Re: Meaning of "Klezmer"

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

Most introductions to klezmer music will note the derivation. My own
paragraph is at

http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/aboutklez.html

and there are other intros to the music at
http://www.klezmershack.com/contacts/klezwords.html

I believe that the first use of the term to refer to the music (as opposed to 
the musicians, which came earlier, and had a derogatory cast to it), was in 
Beregovski, where he referred to "klezmer music" or "Jewish klezmer music".
That would be in the '30s? (the phrase, "Jewish klezmer music" was also 
the original title of the Statman-Feldman album, now out of print, that
got many people excited about the music in the late Seventies).

ari

At 10:11 AM 12/30/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>I recently wrote an article, sort of a very basic introduction to Jewish
>Music at http://worldmusic.about.com/library/bl1012.htm
>I make reference to the fact that the word "klezmer" means "musicians" --
>someone wrote in and told me that although this is what I have always
>heard, it is not correct, that "klezmer" means 
> "musical instrument." Quoting from her email, she said: It's from the
>Hebrew words "klei zemer," which
>mean instruments of song.
>Can someone shed some light on this for me?
>Thanks,
>Paula
>
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