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Let us hear your voice: vote now on Hebrew-music-books problem!
May 17th, 2008
I created a poll on the right side (scroll down) of my site where you can vote on the question:
“Almost no scholarly books in Hebrew in shops because…”
You have 7 options to choose from (if you have other options in mind that I forgot please write to me and I will add them).
Join the debate and influence! Vote now!
I basically agree with Yossi (sorry, didn’t see the surname), and would just like to add the following.
I think the question really hides the issue of patriotism. So let’s get it out into the open and ask whether patriotism is relevant in this field at all, and if it is, whether writing in Hebrew is really more patriotic than writing in English or any other language.
My answer is that it is not relevant, and if it were, writing in Hebrew does not serve the purpose of Israeli musicology — neither collectively, nor individually in terms of personal careers.
It is self-evident that both the Hebrew language and the Israeli publishing industry are in rude health. They don’t need our help, and, however well meaning, they can’t be of much help to us either.
As far as careers are concerned — Israeli poets and authors get international recognition only through translations into European languages, but even if they don’t make it internationlly they can still have national success. This does not apply to academic research for the reasons Yossi had already mentioned.
If I were a Welsh patriot I would be far more concerned with promoting the music of Wales in English than with writing about Beethoven in Welsh, unless I really thought I’d be saving an endangered language through this (self-deluded?) effort. Hebrew certainly doesn’t need our help, and the debate should shift to writing more about Israeli composers.
Best,
Shay Loya
Thank you for your comment Shay. The problem is why there is so little amount of academic books in Hebrew in the area of music while in other areas there are relatively much more. I claimed that one of the reasons (although not the main one) is that many Israeli musicians are old fashioned. Many of us are very disconnected from what is happening in the world and in other fields in Israel.
See http://www.bymusic.org/blog/2008/05/we-fail-doing-same-thing-in-music.html
I suggested that the academic scene in Israel should rethink its aims and research questions before discussing what there is and what there is not in Hebrew on music.
I don’t think that the issue is patriotism. Yet it is about how to be relevant to Hebrew language readers.