| (17:54 18/07/02) Becker Roy Hey, hey, I have many things to say |
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I just came across this message, and it was so interesting and demanding reply that I couldn't wait until returning home and writing in Hebrew, so excuse me for that.
First of all, AAHHAALLLAANN YANIV, MA SHLOMKHA, LONG LONG TIME NOT SPEAK AT ALL !!!
I am more than more than pleased to hear that you are actually WRITING AN ESSAY about Irish music in Israel within a course about Israeli art.
Netalica, please excuse me for having skipped your replies, I am sure they are more than interesting, but they are too lengthy to read from left to right, I promise to read them tonight or tomorrow and if I have comments, I will surely add them. Also, I might be repeating your words now and again ...
As for the first question. Yaniv, I think your impression is wrong. Naturally, the first ones to be exposed to Irish music in Israel were Israelis belonging to the elite or the fringes of the elite, that is, Israelis with Anglo-Saxic origin (e.g Brakha) or ashkenazi-outsiders (e.g. Ehud). I think that this had been the situation as long as Irish music was ezoterric, that is, up until 4 years ago (definitely this was the situation when I got into the music).
The initial BOOM of Irish music definitely starts with the performance of Lord of the Dance in Israel, which brought up so many new fans of the music (e.g. Noa). However, Lord of the Dance was performed in chique halls and tickets were astonishingly expensive, so this boom was, again, only within the domain of the Israeli elite.
But the next stage was more crucial: The first Irish festival (with Irish happenings and free Irish music outside the cinemateque), and the emergance of the Tel-Aviv session scene (that eventually led to what you find at Molly's right now - I will tell the whole story if there is a demand), brought the music, to some extent, to the streets and to the pubs.
When Molly's was opened, in Southern Tel-Aviv, I think new audience really started enjoy this music on a regular basis. Molly's is far from being an elitist pub, and from my past weekly experience there as a musician I must say that Molly's had never been arsim-rein, and that all kinds of people showed interest in the music.
When Ehud and I embarked with the Guinness publication campaign in pubs allover the country (and later on others took my place, mostly Shani), it was clear from Guinness' distributors policy that Irish music is an excellent campaign gimic everywhere in Israel - Yaffo, Ashdod, Beersheva, Rehovot, Yerushalim, simply everywhere. During my short time in the campaign responses were always positive, and I am sure this is the case until this very day. This wouldn't have been the case had Irish music been elitists' stuff.
Mind you, through Erika I know quite a few hard-core Ashdodim who fell in love with the music - this music catches. The moment one is liberated from the need to SEXY music, (because Irish music is far from sexy), from the need to heavy percussion, basses and electric sounds, Irish music can capture her, and this does happen.
So, to summarise, Irish music WAS an elitist thing, and still most of its fans belong to the elite, but you find all sorts of people attracted to it: arsim, rusim, xaredim, what not.
As for the two other questions, let me reply on them together: The incorporation of 'Israeli' stuff into Irish music is very very limited, because I believe most Israelis have turned their back to those elements in Israeli music that might fit well. Both symmetric hora dances and 'old-Israel' songs can be easily incorporated and receive Irish treatment, but who is interested in this music today ? Ehud's polkas are precisely 'yoceminaklal hameid al haklal':
1) Incorporating old Israeli music or kleizmer music into Irish music marks the artist as archaic (although it could work perfectly among xaredim and mitnaxlim).
2) New Israeli stuff, be it the rock scene with its metalish sound and cynical contents or poppish sound with post-modern contents, are both in sharp contrast with the nature of Irish music.
3) Most Israeli trad-musicians have thorough musical background, but very limited background in Irish music - they know how to play and perform Israeli music, and they don't know how to add Irish flavour to Irish notes. If they were to incorporate Israeli music to their music, it would simply sound Israeli, not Irish.
So I don't see much Israeli elements in Israeli Irish music at the moment or in the near future.
Mind you, these things might change with the next generation of musicians. Definitely, once the Israeli trad-scene is well established, and Israelis become frequent visitors in Irish summerschools, and get more and more REAL confidence in their attitude towards Irish music, some might want to explore the musical domains between Israeli and/or Jewish music and Irish music. As Irish bands had done it in the past, there is no reason why we shouldn't.
But indeed, this had better come AFTER trad music is played 'correctly' in Israel, that is, after trad-musicians really know what Irish music is. As seems to be the case at present, most Israeli trad-musicians find a two weeks exposure to Irish techniques in summerschools a sufficient exposure for setting up their own band and playing trad on stage, skipping the extremely important part of playing in sessions, getting feedback from experienced trad musicians with regard to their Irish techniques. This is one of our major flaws. In the middle and long run, the Israeli trad-scene MUST understand that it is a part of the global trad-scene, and that it should be connected to it and follow its trends. It is precisely those young contributors to this forum that, I hope, will follow the crazy meniacs like Yuval Mann and myself, delve thoroughly into the real music, spend some time in Ireland, and be ready to learn, who will help to link our scene with Ireland and the world.
Al the best,
Roy.
רשק רוצ  העדוה ספדה  רבחל חלש  הבוגת  :תויורשפא |
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תועדוהה לכ תא חתפ
! ..םלועב 
ןמז לש ןיינע קר הז לבא תויווחב תקסועה 
!יל 
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