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{{Short description|Style of Jewish music}}
{{For|the 2015 war-drama film|Klezmer (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = Klezmer
| native_name       = קלעזמער
| other_names       = Jewish instrumental folk music, Freylekh music
| image             = Tanz des Marschelik, Spassmacher (1902 postcard).png
| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|Old European dance music|[[religious Jewish music]]|[[Romanian music]]|[[Moldovan music]]|[[Ukrainian music]]|[[Polish music]]|[[Baroque music]]|[[Ottoman music]]|[[Greek music]]}}
| cultural_origins  = [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazic Jewish]] ceremonies, especially weddings, in Eastern Europe
| instruments       = Standard orchestra instruments, [[accordion]], [[cimbalom]]
}}
{{JewishMusic}}

'''Klezmer''' ({{langx|yi|קלעזמער}} or {{lang|yi|כּלי־זמר}}) is an instrumental musical tradition of the [[Ashkenazi Jews]] of Central and Eastern Europe.<ref name="Humanities">{{cite news |last1=Strom |first1=Yale |title=The Mesmerizing Sounds of Klezmer |url=https://www.neh.gov/article/mesmerizing-sounds-klezmer |access-date=27 December 2023 |publisher=Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities |date=Winter 2024}}</ref> 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.<ref name="OJFM 530-48">{{cite book |last=Beregovsky |first=Moishe |editor-last=Slobin |editor-first=Mark |title=Old Jewish folk music : the collections and writings of Moshe Beregovski |date=1982 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=081227833X |pages=530–548|chapter=4. Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (1937)}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 29">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=29}}</ref> The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] (especially [[Greek music|Greek]] and [[Romanian music|Romanian]]) music, [[Baroque music]], German and [[Slavic people|Slavic]] folk dances, and religious Jewish music.<ref name="Slobin 2000 7">{{cite book |last=Slobin |first=Mark |title=Fiddler on the move : exploring the klezmer world |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195161809 |page=7}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 208-10">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=208–210}}</ref> As the music arrived in the United States, it lost some of its traditional ritual elements and adopted elements of American [[big band]] and popular music.<ref name="Rubin 2020 71-4">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |pages=71–74}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 216-8">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=216–8}}</ref> Among the European-born klezmers who popularized the genre in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s were [[Dave Tarras]] and [[Naftule Brandwein]]; they were followed by American-born musicians such as Max Epstein, [[Sidney Beckerman (musician)|Sid Beckerman]] and Ray Musiker.<ref name="YIVO encyclopedia instr">{{cite web |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Music: Traditional and Instrumental Music |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Music/Traditional_and_Instrumental_Music |website=YIVO Encyclopedia |publisher=YIVO}}</ref>

After the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe during [[the Holocaust]], and a general fall in the popularity of klezmer music in the United States, the music began to be popularized again in the late 1970s in the so-called Klezmer Revival.<ref name="Humanities"/> During the 1980s and onwards, musicians experimented with traditional and experimental forms of the genre, releasing fusion albums combining the genre with [[jazz]], [[Punk music|punk]], and other styles.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kirshenblatt-Gimblett |first=Barbara |title=Sounds of Sensibility |journal=Judaism |year=1998 |volume=47 |pages=49–55}}</ref> By the 1980s and 1990s the American revival spread to Europe and inspired a new interest in the genre in places such as Germany, France, Poland and Russia. A parallel tradition has also continued in Israel with such figures as Moussa Berlin.

==Etymology and usage==
The term {{transliteration|yi|klezmer}}, as used in the [[Yiddish language]], has a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] etymology: ''klei'', meaning "tools, utensils or instruments of" and ''zemer'', "melody"; leading to ''k'lei zemer'' {{Script/Hebrew|כְּלֵי זֶמֶר}}, meaning "[[musical instruments]]".<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /><ref name="Humanities"/> Over time the usage of "{{transliteration|yi|klezmer}}" in a Yiddish context evolved to describe musicians instead of their instruments, first in [[Bohemia]] in the second half of the sixteenth century and then in [[Poland]], possibly as a response to the new status of the musicians who were at that time forming professional guilds.<ref name="Feldman 2016 61-7">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=61–67}}</ref> Previously the musician may have been referred to as a {{transliteration|yi|lets}} ({{lang|yi|לץ}}) or other terms.<ref name="YIVO encylopedia article">{{cite web |last=Feldman |first1=Zev |title=Music: Traditional and Instrumental Music |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Music/Traditional_and_Instrumental_Music |website=YIVO Encyclopedia |publisher=YIVO Institute |access-date=20 June 2021}}</ref><ref name="Liptzin">{{cite book |last=Liptzin |first=Solomon |title=A history of Yiddish literature |date=1972 |publisher=Jonathan David |location=Middle Village, N.Y. |isbn=0824601246}}</ref> After the term {{transliteration|yi|klezmer}} became the preferred term for these professional musicians in Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe, other types of musicians were more commonly known as {{transliteration|yi|muziker}} or {{transliteration|yi|muzikant}}. Twentieth century Russian scholars sometimes used the term klezmer; [[Ivan Lipaev]] did not use it, but [[Moisei Beregovsky]] did when publishing in Yiddish or [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]].<ref name="Feldman 2016 61-7" />

