 ... Klezmer Music in a Few Words ... ... Recommend this page to a friend. I've always been attracted to Klezmer music, and listened to it every opportunity I had. I remember seeing Giora Feidman, formally principal clarinetist with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, and then leading Klezmer player in the world, perform at New York Symphony Hall. That was a special trip with my daughter, Miriam, many years back. I'm including this page, which has been excerpted from the Geneva Klezmer Page, in this Religion section because: 1) doesn't really belong with Songs, and 2) it has to do with the Jewish soul (that's enough reason). Klezmer music originated in the 'shtetl' (villages) and the ghettos of Eastern Europe, where itinerant Jewish troubadours, known as 'klezmorim', performed at joyous events ('simches'), particularly weddings, since the early middle age till the nazi and Stalinian prosecutions. It was inspired with secular melodies, popular dances, Jewish 'hazanut' (cantorial music) and also with the 'nigunim', the wordless melodies intended by the 'Hasidim' (orthodox Jews) for approaching G-d in a kind of ecstatic communion. Drawing influences from Slavonic, Greek, Ottoman (i.e. Turkish or Arabic), Gypsy and -later- jazz musicians, the 'klezmorim' were able, through numerous tempo changes, irregular rhythms, dissonance and a touch of improvisation, to express the whole gamut of human emotions, from happiness to sorrow and from intimate spirituality to collective joy, without forgetting... love. Klezmer music is also an invitation to dance and goes nowadays through a real revival all around the world. THE HISTORY OF THE KLEZMER MUSIC The Bible is rich with description of ritualized instrumental music played in Jerusalem but we don't know how the music sounded like by this time for there was no system of writing (and no recordings). With the destruction of the second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE the Jews were plunged into a mourning and refrained by 'halakhic' (rabbinical) orders from rejoicing and using instruments, except for the Shofar (ram's horn) on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. At the middle age, the music instruments were used again at profane events and some joyful religious feasts like Purim or Simkhat Torah. It's asserted that Jewish musicians, professional or not, used to wander through Eastern Europe, from one "shtetl" (village) to another ghetto to perform at various celebrations like weddings ('khasene'), circumcisions ('brith') and other joyful occasions ('simkhe'). They were poor and known for preferring alcohol and women to the study of the torah. They occupied the lowest rung on the 'yikhes' (social ladder) after the 'shnorrers' (beggars) and the criminals ('klezmer', 'klezmeruke' and 'klezmeriwke' were used as insults), but developed also reputation and were greatly demanded. Some of them (as Gusikov, Pedotser or Stempenyu) became celebrities throughout Europe. In many cities (like Metz, Frankfurt or Prague), their activity was heavily taxed and restricted as to when they could play and how many or which instruments they could employ. In the early nineteenth century, the Jews were confined in a "pale of settlement", only a few hundreds miles around Kiev. They were not allowed freely to the important towns. Most of the musicians learned to play strictly by ear 'on duty' and the profession was passed from father to son (as the women's public performances were banned). They spoke a Yiddish slang ('klezmerloshn') full of anagrams and double meanings. They formed 'guilds', kinds of syndicates, acting as lobbies against the governments and as social mediators. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Jews were submitted to three different religious influences: Western, the Maskilim of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) of Moshe Mendelssohn (the composer Felix Mendelssohn's grandfather) encouraged the cultural assimilation. Northern, the Misnagdim ('opponents' or 'rationalists') of the Vilna's Gaon (leader) valued the study of the holy texts while Eastern, the Hasidim (pious), followers of the charismatic Baal Chem Tov (Master of the Good Name, 1700-1760) placed high value on joy, songs and dances as paths to express their fervor and to approach G-d in a quasi-mystical community ecstasy. From the Hasidic stream, the klezmer musicians borrowed 'nigunim' (wordless melodies), as joy and fervor. They mixed it into an artful mixture with popular songs, profane dance music and 'hazanut', the cantorial way of singing Jewish prayers. 