Klezmer, as a description of a musical genre, is of recent coinage. In Europe the appellation (though not the music) was sometimes regarded as a bit of an insult, intimating rough musicianship and lifestyle. With the passing of the generation of the people who lived the life that created this music, the meaning of the term, almost simultaneous with it's introduction, became obscure. The expression has sometimes incorrectly been used to include Yiddish folk songs, Yiddish theater music and work songs as well as experimental music fusions. Klezmer has nothing whatsoever to do with Sunrise, Sunset ! The explanation, like all things Jewish, is subject to heated debate. There is no argument that it comes from the Hebrew words kley zemer, meaning musical instrument. Klezmer is an instrumental form, significant in Jewish life because musical instruments have been banned from the synagogue since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. Klezmer in Yiddish, however, means musician, and in English, it has come to describe the genre of music itself. Klezmer took on some of the style of the music of surrounding cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and continued to do the same in The U.S. The influences include Russian, Ukrainian, Bessarabaian, Romanian, and German folk musics as well as Western art and popular music. All this is leavened with a Middle-Eastern sensibility derived partially from the music of the Ottoman empire, but also from an unbroken stream of liturgical music stretching back to biblical times in the Land of Israel. Through all the assimilation, klezmer was unmistakably a Jewish music, easily identified as such by people familiar with related genres. It was originally associated with certain elements of Central and Eastern European Jewry, but not with synagogue music. During klezmer's formative years, the Turks had hegemony over much of East and Central Europe. The Mid-Eastern style of the Jewish religious melodies, specifically the cantillation of he torah and other biblical literature, did at least predispose Jews to Turkish influenced styles. Being text driven, these cantillations are often arrhythmic. Other "Oriental" influences are the absence (until relatively recently) of harmony and rarity of long "pure" tones. Instead notes are usually surrounded with graces, trills, chirps, crying effects, glissandi, etc. In the 19th Century, the primary klezmer instruments were violin, cymbalom,and bass. It wasn't until the end of the 19th Century that the clarinet began to take a lead role and brass instruments and drums fell into common usage. The world, in general, was getting louder. Also, many of the Jews that managed to survive their forced military conscription, returned with a knowledge of marching band instruments. In 1888 There was a riot in the city of Khotin in Bessarabia, in which the local fiddler's guild protested the encroachment of these new wind instruments. An effigy of a drunk trumpet player was erected and abused and jokes about wind players were heard late into the night. The demonstration was eventually squelched when a large pot of schav (sorrel leaf soup) was sent by the influential furrier's guild, who feared the commotion was bad for business. One of the protest signs is preserved in the collection of the musicologist Martin Schwartz which reads, "Wine, Not Vodka! The Fiddle is King! Sing, Don't Honk! -Union of Khotiner Fiddlers" OK, so maybe I embellished that story just a little... Jews started arriving to the New World in great waves of immigration, escaping the pogroms of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and brought their folk music with them. Klezmer was only one of the styles that interested these first generation Americans (mostly in NY City). There were Yiddish language folk songs, recordings of cantorial virtuosi, and the music of the Yiddish theater (as well as American sounds). But none have enjoyed anything like the renaissance of klezmer music. With the destruction of European Jewish communities in the Second World War, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Things Yiddish began to be replaced with things Hebrew, which represented the hope for a Jewish future, and klezmer music slowly faded into the memories of the pre-war generation. It was also shunned by second generation Jews who saw it as old fashioned and even embarrassing. This generation strove for more american pursuits like jazz, baseball, and cheeseburgers.(!) In the late 1970's, however, bands began to form with young members in across America, and especially in Berkeley, California. A band called The Klezmorim brought a new energy and modern sensibility to klezmer, touring Europe, playing Carnegie Hall, and exposing klezmer to a new generation of Jews who had been raised on Led Zepplin and The Who. The how and why (not The Who) of the movement can, as usual, be debated. Marc Slobin, one of the current academic experts on the subject, suggests that when Jews reached an "unconscious but critical level of acceptance" in The U.S., klezmer was reinvented. Before that it was not a generally accepted "ethnic" symbol like Irish fiddling or the blues. A word about klezmer in Israel today: The term klezmer (pronounced kleyzmer in Hebrew, reflecting the Hebrew root of the word) in Israel has a different meaning than in the galut (the rest of the world) - In Israel it is generally understood to mean “Ashkenazi religious music” and can include a whole range of styles, especially when sung (and it is usually sung.) A typical sound at a religious wedding in Israel by a “kleyzmer band” would sound something like a Las Vegas club band from the 1970s singing broadway tunes with a Yiddish accent. Aesthetic boundaries are crossed with abandon. When played instrumentally, it is usually versions of chassidic niggunim (wordless melodies) and other religious songs played on instruments. Because the roots of this music are essentially vocal, the melodies are very simple, and harmonically based, unlike much of the traditional klezmer repertoire, which was originally melodically based. Adapted from Stacey Phillips' intro to the Mel Bay klezmer fake book

Klezmer, as a description of a musical genre, is of recent coinage. In Europe the appellation (though not the music) was sometimes regarded as a bit of an insult, intimating rough musicianship and lifestyle. With the passing of the generation of the people who lived the life that created this music, the meaning of the term, almost simultaneous with it's introduction, became obscure. The expression has sometimes incorrectly been used to include Yiddish folk songs, Yiddish theater music and work
songs as well as experimental music fusions. Klezmer has nothing whatsoever to do with Sunrise, Sunset !