It was not until the late 20th century that the word "klezmer" became a commonly known English-language term.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=Julia |title=The impact of Yiddish on the English language: An overview of lexical borrowing in the variety of subject areas and spheres of life influenced by Yiddish over time |journal=English Today |date=September 2019 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=2–7 |doi=10.1017/S0266078418000494|s2cid=150270104 }}</ref> During that time, through [[metonymy]] it came to refer not only to the musician but to the musical genre they played, a meaning which it had not had in Yiddish.<ref name="Alexander 2021 87">{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Phil |title=Sounding Jewish in Berlin: klezmer music and the contemporary city |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York, [New York] |isbn=9780190064433 |page=87}}</ref><ref name="Slobin 2000 6">{{cite book |last=Slobin |first=Mark |title=Fiddler on the move: exploring the klezmer world |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195161809 |page=6}}</ref><ref name="Netsky 1998">{{cite journal |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=An overview of klezmer music and its development in the U.S. |journal=Judaism |date=Winter 1998 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=5–12}}</ref> Early 20th century recording industry materials and other writings had referred to it as Hebrew, Jewish, or Yiddish dance music, or sometimes using the Yiddish term ''Freilech music'' ("Cheerful music"). The term 'klezmer' to refer to a genre of music was popularized as a marketing term in the late 1970s by Revival bands; Walter Zev Feldman, whose 1979 LP with [[Andy Statman]] used the term, claims credit for this shift in usage.<ref name="Feldman 2016 xv">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=xv}}</ref>

==Musical elements==
===Style===
The traditional style of playing klezmer music, including tone, typical [[Cadence (music)|cadences]], and [[ornamentation (music)|ornamentation]], sets it apart from other genres.<ref name="Rubin 2020 175-214">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=176}}</ref> Although klezmer music emerged from a larger Eastern European Jewish musical culture that included [[hazzanut|Jewish cantorial music]], [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]] [[Nigun]]s, and later [[Yiddish theatre]] music, it also borrowed from the surrounding folk musics of Central and Eastern Europe and from cosmopolitan European musical forms.<ref name="Slobin 2000 7" /><ref name="Feldman 2022">{{cite journal |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Musical Fusion and Allusion in the Core and the Transitional Klezmer Repertoires |journal=Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies |date=2022 |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=143–166 |doi=10.1353/sho.2022.0026 |s2cid=253206627 |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/sho.2022.0026|issn=1534-5165|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Therefore it evolved into an overall style which has recognizable elements from all of those other genres.

Few klezmer musicians before the late nineteenth century had conservatory musical training, but they generally learned through apprenticeship and inherited a rich tradition with its own advanced musical techniques.<ref name="Rubin 2020 24">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=24}}</ref>  Each musician had their understanding of how the style should be "correctly" performed.<ref name="Rubin 2009">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel |editor-last=Weiner |editor-first=Howard T. |title=Early Twentieth-Century Brass Idioms |date=2009 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=978-0810862456 |pages=77–102 |chapter='Like a String of Pearls': Reflections on the Role of Brass Instrumentalists in Jewish Instrumental Klezmer Music and the Trope of 'Jewish Jazz'}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 175-214" /> The usage of these ornaments was not random; the matters of "taste", self-expression, [[Variation (music)|variation]] and restraint were and remain important elements of how to interpret the music.<ref name="Rubin 2020 175-214" />

