Klezmer | |
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Native name | קלעזמער |
Other names | Jewish instrumental folk music, Freylekh music |
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Ashkenazic Jewish ceremonies, especially weddings, in Eastern Europe |
Typical instruments | Standard orchestra instruments, accordion, cimbalom |
Jewish and Israeli music |
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Religious |
Secular |
Israel |
Dance |
Music for holidays |
Klezmer (Yiddish: קלעזמער or כּלי־זמר) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.[1] The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these would have been played at weddings and other social functions.[2][3] The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including Ottoman (especially Greek and Romanian) music, Baroque music, German and Slavic folk dances, and religious Jewish music.[4][5] As the music arrived in the United States, it lost some of its traditional ritual elements and adopted elements of American big band and popular music.[6][7] Among the European-born klezmers who popularized the genre in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s were Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein; they were followed by American-born musicians such as Max Epstein, Sid Beckerman and Ray Musiker.[8]
After the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust, and a general fall in the popularity of klezmer music in the United States, the music began to be popularized again in the late 1970s in the so-called Klezmer Revival.[1] During the 1980s and onwards, musicians experimented with traditional and experimental forms of the genre, releasing fusion albums combining the genre with jazz, punk, and other styles.[9]