Introduction

Klezmer Music is a style of Jewish music that began in Eastern Europe in medieval times. The meaning of the word Klezmer comes from the Hebrew words kley (vessel) and zimmer (song) which translate as vessel of song or "the human being becomes the bearer of the song". The term was used in Yiddish to mean the musician who made the music. Nowadays it is used to denote the style of music. In klezmer music, the instruments take on a soulful quality with human characteristics like laughing and crying. I will now play you an example of traditional Klezmer music on the clarinet called Dancing with the Rabbi. Ira will accompany me on the keyboard.

Klezmer in Eastern Europe

Klezmer music originated in the Yiddish speaking Jewish culture of Eastern Europe. The music was usually played by a group of three to six musicians. The musicians or Klezmorim would travel from town to town to play at weddings, Purim festivals, and fairs. Common instruments were the violin, the clarinet, flute, cello and drums. Laws often limited the size of the group and the hours they could play. The violin or fiddle was the most popular instrument because some towns banned loud instruments such as the clarinet, trumpet and drums. The music was secular, informal, and mostly improvised as klezmorim rarely had formal training and they could not read music.

The occupation of the Klezmer was passed down from father to son. The klezmorim usually had no real roots, traveling from shtetl to shtetl to find work. In fact, the label "Klezmer" was regarded as negative, referring to someone with limited musical training and a wandering lifestyle.

Despite its shaky reputation, Klezmer music was very important to Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Musical instruments were not allowed in synagogues after the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD. Klezmer music provided much needed merriment for weddings and festivals. In fact, there is an Eastern European saying that "a wedding without a klezmer was worse than a funeral without tears."

Klezmer in the Arts

The importance of the Klezmer to shtetl life is depicted in the arts from the late 19th and early 20th century. Sholom Aleichem has references to the role of the klezmer in many of his stories. I'm sure you all remember the important role of the fiddler in "Fiddler on the Roof" which was adapted from Sholom Aleichem's stories about Tevye the Milkman. One of Sholom Aleichem's stories is called "Stempeniu: A Jewish Romance." It tells of a renowned Klezmer named Stempeniu from a long line of musicians who comes to a town to play for a wedding. The following excerpt gives the flavor of the essence and power of Klezmer music.

"Any heart, especially a Jewish heart is a fiddle: You squeeze the strings and you draw forth all kinds of songs, mostly sad and gloomy songs... All you need is the right musician, a master violinist, the kind of master that Stempeniu was. Oh, what a master he was! He would grab the violin and apply the bow, just one stroke, nothing more, and the violin had already begun to speak. And how do you think it spoke? Why, with words, with a tongue, like a living human being - if you'll forgive my mentioning them in the same breath. It spoke, pleaded, crooned tearfully, in a Jewish mode, with a force, a scream from the depths of the heart, the soul. Stempeniu would lean his head to one side, the long, black shock of hair flowing across his wide shoulders, his eyes, his black, burning eyes, peering upward, and his lovely radiant face would suddenly turn as pale as death. Another minute- and no more Stempeniu! All you could see was a hand flying up and down, up and down, and you could hear all kinds of sounds, and all sorts of singing came pouting out, dark, melancholy, cutting to the quick, piercing the soul shattering the mind. The audience was fainting, languishing, perishing in every limb. Hearts filled up, they overflowed, and tears came to all eyes. Jews sighed, Jews moaned, Jews wept."

Powerful stuff, huh.

We also see the Klezmer in many of the paintings of Marc Chagall. I will now show you two examples.

This first painting called "The Fiddler" shows the fiddler atop the roofs of the village. We see three villagers gazing up in awe, mezmerized by the musician.

In this second painting called "Bride with Blue Face" we see the prominent role of klezmorim for Jewish weddings. A number of musicians are presented in the painting alongside the bride.

The Decline of Klezmer

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Jews fled Eastern Europe due to the Pogroms. Many came to America and thus Klezmer music came with them. Unfortunately, the children of the Jews that fled to America weren't interested in their parents' old homeland music and turned instead to American popular music. The destruction of European Jewish life in World War II put an end to the culture of the klezmer in Europe. Thus klezmer music faded to a memory.

The Klezmer Revival

Fortunately, in the 1970s young musicians started exploring Klezmer music traditions. A band called the Klezmorim formed in California and played klezmer music around the US and Europe. Interest in klezmer was renewed. Efforts were made to recover the authentic style of Klezmer music from old European written records and some early 20th century recordings.

Now one can go online and find web sites devoted to klezmer that provide long lists of klezmer bands, sheet music, and CDs. In fact you can even attend a Peretz community event called "Klezmer Café" next month and hear a Klezmer band right here in Central New Jersey.

The traditions of the klezmer in Jewish shtetl life are of course no longer with us, but at least the music lives on.

I will now conclude my graduation speech by playing a traditional klezmer song called "Itamar Freilach" on the clarinet. Ira will again accompany me on the keyboard.

References

Aleichem, Sholom. Stempeniu: A Jewish Romance.

Neugroschel, Joachim. The Shtetl: A Creative Anthology of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe.

Sapoznik, Henry. Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World. Schirmer Books, New York, 1999.

http://www.budowitz.com/pages/shorthistory.html

http://www.cleary.dircon.co.uk/klezmer.htm

http://www.davkamusic.com/sfke/klezmer_history.htm

http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Book/Neugroschel1/jn-shtetl-stempeniu.html

http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/aboutklez.html

http://www.larkinam.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/ArtKlezmorimInterview

http://www.users.drew.edu/jbazewic/hst/klexmer.html