Jonathan Sturm

Haydn's Jews (review)

Shofar ♦ An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Boyarin’s emphasis on the paradox between Christian universalistic endeavors to include ever more peoples within the Christian fold and Christian attempts to work ever harder to achieve Christian purity within Christian society is undoubtedly important. As Christian doctrines were articulated more fully from the late eleventh century and as the institutional Church developed more policies to oversee and encourage Christian spiritual growth, mass conversions of unwilling non-Christians became ever more problematic. Questions about the efficacy of Jewish conversion intensified after the violence of the First Crusade, in which Christians were confronted by Jewish families who would rather perish than accept baptism as well as by Jewish converts who did everything they could to return to Judaism. Doubts about the sincerity of new Christians bedeviled Iberian Christian-Jewish relations after the forced conversions of 1391. Indeed the best work in this area seeks to unravel the many different variations and nuances of this troubled aspect of Christian-Jewish engagement by reading relevant source material with an acute awareness of how multi-dimensional this engagement was. In this context, the phrase “the unconverted self ” of Boyarin’s title makes perfect sense. Engagement with Jews was indeed one of the many ways some medieval Christians struggled with issues of their own religiosity and spiritual perfection. It also makes perfect sense to surmise with Boyarin that engagement with the inhabitants of the so-called New World could serve similar purposes. But this book’s heavy dependency on theory and frequent reliance on the interpretations of source material in cited secondary works affirm the generalities rather than illuminate the specifics we so desperately need to make real sense of the complicated identity questions with which Christian knights, rulers, and priests wrestled within and without Europe. Anna Sapir Abulafia Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge

String Choreography: Clarifying the Motions That Connect Notes and Bow Strokes

I n the world of dance, expression arises through the artistic organization of movement. Motions that recur frequently throughout a dance or scene, when combined with intermediate or linking steps, are collectively referred to as choreography, or the art of setting body motion to music. Dancers memorize, through careful thought and repetition, the sequence of steps that willbe required not only to execute their own roles gracefully, but also to interact with the other dancers on stage. Arabesque-ehassee-jeti-entre lacee-sissone-soutinu-these terms direct the dancers to perform certain combinationsof movements and bring a passageof music to life through motion. Without the choreographed directions, however, dancers would face two immediate problems:possibleinjury and chaotic performance. Direct comparisons can be made between the carefully choreographed motions of dance and the motions that lead to artistic performance on stringed instruments. A string player who understands and applies the concepts of muscular control underlying ballet choreography willacquire greater consistency as a performer. Choreography, therefore, is a term that can apply to the motions of arms, hands, and fingers combining to enhance accuracy, grace, and style in the performance of string music. Choreography can beapplied to both the left and right hands in violin playing to improve ease and consistency of motion.

Improvisation: Bringing Performer and Instrument Closer Together

Jonathan Sturm received his bachelors degree in music from Oberlin, where he studied with Stephen Clapp and Gregory Fulkerson, and his masters degree from Eastman School ofMusic,where hestudied with Zvi Zeitlin and Sylvia Rosenberg. While at Eastman, healso acquired a secondmasters degree inmusicology. Hewas on themusic faculty at Rhode Island College, where hetaughtviolin andearly music historyfrom 1986-1989. Heis now pursuingadoctorate ofmusicinviolinwithJosef Gingold at Indiana University.