'Klezmer' is a Yiddish term combining the Hebrew words 'kley' (instrument) and 'zemer' (song). This etymology let us imagine that instruments progressively replaced the voices. In a sixteenth century manuscript kept at the Trinity College of Cambridge, 'klezmer' qualifies for the first time the musician instead of the instrument. The use of this term was approved 1938 in the famous musicologist Moshe Beregovski's book 'Yiddishe Instrumentalishe Folksmuzik'. Opposed to the respected 'musikant', 'klezmer' qualified an illiterate musician, unable to read notes and playing traditional music by ear. Nowadays, the term is rather laudatory for the musicians and qualifies also the traditional Jewish music of Eastern Europe, as well as all its modern derivatives. (I didn't mean 'derives'). However, for the clarinetist Giora Feidman, 'klezmer' means essentially that the instruments are only the loudspeakers of the 'inner voice' singing in everyone's soul. A klezmer doesn't make music, he speaks, prays, console with his instrument (Helmut Eisel). Though a multitude of pogroms almost everywhere of Eastern Europe, the Yiddish culture, especially the theater and the music, was flourishing in the late nineteenth century. While the liturgy was transmitted orally and in a closed circle, the klezmer musicians integrated many popular tunes of the various indigenous cultures around them: Romanian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Greek, Ottoman (i.e. Turkish or 'Arabic') and Gypsy, as much as it becomes historically correct to consider it as an artistic mixture or "fusion" music. Though not always without conflicts, Jewish musicians used to play with (and for - ) Gypsies or 'goyim' (Gentiles) and vice-versa. But the main function of the klezmorim was to accompany the traditional Jewish events, where they could let their talent flourish. Each circumstance had its proper themes: Tish Nigunim for meals, meditation and concerts, Gassn Nigunim for the processionals and -last but not least - for the weddings: 'Tsu der khupe', 'Fun der khupe' and 'Kale badekn' for the bride, 'Mazltov' for the greetings, 'Firn di Mekhutonim aheym' or 'Dobranoc' for the end of the ceremony, etc. The quality of the musicians -and the wages they could get- was evaluated by their virtuosity, their repertoire, but mostly by their ability to adapt the music to the listeners and dancers. The klezmer repertoire early included many traditional or recent Yiddish songs. This is not surprising for traditional Jewish weddings were often animated by a 'badkhn' or 'leytson', master of ceremony who also functioned as jester, rhymester, entertainer, parodist, preacher and indeed singer. Furthermore the feast of 'Purim' (commemorating the liberation of the Jews in Persia by the queen Esther) was also an opportunity for performances ('purimshpile') where musicians, actors and singers appeared together. The first 78-rpm records were full of scratches, pops and even musical mistakes that were part of their charm. Actually, it's easy to correct electronically any detail, so that the recordings get a 'clean' or sterile sound that the listeners absolutely want to hear even live on stage, though the emotions are repelled to an accessory role. Oy, Moderne tsaytn. Many Jews left Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century seeking after prosperity and, later, flew away from the Nazi and Stalinian prosecutions and established themselves in the United States. These immigrants (Harry Kandel, Dave Tarras, Naftule Brandwein...) or their descendants (Max Epstein, Pete Sokolow...) made klezmer survive and even flourish as dance and rejoicing music. It's a fact that after the World War II, the inclinations toward cultural assimilation and Zionism among the North-American Jews secluded Jewish music to oblivion. But in the 1970s, it was properly revived (Seth Rogovoy) or 're-energized' (Mark Slobin) in the USA and was called 'klezmer' by the same way that Irish music was called 'Celtic'. The klezmer revival was due to classical, jazz, folk or pop musicians: Giora Feidman, Zev Feldman & Andy Statman, Henry Sapoznik ('Kapelye') or Lev Liberman ('The Klezmorim'). Most of them are Jews, tending to connect to their cultural roots, as if their souls were 'screaming for nourishment' (Andy Statman) or searching a valuable alternative to religious orthodoxy and to Zionism... but also Goyim (Gentiles), moved by the depth, the expressiveness and the universality of this music. Coming from the United States, this 'new wave' wasn't long to reach Europe. It'a ctually a musical abstraction of the yiddish