from the humans. The rocks sing prayers to us that we sense and sing, and then hear echoing back. This the Israel I experienced.

     And now back to the music for the wedding. No Wagner, no organ, and probably not Jimmy buffet, so what does that leave? How about a traditional Ashkenazi eastern European sound...the klezmer band.


Listen to the Klez dispensers:

The Klez dispensers

     Jewish music is always a mixture of joyous and sad, lively and melodic, and the words are lyrical...in another language. It is impossible to listen to a klezmer band and keep your feet quiet. We do not know how many people will actually be at the wedding...somewhere between 10 and 30 perhaps...but we are sure they will be dancing.