Re: Glossary of Klezmer Improvisation Genres

[Elliott <enr01...>]

This is really interesting, but could you explain to a musically illiterate
person like myself how I can recognize a Doina when I hear it. I have
listened to many doines on recordings and think I know one when I hear it ,
but now I'm not sure.
        elliott
        ellllllllll

Joshua Horowitz wrote:

> 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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