Klezmer Music

Klezmer is a Yiddish term which translates as "musical instruments." According to Frederick Richmond, director of the Old World Folk Band, the term refers to a form of musical improvisation which is indigenous to the Jewish people and which reflects a blending of many cultural traditions. Traditionally, the klezmorim were professional musicians who performed at festive occasions and as part of social events. A klezmer band originally consisted of flute, tsymbal (a portable hammered dulcimer) and percussion. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the violin was added. Eventually, the clarinet replaced the violin as the lead instrument.

Klezmer music is now a blend of the music of the Old and New Worlds. It combines the folk tunes of Eastern European, Jewish and Middle Eastern cultures and the instrumentation of Dixie and Vintage American jazz. As waves of Russian and other East European Jews arrived in America at the turn of the century, klezmer music was a familiar sound in New York City's Lower East Side. Concurrent with the spread of klezmer music in East Coast urban centers was the rise of the Yiddish theater, which yielded perhaps the largest body of popular songs produced by one American ethnic group. Like mainstream commercial musical theater, Yiddish theater music draws upon a number of sources for its styles, including opera and folk traditions. Among the major songwriters to emerge from this environment was Sholom Secunda who wrote Bei mir bist du schoen. Translated as "By me, you're beautiful," the song was a big hit for the Andrew Sisters in the 1930s and has been recorded numerous times since.