Klarinet Archive - Posting 000460.txt from 1995/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re Ed Browning's inquiry on "klezmer"
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 06:40:10 -0400

Lisa Clayton spoke of klezmer arrangements in one of her notes and the
inquiry was on the meaning of the term "klezmer." Actually the inquiry
was on "klezmer arrangements" but it is a much easier task to explain
the origin of the word "klezmer."

In Europe from some time so long ago that no one really knows where or
when it began, a peculiar form of Jewish ethnic music arose that was
referred to as "klezmer." I believe that the term means a travelling
musician. A klezmer band in the 19th and 20th centuries might have consisted
of a clarinet, a cornet, an accordion, a violin, and perhaps a percussion
instrument.

We on the KLARINET board have interest in the subject to the extent that
the practice also gave rise to a peculiar and thoroughly delightful style
of clarinet playing which, because of its origin, is also called "klezmer."

The style is rich in ornamentation, improvisation, and extended solo
passages of folk nature. Frankly, such a description does not do service
to the form. Bending notes and note-glisses are stock in trade. Lots of
specialized technique is required. The clarinet part in Fiddler on the
Roof is supposed to be a klezmer, but the show rarely finds anyone good
enough or knowledgable enough to do justice to the part.

Its contemporary use cannot be discussed without making reference to
Giora Feidman who was bass clarinetist with the Israeli Philharmonic
and gave it up to focus on being a solo klezmer specialist. To hear him
is to be in awe.

He plays well, to be sure, but it is the intensity of his playing that
flabbergasts me. Many other fine klezmer players exist including a
plethora who have no cultural ties to the art form. The clarinetist
in the Boston Klezmer Conservatory Band was an Afro American. I believe
that the current player in that group is the daughter of an Evangelical
minister.

In effect, the movement has burst its ethnic bonds and taking on
universality, somewhat like gypsy music for fiddlers.

Go buy a Feidman record. Two notes from him are better than 3 pages from
me.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================

   
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