Klezmer musicians apply the overall style to available specific techniques on each melodic instrument. They incorporate and elaborate the vocal melodies of Jewish religious practice, including the vocal style of the [[Hazzan]], [[Jewish prayer]], and paraliturgical song, extending the range of human voice into the musical expression possible on instruments.<ref name="Feldman 2016 39">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=39}}</ref> Among those stylistic elements that are considered typically "Jewish" in klezmer music are those which are shared with cantorial or [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]] vocal ornaments, including imitations of sighing or laughing.<ref name="Slobin 2000 98-122">{{cite book |last=Slobin |first=Mark |title=Fiddler on the move : exploring the klezmer world |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195161809 |pages=98–122}}</ref> Various Yiddish terms were used for these vocal-like ornaments such as {{lang|yi|קרעכץ}} (''Krekhts'', "groan" or "moan"), {{lang|yi|קנײטש}} ({{transliteration|yi|kneytsh}}, "wrinkle" or "fold"), and {{lang|yi|קװעטש}} ({{transliteration|yi|kvetsh}}, "pressure" or "stress").<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /> Other ornaments such as [[Trill (music)|trills]], [[grace note]]s, [[appoggiatura]]s, ''glitshn'' ([[glissando]]s), ''tshoks'' (a kind of [[bent note]]s of cackle-like sound),  flageolets ([[string harmonic]]s),<ref name=strom2006>[[Yale Strom]], "The absolutely complete klezmer songbook", 2006, {{ISBN|0-8074-0947-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nIo2hCQEJGoC&dq=dreydlekh&pg=PR27 Introduction]</ref><ref>Strom 2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MeUxtaGGtMkC&dq=kneytshn&pg=PA102, pp. 101, 102]</ref> [[Pedal point|pedal notes]], [[Mordent (music)|mordents]], [[Slide (musical ornament)|slides]] and typical klezmer cadences are also important to the style.<ref name="Rubin 2020 175-214" /> In particular, the cadences which draw on religious Jewish music identify a piece more strongly as a klezmer tune, even if its broader structure was borrowed from a non-Jewish source.<ref name="Feldman 2016 375-85" /><ref name="Feldman 2022" /> Sometimes the term ''dreydlekh'' is used only for trills, while other use it for all klezmer ornaments.<ref>Chris Haigh, ''The Fiddle Handbook'', 2009, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aba8o2tYD1IC&dq=%22dreydlekh%22&pg=PA113 Example 4.9]</ref> Unlike in Classical music, [[vibrato]] is used sparingly, and is treated as another type of ornament.<ref name="Slobin 2000 98-122" /><ref name="Rubin 2020 175-214" />

The accompaniment style varies a lot depending on instrumentation and context, ranging from playing in octaves without harmonization, to partial chords played by a second violinist, to very elaborate harmonized brass bands arrangements in the twentieth century.<ref name="Avenary 1960" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Netsky |first1=Hankus |title=Klezmer: music and community in twentieth-century Jewish Philadelphia |date=2017 |publisher=Temple university press |location=Philadelphia, Pa. Rome Tokyo |isbn=9781439909034 |page=116}}</ref>

===Historical repertoire===
The repertoire of klezmer musicians was very diverse and tied to specific social functions and dances, especially of the traditional wedding.<ref name="OJFM 530-48" /><ref name="Feldman 2022" /> These melodies might have a non-Jewish origin, or have been composed by a klezmer, but only rarely are they attributed to a specific composer.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> Generally klezmer music can be divided into two broad categories: music for specific dances, and music for listening (at the table, in processions, ceremonial, etc.).<ref name="Beregovski 1941" />

