| Trying to give a extensive definition of the | | | | some point occured a semantic merging between |
| klezmer is quite a difficult task. Originally, this is | | | | the musician and his instrument, and klezmer |
| the music of the Jewish communities who lived in | | | | began to mean the artist playing the instrument. |
| Eastern Europe a few centuries ago. | | | | It is only in the thirties of last century that |
| It is a buoyant dance music meant to go along | | | | Beregowsky, the musicologist, used the word |
| with the events of the Jewish social life like | | | | klezmer to refer to the music. |
| weddings and days of celebration. Klezmer is a | | | | The klezmer was brought to Western Europe and |
| music capable of expressing and embracing the | | | | to North-America by the immigrants who fled the |
| human passions and feelings, from blessedness to | | | | persecutions and the pogroms at the end of the |
| unhappiness, from laugh to teardrops. | | | | 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th |
| In truth the word klezmer is the juxtaposition of | | | | century there was a flourishing of the Yiddish |
| two Hebrew words, "kli" and "zemer" which mean | | | | culture and klezmer music thanks to such clarinet |
| respectively instrument and song, klezmer is | | | | musicians as Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein. |
| therefore word for word the instrument of the | | | | They were both virtuoso clarinet players, each in |
| song, the vessel of the voice. | | | | his own style and they were prominent |
| Klezmer was played by traveling musicians strolling | | | | contributors of the blossoming of Jewish life and |
| from Shtetl to Shtetl (the Shtetl is a yiddish word | | | | klezmer music in America. |
| which means village), trying to earn a living | | | | From the thirties till the seventies, the klezmer |
| performing their craft. There were many music | | | | was out of the limelights. The reasons why |
| genres which influenced klezmer, such as the | | | | klezmer sink into oblivion were multiple. Among |
| Hazanut (synagogue chanting), reproducing the | | | | them were the holocaust, six millions Jewish were |
| bending of the human voice, the hasidic nigunim | | | | murdered, the emergence of new styles of |
| (wordless tunes), popular dances, folk songs, or | | | | music, jazz, rock-and-roll, much more attractive |
| solemn hymns before prayers. | | | | for the young people in search of new ways of |
| Now and then the klezmorim (plural of klezmer | | | | expression, and paradoxically when the new State |
| which means Klezmer musicians) were invited by | | | | of Israel was created in 1948, the klezmer was |
| non-Jewish local nobles who asked them to play | | | | put aside because the people wanted to revoke |
| contemporary popular tunes. Therefore the | | | | anything evocative of the holocaust and the bad |
| klezmer musicians played the local repertoire such | | | | days. |
| as Hungarian, Bulgarian, Bessarabian, Romanian, | | | | It is only in the seventies that some precursor |
| Moldavian, Ukrainian, Russian, German, Polish... | | | | musicians like Andy Statman, Henry Sapoznik, |
| The klezmer music was thus inspired by the | | | | Zev Feldman, Hankus Netsky and the "klezmorim" |
| non-Jewish traditions and cultures, but on the | | | | in the U.S.A. and Giora Feidman in the European |
| other hand the local musicians of each region and | | | | continent, started what is called the "klezmer |
| country were in their turn influenced by the | | | | rebirth". |
| klezmer. | | | | Since then, the popularity of klezmer music is |
| There is a certain confusion about the general | | | | continually prospering and it is loved and |
| term of klezmer, first it was intended to | | | | appreciated by Jewish and non-Jewish people in all |
| designate the musical instruments themselves. At | | | | part of our global world. |