Re: Dreydlekh, etc.

[Matt Jaffey <mjaffey2...>]

Regarding the recent requests for the klezmer oriented meanings of various
yiddish words - krekhtsn, tshoks, kneytshn, dreydlekh and kwetsh. I'm going
to make an attempt to define some of them based on various sources that I
will specify - and will be happy to be corrected by someone more
knowledgeable.

First, while some responses gave English translations of the Yiddish, I was
surprised at the lack of substantive response with a klezmer context (Dick
Rosenberg on dreydlekh excepted). There are plenty of knowledgeable
musicians and music lovers on this list who could have responded to two or
three of these at least. One thought was that this topic has been covered
before, and people get tired of answering the same old questions. I did a
little searching in the archives and on Ari's website (using variable
spellings), and I don't think that any of these have been defined before.
Some of them have been used, but always as if everyone knows what they
mean. Wolf, who is both musical, and saavy to Yiddish culture, was one of
the folks asking for musical definitions, <<"Can someone explain --in
layperson's language--what these terms mean to a singer or
instrumentalist?">>, so its clear that not everyone, not even some
old-timers on this list know what these mean. On the other hand, I believe
that, once having the meaning, most would immediately recognize their
presence in some of the music that they listen to, sing or play.

Seth Rogovoy used three of these words in his review of the Bashert
KlezmerBand: "(Felicia) has a deep voice, which swung from cantorial style,
with the requisite krekhtsn, tshoks and kneytshn all in the right
places..." Perhaps he could comment on these; or will such info appear in
his upcoming book?

Since Seth's comments were about a vocalist, and because, as I understand
it, traditional instrumental klezmer music mimics East European Jewish
vocal style, it would be great if a vocalist familiar with these terms
could comment on them.

I play the violin and have studied occasionally with several people,
including Deborah Strauss, Kurt Bjorling, and very briefly with Steve
Greenman and Joshua Huppert. These musicians refer to the term krekhts all
the time. Other Yiddish terms don't come up much. 

I have heard that Alicia Svigals has done some work with Yiddish
nomeclature for ornaments, and know of at least one person on the list who
has studied with her briefly. It would be interesting to hear about the
terms that she uses.

KNEYTSHN & TSHOKS

I've never heard the terms kneytshn or tshoks used in connection with
klezmer music. However, since Wolf gives one of the meanings of kneytshn as
"to bend", this could refer to bending of notes, which is a common
practice. For instance, notes can be momentarily flatted in the middle, or
a very slow vibrato can put several "bends" in one note, or it can be
flatted at the end, like a very short glissando vanishing into nowhere.

KVETCH

Wolf:
 "Tsu kvetchn"  means "to squeeze" (and  a "kvetch" (n) = a "squeeze".)
( In some quarters, the Yiddish slang for "to complain" = "tsu kvetchn"
and a "complainer" = a "kvetch".)

On his instructional video, Andy Statman has this to say about this
ornament (paraphrase):

These are the chirps or laughs that can be made on the clarinet. (If
repeated in succession it sounds like laughter - he illustrates - I think
it sounds like duck quacks). This is accomplished on reed instruments by
lowering the pressure on the reed. (He claims it can be done on a violin by
slurring downward, but the downward slurs that violinists do have an
entirely different effect, as far as I'm concerned.) Dave Tarras, his
teacher, told him to use these sparingly, if at all. After doing the "duck
quacks" in succession, he says "this is unacceptable - it get a failing
mark in klezmer." Much later in the video, he illustrates sparing use of
these, and identifies them as kvetches. He says: "I like to keep the
kvetching to a minimum - no one likes to hear someone complaining all the
time."

In his book, Klezmer Collection, Stacy Phillips interviewed Zev Feldman.
Here's an excerpt relevant to the kvetch as Andy Statman defined it (p.181):

Zev: ...Its hard to think that the kind of virtuoso clarinet playing we
know in American klezmer could have developed in Europe...

Stacy: So that laughing and chirping stuff is an American klezmer style.

Zev: Yes, I suppose so...
(Not too committal an answer, but interesting, if true.)

