klezmer

genresKLEZ-merfrom Yiddish

A musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe, featuring expressive, vocal-like clarin‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌et playing, and rhythms drawn from dance and celebratory occasions.

In Depth

Klezmer (from Yiddish, derived from Hebrew "kley zemer" meaning "vessels of song") was the celebratory music of Eastern European Jewish communities, performed at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and festivals.‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌ Traditional klezmer ensembles featured violin, clarinet, tsimbl (hammered dulcimer), bass, and drums. The music draws on cantorial singing, Hasidic dance, Romani music, and the broader folk traditions of Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova. Klezmer was nearly destroyed by the Holocaust and the assimilation of immigrant communities in America, but a remarkable revival began in the 1970s and 1980s. Musicians like Giora Feidman, Andy Statman, and the Klezmatics brought the tradition back to life, often fusing it with jazz, punk, and world music. The genre's characteristic ornaments — krekhts (sobs), kneytshes (catches), and tshoks (laughing sounds) — deliberately imitate the human voice crying, laughing, and praying. John Zorn's Masada project brought klezmer into the avant-garde.

Did you know?

Klezmer clarinetists deliberately imitate the sound of human crying, laughing, and wailing — the technique called "krekhts" (Yiddish for "groan") can make a clarinet sound eerily like a sobbing voice.

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