RE: questions

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <yiddish...>]

Sandra,

I said nothing about you (I do not know you) or Seattle or the Pacific 
Northwest or my friend Itzik-Leyb, or "most" klezmer groups, or any one 
klezmer musician.  I haven't attached any number, location, or statistics 
to my comments.  I can tell you that I was an eyewitness to much goings-on 
from at least 1979 in NYC and elsewhere.  I also saw my husband, Josh 
Waletzky, write a lot of transcriptions in 27 years of marriage.  Yes, like 
Pete Sokolow, he has done much arranging and much leading of ensembles and 
recordings, even when his own compositions were not involved.  In Kapelye, 
his cueing and teachings were rarely written down for the other musicians, 
but patiently demonstrated verbally, over and over, even better than 
written transcriptions.  (For a good, though incomplete, listing, you can 
see the second half of his cv at 
http://www.waletzky.com/josh/josh.php3?q=resume .   But his many 
arrangements is not the exclusive picture I have in my memory bank.  I can 
tell you that a lot of people were asking him and others throughout the 
eighties for transcriptions and arrangements as a starting point in their 
attempts to learn klezmer/Yiddish music and repertoire.  That is what 
suited their learning style.  I don't know at what point they abandoned the 
transcriptions.  I also remember a lot of music stands at klezmer concerts 
in the first of half of the 1980's.  Neither you, I, or Itzik-Leyb know 
exactly what was on them, but sometimes some musicians would tell us 
insiders how another band member performed the music, because everything 
was carefully transcribed for him/her.  There is no reason to name names 
because that would get a lot of defensive denials for the sake of some 
silly honor and since it is too long ago, there is no way for either me or 
them to present the evidence.

All I wrote is that it happened/happens much more often than people 
realize.  That includes musicians who although they usually learned music 
by ear, needed transcriptions for a recording or an important concert.  The 
use of lead sheets (is that all they really were?) "to save time" that 
Itzik-Leyb is referring to, happens a lot in recording studios, because 
time is money and each musicians better follow the known path.  The better 
the studio, the more expensive the time, the steadier has to be the 
musician's path.  I don't know the small groups that use cheap studios or 
record themselves with DATs as they improvise.  Second, where lead sheets 
end and where (sections of) transcriptions begin can only be determined by 
looking at the sheets themselves and we don't have any before us.

Itzik-Leyb wrote:

>I think the > side men, at least, may have used lead-sheets. Obviously
>they already > knew how to play "Jewish." It's understandable that
>arrangers of the old school like to use at least some degree of "charts."

I don't think we can paint everything in the old days in America with one 
stroke.
Few of the sidemen in the 1980' or the 1990's already knew how to play 
Jewish, so the music for sidemen was carefully notated for them.  I am 
talking about people who get paid to go on stage to play klezmer, rather 
than jamming together with other friends.

>Ken Richman,
>> if I'm not mistaken, wrote out parts to recapture the ensemble style
>> of old bands like Abe Schwartz for his Yale Klezmer Ensemble. Yasher
>> koyekh.

If Ken Richman did this, I would bet any money that he is not the only one 
who ever did it in an attempt to capture the sound of a particular old 
band.  It may even be common to many klezmer bands as a starting point.  I 
happen to know that several bands have transcribed every note of 
Brandwein's "Firn di mekhutonim aheym" in the eternal attempt to recreate 
that extraordinary sound, but no one has yet succeeded in the goal.

>>      Lead sheets may also be used by klezmer musicians to save time
>> in putting things together, or to keep track of the program. Nor will
>> they necessarily play exactly what's on the sheet. Yes, it is useful
>> to be able to read music! But when it comes to klezmer it's just an
   >auxiliary.