====Dances====
Given that Ashkenazic Jewish weddings have taken place in many countries and historical contexts, the dances preserved in klezmer music show a variety of ritual and cultural origins:
* A {{transliteration|yi|Freylekhs}} is the simplest and most widespread type of klezmer dance tunes are those played in {{music|time|2|4}} and intended for group circle dances.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8">{{cite book |last1=Stutschewsky |first1=Joachim M. |title=Joachim Stutschewsky: Geschichte, Lebensweise, Musik |date=2019 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=9783447197946 |pages=246–8}}</ref> Depending on the location this basic dance may also have been called a {{transliteration|yi|Redl}} (circle), {{transliteration|yi|Hopke}}, {{Transliteration|yi|Khosid}}, {{transliteration|yi|Karahod}} (round dance, literally the Belarusian translation of the Russian ''[[khorovod]]''), {{transliteration|yi|Dreydl}}, {{transliteration|yi|Rikudl}}, etc.<ref name="OJFM 530-48" /><ref name="Feldman 2016 275-98">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=275–298}}</ref><ref name="Avenary 1960" /><ref name="Hasidic lexicon" />
*A {{transliteration|yi|bulgar}}, {{transliteration|yi|bulgarish}} or {{Transliteration|yi|bolgar}} is a circle dance originating in Moldavia dance with a recognizable syncopated rhythm in {{music|time|2|4}} or {{music|time|4|4}}.<ref name="Feldman 2022" /> It became the most popular klezmer dance form in the United States in the early twentieth century.
* [[Sher (dance)|Sher]] is a [[contra dance]] in {{music|time|2|4}}, typically arranged for four couples who move together and trade places during the dance. Musically, it sounds like a Freylekhs, but the total number of sections allows the particular dance to be performed.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" /><ref name="Feldman 2022" /> Beregovsky, writing in the 1930s, noted that despite the dance being very commonly played across a wide area, he suspected that it had its roots in an older German dance.<ref name="OJFM 530-48" /> This dance continued to be known in the United States even after other complex European klezmer dances had been forgotten.<ref name="Feldman 2016 261-73">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=261–273}}</ref>
* {{Transliteration|yi|Kosher-tants}} ([[kosher]] dance) or {{transliteration|yi|mitsve-tants}} ([[mitzvah]] dance) are ritual dances dating back hundreds of years, often in {{music|time|3|4}} and borrowing the form and melodies of a [[polonaise]] or a [[gavotte]].<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" /> Incorporating themes of purity, piety or commitment, the dance would see the bride would dancing with the groom or other community members separated by a handkerchief or belt.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedhaber |first1=Zvi |editor1-last=Ingber |editor1-first=Judith Brin |title=Seeing Israeli and Jewish dance |date=2011 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |location=Detroit |isbn=9780814333303 |pages=229–31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Netsky |first1=Hankus |title=Klezmer: music and community in twentieth-century Jewish Philadelphia |date=2017 |publisher=Temple university press |location=Philadelphia, Pa. Rome Tokyo |isbn=9781439909034 |page=72}}</ref> A {{transliteration|yi|Broygez-tants}} is a related type of dance which involves pantomimes of anger and reconciliation.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" />
* {{Transliteration|yi|Khosidl}}, or {{Transliteration|yi|Khosid}}, named after [[Hasidic]] Jews, is a more dignified embellished dance in {{music|time|2|4}} or {{music|time|4|4}}. The dance steps can be performed solo, or in a circle or in a line. Stutschewsky notes that it can contain elements of irony or self-parody.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" />
* [[Hora (dance)|Hora]] or {{Transliteration|yi|Zhok}} (from the Romanian [[wikt:joc|Joc]]) is a circle dance in {{music|time|3|8}} which entered the klezmer repertoire from Romanian and Moldavian music.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" /> In the United States, it came to be one of the main dance types after the Bulgar.<ref name="Feldman 2022" />
* [[kolomyjka|Kolomeike]] is a fast and catchy dance in {{music|time|2|4}} time, which originated in Ukraine, and is prominent in the folk music of that country.
* {{transliteration|yi|Skotshne}} is generally thought to be a more elaborate {{transliteration|yi|Freylekhs}} which could be played either for dancing or listening.<ref name="OJFM 530-48" /> The name, which is of Slavic origin, is thought by some to refer to a hopping movement in the dance.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" />
* ''[[Nigun]]'', a very broad term which can refer to melodies for listening, singing or dancing.<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /> Usually a mid-paced song in {{music|time|2|4}}.
* [[Waltz]]es were very popular, whether classical, Russian, or Polish. A ''padespan'' was a sort of Russian/Spanish waltz known to klezmers.
* [[Mazurka]] and [[polka]], Polish and Czech dances, respectively, were often played for both Jews and Gentiles.
* Kozak or {{transliteration|yi|Kozatshke}} is a dance of Ukrainian origin in {{music|time|2|4}} popular among klezmer musicians.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" />
* [[Sârbă|Sirba]]&nbsp;– a Romanian dance in {{music|time|2|2}} or {{music|time|2|4}} (Romanian ''[[sârbă]]''). It features hopping steps and short bursts of running, accompanied by triplets in the [[melody]].

