"Beyond klezmer": Redefining Jewish music for the twenty-first century

Based on fieldwork and musical analysis, this dissertation examines the music of the Radical Jewish Culture series founded and curated by musician/composer John Zorn.Chapter one provides historical data and a theoretical/interpretive framework. Chapter two presents descriptions of each of the 120 recordings in the series, classifying each one according to a genre taxonomy. Chapter three describes the general character of American, primarily secular, Jewish culture in present-day New York City.Chapter four considers the discursive construction of Jewish music by examining the patterned and divergent ways in which people talk about, write about, and make Jewish music. Building on theories of discourse and genre, I argue that Jewish music is constructed according to a "horizon of expectation" that comprises musical, cultural, and social criteria.Chapter five examines how "diaspora" functions as a cultural construct within secular American Jewish culture. Drawing on diaspora models from Jewish cultural studies, anthropology, and ethnomusicology, I examine how diaspora can be deployed in music in ways that reproduce, construct, and destruct dominant and alternative narratives of Jewish culture and identity.Chapter six addresses the issue of musical hybridity in the Radical Jewish Culture series. I illustrate how musical hybridity can (1) create or uphold socio-musical identities; (2) create a third space in which dominant cultural discourses can be challenged and/or restructured; (3) question the concepts of Jewish music and identity; and (4) distance or exoticize Jewishness and Jewish identity.Chapter seven is framed within (1) general theories of identity from cultural studies, (2) contemporary theories on Jewish identity, and (3) two particular models of music and identity, and examines the relationship between music and identity in contemporary American Jewish culture. The conclusion considers Radical Jewish Culture within the broad historical sweep of Jewish music in modernity.This dissertation partakes of, and contributes to, ongoing scholarly discussion on (1) the nature and significance of Jewish music; (2) the power of diaspora as a creative cultural construct; (3) the meaning and cultural significance of hybrid musical practices; and (4) the general relationship between music and identity, and the specific relationship between Jewish music and Jewish identity.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2009.School code: 0031