| Klezmer | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Native name | קלעזמער |
| Other names | Jewish instrumental folk music, Freylekh music |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Ashkenazic Jewish ceremonies, especially weddings, in Eastern Europe |
| Typical instruments | Standard orchestra instruments, accordion, cimbalom |
  Israeli music |
|---|
| Religious |
| Secular |
| Israel |
| Dance |
| Music for holidays |
Klezmer (Yiddish: קלעזמער or כּלי־זמר) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.[1] The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these would have been played at weddings and other social functions.[2][3] The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including Ottoman (especially Greek and Romanian) music, Baroque music, German and Slavic folk dances, and religious Jewish music.[4][5] As the music arrived in the United States, it lost some of its traditional ritual elements and adopted elements of American big band and popular music.[6][7] Among the European-born klezmers who popularized the genre in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s were Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein; they were followed by American-born musicians such as Max Epstein, Sid Beckerman and Ray Musiker.[8]
After the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust, and a general fall in the popularity of klezmer music in the United States, the music began to be popularized again in the late 1970s in the so-called Klezmer Revival.[1] During the 1980s and onwards, musicians experimented with traditional and experimental forms of the genre, releasing fusion albums combining the genre with jazz, punk, and other styles.[9]
- ^ a b Strom, Yale (Winter 2024). "The Mesmerizing Sounds of Klezmer". Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
- ^ Beregovsky, Moishe (1982). "4. Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (1937)". In Slobin, Mark (ed.). Old Jewish folk music : the collections and writings of Moshe Beregovski. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 530–548. ISBN 081227833X.
- ^ Rubin, Joel E. (2020). New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer. p. 29. ISBN 9781580465984.
- ^ Slobin, Mark (2000). Fiddler on the move : exploring the klezmer world. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780195161809.
- ^ Feldman, Zev (2016). Klezmer: music, history and memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 208–210. ISBN 9780190244514.
- ^ Rubin, Joel E. (2020). New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 71–74. ISBN 9781580465984.
- ^ Feldman, Zev (2016). Klezmer: music, history and memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 216–8. ISBN 9780190244514.
- ^ Feldman, Zev. "Music: Traditional and Instrumental Music". YIVO Encyclopedia. YIVO.
- ^ Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1998). "Sounds of Sensibility". Judaism. 47: 49–55.