Glossary of Klezmer Improvisation Genres

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Following the doina postings, I received several mails asking for (even
further) elaboration on the subject of *what is a doina, etc* so I hope
you all don't mind yet another lengthy pretentious theoretical
discussion...Josh Horowitz

Terminology in Klez. music is as inexact as it gets, but I'll try to
answer your question with what I have available. 

FORM AND MODULATION SCHEMES
While indeed most of the improvisational forms of Klezmer music have a
function (in the sense of being used for a specific purpose or
situation) most have no fixed formal structure or modulation scheme. We
could probably detect tendencies if we had enough examples of them (i.e.
forshpils, taxims, Zogakhts, etc), but we don't. Your would need a
statisic standard of 100 to do this, and we don't have any where near
this.

The improvisational forms I'm referring to carry these various names:

Forshpil
Nokhshpil
Opshpilns
Stehgreif
Gedanken
Improvisatsye
Kale
Zogakhts
Taksim

The genres that DON'T fall into this category are the following

Kale bazetsns (or bavaynens, badekns, etc as you will)
Khosn bazingns
Doina

I'll go through an explanation of each of these in their order, using
the parameters of Function and Form:

FORSHPIL:
Function: A prelude which comes before something else and is connected
to it. It sets something up, even another imrovisational form, like the
doina. 
Form: Free and usually short. Sets up the key to come and can use a
motive from the following piece. In a doina you can usually tell the
forshpil motive, because it doesn't hang around the 5th degree of the
mode, which the doina usually does in it's opening motive.    

NOKHSHPIL
Function: Usually to connect a free meter section to a strictly metered
one, which is why it is often found between the doina and the ensuing
hora or freylakh. It can also end any slow moving form. We are using 2
new types of nokhspil learned from Majer Bogdanski to finish off the
Kale and the Khosn bazingns on our new CD, Wedding Without a Bride (yup,
that's a plug)
Form:
The most typical nokhshpil is the one you find at the end of the Abe
Schwartz doina (also found in Kurt's book). This descending line is very
common as a connecting phrase. I have a non-Jewish field recording of a
doina played by tsimbl and violin from Radoia, Romania, whereby the same
*nokhspil* is played, but comes soon after the opening motive. I also
use the motive twice in different modes sandwhiched in the middle of a
Dobranoc improvisation on the new Wedding CD (another plug). Also, it
was used in Smyrniac Rembetiko (Last I talked to Marty Schwartz, he
thought this was because some of the instrumentalists who played
Rembetiko may have been Jewish) I think it's simply another case of
pan-Balkan motive sharing, though.

Opshpilns
Function: The Yiddish term seems to have several meanings, the most
basic being *Strike up the Band*. The German equivalent is *aufspielen
(remember the Weill piece, *Johnny spielt auf*?). There is also a 16th
Century satire by the court composer of Innbruck, Hans Newsidler. In
poking fun at Jewish dance music, he penned an out-of-tune *Judentanz*
which is preceded by the inscript: *spilt uf!* probably in reference to
the Badkhn's call to arms.
The second is *to play for someone* not unlike a serenade, though the
only use I have of the term in klezmer music is an *Opshpiln di Kale*
which is the instrumental portion before the kale bazingns follows (also
on the new Budowitz CD. Plug 3). It has the function of setting up the
mood of the badkhones, and focusing those present on the ceremony to
follow.
Form: These can constitute complete pieces, though the ones I have are
fairly short. Probably they didn't modulate because badkhen's were not
always musical, and most likely needed to be tonally anchored by the
ensemble.
 
STEHGREIF (ger. Literally stand and grab, i.e. improvise)
GEDANKEN (ger. thoughts)
IMPROVISATSYE (slav. improvisation)

Function: To please the guests when they asked the musicians to 
*improvise anything at all, but show us what you like to play*. This was
the explanation given to me by Jeremiah Hescheles, who led the Giler
Kapelye in Gliniany Poland in the late 20's and 30's and was a good
friend of Beyresh Katz. He said, often musicians were asked to show
their stuff, at which point they improvised anything at all. Since in
his ensemble they knew each other's playing so well, it was no problem
to do this, even together. There is no form to such a thing, but one
could imagine that fooling around with the given forms of other pieces
(i.e. kale bazetsns, etc) would be typical. 

KALE BAZETSNS
Function: To instruct and bring to tears the bride.
Form: comes directly from prayer motives 1:1. The bazetsns almost always
rotates the following shtaygerim (modes) in D: 
D mogen ovos (minor) F adonoy molokh (major) and G mogen ovos (minor).
This modulation is SO COMMON in prayers as well as Hasidic dance
niggunim, that I would like to propose calling its use in klezmer music
the *bazetsns modal group* (also to be found on the new Budowitz CD.
Plug 4)

Zogakhts (or Zogekhts)
Function: To entertain listeners and please.
Form: Since there is only one Zogakhts piece so named (Moshe Bick's
transcription of a Bessarabian wedding, taken from a violinist's
composition), one can't speak of a genre, though the cantorial
connection is interesting (coming from Zogn). The piece is
through-composed and virtuosic. My own zogakhts (new CD. plug 5)
combines motives of an older bazetsns opshpiln-doina-taxim-dance motives
in an effort to explore modal modulations and also recapitulate the
wedding (it's used in the Gute Nakht suite), so I took the title as a
lead toward using the associative possibilities of klezmer music, as I
think this is what klezmorim were used to doing when it was still
considered artful to do it.

TAXIM:
Function: Probably the same as the Zogakhts. Since there are only 2
known Jewish examples (78 record of Gegna, violin and an unpublished
transcription by Beregovski), we again can't make assumptions. Strangely
both taxims are modally stagnant, using typical motives of the doina.
This seems to contradict the use of the term in Turko-Arabic countries,
where the taxim can be very explorative.

DOINA:
The simplest definition of the JEWISH doina would be to make a
comparison with the blues as a form. Blues has thousands of different
forms, including 12 bars, 16 bars, 24 bars, etc. and may not necessarily
follow the I-IV-I-V-I form though this is it's prototype. Jewish doinas
never seemed to progress past the 
*prototype model*, if you look at the diversity of doinas found
throughout Romania and Moldavia. Though within a smaller range of
possibilities there is still a lot of diversity between each players'
personal types in Klezmer music. This prototype, in it's reduced  basic
form is:

D mishebarakh (minor with #4) - G mogen ovos (minor)- D mishebarakh - G
adonoy molokh (mixolydian with #4 sometimes) D mishebarakh- E freygish-
G mogen ovos- D mishebarakh

Please let me know if that helps. Josh Horowitz

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