Re: Beregovski

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

There are 2 volumes of Beregovski collections which have been published in the 
US.  The first volume, Old Jewish Folk Music, is primarily made up of  folk 
songs, i.e., vocal music, which is its own distinct tradition in Askenazic 
music and a smaller number of what are called "instrumental tunes" (No. 
71-150).  To refer to the collection as "art songs" is a bit surprising.  There 
is a very definite art song tradition in Yiddish music (i.e., composed songs 
for concert performance), but the Beregovski collection doesn't really reflect 
it.  

There is a second volume which was recently published, Jewish Instrumental Folk 
Music: The Collections and Writings of Moshe Beregovski, editted by Mark 
Slobin, Robert A. Rothstein, Michael Alpert, and Izaly Zemtsovsky.  I assume 
that is the volume that the initial inquiry referred to, as it includes a CD. 
It is that volume that can more appropriately be called "klezmer."  The nature 
of the Beregovski collection was the topic of a lecture by Mark Slobin, Michael 
Alpert and Jim Loeffler at the Eldridge Street Shul last month.  Anyone attend?

Shira Lerner

At 01:41 PM 6/25/02 -0400, you wrote:
>I have not seen his essays, but I have heard a great number of Beregovski
>material, and to my mind it is not klezmer in the strict sense, but falls
>into the art song genre. In any case, it's beautiful stuff and worth
>performing.
>
>Sylvia
>
>
>on 6/25/02 1:18 PM, Elrosen (at) aol(dot)com at Elrosen (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 6/25/2002 12:47:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>> creativa (at) charm(dot)net writes:
>> 
>> << One point however -- Beregovski hardly falls into the category of "Klezmer
>> Tunes." >>
>> 
>> 
>> If that is the case, Sylvia, how would you define klezmer music?
>> If I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I am), his collection consists
>> of a large number of instrumental tunes. Looking at his essays, it seems that
>> he considers at least a good deal of them to be, in his own words, "klezmer
>> music".
>> 
>> 
>> Elie
>> 
>> 
>