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The elements of Yiddish music:
The elements of Yiddish music are as manifold as the
suffering of its people. Each pause in the constant
persecution added a new timbre. It is difficult to describe
Yiddish music, it must be felt.
Klezmermusic is the traditional, instrumentally wedding-,
festival-, and dance music of the eastern european Jews. The
word “Klezmer” consist of the hebrew word “kle”
(instrument) and “semer” (chanting). The Klesmorim (the
musicians) rambled, mostly in petty groups, by the villages
and towns through Galicia, Rumania, Russia, Ukrainia,
Moldavia, and Poland.
The Klezmorim played on the ceremony of the jewish
community as well as by jewish weddings. A jewish wedding
takes frequently a week or even longer. Moreover they were
playing in streets and squares, in backyards, and in taverns.
The repertoire of the Klezmorim is more ample than the
“music of the jewish shtetl”. They were playing the whole
range of folkmusik of the other regions in the Eastern Europe
and even the music of the great classical composers. The
audience of the klesmorim consisted frequently even of non
jiddish people. They were playing in health resorts, bars with
dancing, café houses, and on public festivities.
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