KREKHTS

Wolf wrote:
<<Yiddish speakers understand "krekhtsn' means "to groan">>

Of the ornaments discussed here, this is the one I'm most familiar with.
But I'm going to quote others anyway:

"The influence of the human voice on klezmer music is made clear by the
name for its quitessential instrumental ornament: the krekhts, which
translates literally as 'sigh' or 'moan,' one of several borrowings from
the cantorial tradition."
>From Henry Sapoznik's book, Klezmer! (p.9)

"...vocalisms which are verbatim replicas of weeping and sighing, called in
Yiddish, krekhtsn...it (the krekhts tone) is stopped, or swallowed. This
sounds similar to the sound made when you're weeping and your breath gets
pushed out in thrusts."
Joshua Horowitz, in the liner notes to the Budowitz CD, "Mother Tongue"

Others have described the krekhts variously as "a break in the voice", "an
emotional catch in the throat" or "choked sobbing."

>From an instrumental point of view:

"A 'krekhts' (cry or moan) - [a grace note] often tied to the preceding
note with a brief silence before the following note. The pitch of a
'krekhts' is indefinite or unimportant."
>From Jewish Doinas by Kurt Bjorling

On the violin, the basic mechanics for producing a krekhts involve playing
an initial note, then putting another finger down to play a higher note,
while simultaneously stifling the sound by stopping the bow. The result is
more effective, and easier to produce, if the krekhts "note" is as far away
in pitch from the prior note as possible. So a common practice is to use
the first finger for the prior note, and the fourth finger for the krechts.
It is, however, possible to produce a krekhts using any two fingers where
the second "note" is above the first in pitch (even with a small interval
between them). The articulation of the bow plays an important role in
determining the quality or feel of a krekhts. In fact, I have seen Steve
Greenman demonstrate that it is possible to produce a krekhts-like sound
with bow articulation alone, i.e. without putting a finger down for a
second note. A lot of subtle variations of the krekhts are possible. 

DREYDLACH

Uses of this term often seem to treat it as a general word to mean all
klezmer ornaments, or at least a large class of them (I'll get to more
specific meanings). Examples:

At KlezKanada '99, Pete Sokolow said (notes by Ari):
'Epstein took my clarinet style and dissected it in five minutes. He said,
"the ornaments do not replace the melody." But Maxie [Epstein] showed me
that the dreydlach (ornaments) enhance the melody. They don't make the
melody.'
http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/klezkanada99/17.bjorling.html

"One of the hallmarks in the current renewal of klezmer music is the
increased emphasis placed on dreydlekh, the ornaments and grace notes that
are part of klezmer tunes."
>From Henry Sapoznik's book, Klezmer! (page 293)

"The entire gamut of the improvisational and ornamental gestures of the
Baroque exists in klezmer music, sometimes called dreydlekh and shleyfer."
Joshua Horowitz, in the liner notes to the Budowitz CD, "Mother Tongue"

("shleyfer" - Anyone care to define it? Yiddish and Klez meanings both
welcome.)

And Joshua - surely you could provide insight into all these words. You,
who have determined that there are 2592 possible modulations of the
freygish mode, of which only 32 were used in the klezmer repertoire - you
probably have a closet full of klezmer ornament examples, 5183 of which are
possible and 65 of which are used, each with their own incredibly esoteric
name. ;-)

Dick Rosenberg's take on the "dreydl" (singular of dreydlech) in Klezmer
music:
<<It means turn (I believe the word in classical music is grupetto).
So if one were playing a C and then an F, they might play something like
C (Db C B C)  F  or   C  (EG)F, where the notes in parentheses are
played very rapidly.>>

Perhaps these are valid examples. A few cautions though:

1) As I indicated above, the word dreydlech has a more general meaning. In
spite of that, it could also have a more specific meaning such as this.

2) I don't know if Dick chose these examples from klezmer or from his
understanding of the "turn" in western classical music, and made the
connection because the word "dreydl" can mean turn (or turning?).
Incidentally, my music dictionary gives 13 different variations of the turn
as it evolved from the 17th to the 19th century. Dick's first example is
one of them. His second is not. Turns don't involve jumps like the minor
third from E to G.

3) On his instructional video, Andy Statman defines a Dreydl in a specific
way similar to, but not identical to Dick's second example.

