Re: ...while driving...

[Dean Bandes <deanb...>]

d(dot)greenberger (at) cornell(dot)edu (David J. Greenberger) writes:

> fields (at) zip(dot)eecs(dot)umich(dot)edu (Matthew H. Fields) writes:

>> at last he had exactly what he needed to become a great Klezmer.  A week

> Hmm...a great klezmer?  I've never heard that term applied to a person, and
> although it usually refers to a particular style of music ...
> the name comes from the Hebrew "k'li zemer," or
> simply "musical instrument" (k'li = instrument or tool, zemer = of song).

> You've just called your friend a musical instrument!

Well, first, maybe that's what the friend said, and Matthew was just
reporting it :-) But that term is applied to musicians as well as the
musical instruments.  There is an old Yiddish proverb that goes, "When
the bride can't dance, she says that the klezmorim can't play" --
klezmorim is the Hebrew plural for klezmer -- which pretty clearly
refers to the musicians.  Further, the k'li = instrument or tool also
means "vessel", so another interpretation of "klezmer" is "vessels of
song", => the bearers of the musical tradition -- which is a nice way
for players of traditional music to think of themselves.  I heard the
latter interpretation from Henkus Netsky of the NE Conservatory of
Music, one of the founders of the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Dean Bandes
deanb (at) ma(dot)credence(dot)com    Klezmer trumpet and baritone horn player

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