language" (David Krakauer) and "the picked soundtrack of a new culture for the Jewish youth" (Alicia Svigals). The traditional klezmer bands used to play mainly for dancing at 'simkhes' (celebrations) and the concept of a public sit-down concert is a new phenomenon since the revival (Ari Davidow). Actually, one can schematically distinguish three streams in klezmer music: The 'mainstream' musicians (The Epstein Brothers, The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band...) practice essentially in para-liturgical circumstances, like weddings or other Jewish feasts. Other 'traditional' musicians ( Joel Rubin, Andy Statman, Di Naye Kapelye or Budowitz) tend to re-actualize the sound and the arrangements of the past. But for most of the contemporary klezmorim, the klezmer stage is an open stage where they can express their own spiritual universe, share artistic ideas and bring their own compositions, accepting the influences of all actual tendencies like jazz (The Klezmorim, The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, David Krakauer, Kol Simcha, Klezmokum...), free-jazz (John Zorn, Eliott Sharp, The New Klezmer Trio, Anthony Coleman...), pop music (Mickey Katz...), rock'n roll (The Klezmatics, Avi Piamenta) and other kinds of 'ethnic' music: Indian (Pharaoh's Daughter), Arab (Bustan Abraham), Celtic, etc. Like in the past centuries, some klezmer bands (Brave Old World, The Klezmer Conservatory Band, Kapelye...) use their (Yiddish) songs to express their social, political and even sexual concerns and claims. THE INSTRUMENTS IN KLEZMER MUSIC In Ukraine, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Jews were only allowed to play on 'quiet' instruments (fiddle, 'tsimbl' and flute). 'Strong' ones (brass and drums) were eschewed. Furthermore, the number of musicians and the length of the concerts were also restricted. The violin ('fidl', 'werfl', 'warpli' or 'warfli' in Yiddish) was the most appropriate instrument for all kinds of ornamentation and expressive variations. In the sixteenth century, the violin was at the lowest place in the hierarchy of the musical instruments (but it was easier to flee a pogrom with a fiddle than with a piano). The "ershter" (lead violin) of a 'kapelye' (orchestra) used to play the main melodic line on the top of the register. The 'tsweyter' (second violin) played an 'heterophonical' version, often one octave lower and the 'fturke' or 'secunda' made a rhythmical accompaniment (Josh Horowitz & Seth Rogovoy). The fiddle embodied the essence of klezmer style and soon became the symbol of the Jewish music and the old Yiddish expression 'Yidl mit'n Fidl' inspired a famous song and a movie. The clarinet ('foyal' or 'forsht' in Yiddish) hasn't been adapted to the Jewish 'kapelye' from classical orchestras nor replaced the Hungarian or Transylvanian taragot (tarogato), but was brought in the second half of the nineteenth century by (Jewish) musicians from German and Russian (or possibly Napoleonic) military bands (Josh Horowitz). The klezmer clarinetist acquired a better social status than the fiddlers did. The moaning sound of the clarinet (especially the C-tuned) was perfectly adapted to the Jewish style. If many melodic instruments were present in the band, the higher (fiddle or clarinet) played the lead voice, the reverse was used only for short moments, to obtain a contrast effect. Instruments with identical registers played preferably one octave higher or lower, the unison being avoided because of the different pitches of the instruments. In opposition to long trilled notes, sometimes played over many bars, the third and the counter-chant were more sparingly used than nowadays (Merlin Shepherd): a question of (good) taste. The 'tsimbl' (hammered dulcimer) was already popular in Galicia, Bukovina (Poland) and Bielorussia in the sixteenth century, but it's not clear if it was brought by Jews, Gypsies or Hungarians. With a hundred strings, it was not easy to tune and the listener's ears should have been more tolerant at that time than today. The accordion was expensive and rare but estimated in the late nineteenth century. Its key-frame with buttons, its bronze vibrating blades (actually they are made of zinc or aluminum), its little rigid goat leather bellow gave a soft, hot sound close to the human voice and allowed a large gamut of nuances and ornamentation but demanded strength to play it (Josh Horowitz). The cello ('barok'), lighter and more flexible than the double bass, could be strapped to the shoulders during the processionals. The thumb wasn't usually needed because the gut