Dance and Trance Revisited: Has It Gone Too Far?

Last year, I wrote a column about the growing trend of dance and trance beats in Jewish music – a trend that, by the way, has become even more dominant over the past year. In that column, I explained that a huge part of these electronic beats comes down to the “programmers” who create them. Now, when I say programmers, I don’t mean people who write software code – I mean the producers who design and sell the musical beats. In the industry, they are called programmers.

Last year, I traced the roots of this trend back to the Yamaha Tyros 5 model, then to Korg, and so on. In other words, I blamed the programmers.

So, this year, I decided to do the exact opposite. I reached out to two of the most talented and well-known programmers in the industry, who sell their beats to countless keyboardists and wedding bands across both Israel and the U.S. One is Motti Rosenfeld from Israel, who specializes in creating beats for Yamaha keyboards. The other is Ari Pearl from the U.S., who specializes in Korg keyboards. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t even ask them for some free beats in exchange for the interview, because I play a Roland...)

Both of them are accomplished musicians themselves who regularly play at weddings and live events.

Their clients are keyboardists and bands, and I told them straight up: “I’m going to give you a chance to defend yourselves! You talk – I’m listening. Tell me I’m wrong.”

We ended up having a fascinating conversation. They are smart, they know the industry inside out, they grew up on authentic chassidic music, and they know exactly what they’re doing. Hearing their side was my main goal.

Did they convince me? Partially. I didn’t agree with everything they said, but I did find some common ground, which I’ll expand on at the end of the column. First, though, let’s hear their side of the story.

Motti Rosenfeld

“At the end of the day,” says Rosenfeld, “when a client books me to play at a wedding, they expect me to deliver exactly what they want. The person who decides what plays on the dance floor is the client. There is a clear market demand; the grooms themselves are the ones requesting these tracks. Ultimately, the demand comes straight from the audience.”

“The music that is today considered chassidic would have been considered DJ music ten years ago,” he continues. “Twenty years ago, people were used to something completely different.”

The way it works is that the chosson reaches out to the keyboardist prior to the wedding and asks for ten minutes of tracks and trance. The keyboardist then contacts a programmer to ask for these beats, paying a nice amount for them. If the chosson asks for only chassidic music, however, that is what he’ll get. Today, for example, Rosenfeld said he had a wedding without a single electronic track – only traditional chassidic beats (also known as freilach).

“Why are so many keyboardists still using the Yamaha Tyros 5, which is a very old model, released in 2013?” I ask.

“It has a very warm sound,” Rosenfeld says. “It’s very geshmak and easy to use. Yamaha’s newest model, the Genos2, is very complex.”

 Rosenfeld is a Chernobyl chassid. He grew up on very traditional chassidic music, listening to Yom Tov Ehrlich and Meir Adler – the really hardcore chassidic music. Let’s say that when he was growing up, Avraham Fried and Mordechai Ben David were considered too “modern” for him; he only listened to them outside the house. Actually, as a kid, he didn’t really listen to much music. At around 13 or 14, while in yeshiva, he began to listen to music more often, and by 15, he began to play. He received a half-working keyboard from his uncle and started on that. He mostly plays by ear.

“How are charedi kids even familiar with these crazy beats?” I ask. “Are they going to clubs?”

“For the charedim, it’s something new,” he says. “And no, they didn’t hear this music in clubs. It’s enough that one boy heard this music somewhere, liked the style, and wanted it at his wedding. His friends came to the wedding, heard it, and now want it at their weddings as well. Suddenly, 50 boys who were at the wedding also want this music style for their weddings.”

He thinks, however, that the freilach style will return. “It might take a few years. People will hear these tracks for a few years, and then they will return to classical chassidic music. I think it’s a passing trend.”

He himself is deeply connected to chassidic music. He enjoys music in general and therefore can also appreciate dance beats, but he still prefers classical chassidic music. When he sits at home and listens to music, that is what he chooses. He notes that there is a lot of wisdom in electronic music, citing the famous saying, “Chochmah bagoyim ta’amin” (If there is wisdom among the nations, believe it).

During the morning, he studies in a kollel, at noon he builds beats, and in the evening, he plays at weddings. Today, however, he takes less part in the actual building of the beats, since he has a staff of workers under him whom he manages. It has become a business, and his employees build the beats under his guidance.

“You’re destroying chassidic music with these beats,” I playfully accuse him.

“No,” he says. He doesn’t think it ruins Jewish music. “You need to strike a good balance between the two. Not too much of either, so you keep some variety.”

He thinks it is better for the average chassidic boy to hear this music at weddings rather than going to look for it in clubs or on the Internet. “If they don’t get this style of music at weddings, they might look for it elsewhere,” he explains. “Once they can listen to it at a wedding, they’ve had their fill and won’t go looking for it anywhere else.”

He himself is not familiar with non-Jewish music. If he needs to build a new beat, however, he will listen to specific tracks solely to learn and build the beat. But just to listen for pleasure? No.