====Non-dance repertoire====
Historically, klezmer musicians also performed a variety of ritual and listening music which may have been rhythmic or freeform depending on the type. As with dances, these often borrowed from Jewish or non-Jewish folk melodies, religious music, and so on.<ref name="Stuts-de-213">{{cite book |last1=Klein |first1=Joachim M. |title=Joachim Stutschewsky: Geschichte, Lebensweise, Musik |date=2019 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=9783447197946 |page=213}}</ref>
* There were a variety of non-metrical, semi-improvised listening genres. The best known is the {{transliteration|yi|Doyne}} borrowed from the [[Romanian music|Romanian]] [[doina]].<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> Other lesser known types include the {{transliteration|yi|Volekhl}}, also coming from a Romanian-Moldavian tradition; the {{transliteration|yi|Taksim}}, whose name is borrowed from the Ottoman/Arab [[Taqsim]]; and a Fantasia where klezmers would compose variations on a simple musical theme.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /><ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /><ref name="Feldman 2016 147">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |page=147}}</ref>
* Forms centering on bridal rituals, including the {{transliteration|yi|Kale-bazetsn}} (seating of the bride) or {{transliteration|yi|Kale-bazingn}} (singing to the bride). In these freeform pieces the {{transliteration|yi|badchen}} would sing to the bride as the soloist accompanied with a freeform piece.<ref name="Feldman 2016 147"/>
* Other more rhythmic listening pieces drew on the Hasidic [[Nigun]]. A {{transliteration|yi|Tish-nign}} (table tune) was a melody played for listening at the table; a {{transliteration|yi|Moralish}} (or called [[Devekut]] in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]) inspired spiritual arousal or a pious mood.<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /><ref name="Avenary 1960" /> Many of these melodies were sung at the Hasidic table and also performed instrumentally by klezmer musicians. 
* A {{transliteration|yi|Vals}} ([[Waltz]]), pieces in {{music|time|3|4}} especially in the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic]] context, may be slower than non-Jewish waltzes and intended for listening while the wedding parties are seated at their tables.<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" />
* Processional melodies could have a variety of musical forms or even borrow non-Jewish melodies, and were used to lead wedding parties or other groups as they walked. These include {{transliteration|yi|Gas-nigunim}} (street tunes), {{transliteration|yi|Tsum tish}} (to the table) were used to lead the wedding party around the neighborhood or between different stages of the wedding.<ref name="Stuts-de-246-8" /> According to Beregovski the {{transliteration|yi|Gas-nign}} was always in {{music|time|3|4}} time.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> Similarly, {{transliteration|yi|Marsh}} ([[March (music)|March]]) could be non-Jewish march melodies adapted into joyful singing or playing contexts.<ref name="Hasidic lexicon" /> Parting melodies played at the beginning or end of a wedding day, such as the {{transliteration|yi|Zay gezunt}} (be healthy), {{transliteration|yi|Dobriden}} (good day), {{transliteration|yi|Dobranotsh}} or {{transliteration|yi|A gute nakht}} (good night) etc. are closely related.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /><ref name="Feldman 2016 220-7">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=220–227}}</ref> 
* Other types of listening music borrowed from the forms and melodies of neighboring cultures, either from folk melodies or non-Jewish dances. A {{transliteration|yi|Terkisher}} is a type of virtuosic solo piece in {{music|time|4|4}} in an [[Ottoman music|Ottoman]] or "oriental" style, and melodies may incorporate references to Greek [[Hasapiko]] into an Ashkenazic musical aesthetic.

===Orchestration===
Klezmer music is an instrumental tradition, without much of a history of songs or singing. In Eastern Europe, Klezmers did traditionally accompany the vocal stylings of the [[Badchen]] (wedding entertainer), although their performances were typically improvised couplets and the calling of ceremonies rather than songs.<ref name="Pietruszka 1932">{{cite book |last=Pietruszka |first=Symcha |title=Yudishe entsiḳlopedye far Yudishe geshikhṭe, ḳulṭur, religye, filozofye, liṭeraṭur, biografye, bibliografye un andere Yudishe inyonim |date=1932 |publisher=Yehudiyah |location=Warsaw |pages=163–166 |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc201734 |language=yi}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 146-56">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=146–156}}</ref> (The importance of the Badchen gradually decreased by the twentieth century, although they still continued in some traditions.<ref name="Rubin 1973 251">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Ruth |title=Voices of a people : the story of Yiddish folksong |date=1973 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |isbn=0070541949 |page=251 |edition=2nd}}</ref>)

