The word Klezmer is derived from two Hebrew words, “kle” means instrument or vessel and “zemer” means song (Netsky, p.5). Klezmer music was born from the villages of Eastern Europe where Jewish troubadours (also known as klezmorim) would entertain at different a functions that were happy and joyous like weddings, birthday parties, and anniversaries. Klezmer music can be dated back to the 1800’s from Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants (Netsky, p.5).
The Bible talks about music being played in Jerusalem but there are no recordings of it nor are there any persons alive that can describe the music to us today. The first klezmer known by name was Yakobius ben Yakobius, a player of the aulos in Samaria in the 2nd century CE. The earliest written record of the klezmorim is in the 15th century. It should be noted that it is unlikely that they played music recognizable as klezmer today since the style and structure of klezmer as we know it today is thought to have come largely from 19th century Bessarabia (which is a region in southeastern Europe), where the bulk of today's traditional repertoire was written (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer). …show more content…
What we do know is that is when the early Jewish immigrants started coming to America the klezmer music was inspired by popular music like jazz, blues and ragtime (Netsky, p. 5). A 20th century klezmer musician by the name of was Abe Schwartz played an important role in klezmer music, in 1917 he recorded a traditional song called 'Russian Scissors (Silverman, p. 159-180). Abe Schwartz recordings displayed how inexperienced he was a musician and capable of only playing folk tunes but years later, his recorded the song again, and you can hear the different influences of blues and jazz in his
The Bible talks about music being played in Jerusalem but there are no recordings of it nor are there any persons alive that can describe the music to us today. The first klezmer known by name was Yakobius ben Yakobius, a player of the aulos in Samaria in the 2nd century CE. The earliest written record of the klezmorim is in the 15th century. It should be noted that it is unlikely that they played music recognizable as klezmer today since the style and structure of klezmer as we know it today is thought to have come largely from 19th century Bessarabia (which is a region in southeastern Europe), where the bulk of today's traditional repertoire was written (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer). …show more content…
What we do know is that is when the early Jewish immigrants started coming to America the klezmer music was inspired by popular music like jazz, blues and ragtime (Netsky, p. 5). A 20th century klezmer musician by the name of was Abe Schwartz played an important role in klezmer music, in 1917 he recorded a traditional song called 'Russian Scissors (Silverman, p. 159-180). Abe Schwartz recordings displayed how inexperienced he was a musician and capable of only playing folk tunes but years later, his recorded the song again, and you can hear the different influences of blues and jazz in his