ANDY STATMAN'S DEFINITION: Remember that he wasn't intending to be
encyclopedic on the video. Still it is worth noting. Also worth noting is
that he gave many other examples of ornaments without naming them, or
classifying them all as dreydlech. Andy's words:

"Coming from underneath the note - usually a half tone underneath the note,
go a half or whole tone above the note, and then into the actual note that
you are playing. Usually accent the third note. Sometimes it's appropriate
to accent both the second and third notes." (this would correspond to the
E-G-F part of Dick's second example).

That is how Andy Statman described what he was doing. But what he
*actually* did, repeatedly, throughout the video was to lean on the first
note, toss off or almost stifle the second note, then emphasize and
sometimes hold the third. This happens to be the form of *krekhts* that
Kurt refers to in his Jewish Doinas transcriptions, as "A 'leaning' note
from below followed by a 'krekhts'". Andy Statman has identified the pitch
of the krekhts part of his dreydl as being a minor third or a second above
the leaning note, but in fact, the way he played it, the pitch was
unimportant, so it could have been anything that worked to produce the
krekhts effect. Anyway, this might explain why none of the people that I
have studied with have ever used the term dreydl. The term krekhts is
sufficient.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The stuff that follows didn't fit into the body of what I wrote. The first
comes from the Jewish-Music list archive, and Reyzl's favorite former list
participant:

Re:  origins of klezmer tonality?
9/26/97 Itzik-Leyb Volokh (Jeffrey Wollock)

[Speaking of old-world klezmer violin:]

this style is extremely "vocal", particularly
heard in the characteristic "krekhts'n" (literally, "moans"), and slides
("portamento" in western terms) that are absolutely characteristic of
East European Jewish vocal style.

> related to religious (cantor) music?

In a general sense, yes, but there are other religious vocal genres that
are even closer, namely, traditional _tfile_ (prayer) as in the _davenen_
(cantillation) of a traditional _bal-tfile_ (prayer-leader in a synagogue);
_zmires_ (sabbath songs, sung in a group), and certain kinds of Hasidic
_nigunim_ (melodies). These are closer to the roots of klezmer than 
_khazones_ (the cantorial art) is. However, there are cantors who used a
style (so-called "zoger" style) that is closer to the old _baley-tfile_.
I particularly recommend anything by the late Cantor Pierre Pintchik, who
was from Podolia, Ukraine. This has more of the aesthetic you hear in the
best traditional klezmer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE REST OF THIS IS JUST FOR FUN - THREE ITEMS THAT GO TOGETHER:

>From Lark in the Morning Interview with Kevin Linscott (Klezmorim)

KL:...the kind of ornaments that are uniquely Klezmer--they sit very well
on that instrument (C-Albert clarinet).
LM: What type of ornamentation would that be? 
KL: The ornaments are very vocal in quality, there's a lot of these kind of
half glissando laughs. There are some things that we've given our own names
to like the "boitia", which is a kind of a grace note between two notes,
except that you don't play it. You start to play it and then choke it off
in the middle. It's done glottally, with the throat, very hard to explain.
http://www.mhs.mendocino.k12.ca.us/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/ArtKlez
morimInterview
[The boitia, as described, seems to be one of those "A 'leaning' note from
below followed by a 'krekhts'" ornaments.] 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lev Liberman responds on the Boidt'yaa

"For the record: The musical ornament Kevin mentions should be spelled
'boidt'yaa.' This orthography is from the horse's mouth; I coined the word
in 1976. When I go to that big klezmer jam in Hades you can engrave on my
tombstone: HE DISCOVERED THE BOIDT'YAA. Make sure you spell it right!

"(I have no idea what the old-time klezmers called it. Maybe they had no
name for it, like a fish has no name for water.)" [lev, 2/27/96]
http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/klezmorim.hist.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message to the Jewish-Music List:
<<Give me a good krekhts, I always said!--well, at least some of the time.
And flavor it with some "boyntyas" [Lev's word!], too.>>
Sandra Layman 9/12/97

[Makes it sound like the Boidt'yaa wasn't a krekhts after all - so much for
verbal descriptions! but maybe it was?]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+