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Klezmer (Yiddish: קלעזמער or כּלי־זמר) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. [1] The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these would have been played at weddings and other social functions.
In the words of Peter Gradenwitz, from this period onwards, the issue is "no longer the story of Jewish music, but the story of music by Jewish masters." [24] Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), a leading composer of operetta in the 19th century, was the son of a cantor, and grew up steeped in traditional Jewish music. Yet there is nothing about ...
Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882–1938), a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition; one of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson, who with the rest of his class was presented by the professor with a slow, melodious, 19th-century chant (niggun or ...
In the Ashkenazi world, the main impetus towards composed Jewish music came in early 19th century Vienna, where Salomon Sulzer composed settings for a large part of the synagogue service, reflecting traditional Jewish music but set in a style reminiscent of Schubert, who was a friend and contemporary.
[2] [3] [4] While perceived to be an Israeli folk song, [2] British music journalist Norman Lebrecht stated that the melody of "Hevenu shalom aleichem" originated among Hasidic Jews in Romania. [4] The Hebrew-language text of the song was added to the traditional Hasidic melody by Jews in Palestine prior to the foundation of Israel in 1948. [2]
However, even during the 20th century some Jewish composers often quoted Jewish music within non-Jewish contexts; for example, Gershwin used liturgical melodies and Hebrew songs for a few numbers in Porgy and Bess, and many also believe that the opening clarinet glissando in his Rhapsody in Blue is a reference to klezmer.
Jewish liturgical music is characterized by a set of musical modes.. The prayer modes form part of what is known as the musical nusach (tradition) of a community, and serve both to identify different types of prayer and to link those prayers to the time of year or even time of day in which they are set.
Echad Mi Yodea, recorded in Tel Aviv in 1966 (nusach Corfu) "Echad Mi Yodea" (Hebrew: אחד מי יודע?, lit. 'One, Who Knows?') is a traditional cumulative song sung on Passover and found in the haggadah.