Politics & Power Quote by Neville Marriner

A polite understatement can carry a whole history, and Neville Marriner’s line does it in eight words: “at least consciously.” As a British conductor steeped in the European canon, he’s framing “American Jewish music” not as an exotic novelty, but as something already in the room - absorbed indirectly through film scores, Broadway orchestration, Tin Pan Alley harmony, even the general sheen of mid-century “American sound.” The newness, he implies, is less about the music’s existence than about finally naming what has been there all along.

The phrase “for us” matters, too. It’s an institutional “we” - orchestras, audiences, gatekeepers - the kind of collective that can overlook a tradition until it’s curated, programmed, and legitimated by the concert hall. Marriner’s diction is careful, almost diplomatic: he avoids claiming ignorance (which would sound provincial) while admitting a blind spot (which sounds honest). That balance is the quote’s real intent: an invitation to listen without making the music a museum piece.

“American Jewish music” itself is a loaded category, suggesting hybridity rather than purity. It hints at immigrant memory colliding with American modernity: klezmer inflections meeting jazz cadence, synagogue modes refracted through symphonic polish. Marriner doesn’t spell any of that out; he doesn’t have to. The subtext is cultural recognition catching up to cultural influence - the moment a tradition stops being background radiation and becomes a conscious part of the repertoire, with all the politics of belonging that entails.