“Many years ago, in Eastern Europe, rabbis used to take non-Jewish music and ‘convert’ it into Jewish music,” he notes. “Every few years, what is today considered mainstream would have been considered the ‘new’ thing in the past generation, and seemingly forbidden.”

I mention the new big wedding hit, “RTVT” by Hershy Weinberger and Shmueli Ungar (if you are not familiar with it yet, please wait until after Tisha b’Av to listen to this song). “This is out of line,” I say. “They’ve gone too far.”

I personally like it because I listen to many genres, including non-Jewish music. But I think this is no longer chassidic music.

“‘RTVT’ is OK and interesting,” says Rosenfeld. “It gives variety. The guys like it. Just as quickly as it came in, it will go out.”

In his opinion, there is a need for it, as long as it’s balanced – in the right dose. A little taste of everything.

“So, is it ruining chassidic music?” I press him again.

“No, there is no single definition of it,” Rosenfeld answers. “One person will say that Klezmer is chassidic music; another will say Mordechai Ben David is chassidic music.” His father, for example, who is a Chernobyl chassid, will say, for example that he considers MBD too modern.

“Does your father listen to your tracks?” I ask. “Is he OK with what you do?”

“He doesn’t listen to my tracks,” he says. “But he’s OK with it. If it’s for parnassah, he’s OK with it.”

There’s a demand from the public, and he gives the public what they ask for. “If tomorrow there is a demand to return to classical chassidic music – freilach – I will delete all the tracks.”

There’s a lot of wisdom in electronic music – how to mix sounds together so it sounds good, how to build the sounds. It’s not just noise. I ask Rosenfeld to share the process of building a beat.

“It’s like constructing a building,” Rosenfeld says. “You begin with the drums and record them. Then you add the hi-hats, the snare, and then the bass. The next step is adding the synth sounds. Then you need to fine-tune everything to find the right balance. There are techniques for layering sounds to make them all blend in harmony together. Many small things create the final result. To build a beat from scratch takes about 20 work hours.”

You can listen to Motti Rosenfeld’s beats (please wait until after Tisha b’Av to listen to his beats), and contact him to purchase beats here: https://buysellbeats.net/seller-detail/motti-rosenfeld.

Ari Pearl

Ari Pearl is one of today’s leading programmers in the U.S., specializing mostly in Korg models. He works with leading musicians and wedding bands such as Blue Melody, Elchonon Gartenhaus, Avromi Berko, Zalman Schnitzler, Moti Breier, Kumzitz Yitz, Hillel Kapnick, Yaakov Ziones, and more.

Blue Melody? I was just at a wedding a few weeks ago, and yes, for the second dance they used a very electronic beat. Actually, I was curious because the keyboardist didn’t even have an arranger keyboard. If I remember correctly, he had a Nord and, on top of it, a synthesizer – neither of which usually comes with built-in beats. I tell Pearl about it.

He gets excited. “When was the wedding?”

“Just a few weeks ago,” I answer.

“I just created the beats for their second dance!” he exclaims. He then explained to me how he built it: He designed and sampled several synth sounds for the Nord. The drums are played live via a trigger connected to each part of the kit, linked with sample stacks as well as a drum pad for additional tones. He recommended the trigger setup for them.

“These arguments surface every 10 to 15 years,” he says. “Books and pamphlets were written against MBD many years ago when he started because he used rock and pop styles. Music is fluid. Many people were against it. The older generation always says the same thing: The new music is too aggressive.”

“What’s the main purpose of a new song at a wedding?” Pearl asks. “To make you want to dance. Our hearing becomes more sensitive as we grow older. Additionally, when people hear new things that are different from what they grew up on, it always causes them to reject the new stuff.”

The way you create and record music today is different from how it was done 20 years ago, Pearl notes. “You have options today that you didn’t have in the past, affecting all music, including chassidic music.”

Music is symbiotic with technology and evolves in a fluid motion, he explains. Synthesis is not fake music at all. Synthesis is the use of circuitry and a thorough understanding of the physical mechanics of sound to generate and manipulate the same wave shapes that are also created by playing the more traditional instruments. It’s just a different way of creating sound, and it’s not any less musical than more traditional instrumentation. The earliest known synthesizer is the theremin, which also is the only instrument played without touching it.

Most electronic music tracks are created with easily more than 50 channels. Stacking and layering creates that signature “wall of sound” that is quite prominent in many genres. The modulations that we do with strings, piano, and ear candy percussion are created through motion pads and plucks as well as super saws that are heavily saturated with Reverb, giving it that spacey lo-fi vibe.

The younger generation dictates which music becomes popular. In Jewish music, the people who decide what is popular are not music experts, but the people who know how to dance.

“Even EDM beats can be Jewish music if they follow the rules of Jewish music,” says Pearl. “If it brings you closer to Hashem and brings you simcha, if it makes you sing and dance and elevates the simcha – it’s Jewish music.”

“People forget that a wedding is not a family reunion,” he continues. “It’s not for the parents, and it’s not for the grandparents – it’s for the chosson and kallah and their friends. The chosson and kallah and their friends want EDM.”

