Re: ¿origins of klezmer tonality?

[Cantor Neil & Katie Schwartz <schwartz...>]

>
>Finally, what many consider the most Jewish of all, the mode known as
>"Freygish", "Ukrainian Dorian", or "Ahava rabo", which is built on a
>major scale in the tonic, but uses the chord of the lowered seventh, in
>minor, as a dominant function -- in other words, if you are in D freygish,
>the "dominant" is c minor.
>
>Itzik-Leyb Volokh (Jeffrey Wollock)

Dear Jeffrey,

 Nice answer to a good question, but allow me to be forward enough to
clear up a couple little details here.

 Ahava Rabba (or Makaam Hejaz to the Arabs) is a modified Phrygian
scale (hence "Freygish") with a raised 3rd.  If Phrygian is all the
white notes on the piano from E to E, Ahava Rabba is this:

        E - F - G# - A - B - C - D - E          or

        B - C - D# - E - F# - G - A - B

 Ukranian Dorian is a variant of the straight Dorian scale (piano white
notes from D to D), basically minor with a raised 4th:

        D - E - F - G# - A - B - C - D          or

        A - B - C - D# - E - F# - G - A

 Sometimes called the Slicha or Mi Sheberach mode, this variant is most
often used as a modulation within the HaShem Malach mode (Mixolydian).
A good example of that mode is "If I Were a Rich Man" from "Fiddler".

 Also, your concept of using the lowered seventh as a "dominant" is OK,
but the chord would be in Major; to use your above example of D Freygish,
the "dominant" would be C Major, not c minor.  Isador Freed wrote a book
many years ago called "Harmonizing the Jewish Modes" which deals with
the very difficult task of harmonizing Ahava Rabba.

 Proof of the tie-in between Klezmer and Hazzanut: all this arcane info
was taught to me at the JTS Cantorial School.  Both Hazzanim and good
Klezmorim have another thing in common besides their modes; they both
improvise within the modal structure to convey the meaning of the piece.

                                                 Cantor Neil Schwartz