Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory

Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory is the first comprehensive study of the musical structure and social history of klezmer music, the music of the Jewish musicians' guild of Eastern Europe. Emerging in 16th century Prague, the klezmer became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish community of modern times - the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe. Much of the musical and choreographic history of the Ashkenazim is embedded in the klezmer repertoire, which functioned as a kind of non-verbal communal memory. The complex of speech, dance, and musical gesture is deeply rooted in Jewish expressive culture, and reached its highest development in Eastern Europe. Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory reveals the artistic transformations of the liturgy of the Ashkenazic synagogue in klezmer wedding melodies, and presents the most extended study available in any language of the relationship of Jewish dance to the rich and varied klezmer music of Eastern Europe.Author Walter Zev Feldman expertly examines the major written sources--principally in Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Romanian--from the 16th to the 20th centuries. He draws upon the foundational notated collections of the late Tsarist and early Soviet periods, as well as rare cantorial and klezmer manuscripts from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. He has conducted interviews with authoritative European-born klezmorim over a period of more than thirty years, in America, Europe, and Israel. Thus, his analysis reveals both the musical and cultural systems underlying the klezmer music of Eastern Europe.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments About the Companion Website Introduction Part 1: The Klezmer Profession: Social and Artistic Function Chapter 1: The Music of the Klezmer Within East Ashkenazic Music Chapter 2: What's in a Name? The Word Klezmer and Jewish Professional Musicians. Chapter 3: The Klezmer Ensemble Chapter 4: The Role of Russia in the Study of Klezmer Music Chapter 5: The Jewish Wedding and its Musical Repertoire Chapter 6: East European Jewish Dance Part 2: Genre and Style in Klezmer Music Chapter 7: The Genres and Repertoires of Klezmer Music Chapter 8: Moralishe Niggunim, the Musical Genres of the Wedding Chapter 9: Rhythmic Melody Among the Ashkenazim: Nign and Zmires Chapter 10: Older European Components in the Core Dance Repertoire Chapter 11: The Sher: History and Choreography Chapter 12: North and South in Klezmer Music: Northern Redl and Southern Freylekhs Chapter 13: Skotshne and Freylekhs Chapter 14: The Khosidl at the Interface of Mystical and Secular Expression Chapter 15: Bulgar: a Transnational Klezmer Dance Genre: Chapter 16: Postlude: a Klezmer Legacy Appendix I: Overview of Modal Usage in Klezmer Music Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Walter Zev Feldman is Visiting Professor of Music at New York University Abu Dhabi, Director of the An-sky Institute for Traditional Jewish Expressive Culture at the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (NYC), and Board Member of Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (University of Münster).

Review :
"[an] outstanding work of scholarship" -- Robert A. Rothstein, Slavic Review "Much of the fieldwork carried out by Russian scholars such as Moyshe Beregovski (1892-1961), to whom Feldman dedicates his book, remain hidden away in former Soviet libraries. Until this can be accessed, Feldman's detailed study will remain the go-to work for anyone wishing to understand or explore this endlessly suggestive subject." --Mark Glanville, Jewish Quarterly "Deeply informed by historical research, fine-tuned cultural sensibilities, priceless interviews, and decades of experience as a performer and teacher, this book will stand for many years to come as a monument to Jewish musical creativity, to the specificity of Ashkenaz, and to the fruitful workings of diasporic interaction."--Jonathan Boyarin, Diann G. and Thomas Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University "Feldman draws knowledge and wisdom straight from the wellsprings of klezmer music as a pioneer researcher, performer, and thinker. His deep regional knowledge, rigorous fieldwork, historical insight, and close collaboration with key musicians make this seminal volume outstanding."--Mark Slobin, Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, Wesleyan University "Feldman's text addresses important voids in the field, and will be regarded as a valuable reference volume." --Klezmer: Music, History, and Memory