strings weren't very stretched and the high notes rarely played. The bow was shorter, more curved and with less stretched coarse hair than nowadays. It was hold in the 'first position', in the middle. The instrument was supposed to sound like a 'burden' or a percussion, to give a greater sound volume in front of noisy listeners or dancers (Josh Horowitz). Later, under the influence of folk music and jazz, the bass line became more melodic, joining sometimes the lead voice or "ostinato" fixed to one or two notes. When a double bass was included in the 'kapelye', the cello could also play the tenor voice. The percussion was often reduced to a little drum ('tshekal') or a bass drum ('puk' or 'baraban'), sometimes with a cymbal ('tats'). Many other less typical instruments were included in klezmer bands: flutes, ('fleyt' or 'shtolper'), brass, guitar, piano and later saxophones (considered by the Nazis as instruments of the 'Jewish-Negro subversion'), banjo, tambourine and even tablas, Indian sitar or didjeridoo. THE BUILDING OF THE KLEZMER THEMES THE MELODY AND THE HARMONY The traditional klezmer music contains characteristics of both secular and religious music. In traditional Jewish music, the melody has always the main function and the harmony only develops after it. This conception made possible to hold one chord for 8, 16, 24 bars or for a whole section of a klezmer tune. In the first recordings of the early 20th century, the accompaniment plays much more the role of volumic and rhythmic than harmonic sustain. The delicate friction of a melody against the underlying harmony generates some dissonance, responsible for the desirable musical tension (Josh Horowitz). Like in collective Jewish prayers, traditional klezmer music is characteristically 'heterophonic' (Merlin Shepherd): many instruments play the same melody, but with various interpretations, ornamentation or registers... and sometimes on a different tempo. No matter if it sounds chaotic, the generated emotion is much more important than any theoretic consideration. For technical reasons, this point is not always obvious in the oldest recordings, so that many 'revivalists' musicians don't consider it as important... The ornamentation ('dreydlekh' or 'schleyfer') is extremely rich and important, but has never been codified. It gives to each note a symbolic meaning: cheerful, moaning or sighing ('krekhtsn'). THE TEMPO Originally, the tempo was free and the fluctuations were played dependent of the atmosphere in the ceremony or among the listeners: it had to be faster when the ambient became hot and slower when a grandmother entered in the dance (Josh Horowitz). Our actual concept of a precise and regular (not to say mechanical) tempo was introduced only with the time of the recording means, a hundred years ago. Like the Gypsies and some jazz musicians, the klezmorim were able to play the melodies 'forwards' or 'backwards' to the beat, producing a feeling of instability or a tension allowing some emotional expressions. THE HARMONIC MODES ("SHTEYGERS") A) Major: Similar to the major mode of the occidental music: C D E F G A B B) Minors: By definition, they all have a diminished third degree: C D Eb... B 1) Natural minor or Aeolian (Mogen Ovos, Yishtabakh), also referred as 'didactic mode': Related to the Arabic modes 'bahat', it is build on the sixth degree of the major scale (like a C scale beginning on A): C D Eb F G Ab Bb C. Examples: 'Moldavian Hora', 'Kiever Bulgar', 'Dem Trisker Rebns Nigun'. B 2) Harmonic minor: Frequently used in klezmer music. Differs from the preceding by an augmented seventh: C D Eb F G Ab B C. The augmented second between the VIth and the VIIth degrees increases the 'leading note' effect of the seventh and allows the playing of a major dominant chord (Vth degree). B 3) Melodic minor: this mode keeps the augmented seventh of the former, but 'corrects' the augmented second by augmenting the sixth C D Eb F G A B C. C) Typical Ashkenazic modes: The three following modes are called after the prayer in which they are used: C 1) Ahava Raba (great love): Also called 'Freygish' or altered Phrygian (Beregowski). Idelsohn suggests that this mode is Tartaric (13th century). Its second degree is diminished. It sounds like the phrygian mode (often used in Spanish music, built on the third degree of the major scale, like a C scale beginning on E), but contains a major third degree: C Db E F G Ab Bb C. Examples: 'Tantzt, tantzt, yidelekh', 'Lebedik un freylekh'. The Arabian mode 'Hijaz' differs only within another augmented second between the sixth and the seventh degrees: C Db E F G Ab B C. Example: 'Miserlou'. C 2) Mi sheberakh (the one who blesses): also called 'Av horakhamim', 'Slikha', 'Doina', Ukrainian Dorian (Idelsohn), altered Dorian (Beregowski), Dorian #4 or karagoona in Greek music. The augmented fourth degree gives a big gap (1 1/2 step) between the third and the fourth degree: C D Eb F# G A Bb C. Examples: 'Di saposhkelekh', 'Nokh a gletzl vayn', Odessa bulgar'. It's commonly found in Romanian and Jewish Doinas. In these two modes, like the 'blue notes' in jazz, the augmented second gives to the klezmer music a typical 'oriental' consonance. C 3) Adonoï molokh (G-d king), also called 'Tefila' (prayer) by sefardic cantors or Myxolydian: Similar to the Arabic mode "siga" , it is built on the fifth degree of the major scale (like a C scale beginning on G) but often with a minor 10th: C D E F G A Bb C (D Eb). It is played on 7th chords. The V chord should be minor (G Bb D) but is often major (G B D). Examples: 'Baym rebn in Palesteena', 'Der shtiler bulgar'. C4) Other modes like Yekum Purkan or Amida (pentatonic) are used in cantillation but rarely in klezmer music. TITLES AND DURATION OF THE TUNES As usual in an oral tradition, the tunes were played without any composer's credit and even without titles. The musicians often only called them by naming the rhythm ('freylekhs' or 'hora'). Entitling became necessary only with the advent of the recording. The duration of the tunes was not limited, but had to be adapted to the circumstances: If the audience was dancing, it was possible to enchain 2, 5 or 10 bulgars without a pause (Max Epstein). The brevity of a 78-rpm's side imposed to the musicians the 3 minutes limitation of a tune that remains usual nowadays. IMPROVISATION The improvisation was part of the liturgical Jewish music as well as of the klezmer music. At the beginning, the purpose was just to modify the phrasing, the articulations or the ornamentation of a melody, or to add some "krekhtsn" (ornaments). This is heterophony: Like a Jew praying with others, each musician of the band tells the same story but his own way and... let's meet again to the end of the sentence. The tempo changes and rubati are already to be considered as a kind of improvisation. The TAKSIM and the DOINA are long slow semi-improvisational and rubato melodies. In these kind of pieces one can feel a major influence of the liturgical cantillation of the khazan (cantor). The concept of improvisation evolved obviously in the twentieth century under influence of the jazz with choruses based on the chord chain of the theme. THE THEMES Most of the themes one can hear nowadays are considered as "traditional", i.e. that the author is not known. His name was probably lost with the oral transmission of the tune or the composer omitted to sign it, considering he was an artisan and not an artist. Many melodies are not definitively considered as achieved and they evolve with the consecutive interpretations. One tune can have many titles: ('Moldavian Hora' and 'Bolgarskii Zhok' or 'Pedotser's Tants', 'Tanets Rabina' and 'Der Chosid tanzt'), the same title can be attributed to different themes ('Odessa Bulgar') or one section of a theme can be mixed to another one to build a new tune. A tune can be entitled only by its genre ('Hora', 'Freylekhs', 'Sher' or 'Sirba', etc.), its key, the name of whoever or wherever the klezmorim learned it from (e.g. 'Kandel's hora'). THE RHYTHMS The NIGUN (from the Hebrew 'lenagen': play music) is a simple, wordless and easy to remember religious folk tune, usually composed by a rabbi or a member of a 'hoyf' (rabbinical court), sometimes borrowed from the local folk tunes and 'sanctified' ('mekadesh zayn a nign'). Sung repetitively by all the members of a community, it bears (among prone subjects) a kind of mystic ecstasy. The 'tish nigunim' accompanied meals, the 'Deveykus nigunim', often arrhythmic, were dedicated to G-d, the 'Gass'n nigunim' used for the processionals and the 'treredike nigunim' for meditation and crying (Andy Statman). The nigunim are usually sung with onomatopoeia: "bim, bom" around Moditz, "yadi, yadi" in Ger or "oy, yoy" in Lubavitch... (Henry Sapoznik). The FREYLEKH ('joyful'), also called 'hopke', 'redl', 'karahod', 'dreydl', 'kaylekhiks' or 'rikudl', is a Jewish circle dance. The BULGAR (from 'bulgaresti' or 'bulgareasca' (Zev Feldman), meaning a dance 'a la Bulgare' from Bessarabia (Romania) -and not from Bulgaria where most of the Jews were Sephardim)- is quite similar and is danced -like the Greek HASAPIKO or the Israeli HORA - in circle, in line or in couples. The