Posted on 01/14/2005 9:10:51 AM PST by SJackson
Why would a Comanche Indian write an opera about the Jewish Holocaust? Shouldn’t an American Indian write about his own Trail of Tears? Why this convergence of cultural ethos? Why this crossing of paths?
I hear these two giant, genetic dirges in the same key. Both are the lamentations of unwanted people. But, the reason I chose to write an opera on the Jewish Holocaust has to do with my educational background and personal experience.
Although I’m an Oklahoma Indian, I speak the artistic language of Europe. It so happens that, since I was a young teenager, Jewish people have always valued what I have to say. They have appreciated me and my work. Therefore I have always felt close to Jewish people.
I’ve also studied the Bible, privately and professionally, and had some formal Jewish studies. I am familiar with Jewish family life and worship. In Connecticut, I had Jewish neighbors who loved me as their own. (In fact, twice, they actually saved my life – terms for endearment, indeed.)
I trust the Jews with my tears. I once told a rabbi how I felt about Jewish people. I confessed, “I know if I really wanted to cry my heart out, I could come here (the synagogue) in the sanctuary, and just cry. No one would make me feel embarrassed. No one would shame me. No one would ask any questions. Everyone would understand. The Jews know.”
What would I be crying about?
The Indian story. It’s taken me many years to face it, but in my Comanche blood is written the worst historical trauma of all: to be free as the wind, then caged forever; to roam the prairie like a wild horse, then to be roped into everlasting confinement. Yes, I cry for an irreparable, tragic past. It is a doleful drone in my soul, a long, lonely drum beat.
I don’t know how to describe the sorrow. For all my education in the arts, I am mute. I have no voice. Yet.
I remember my composition teacher, Daniel Asia, at the University of Arizona. A nice Jewish boy from Seattle, Dan was wholly reluctant to talk about the Jewish Holocaust. He simply can’t. It is ineffable. I understand now. (Yet, I was composing Jewish “lamentations” for him in 1994.)
Then I met Jack P. Eisner in Israel, in 1998. (I was there for a premier of my ensemble work, “Three Spirit Dances on the Bark of an Ancient Stump.” I also introduced a new style of cantorial singing, and gave a performance on the Indian flute. This all happened in Caesarea.) Mr. Eisner was a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust.
I immediately became his captive, and immersed myself in his treasures of suffering. I wanted it all. I wanted to write an opera—the story line, the libretto, the music, and the orchestration. “We have a word for you in Jewish,” he said: “Chutzpah.” Even so, he commissioned me to write the first full length grand opera on the Holocaust. He later presented to score to Zubin Mehta, and Kristof Penderecki, both of whom endorsed it. Mr. Eisner passed away in August of 2003, before beginning the production.
However, I am happy to say that a portion of the opera will be recorded in Katowice, Poland, January 17, 2005. It will be the National Polish Radio Symphony, David Oberg conducting, with singers from the University of Central Oklahoma. It will be my third recording for Max Schubel’s Opus One label, the oldest, exclusively classical contemporary American music label in America.
I’ve already released one recording under Opus One, Clouds of an Evening Sun, for American Indian flute and orchestra. I’ve made a second recording for oboe and orchestra, entitled, HaNitzol (The Survivor). Not yet released, it is also performed by the Polish National Radio Symphony, featuring young Israeli oboist Meirav Kadichevski. HaNitzol is the memorial piece I composed after Mr. Eisner’s death.
I was with Mr. Eisner for a week at the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, shortly before he passed. He beat me three straight games of chess. (I had him in check twice in the last game.) He thought I was impatient. “You play like a Comanche,” he smiled. “You always go for the kill.”
I haven’t killed my fears yet. I’m still afraid of the Indian tragedy within me. For now, I find my voice in the ancient wailing of another people. I indulge myself through their exquisite articulations. I hide behind the Jews.
very depressing... no one should have to put on themselves the weight of a whole ethnic groups' history.
Wonderfully evocative headline!
Oy Kimosabe
:o)
I am not criticizing, just stating. In Israel, such immersion in self-misery and lamentation is totally associated with Galut culture, they are trying to disassociate themselves from it and move on.
Those of use who have lived in America for the last 40 years under Democratic rule feel your pain. We've lost irreplaceable freedoms under their fascist social engineering schemes, no doubt.
Check out his Website. Very interesting.
This guy's really confused about his roots. The "Trail of Tears" was a forced march in winter of Cherokee indians where many died. They were not Comanche.
