Anyone else play Klezmer on whistles?
If so, what songs do you play?
I guess if I played it, I’d know what it is, but I don’t. Sounds interesting, though. What is it?
I’ve only played Hava Nagila with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse Folk Orchestra. The old style Clarke seemed to be a natural for it tone wise, but the Middle Eastern mode it was in meant I had to do some cross fingering no matter what key the instrument was in. There was a thread on the building of whistles tuned to the proper modes for Middle Eastern music.
In Meine Eigen Bist Du Schoen Schoen Vie de Veldt.
And the rebbe by the fire teaching the alef-bayse
And I think I can manage the one about when the rebbe dances, all the Hasids dance too.
Klezmer music is the music of the eastern European Jews, often played on fiddle, clarinet, accordion.
To me, it sounds almost like carnival music in a minor key. Sort of like the background music on Tales From the Crypt. Pretty interesting form of music.
Well, Pulp Fiction ruined the famous song “Miserlou” so I’d see why would say that. 
Klezmer songs are Eastern European for the most part, they are mostly dance songs with all kinds of unusual keys (half-holing madness). The keying system is influenced by cantors in Judaism. It also has some gypsy influence.
Songs like Zemer-Atik, Miserlou, Patsh Tantz, Nacht en Gan Eyden, Odessa Bulgarish, Rumanian Doyna (You would have to be double jointed to play that on a whistle), just to name a few.
Ma Navu is pretty easy to do a tin whistle.
Mayim-Mayim is good especially with a second player doing trills on the chorus on a high-D.
Pronunciation? Etymology?
I’ve been wondering for some time if the word Klezmer is an English- or German-based transliteration, i.e. should the “z” be pronounced “ts” as in German, or like an English “z”?
Because Yiddish is effectively a dialect of German, though written in Hebrew characters, most transliterations of Yiddish which I have seen tend to be based on German letter values, but the influence of New York (+ Catskills + Miami?) has led to English-based transliterations, which causes some confusion. For example, now that the word “chutzpah” (a German-based transliteration) has entered mainstream usage, lots of people mispronounce it.
And anyway, what’s the original meaning of the word Klezmer?
I have always heard it pronounced with the sound of an English “z” by people familiar with Yiddish. Klezmorim is the plural. I believe klezmer basically means music or musician. All the Jews here in Cleveland I have talked with about the subject associate Klezmer music with weddings.
Mike
Here’s a web site that has some information
http://www.davkamusic.com/sfke/klezmer_history.htm
Steve
Thanks, Mike and Steve.
The word ‘Klezmer’ comes from ‘Kley’ (Instrument) ‘Zemer’ (Song) or Instrument Songs.
It uses the ‘Z’ hebrew letter ‘zayin’ not the ‘TZ’ as in the letter ‘tzadik’.
[ This Message was edited by: Daniel_Bingamon on 2002-07-08 17:57 ]
Mayim is pure Iraeli music, not technically Klez. It’s sung in Hebrew rather than the requisite Yiddish.
I have a wonderful little CD called Tine, which is two Irish musicians, playing whistle, pipes, guitar, maybe another instrument. The CD has only five tracks, one of them is klezmer, on a whistle, and yes, half-holing and bending and whathaveyou. Its a homemade CD, I don’t think you could find it anywhere. I got it in a store in Portsmouth NH, and the shopkeeper got it directly from the musician, who was playing locally.
It seems to me like the low whistle would sound great in this kind of music. Those haunting low tones are so good for modal music.
I’ve never played klezmer on the whistle, but I love it, and if someone figures a way to do it, I’d sure like to hear…
I’ve never heard a connection between Irish music and klezmer, but when you think back on it, a lot of the musicians who began the klezmer revival in the 1980’s were young Jewish-Americans who had played in Irish bands and Appalachian bands. (Plus some jazz players.) Is there a site devoted to klezmer tunes? I’d like to experiment with the music in my goyische way.
Tom
On 2002-07-09 09:53, tomandceil wrote:
Is there a site devoted to klezmer tunes? I’d like to experiment with the music in my goyische way.
Tom
You could join the Jewish music mailing list and aske there.
http://www.ivritype.com/resources/jlists.html#jewish-music
Steve
It is so neat to hear people talking about Klezmer music! I never hear much about it but I think it is really neat and would love to learn to play it myself.
Why do I get the feeling we’re going to hear that in order to play Klezmer, you have to be: Jewish, raised in the tradition, live in a Jewish community, listen to old recordings of traditional players, learn it by ear ('cause the real “feel” can’t be written down in notes)…
OTOH, maybe I’m wrong!
BTW, National Public Radio did a series on Yiddish radio in the US - more information at http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/yiddish/index.html
On 2002-07-11 18:14, DanD wrote:
Why do I get the feeling we’re going to hear that in order to play Klezmer, you have to be: Jewish, raised in the tradition, live in a Jewish community, listen to old recordings of traditional players, learn it by ear ('cause the real “feel” can’t be written down in notes)…OTOH, maybe I’m wrong! >
BTW, National Public Radio did a series on Yiddish radio in the US - more information at > http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/yiddish/index.html
Those are the sorts of prejudices harbored in most forms of music, anyway. People just can’t understand how “an outsider” could ever learn to play. Something like the upset some people felt when a British person had a Country and Western hit, several years ago.
You don’t have to be Jewish to play Klezmer, just like you don’t have to be Irish to play Celtic music. (running ducking and hiding after that statement)
There is a website, http://www.klezmershack.com has some Klezmer music. You can find music books at http://www.jewishmusic.com
Henry Sapoznik played blue grass music and then rediscovered his jewish roots and was big part of the Klezmer revival.
I’ve been experimenting with minor key whistles to facilitate jamming with klezmer music.
Regarding the chirps and stuff in klezmer, I would say it’s definitely easy to do with a whistle - why we can chirp without even trying. 