As for the klezmer orchestra, its size and composition varied by time and place. The klezmer bands of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century were small, with roughly three to five musicians playing woodwind or [[string instrument]]s.<ref name="Rubin 2009" /> Another common configuration in that era was similar to [[Music of Hungary|Hungarian bands]] today, typically a lead violinist, second violin, cello, and [[cimbalom]].<ref name="Feldman 2016 100-111">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=100–111}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gifford |first=Paul M. |title=The hammered dulcimer: a history |date=2001 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=9781461672906 |pages=106–107}}</ref> In the mid-nineteenth century, the clarinet started to appear in those small Klezmer ensembles as well.<ref name="Feldman 2016 111-3">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=111–113}}</ref> By the last decades of the century, in Ukraine, the orchestras had grown larger, averaging seven to twelve members, and incorporating [[brass instrument]]s and up to twenty for a prestigious occasion.<ref name="Feldman 2016 93-6">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=93–96}}</ref><ref name="Levik memoir">{{cite book |last=Левик |first=Сергей Юрьевич |title=Записки оперного певца |date=1962 |publisher=Искусство |pages=18–19 |language=ru}}</ref> (However, for poor weddings a large klezmer ensemble might only send three or four of its junior members.<ref name="Feldman 2016 93-6" />) In these larger orchestras, on top of the core instrumentation of strings and woodwinds, ensembles often featured [[cornet]]s, [[Clarinet|C clarinets]], [[trombone]]s, a [[contrabass]], a large Turkish drum, and several extra violins.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> The inclusion of Jews in tsarist army bands during the 19th century may also have led to the introduction of typical military band instruments into klezmer. With such large orchestras, the music was arranged so that the bandleader soloist could still be heard at key moments.<ref name="Feldman 2016 115">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=115}}</ref> In [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], and [[Belarus]], the smaller string ensemble with cimbalom remained the norm into the twentieth century.<ref name="Feldman 2016 100-16">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |pages=100–116}}</ref><ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> American klezmer as it developed in dancehalls and wedding banquets of the early twentieth century had a more complete orchestration not unlike those used in popular orchestras of the time. They use a clarinet, saxophone, or trumpet for the melody, and make great use of the trombone for slides and other flourishes.
[[File:Jewish musicians of Rohatyn (west Ukraine).jpg|thumb|Jewish musicians of Rohatyn (west Ukraine)]]

The melody in klezmer music is generally assigned to the lead violin, although occasionally the flute and eventually clarinet.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> The other instrumentalists provide harmony, rhythm, and some counterpoint (the latter usually coming from the second violin or viola). The clarinet now often plays the melody. Brass instruments—such as the French valved [[cornet]] and keyed German trumpet—eventually inherited a counter-voice role.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://borzykowski.users.ch/EnglMCKlezmer.htm|title=KLEZMER MUSIC|publisher=users.ch|access-date=19 January 2016}}</ref> Modern klezmer instrumentation is more commonly influenced by the instruments of the 19th-century military bands than the earlier orchestras.

Percussion in early 20th-century klezmer recordings was generally minimal—no more than a [[Woodblock (instrument)|wood block]] or [[snare drum]]. In Eastern Europe, percussion was often provided by a drummer who played a [[frame drum]], or ''poyk'', sometimes called [[baraban (drum)|baraban]]. A poyk is similar to a [[bass drum]] and often has a cymbal or piece of metal mounted on top, which is struck by a beater or a small cymbal strapped to the hand.

