Re: Klezmer Forest& Trees(was Re: what is Klismer music?)

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>On Sat, 25 May 1996 18:08:19 -0400 (EDT), Fred Jacobowitz wrote:
> 
>>       You miss the forest for the trees. Klezmer (that is how I learned 
>>the word and it most accurately transliterates a Hebrew/Yiddidsh word) is 
>>NOT sung, as a general rule. It IS the wedding music, i.e. the dance 
>>music/partying music of the Eastern European Jews, most of whom spoke 
>>Yiddish as their home language (or Mamaloshn). It is INSTRUMENTAL music - 
>>not vocal, though occasionally words were written to some tunes. 
>
>Of course I agree that Klezmer is, *in its origins*, primarily an
>instrumental genre. Your post is informative and accurate, IMO.
>
>However, we cannot disregard the work of Jewish musicians _in the present_,
>whose task it is to take that which is given by tradition and to develop and
>vary it.

Well, I think that there are several issues here. There is
the specific genre of Jewish folk music which is played at
weddings, or which is derived from that tradition--klezmer--
and there are all of the other genres of Jewish music, many
of which have nothing to do at all with the music played at
Ashkenazic simkhas, but are still part of evolving Jewish
traditions.

The klez revival has made the term "klezmer" stand in for
many other types of Jewish music--in fact, not only does
Jewish, even Israeli, music get called "klezmer" by those
unfamiliar with the idiom, but I seem to be increasingly
encountering rock bands which describe their music as
(among other influences) "Klezish" because they have
some central European or Balkan sounds!

This is nice as a measure of the popularity of the term,
but I don't think it hurts to continue to use the term
properly to refer to Ashkenazic wedding music, and even
in a pinch, to the modern klez-jazz and klez-rock 
derivatives from that specific set of idioms. A rock 'n'
roll honga is still klez (up to a point). But songs such
as "Papirosen" or "Bei Mir bist du sheyn," commonly 
performed by klez revival bands, are not klez, imho 
(in my humble opinion). I'd rather use a more inclusive
term such as "Jewish folk" or simply "Jewish" music to
include them all, rather than have the term "klez" changed
to mean "Jewish folk" or "Jewish."

Besides, a growing number of klez bands, including some
of those I consider most exciting in expanding the idiom,
include musicians who aren't Jewish--they just like the
music--just as many Jewish musicians play Celtic music,
blues, or Jazz.

ari


Ari Davidow * ari (at) ivritype(dot)com * http://www.well.com/user/ari/