{"id":40315,"date":"2016-11-30T21:26:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T02:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=40315"},"modified":"2016-12-02T11:44:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T16:44:04","slug":"editorial-ho-ho-ho-or-oh-no-no-christmas-music-programming-in-a-multicultural-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/11\/30\/editorial-ho-ho-ho-or-oh-no-no-christmas-music-programming-in-a-multicultural-city\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL | Oh No No? : The Problem With Christmas Music Programming (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christmas
Christmas Music in a Multicultural World \u2014 how do non-Christian music lovers get through December? (Part One)(Photo: Peter Norton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part One:\u00a0 Before <\/em>Multiculturalism<\/h3>\n

[For Part Two, Read Here<\/a><\/span>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/span>oronto is justly proud of its ethnic, racial and religious diversity, and can legitimately claim to be one of the most multicultural cities in the world<\/a>.\u00a0 But judging from the concert listings in December, you would think that this is a homogenous Christian city.\u00a0 Toronto\u2019s demographics are changing faster than a speeding bullet, and while Christianity is still the largest faith group in Toronto, it is only by a small percentage.\u00a0 In the not too distant future the seemingly insatiable appetite for The Messiah and Christmas Carols may diminish.<\/p>\n

Feeling a disconnect between the diversity of the world around me and the dominance of Christmas music in December, I\u2019ve been chatting casually with folks from other faiths who now make Toronto their home.\u00a0 This informal exploration, gave me a lot to think about.<\/p>\n

My curiosity about the attitudes of non-Christians definitely grows out of my childhood here as a Jewish Baby Boomer, when Jews were essentially the only religious minority in Toronto.\u00a0 Multiculturalism as a government policy was launched in the early 70s, and immigration shifted the population of Toronto gradually.\u00a0 But before that, diversity in Toronto meant a mixture of Jews and Gentiles for the most part.\u00a0 (There were other communities here, to be accurate, such as Chinese and First Nations.)<\/p>\n

At Rippleton Road Public School, in Don Mills, circa 1959, I began my day by reciting the Lord\u2019s Prayer, alongside 34 other students; at least 30 of who were Christian. \u00a0We read a passage from The New Testament daily, and sang all the canonical Christmas carols in music class. \u00a0It was a Christian curriculum in a Christian world.<\/p>\n

When questions arose for me about the difference between my religion and my classmates\u2019, my parents gave me child-friendly guidelines for staying within Jewish boundaries when the curriculum took me into theological territory.\u00a0 Basically, this amounted to watching my words.\u00a0 Where carols were concerned, phrases such as \u201csilent night, holy night\u201d were neutral, but lyrics such as \u00a0\u201cChrist the ever lasting Lord\u201d or words to the effect that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, or the Saviour, were not Jewish beliefs.<\/p>\n

There was a sweet spot that wasn\u2019t pointedly Christian or Jewish, such as saying \u201cseason\u2019s greetings\u201d instead of \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d.\u00a0 Hair-splitting as this may seem, it allowed me to feel genuinely Jewish in situations where the default assumption was that everyone was Christian.\u00a0 It heightened my awareness of lyrics, secular and sacred, and initiated a sense that faith is about things you say \u2014 and that you don\u2019t say.\u00a0 To this day I believe that words matter.<\/p>\n

But even though it was fine to sing \u201cRudolph with your nose so bright, won\u2019t you lead my sleigh tonight,\u201d it was mildly alienating to sing songs for a holiday that everyone was celebrating but me.\u00a0 It was a bit like being a vegan at an all-you-can-eat roast beef buffet.\u00a0 Even if you have your own dish of tofu waiting for you at home, watching all the carnivores relish their food feels depriving.<\/p>\n

Of course as an adult I\u2019m not compelled to sing carols, but I still sometimes find myself in situations where it is assumed that I can and want to, including public concerts.\u00a0 Something as seemingly innocuous as standing for the Hallelujah Chorus<\/em> feels like being in a congregation instead of an audience, and singing along, especially to such lyrics as \u00a0\u00a0\u201cthe kingdom of this world is become the kingdom\u2026 of his Christ and of his Christ\u201d, feels inauthentic.<\/p>\n

So concerts in December can be tricky.\u00a0 But there are many Jewish music lovers, not to mention Jewish musicians, who enthusiastically attend and participate.\u00a0 \u00a0Jewish and Christian sacred music have common sources, so many with a taste for one have a taste for the other.\u00a0 A fictional case in point is Eve Bercovitch, the heroine of Nora Gold\u2019s recent novel,\u00a0The Dead Man,<\/em>, about the aftermath of a love affair between two composers of Jewish sacred music.\u00a0 Eve fondly recalls, \u201cThe first sacred music she ever heard [\u2026]\u00a0 the hymns and Christmas carols that all Canadian public school students forty-eight years ago had to learn \u2014 \u201cAbide with Me,\u201d \u201cSilent Night,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cO Come All Ye Faithful\u201d \u2014 and she has loved them ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

I recently asked Gold how a composer who devotes her musical skill and creativity to composing sacred Jewish music, would retain this taste for Christian music. \u00a0She told me that \u201cEve is not parochial musically or any other way.\u00a0 She is a secular Jew who loves sacred music because of her life long love of Western classical music, so her compositions draw from that tradition.\u00a0 She would have gone to The Messiah<\/em> without a qualm, she would not have boycotted any religious music,\u201d Gold said of her character.\u00a0 \u201cMusic doesn\u2019t know borders,\u201d she concluded emphatically.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an appealing assertion, but problematic for those who prefer<\/em> to have strong borders. \u00a0At the beginning of the school year, a Muslim father who made the news by asking to have his children exempted from music classes prompted a lot of commentary.\u00a0 On his blog<\/a>, Toronto composer and critic Colin Eatock recounted an incident from his school years:<\/p>\n

The issue reminds me of a girl who was in my class in public school, many years ago. …every morning, just before students sang O Canada<\/em>, she would slip out of the classroom, returning a few minutes later.<\/p>\n

One day, I asked her why she did this. She explained she was a Jehovah\u2019s Witness, and her religion did not believe in \u201cworshiping worldly nations\u201d (or words to that effect)…Her exemption from O Canada<\/em> went on for years, without any apparent harm done to Barbara, the other kids in the class, or the nation as a whole. It was an utterly victimless crime.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As it was for me, the lyrics were the issue for Barbara, not the music. \u00a0The tune of O Canada<\/em><\/a>, separate from the nationalistic sentiment of the words would not have sent her into the hall.\u00a0 But when lyrics are combined with music to indoctrinate beliefs, even when the music is beautiful, the words can cause conflict for the listener. \u00a0Christmas music \u2014 and all liturgical music \u2014 is all about the lyrics, whether people pay attention to them or not.<\/p>\n

What I discovered, as I\u2019ll describe tomorrow<\/a>, is that many people do not.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? F<\/em>ollow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span>\u00a0or Twitter<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas Music in a Multicultural World \u2014 how do non-Christian music lovers get through December? (Part One)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":40351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,4967,31],"tags":[6560,5166,6561,6562],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/11\/ho-ho-no-part_one.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-auf","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40315"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40358,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40315\/revisions\/40358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40315"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=40315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}