Joel Rubin
Dateline: 11/20/98
Joel Rubin is best-known as probably the best virtuoso clarinet player in the Klezmer genre. Or perhaps
as a member of Brave Old World, whose self-titled album was recently re-released on CD as Hungry Hearts, and features many hard to find clarinet solos from Klezmer of the early part of
this century. But then, maybe Rubin is most noted as an ethnomusicologist studying early Jewish music, mushc of which he documents at the Jewish Cultural Programming and Research with his
partner Rita Ottens, an ethnomusicologistin her own right.
I recently asked Rubin some questions about his career as a Jewish musician, and as you'll see, there are many different facets to this man's music.
Paula: How do you define your role as a Jewish musician?
Joel: I don't really see my self as a Jewish musician per se. I happen to be
Jewish, and the music I play is certainly Jewish in content (Joachim
Stutschewsky called it the most Jewish music the Jews have got!) -- but I
am first and foremost a musician and an artist in this diverse world. I was
playing Beethoven, Schoenberg and Cage long before I got involved in Jewish
instrumental music from Eastern Europe ("klezmer"). I also spent years
playing Greek clarinet styles.
Paula: How has Jewish music changed since you started your career, until
now?
Joel: I try not to pay too much attention to the trends in Jewish music and
concentrate on what I feel is my own way of expressing myself within the
musical framework. I personally do not believe there is any such thing as
"Jewish music". There are hundreds of traditions which have been developed
by Jews throughout the world over the course of two millenia. Klezmer music
is one of them, and even klezmer has developed and grown over a period of
four or five centuries -- and in the past century expanded into all sorts
of different directions --, so that I am reluctant to use this terminology
at all.
Paula: What do you see as the future for Jewish music?
Joel: Did Beethoven think about the future of German music? Again, I am really
mostly concerned with developing my own music. As I think that a question
as to what the future for Jewish music will be really amounts to seeking an
answer as to what the future of Judaism will be, I am leaving the prognosis
of the future of Jewish music to the idealogues. By the way, nobody in
Israel would ask a question like that; here in Germany where I am currently
residing people seem completely obsessed with this question.
Paula: What Jewish/Klezmer acts are around now that you think are
particularly hot, and why?
Joel: At the moment, I've mostly been listening to contemporary chamber music by
Morton Feldman, John Cage, Barbara Monk Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi and
others, as I am very interested in abstract composition patterns which
relate to another favorite topic of mine, abstract paintings, which I
collect. I also find traditional and classical Turkish, Arabic, Greek,
Armenian and Persian music inspiring for their craft, spirituality and
serenity, qualities which are sadly missing in a lot of the Jewish/klezmer
music of recent decades. Other than the wonderful historical recordings of
cantors, klezmorim and Yiddish theater singers I enjoy Hasidic field
recordings from Israel. A lot of those musicians are friends and colleagues
during many years of field research and jamming in Israel.
Paula: What projects are you working on right now that you would like to
discuss?
Joel: As I am in the very last stages of my dissertation on early twentieth
century klezmer clarinet style I unfortunately don't have much time for all
the other projects that I am supposed to be doing. But I am putting
together a new program for the next recording my Joel Rubin Jewish Music
Ensemble. It will be a continuation of the work I did on my last recording,
Beregovski's Khasene. Forgotten Instrumental Treasures from the Ukraine
(Schott Wergo 1614-2), drawing upon unknown klezmer and hasidic music from
the Ukrainian Jewish collections. There will be guest artists from Russia
and Israel.
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