Klezmer

What it means

Klezmer is an instrumental festive music of Ashkenazi, Eastern European Jews. It was traditionally played by professional musicians, the klezmorim, at weddings and other celebrations and is sonically marked especially by the clarinet and the violin, which carry expressive, often plaintive-jubilant melodic lines.

Musical use

Musically, klezmer combines elements of Jewish liturgical melody with influences of the folk music of neighbouring Eastern European regions, such as Romanian and Ukrainian dances. Typical are pronounced ornaments, glissandi, and a characteristic interplay between exuberant joy and wistful lament, often within the same piece. After many Jewish musicians emigrated to the United States, klezmer there also combined with jazz elements and experienced an international revival from the 1970s.

Klezmer should be distinguished from Jewish liturgical music of the synagogue, which has a different, worship-related context, and from general Eastern European folk music, with which it shares elements but from which it differs through its specifically Jewish tradition and function.

Performance practice

In klezmer, listen especially for the expressive playing style of the clarinet, which imitates human voices, laughter, or crying with glissandi and quarter tones. If you play klezmer yourself, practise these ornaments deliberately, since they belong to the expressive character of the style and are not mere decoration.