Call for Proposals for articles for volume 32 of Polin: Studies in Polish-Jewry on “Jewish Musicians and Jewish Music-Making on the Polish Lands”

Philip Bohlman argues in Jewish Music and Modernity that “the contemporary dilemma confronting the modern study of Jewish music [is] that it has become a field trapped in a discursive space between Jewish Studies, cultural studies, and the anthropology of music.” For the editors of this volume of Polin on Jewish Musicians and Jewish Music Making on the Polish lands, the dilemma of which Bohlman wrote is rather to be embraced as a fascinating opportunity for a multi-disciplinary approach to the issues of Jewish musical life in all its aspects. Interdisciplinary collaborations would be welcome and encouraged.

This is not an effort to define what may well be undefinable--that is, a definition of what Jewish Music is--but rather an effort to explore the activities and great creativity of musicians of the “Mosaic persuasion” in the myriad of genres and styles in which they worked. We aim to cover the area of the Polish-Lithunanian Commonwealth and its successor states from 1750 to the present.

Possible topics for papers could include, and are not limited to: Synagogue Music and the cantorate, the music of the Polish hasidim, Jewish popular musicians of the interwar period and cabaret, Jewish secular music-making (choral societies, folk ensembles), Yiddish Theater and Film music, the critical reception of musical artists of Jewish descent in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources, music criticism and journalism by Jews and Jewish musicians in non-Jewish sources.

Proposals should not exceed one page in length and should be submitted in English to Benjamin Matis no later than 1 February 2012.

Editors of this volume will be
Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University
Benjamin D. Matis, Independent Researcher