That said, my daughter was in the music department at University of Central Oklahoma, so I should cut them some slack. She's majoring in something else now, so I doubt she's involved.
What's wrong with Robert Redford's use of the "Sundance" name for his film institute? Maybe nothing at all. What's wrong with the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo of the University of North Dakota? Maybe nothing at all...
except the fact that Leftist politicians, both Indian and white, have made careers out of attacking the Fighting Sioux, and all Indian names, images and logos used by schools, and out of suing professional athletic teams that use Indian images.
How did they miss Robert Redford's use of the "Sundance" for his movie enterprise?
Why haven't they invested the same energy in forcing Redford to change the institute's name? Where are the Delorias, the Harjos, the Meeks's, the Means's, and all the professionals? (Well, Means is on a wiser path these days, but, there is no excuse for the others. This is derilection of duty for them!) Where is the Commission on Civil Rights, and its declaration that using an Indian image creates a "hostile environment"? Where are all the senators, like Goldberg and Pallone, who want it to be illegal to use an Indian image?
I protest two things:
1) the outlandish hypocrisy of the Leftist Indians, who would crush some innocent school for using "Warrior" on it's school jersey, yet not breathe a word of protest against Robert Redford's use of "Sundance" for his institute.
2) the anti-American agenda of Hollywood liberals like Redford (who has brought George Soros into the Sundance Institute), and their use of an Indian image to validate or authenticate their anti-American agenda.
And I protest the fact that these Leftists feel free to employ the power of the Indian image to promote their agenda, but are vicious toward a conservative or patriot who sees the Indian as the quintessential validation of fundamental, traditional, constitutional American patriotism.
If Indians must be used, let it be for America, not against America. There is in itself nothing wrong in using an Indian image, a logo, or a name. It's exciting and powerful. The Indian image is always historical, interesting, and sort of magical. But to use it to dishonor America not only wreaks havoc in American society, but jeopardizes the future of the American Indian himself.
There is a right use of Indian images. When a school uses a warrior image, it is an honest use. It means bravery, courage, and determination. A warrior image is a real image. It stands for the core social values of independence, self-reliance, and providing for family and community. Every school should have a warrior image. But to use the sacred sundance as a cover for anti-American values is outright deception. Redford's use of the Indian image is criminal. Again, using an Indian name is not in itself the offense. It is the anti-American use made of it that offends me.
This is probably why the Leftist Indians have ignored the "Sundance" offense. The Leftist Indians are all anti-American. Why should they protest Redford's efforts? Their silence is really their blessing of his deceptive abuse of this sacred Indian image.
Essentially, the Left offends me. I just want to cast their own tactics in their teeth. I want to show the tyranny of the Left, and the inevitable hypocrisy it engenders. I want to give the lying bullies a taste of their own medicine. No, I'm not a career protester. I'm only an Indian patriot, incensed at the one use of the Indian image which is intolerable: its association with anti-American values. This I do most verily protest.
Who will join me? Who will make this raid of honor? Who will protest Redford's use of an American Indian image for his anti-American agenda?
=============== Now this is a good conservative OKLAHOMA Indian. One of the Redest states. I think the name Oklahoma means "Land of the Red Man". If the leftists got their way, shouldn't Oklahoma have to change it's name?
The name "Oklahoma" is from two Choctaw words, Okla = "red", Homa = "man"; thus "Red Man".
I'm both Jewish and part Indian. I will try to hear this work, I see nothing wrong with a Jew feeling sad for the Indian defeat, (but remember that there was a terrorist element in the indian response to having their lands run over by the westward movement.) I also see nothing wrong with an Indian using the holocaust as material in a creative work. No one has a copywright here.
Interesting man.
Which is probably a good thing, considering the Comanches.
Interesting man indeed.
And a freeper! (He says as he pings him.)
To the contrary, very remarkable.
Prior to the Holocaust, many found in the story of Israel's Escape from Slavery in Egypt and in the Jews' Exile to Babylon a metaphor for their own suffering. Most of the old Negro Spirituals have these narratives as the basis for identifying their own suffering as akin to Israel and the suffering of its people.
That's why the Bible, and now the Holocaust, have such universal resonance.
I will look forward to listening to this opera.
I hope Dr. David Yeagley writes of his people's tragedy one day.
SY, see here, you've got some competition for your pithy witticisms.
I agree about commonality in suffering and one should write about it BUT be optimistic. Whenever I read his work, I get the impression he's not happy.
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