===Melodic modes===
====Western, Cantorial, and Ottoman music terminology====
Klezmer music is a genre that developed partly in the [[Western culture#Music|Western musical tradition]] but also in the [[Ottoman Empire]], and is primarily an oral tradition which does not have a well-established literature to explain its [[Mode (music)|modes]] and modal progression.<ref name="Horowitz 1993">{{cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Joshua |title=The Klezmer Ahava Rabboh Shteyger: Mode, Sub-mode, and Modal Progression |url=http://www.budowitz.com/Budowitz/Essays_files/Mode%20Article%20PDF%20File%20%28Merged%29.pdf |website=Budowitz.com |access-date=26 June 2021}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 122-74" /> But, as with other types of Ashkenazic Jewish music, it has a complex system of modes which were used in its compositions.<ref name="Hasidic lexicon">{{cite journal |last1=Mazor |first1=Yaacov |last2=Seroussi |first2=Edwin |title=Towards a Hasidic Lexicon of Music |journal=Orbis Musicae. |year=1990 |volume=10 |pages=118–43}}</ref><ref name="Tarsi motifs">{{cite web |last=Tarsi |first=Boaz |title=Full Text: Cross-Repertoire Motifs in Liturgical Music of the Ashkenazi Tradition: An Initial Lay of the Land by Boaz Tarsi |url=https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/full-text-cross-repertoire-motifs-liturgical-music-ashkenazi-tradition-initial-lay-land-boaz |website=Jewish Music Research Centre |access-date=27 June 2021}}</ref> Many of its melodies do not fit well in the [[Major key|major]] and [[Minor key|minor]] terminology used in Western music, nor is the music systematically [[Microtonal music|microtonal]] in the way that [[Middle Eastern music]] is.<ref name="Horowitz 1993" /> [[Nusach (Jewish music)|Nusach]] terminology, as developed for [[Hazzan|Cantorial music]] in the nineteenth century, is often used instead, and indeed many klezmer compositions draw heavily on religious music.<ref name="Feldman 2016 220-7" /> But it also incorporates elements of [[Baroque music|Baroque]] and Eastern European folk musics, making description based only on religious terminology incomplete.<ref name="Feldman 2016 375-85">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=375–385}}</ref><ref name="Avenary 1960" /><ref name="Frigyesi 1983" /> Still, since the [[Klezmer revival]] of the 1970s, the terms for Jewish prayer modes are the most common to describe those used in klezmer.<ref name="Rubin 2020 361">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=361}}</ref> The terms used in [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] for these modes include ''nusach'' ({{lang|yi|נוסח}}); {{transliteration|yi|shteyger}} ({{lang|yi|שטײגער}}), "manner, mode of life", which describes the typical melodic character, important notes and scale; and {{transliteration|yi|gust}} ({{lang|yi|גוסט}}), a word meaning "taste" which was commonly used by [[Moisei Beregovsky]].<ref name="Avenary 1960">{{cite journal |last=Avenary |first=Hanoch |title=The Musical Vocabulary of Ashkenazic Hazanim |journal=Studies in Biblical and Jewish Folklore |year=1960 |pages=187–198 |location=Bloomington, Indiana}}</ref><ref name="Beregovski 1941" /><ref name="Rubin 2020 122-74">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |pages=122–74}}</ref>

Beregovsky, who was writing in the [[Stalinist era]] and was constrained by having to downplay klezmer's religious aspects, did not use the terminology of [[Nusach (Jewish music)#Musical modes|synagogue modes]], except in early work in 1929. Instead, he relied on German-inspired musical terminology of [[Major key|major]], minor, and "other" modes, which he described in technical terms.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /><ref name="Feldman 2016 40">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |page=40}}</ref> In his 1940s works he noted that the majority of the klezmer repertoire seemed to be in a minor key, whether [[natural minor]] or others, that around a quarter of the material was in [[Freygish]], and that around a fifth of the repertoire was in a major key.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" />

Another set of terminology sometimes used to describe klezmer music is that of the [[Turkish makam|Makams]] used in [[Ottoman music|Ottoman]] and other [[Middle Eastern music]].<ref name="Rubin 2020 361" /><ref name="Alford-Fowler 2013">{{cite thesis |last=Alford-Fowler |first=Julia |date=May 2013 |title=Chasing Yiddishkayt: A concerto in the context of Klezmer music |type=Doctoral thesis |institution=Temple University |url=https://scholarshare.temple.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12613/586/Alfordfowler_temple_0225E_11450.pdf |access-date=16 June 2021}}</ref> This approach dates back to Idelsohn in the early twentieth century, who was very familiar with Middle Eastern music, and has been developed in the past decade by Joshua Horowitz.<ref name="Tarsi intersection" /><ref name="Frigyesi 1983">{{cite journal |last=Frigyesi |first=Judit Laki |title=Modulation as an Integral Part of the Modal System in Jewish Music |journal=Musica Judaica |date=1982–1983 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=52–71 |jstor=23687593 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23687593}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 361" /><ref name="Horowitz 1993" />

Finally, some Klezmer music, and especially that composed in the United States from the mid-twentieth century onwards, may not be composed with these traditional modes, but rather built around [[Chords in music|chords]].<ref name="Feldman 2016 375-85" />

