Re: +shers

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>So- what are we to do?  I'm going to teach the "Workman's Circle" sher at 
>Klezkamp, and insist that the musicians follow the dance. (Its not very 
>hard to figure out- 6 x 16 bars). For any other version, I think its 
>important for the teacher to work with the musicians on tunes that will 
>fit that version.



Steve,

I hope it's obvious that musicians do need to follow the dance (or perhaps 
not - else how did it become an issue!). This is partly what Deborah was 
talking about on Monday night. But I think you are wrong about repeating 
the same tune over and over. Zev Feldman was pretty clear that variations 
were common, and that there were several examples of this - the one Zev, 
Jeff, and Deborah played was a particularly rich set from Philly. From my 
notes (attempts to transcribe as people talked):

"These are the Morris Fried shers. He was a klezmer in Philadelphia. Shers 
were meant to be medlies of short tunes. This is the best. This is a 
klezmer classic. This is peculiar because from Byelorussia, not from the 
south whence comes most klezmer music."

Then, just before they began to play, as Zev waves his hand, as though at 
the head of a line dance, I got this jist from Deborah (and is what I was 
trying to remember, earlier, when I posted about the event to the list this 
afternoon):

"I have to say a couple of things. For one thing, we got our beat by 
watching Zev moved his hand in dance rhythm. This was a revelation to me 
because we so often play them too fast. Zev reminds us to play this to 
dance. And the second thing, which is related, is that we used to just play 
each section, then go on to the next. And as we rehearsed we have learned 
that these don't just go from one to the other - they must fit to the beat, 
and where the dance is."

So, yes on fitting the dance, but yes, also, on having many variations -- 
which makes sense. Rhythms should stay the same for as long as the dance 
goes on, but it is the variations that make it fun for the musicians (and 
the dancers, I think, but I am a much better listener than dancer). And, of 
course, by sliding into a new rhythm the band moves the participants from 
one dance to the next.

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/

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