Lesson 5e - Klezmer Music

Lesson 5e - Klezmer Music

Listening Activity: Klezmer Music (LO5.4)

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jews. The term klezmer combines two Hebrew words --- kle means "vessel" or "instrument", and zemer means "song". Klezmer music mostly consists of dance tunes and instrumental pieces for weddings and celebrations. The musicians known as klezmorim play instruments such as violin (fiddle), bass, clarinet, flute, cornet, tuba, tsimbl (hammered dulcimer), strohfiedel (folk xylophone), harmonica (small accordion), and drums. The sounds of klezmer music can be described by certain Yiddish words, for example:

krekhts
a wailing sound reminiscent of weeping
tshok
a laugh-like instrumental sound
kneytsh
a sob-like "catch"

Click the following link and watch a short video of musicians discussing the particular sounds of klezmer music.

  Watch Video Clip

Video Series - BBC Four Timeshift (LO5.4)

Play and watch the entire clip - The Sound of Klezmer Links to an external site.
Musicians discuss the particular notes and scales used to make the sound of klezmer music.

Transcript of the video

Quick Check (LO5.4)

The Yiddish word "krekhts" is used to describe which of the following sound?

Check Answer

Reading & Listening Activity (LO 5.4)

Read Hankus Netsky, "American Klezmer: A Brief History Download American Klezmer: A Brief History" in American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots, ed. Mark Slobin (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 13-23.

Listen below to the musical examples cited in the article.

Example 1.1

Lebedik Freylekh 
(Klezmer Conservatory Band, and Hankus Netsky.Yiddishe renaissance, 1991. Vanguard 79450.) 

Lebedik Freylekh was written by a Jewish composer Peretz Sandler for a 1924 Yiddish theater show of the same name. Listen carefully to this example.

Press the play button below to listen.

Questions (reflect on them before checking the answers below):

    • Can you feel the beat and the quadruple meter?
    • At which point in Section 2, you hear the cymbal plays a syncopated rhythm, a pattern derived from the division of the beat 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &? 

0:00 Introduction
0:02 Section 1
0:29 Section 2
0:42 Section 2 (repeat)
0:57 Section 1
1:24 Section 2
1:38 Section 2 (repeat)
1:53 Section 1

Example 1.2

Yiddish Blues 
(Lieut. Joseph Frankel's Orchestra. 1919. Columbia E4610.)

Press the play button below to listen.

In 1910s, "oriental fox trot" was a new style of music which combined traditional Eastern European dance melodies with popular American rhythms. Yiddish Blues is the first known recording of this new style. This 1918 composition combines Mi Sheberakh and ragtime rhythms. Mi Sheberakh is one type of modes (scales) in Yiddish music.

Read about Mi Sheberakh. Download Read about Mi Sheberakh..

Listen carefully to Yiddish Blues.

Question: Can you count the beat in quadruple meter 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4?

0:00 Section 1
0:14 Section 2 (Note: the trumpet plays the beat at 0:19)
0:29 Section 1 (abbreviated: repeat from 0:05)
0:38 Section 3
0:48 Section 1

Examples 1.5, 1.6, and Artie Shaw

In 1930s, a fusion of klezmer and American music became widely known as "Jewish jazz." Listen carefully to the resemblance of the following three examples.

Question: Can you identify the meters of these songs?

Example 1:5: St. James Infirmary Blues 
(Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra 1928-1929, 1991. Classics 570.)

Press the play button below to listen.

Example 1.6: Khosn Kale, Mazeltov 
(Giora Feldman. Klezmer Celebration, 1997. Plane Record 88809.)

Press the play button   below to listen.

Artie Shaw: Chant 
(Artie Shaw & His Orchestra. Artie Shaw: Swing Legends, 2001. Nimbus 2018.) 

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Quick Check (LO5.4)

The term "klezmer" means:

Check Answer

Reference:
BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 12. (October 11, 2012). Words, Sounds & Pictures: The sound of klezmer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zm852