“On the other hand,” Pearl notes, “you will almost never hear rap or heavy metal, because those are very cultural and do not sound like Jewish music. But you’ll hear EDM.”

As long as we keep Jewish music up to date, young people will not look elsewhere, he says.

“I think that people that believe that someone who listens to today’s music at a wedding would be more likely to go to a club probably miss going to clubs, and they probably should address why that is,” says Pearl. “Music is fluid and ever-changing. It’s a mitzvah to cater our beats to the crowd whose dancing adds to the simcha of the chasuna, and it is a privilege to contribute to simchas chosson v’kallah. Some people do request older songs, and we cater to them, too. Whatever adds to their simcha is what it’s all about.”

He notes that a lot of the songs we think of today as Jewish music actually are not. “For example, marches – the rhythm wasn’t originally Jewish; [they were] played in times of war. But then it became much more popular in the 1800s, and Jewish music adopted it. People protested it back then, too. But it followed the rules of Jewish music,” he says.

The same with waltzes. We sing them, but we don’t dance to them. When waltzes made their way into Jewish music, people probably rejected them as well. Fast forward 10 to 20 years later, and they started singing them.

Freilach is not a Jewish beat either; it is originally German. Klezmer and leibedik were adopted from German music.

According to Pearl, older people feel a sense of rejection toward EDM mostly because of the low frequencies, below 100 Hz. They also don’t hear the separation of the instruments well enough to appreciate the complexity of the music. When they were younger, the pitch in music was higher; they are used to higher frequencies. Back in the day, music barely had sub-bass. Therefore, they naturally reject the trend. They are used to songs where the melodies are more complex.

Pearl claims that Jewish music, even with all these beats, is still different from non-Jewish EDM because it comes from a completely different culture – even though it’s the same music style.

“This is just the natural evolution of music. If we want music to continue, we must appeal to what the kids like,” says Pearl, noting that EDM, for example, evolved from disco, which evolved from Schlager, and so on.

As a kid, he also grew up on a mix of non-Jewish and Jewish music, exposing him to many different styles and genres. When he was seven or eight years old, he made his first beat on a Roland (“My favorite,” I tell him). He continued on Yamaha keyboards, owning many of the PSR models. After the Tyros 2, he switched to Korg. “Yamaha is like Apple – a closed operating system. Everything has to be within Yamaha. Korg is way more flexible, like open-source software.” He started with the Korg PA600 and stayed with the brand. When he started sampling sounds, he got into sound design.

Besides beats, Pearl also builds sounds. He samples the sound and uses Cubase software to build the entire beat, connecting a MIDI keyboard to Cubase.

You can listen to Ari Pearl’s beats (again, please wait until after Tisha b’Av), and contact him to purchase them here: https://buysellbeats.net/seller-detail/ari-pearl.

Verdict

So, did they convince me? I’d say only partially. I still don’t think these beats belong in Jewish music. Yes, music evolves with time; yes, this is what the crowd wants; and yes, classical chassidic music originally evolved from non-Jewish music. But we live in a generation with so many temptations and so much external influence. I believe Jewish music should be protected like a nature reserve.

Furthermore, in my opinion, even though Jewish music evolved from non-Jewish music, over time it created a unique Jewish style that sounds distinct. “RTVT,” for example (which I personally like and have listened to a few times), no longer sounds Jewish – besides the lyrics, of course. If you were to let someone who doesn’t understand the words and doesn’t know it’s Jewish music listen to it, and then ask them, “What genre is it?” I’m not sure their first bet (or even their second or third) would be chassidic music.

In my humble opinion, contemporary Jewish music should stick to traditional arrangements with brass, saxophone, strings, piano, and some electric guitars – freilach beats with some electronic touches here and there. Jewish music should be distinct from non-Jewish music. The more music in general evolves, the more Jewish music will set itself apart if it sticks to classical arrangements. It needs to be different.

And since both Rosenfeld and Pearl say that the demand comes from the crowd, I think educators and rabbis should influence that crowd. Educators should guide their students, explaining to them the power of music and inspiring them to love classical chassidic music.

And no, they shouldn’t feel the need to look for dance and trance music elsewhere if they are taught to perceive those genres in a negative light.

A recent article on YWN highlighted this exact issue: “The Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel, HaRav Aharon Teitelbaum, blasted the increasingly out-of-control music and atmosphere at chasunos during remarks delivered last Tuesday in Williamsburg. While the Rebbe was addressing his own kehila, many say the message resonates far beyond, as standards surrounding wedding music and dancing have been increasingly pushed in recent years. At many weddings today, bochurim can be seen dancing to loud club-style DJ music – particularly during the chosson and kallah’s entrance – in a manner seen as disconnected from the kedusha a chasuna is meant to have.”

About time someone finally said it.

I think rabbis and educators across the entire frum community – from Modern Orthodox to charedi – should follow the Satmar Rebbe’s lead and influence their students to appreciate and listen to traditional chassidic music. That way, Rosenfeld can finally delete those tracks and stick to traditional chassidic beats.