Joey Weisenberg is a musician I admire much more in concept than in his actual music. I love the way he thinks about congregational singing, and the way he writes about it, and his ideas for bringing congregations together as singing communities are genuinely interesting. I just . . . I've never really cared for his actual music, and listening to this piece, I think I'm starting to figure out why.
This setting of a portion of the Kaddish is probably Joey Weisenberg at his best. For all that it's a style that I'm not fond of, this is that style very well done. It's intense and meditative, and the harmonies are beautiful -- they remind me of some of the softer kinds of shape-note harmonies, minus the distinctive shape-note vocal timbre, of course. And with all that, I think I'm coming a bit closer to articulating why a piece like this doesn't really do it for me.
I think it's the structure of the piece. There is a structure, don't get me wrong. But I don't think it's a strong enough structure. Like a lot of prayer texts, the Kaddish is prose rather than rhythmic poetry. It's also fairly repetitive, especially the portion that Weisenberg has picked out. He sets it to a tune that moves slowly, at a fairly steady pace, with very long phrases and a weak pulse. This is fine for the kind of meditative nigunim that Weisenberg is so good at writing, but I don't think it supports the text of the Kaddish very well -- frankly, I can think of very few texts that it would support well.
I think it's those folkish, sacred-harp-lite harmonies that really bring it out for me. I would love for this piece to have a driving rhythm, a strong meter, contrasting dynamics . . . anything to give it more life than the sort of generalized, meandering prettiness that it currently has. You could meditate to this and achieve depths of spirituality. But, equally possibly, this piece could usher you into a well-earned shabbat shluf. And that, I think, is why Weisenberg's music ultimately leaves me cold.
