Introduction

[Henny van der Groep <tijgervink...>]

Hi musiclovers,

My name is Henny van der Groep from the Netherlands. I'm a musician and 
musicteacher in secondary school. I'm interested in music in general. 
Specialities are J.S Bach, Stravinsky and lately very much Shostakovich.
Other kind of music I listen to is regular traditional folkmusic from the 
whole world.
Klezmer music I'm familiar with due to my interest in folkmusic but also 
through Shostakovich, who as most of you know incoorporated much Jewish 
elements in his music too.
Although I'm a new member I would ask you  two questions.

One concerns my idea about emotions in music.
We (the kids and I) did go to a concert with worldmusic among that was 
Klezmer music.
Of course this concert needed some preparation so I let the kids listen to 
some Klezmer music. They had to describe it in there own words. One group 
explains : oh it's such cheerful music and the other group noticed it is 
not only cheerful but it has a sad undertone (btw, many children liked 
Klezmer).
How can it be Klezmer music evokes such different emotions. Is it through 
the minor mode I wonder? How is it possible some people don't hear it at 
all, even people who listened much to music like musicologists.
My other question concerns the xylophone, an instrument we often use in 
classroom.
Could somebody tell me more about the use of the xylophone in Klezmermusic. 
I've found only one book about this subject on internet. But I've seen it 
has only one page devoted to the instrument.
I hope I didn't ask too many questions at once,
Best wishes, Henny

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