The explanation, like all things Jewish, is subject to heated debate. There is no argument that it comes from the Hebrew words kley zemer, meaning musical instrument. Klezmer is an instrumental form, significant in Jewish life because musical instruments have been banned from the
synagogue since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. Klezmer in Yiddish, however, means musician, and in English, it has come to describe the genre of music itself.

Klezmer took on some of the style of the music of surrounding cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and continued to do the same in The U.S. The influences include Russian, Ukrainian, Bessarabaian, Romanian, and German folk musics as well as Western art and popular music. All this is leavened
with a Middle-Eastern sensibility derived partially from the music of the Ottoman empire, but also from an unbroken stream of liturgical music stretching back to biblical times in the Land of Israel. Through all the assimilation, klezmer was unmistakably a Jewish music, easily identified as such by
people familiar with related genres.

It was originally associated with certain elements of Central and Eastern European Jewry, but not with synagogue music. During klezmer's formative years, the Turks had hegemony over much of East and Central Europe. The Mid-Eastern style of the Jewish religious melodies, specifically the cantillation of he torah and other biblical literature, did at least predispose Jews to Turkish influenced styles. Being text driven, these cantillations are often arrhythmic. Other "Oriental" influences are the absence (until relatively recently) of harmony and rarity of long "pure" tones. Instead notes are usually surrounded with graces, trills, chirps, crying effects, glissandi, etc.

In the 19th Century, the primary klezmer instruments were violin, cymbalom,and bass. It wasn't until the end of the 19th Century that the clarinet began to take a lead role and brass instruments and drums fell into common usage. The world, in general, was getting louder. Also, many of the Jews that managed to survive their forced military conscription, returned with a knowledge of marching band instruments. In 1888 There was a riot in the city of Khotin in Bessarabia, in which the local fiddler's guild protested the encroachment of these new wind instruments. An effigy of a drunk trumpet player was erected and abused and jokes about wind players were heard late into the night. The demonstration was eventually squelched when a large pot of schav (sorrel leaf soup) was sent by the influential furrier's guild, who feared the commotion was bad for business. One of the protest signs is preserved in the collection of the musicologist Martin Schwartz which reads, "Wine, Not Vodka! The Fiddle is King! Sing, Don't Honk! -Union of Khotiner Fiddlers"

OK, so maybe I embellished that story just a little...

Jews started arriving to the New World in great waves of immigration, escaping the pogroms of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and brought their folk music with them. Klezmer was only one of the styles that interested these first generation Americans (mostly in NY City). There were Yiddish language folk songs, recordings of cantorial virtuosi, and the music of the
Yiddish theater (as well as American sounds). But none have enjoyed anything like the renaissance of klezmer music.

With the destruction of European Jewish communities in the Second World War, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Things Yiddish began to be replaced with things Hebrew, which represented the hope for a Jewish future, and klezmer music slowly faded into the memories of the
pre-war generation. It was also shunned by second generation Jews who saw it as old fashioned and even embarrassing. This generation strove for more american pursuits like jazz, baseball, and cheeseburgers.(!)

In the late 1970's, however, bands began to form with young members in across America, and especially in Berkeley, California. A band called The Klezmorim brought a new energy and modern sensibility to klezmer, touring Europe, playing Carnegie Hall, and exposing klezmer to a new generation of Jews who had been raised on Led Zepplin and The Who. The how and why (not The Who) of the movement can, as usual, be debated. Marc Slobin, one of the current academic experts on the subject, suggests that when Jews reached an "unconscious but critical level of acceptance" in The U.S., klezmer was reinvented. Before that it was not a generally accepted "ethnic" symbol like Irish fiddling or the blues.

A word about klezmer in Israel today:

The term klezmer (pronounced kleyzmer in Hebrew, reflecting the Hebrew root of the word) in Israel has a different meaning than in the galut (the rest of the world) - In Israel it is generally understood to mean “Ashkenazi religious music” and can include a whole range of styles, especially when sung (and it is usually sung.) A typical sound at a religious wedding in Israel by a “kleyzmer band” would sound something like a Las Vegas club band from the 1970s singing broadway tunes with a Yiddish accent. Aesthetic boundaries are crossed with abandon. When played instrumentally, it is usually versions of chassidic niggunim (wordless melodies) and other religious songs played on instruments. Because the roots of this music are essentially vocal, the melodies are very simple, and harmonically based, unlike much of the traditional klezmer repertoire, which was originally melodically based.

Adapted from Stacey Phillips' intro to the Mel
Bay klezmer fake book