bulgar is generally slower and has a more complex structure and ornamentation than the freylekhs. Both are played on a lento, medium or fast tempo in 8/8 with peculiar accentuation on 123 456 78, giving a feeling of 2 triplets followed by 2 eighths. The KHOSIDL is a Hasidic dance (imagine them with their 'peyes' (sidecurls), long beards, black caftans and hand elevated to the heaven) based on a ZEMERL, a religious folk tune in 2/4 or 4/4. It usually begins at a moderate tempo and accelerates progressively to reach an ecstatic enthusiasm. The HORA (also called ZHOK, LONDRE, VOLAKH (slow hora) or KRIMER) is a Romanian circle dance, originally in 5/3 but often played in 3/4, with accentuation on the first and the third eighths: 1 (2) 3. It's not to be confused with the Israeli Hora, (i.e. Hava naguila) which is a fast bulgar. The TERKISH is similar to the Greek SYRTOS, BALLOS or SUSTA and to the Spanish HABANERA. It's a 4 beats tune with an oriental consonance and a rhythm "eighth - crotchet - eighth - fourth - fourth". The SIRBA is a Romanian couple or in line dance on a fast tempo in 2/4 or 4/4 with an underlying triplets feeling or melody. The SHER (or SHERELE, VOLZENI, HAKHNAAH), a German shepherd's couple dance is similar to the American square dance or to the Russian quadrille ('krokadil'), played in 2/4 at a medium or fast tempo. The name ('scissors') is not an allusion to the movement of the legs (which is the case of another Russian dance called 'scissors'), but more likely to the pattern dancers trace when they cross each other (Helen Winkler). Other etymological suppositions: The sher could be the traditional dance of the barbers or of the tailors (Michael Alpert), mean 'Shar-tantz' (popular dance or group dance) or be related to the ceremony of cutting the bride's hair before the wedding (Josh Horowitz). The numerous themes called 'sher' are often a compilation of a few sections put together to form a more or less long piece, depending of the dancer's need. The TAKSIM, in Arabic-Turkish mode 'makam' is an improvisational tune based on the melody of the following tune that can occasionally be played in the middle of the tune. It was replaced in the late 19th century by: The DOINA, originally a Romanian shepherd's lament with Greek influence (SKAROS or KLEFTIKA) and already borrowed by the Gypsy 'lautari'. The Doina is a rather slow, improvised and free-metered (rather than unmetered) tune, employing sequences of short melodic figures often with a regular rhythmic pulse (Kurt Bjorling). The soloist (often fiddle or clarinet) plays on a soft harmonic (modal) basement (tsimbl or accordion). When needed, the chord changes were indicated at the moment to the other musicians. These pieces were particularly appropriate to express the entire universe of emotions, with a major influence of the liturgical cantillation and melisma of the khazan (cantor). In a suite, the doina could be used as 'forshpil' (prelude), followed by a short rhythmical 'tsushpil' announcing a tempo change (for example terkish) to a faster piece or medley called 'nokhshpil' (hora, khosidl, sirba, terkish or bulgar). The term 'doina' could derive from the Sanskrit (Indian) 'd'haina', recalling the Gypsy influence on this music(Yale Strom). If the listeners or dancers asked (and paid) for, the klezmorim could play also the Ukrainian KOLMEYKE (a fast Ukrainian couple dance with accentuation on the two last notes of the phrases), the Ukrainian HOPAK (with accentuation on the two first notes of the phrases), the SKOTSHNE (a salting two-beats dance whose name (and melodies?) could allude to Scottish missionaries in Moldavia in the nineteenth century, but probably comes from the Russian word for 'jump' (Merlin Shepherd), the HONGA (dance in line of Moldavian shepherds with repeated 4- or 8 bars motives in eighths), the Hungarian CSARDAS (on a slow then fast tempo), the Russian KASATSHOK, the GAVOTTE, the QUADRILLE, the FANTASY (suite of rhythmical or arrhythmic tunes without religious intention, to be heard during a meal) or light classical themes. Other modern styles were also occasionally played: TANGO, WALTZ, MARCH, POLKA, MAZURKA, and even FOX TROT, RAGTIME, RUMBA, MERENGUE, SAMBA, ROCK'N ROLL or JAZZ THEMES. THE PHRASING Listening to the music is much better than reading a theoretical explanation. However a few particularities should be mentioned for musicians who discover the klezmer music with sheets:
Heterophony, ornamentation, special phrasing and augmented seconds are characteristic points of the klezmer music.
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