rules of klezmer?

[adube810]

i just came from seeing the klezmatics at my school and it made me really interested in playing in the klezmer style. i know its mostly harmonic minor...but im sure there are rules for movement so any info/tips would be really appreciated!

thanks!

[NJL]

i'm curious, too.

bump

[bongomania]

Klezmer is traditionally performed on small portable acoustic instruments--clarinet, baritone horn, accordion, etc. Certainly modern bassists can play Klezmer, but there are no established patterns for it. Your best bet is to look for the left hand chords for the accordion parts, or the bari horn lines, and follow those. I've also seen modern Klezmer-flavored bands where the bassist essentially played a ska bassline like octaves on the up beat. Main thing to watch out for is tempo changes. Klezmer is chock full of tempo changes.

[kesslari]

Oy...
I grew up listening to a lot of Klezmer around my house, and have played it as a percussionist (not as a bassist, though).
As a part of the rhythm section, you'll want to cue into the "freilach" (literally "festive"), a key dance rhythm. It's main accents are on the 1, the and of 2, and the 4, with lesser accents on each eighth note before a strong beat.
(1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and). There are other important rhythms (horas, polkas, bulghars, and others), but the freilach is key IMO.

For melodic instruments, learn some of the phrasings like "krachts" (very vocal-sounding glisses) and other stylistic ornamentations.
As with any genre of music, listening to a lot of it will always help.

Klezmers were travelling musicians who went from town to town to play for celebrations (e.g., to get gigs). Klezmer music was influenced by the cultures in which the Jews found themsleves (so you'll find Ottomon influences, Russian, German, Czech, Polish, etc etc etc). There are also a lot of Gypsy music influences, and in Eastern Europe many Klezmers and Gypsies played together and played many of the same songs and cross-polinated (travelling musicians from different subcultures moving through the same areas). Both groups (Klezmers and Gypsies) played not only for their own people, but for the locals wherever they went, and so they tended to know a ton of tunes and a lot of styles.

A couple of great movies you might find on Netflicks if you're intrested:
Carpati, details the connection between the Klezmers and the Gypsies in the Carpathian mountains.
The Last Klezmer covers the life of a Klezmer musician who survived the concentration camps. He's amazing. Talking about the musical cross-pollination that I touched on here, he plays a melody and says "if you play it this way, it's Romainian". Plays it again, with different articulation "this way it's Czech", and again "this way it's Gypsy", "this way it's Klezmer"...

Very cool stuff.

You'll hear some Klezmer influences in some of Benny Goodman's music - largely coming from Ziggy Elman.
For some very old, first generation (US) klez, find some Dave Tarras records.
Mickey Katz created some classic klezmer "novelty" records (Mickey had played in Spike Jones' band), doing Yiddish parodies of popular music ("Borscht Riders in the Sky") - but each song would have a klezmer "freilach" improvisation in the middle of it. Jazz clarinetist Don Byron had a period when he was playing a lot of Mickey Katz covers.

[adube810]

thanks dude. fwiw, i just found this site http://www.manchesterklezmer.org/index.html which from what im looking at is a crash course in exactly what im looking for. also im sure others will find this very useful. it has basically everything

[adube810]

"a given note can be accented differently depending if it is at the top or the bottom of the scale."

i dont quite understand this

[onlyclave]

Thanks kesslari. That's one of the best posts I've seen here in a long time.

[kesslari]

fwiw, i just found this site http://www.manchesterklezmer.org/index.html

Cool find!

"Phrygish" is what Todd Johnson refers to as "Spanish Dominant" - it's the V of Harmnic Minor (which is also used a lot).

[pocket_groover]

I play at a Jewish church and find that a lot of the music starts/hangs around the relative minor. From there, going to the 4 and 5 chords and back to the relative minor is pretty common, although there are lots of variations. Many times, the root chord is not played at all. With fast polkas, there are very rapid chord changes so you need to be on your toes if reading a chart/sheet music cold (no rehearsals).

[JimK]

Originally Posted by kesslari

Oy...
As a part of the rhythm section, you'll want to cue into the "freilach" (literally "festive"), a key dance rhythm. It's main accents are on the 1, the and of 2, and the 4, with lesser accents on each eighth note before a strong beat.
(1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and).

Which is the "3" component of the 3:2 (or 2:3) Clave in Latin music.

Maybe not Klezmer in the "Traditional" sense...but does it get any better than The Hasidic New Wave?
Fima Ephron's Soul Machine is also cool.

Oy, indeed.

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by kesslari

"Phrygish" is what Todd Johnson refers to as "Spanish Dominant" - it's the V of Harmnic Minor (which is also used a lot).

That's funny, it doesn't look Phrygish!

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by kesslari

Cool find!

"Phrygish" is what Todd Johnson refers to as "Spanish Dominant" - it's the V of Harmnic Minor (which is also used a lot).

A.k.a. Phrygian Dominant and Mixolydian b2 b6. Also informally referred to as the "Jewish scale" for a reason (!)

Interestingly also a popular Arabic maqam known as Hijaz.

[kesslari]

Interestingly also a popular Arabic maqam known as Hijaz.

Sort of. Hijaz has "1/2 flats" (IIRC the 6th was half-flat, but I was a percussionist when I was playing Arab music, and didn't learn the maqams well).