Sunday, June 26, 2022

The malleability of folk songs (2)

I gave my talk a few days ago, in Hebrew, to an audience of 12-15 people - rather disappointing. The talk was supposed to last about 75 minutes; I had music for 50 minutes, but I talked much more than I had planned, as I never got to the final song. As far as I am concerned, the talk went well, although it was difficult to tell; indirectly I received a few positive reactions.

Yesterday at the swimming pool I was approached by a lady who runs a similar group for OAPs, this time in English. Would I care to repeat my talk? She can't promise me a bigger audience, but I suppose this doesn't matter. She asked what the title of the talk was, and when I mentioned 'malleability', she became concerned: it might be that some of the audience don't know this word and might be threatened by it. As I probably mentioned in the earlier blog, I couldn't find a word in Hebrew for 'malleability' and had to suffice with 'flexibility'; it's not quite the same. 

'Malleability' is a word used in connection with defining what a metal is; given a lump of tin, one can change its form greatly, like plasticine. People have taken folk songs and changed their shape and form. This is what I mean; 'flexibility' seems like a compromise.

The talk is planned for next Sunday.

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