Well this very general statement by Itzik-Leyb sure covers a lot of 
territory.  It is very inclusive of an awful lot.  Itzik-Leyb comes from 
one musical approach to music and he certainly plays by ear.  Itsik wrote 
that his learning method was "not unusual".  Believe me when I say that he 
is unique in many ways.  However, his way is by no means the exclusive way 
or even the typical way.  I don't remember if Itzik can read music or not, 
but I don't believe that he was a paid member of a band for most of these 
years since 1977.  His by-ear-only approach is the one that Josh insists on 
for singing and playing, but as a classically trained musician, Josh can go 
either way very well.  But not everyone can do it only by ear.  I am 
talking about trained musicians who have joined gigging klezmer bands and 
that means that they want to get up and perform as if they know the style 
in less than a year or two.  Their learning history is more varied.  It 
takes years to master a musical style and, unfortunately, not everyone is 
willing to put in the years it takes.  (That's why we are getting so much 
fusion.)  I have also seen one very well-known professional musician who 
despite being given a careful transcription to follow, didn't, not because 
he didn't think it was necessary, but because he simply didn't have the 
discipline to master the music, with or without the transcriptions.  I am 
sure that this isn't a rare case either.  It just so happens that I 
distinctly remember Ken Maltz, a professional musician, transcribing 2 
pieces he heard from old recordings in the first few months of Kapleye.  I 
heard two musicians from another very famous band say in 1987, in the early 
years of their group, that they learned a song by transcribing from old 
recordings.

I was not making general statements, but rather talking about the specific 
occasions I know when the music sheets were not an auxiliary.  Knowledge 
like this can only be insider information about several groups.  I have 
also been to a lot of klezmer concerts through the years.  I also don't 
think that people who have begun with transcriptions need to necessarily be 
ashamed of anything.  There are all kinds of learning styles.  I can tell 
you that when we have Yiddish singalongs at our house, despite my husband's 
deep protests, I always provide everyone with song sheets or music books 
"for those who need them."   He asks people not to use them, but he does 
help distribute them.

Please let's not get more testimonials of "I never used transcriptions..." 
 No one is being attacked.


Reyzl







----------
From:  Sandra Layman [SMTP:sandralayman (at) earthlink(dot)net]
Sent:  Tuesday, January 22, 2002 12:28 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  Re: questions

<<The revival was built on a "trustworthy, talented
> musician" writing out the transcriptions.>>

Perhaps I misunderstood Reyzl's very interesting message. Or maybe it was
because I was benighted in the Pacific Northwest and didn't know what I was
supposed to do. Anyway, off here on the west coast, I was learning this
music mostly by ear.

I starting playing klezmer music in 1978 and never made transcriptions for
myself. I learned almost all of the klezmer repertoire from listening to
78's (mostly from Marty Schwartz's collection). Also, I was lucky in having
been able to hang out with musicians from Romania and Greece and elsewhere,
starting in 1977. I hung out every now and then with the guys in the
Klezmorim, and I certainly don't remember needing music stands for that. 
Nor
do I remember Joel Rubin and Lisa Rose, with whom I started playing in the
early 1980s, playing off of transcriptions. People playing piano or other
accompanying instruments *would* make chord charts.

Later on, there were also a few tunes that my first klezmer band in Seattle
(1980-82) learned from old collections like Kammen.

Eventually, I did make some simple transcriptions for students of mine who
preferred to learn tunes from sheet music. Those were tunes that I'd 
learned
by ear myself.

Of course, I don't know how other people back then were learning. Being in
Seattle most of the time, I was isolated. However, it's hard for me to
believe that my experience is unusual.

Thanks,
Sandra


----- Original Message -----
From: "Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky" <yiddish (at) waletzky(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 6:50 AM
Subject: RE: questions


[interesting commentary snipped]

>  Transcriptions were preferable for Perlman.  The fact is that musicians
> play from transcriptions so much more often than anyone imagines - today,
> in the old days, and throughout the klezmer revival.  The quality of the
> music then reflects the skillfulness of the transcriber more than the
> talent of the musician, including, in some cases I have seen, the
> transcriber's clout/insistence that the musician play the music exactly
"as
> it is written".  The revival was built on a "trustworthy, talented
> musician" writing out the transcriptions.

[snip]

> Uh oh, did I just tell some big secrets?   Tse, tse, tse.
>
>
> Reyzl



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