====Description====
Because there is no agreed-upon, complete system for describing modes in Klezmer music, this list is imperfect and may conflate concepts which some scholars view as separate.<ref name="Tarsi motifs" /><ref name="Tarsi intersection">{{cite journal |last=Tarsi |first=Boaz |title=At the Intersection of Music Theory and Ideology: A. Z. Idelsohn and the Ashkenazi Prayer Mode Magen Avot |journal=Journal of Musicological Research |date=3 July 2017 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=208–233 |doi=10.1080/01411896.2017.1340033 |s2cid=148956696 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01411896.2017.1340033 |issn=0141-1896|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Another problem in listing these terms as simple eight-note ([[octatonic scale|octatonic]]) [[Scale (music)|scales]] is that it makes it harder to see how Klezmer melodic structures can work as five-note [[pentachord]]s, how parts of different modes typically interact, and what the cultural significance of a given mode might be in a traditional Klezmer context.<ref name="Horowitz 1993" /><ref name="Rubin 2020 122-74" />
[[File:C Jewish scale.PNG|thumb|Freygish mode in C]]

* {{transliteration|yi|Freygish}}, {{transliteration|yi|Ahavo Rabboh}}, or [[Phrygian dominant scale]] resembles the [[Phrygian mode]], having a flat [[Second (interval)|second]] but also a permanent raised [[Third (musical interval)|third]].<ref name="Rubin 2020 364" /> It is among the most common modes in Klezmer and is closely identified with Jewish identity; Beregovsky estimated that roughly a quarter of the Klezmer music he had collected was in Freygish.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /><ref name="Horowitz 1993" /> Among the most well-known pieces composed in this mode are "[[Hava Nagila]]" and "{{transliteration|yi|Ma yofus}}". It is comparable to the [[Arabic maqam#Maqam families|Maqam Hijaz]] found in [[Arabic music]].<ref name="Horowitz 1993" />
[[File:Ukrainian Dorian mode on C.png|thumb|Mi Sheberakh mode in C]]

* {{transliteration|yi|Mi Sheberakh}}, ''[[Av HaRachamim]]'', "altered Dorian" or [[Ukrainian Dorian scale]] is a minor mode which has a raised [[Fourth (music)|fourth]].<ref name="Rubin 2020 364" /> It is sometimes compared to {{lang|tr|Nikriz Makamı}}. It is closely related to {{transliteration|yi|Freygish}} since they share the same pitch [[Interval (music)|intervals]].<ref name="Horowitz 1993" /> This mode is often encountered in {{transliteration|yi|Doynes}} and other Klezmer forms with connections to [[Romanian music|Romanian]] or [[Ukrainian music]].
[[File:Mixolydian mode C.png|thumb|Adonoy Molokh mode in C]]

* {{transliteration|yi|Adonoy Molokh}} or {{transliteration|yi|Adoyshem Molokh}} a [[Nusach (Jewish music)#Musical modes|synagogue mode]] with a flatted [[Seventh (interval)|seventh]].<ref name="Avenary 1960" /> It is sometimes called the "Jewish major".<ref name="Tarsi intersection" /> It has some similarities to the [[Mixolydian]] mode.<ref name="Rubin 2020 364">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=364}}</ref>

[[File:Aeolian mode C.png|thumb|Mogen Ovos mode in C]]
* {{transliteration|yi|Mogen Ovos}} is a synagogue mode which resembles the Western [[natural minor]].<ref name="Avenary 1960" /> In klezmer music, it is often found in greeting and parting pieces, as well as dance tunes.<ref name="Horowitz 1993" /> It has some similarities to the ''[[Bayati (maqam)|Bayati maqam]]'' used in Arabic and Turkish music.
* {{transliteration|yi|Yishtabakh}} resembles {{transliteration|yi|Mogen Ovos}} and {{transliteration|yi|Freygish}}. It is a [[Nusach (Jewish music)#Yishtabach mode|variant of the Mogen Ovos]] scale that frequently flattens the second and fifth degrees.<ref>{{cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Josh |title=The Main Klezmer Modes |url=https://www.klezmershack.com/articles/horowitz/horowitz.klezmodes.html |website=Ari Davidow's Klezmer Shack |access-date=24 June 2022}}</ref>

==History==
===Europe===
====Development of the genre====
The Bible has several descriptions of orchestras and [[Levites]] making music, but after the destruction of the [[Second Temple]] in 70 [[Common Era|CE]], many [[rabbi]]s discouraged musical instruments.<ref name="Netsky 2015 19-21">{{cite book |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. |date=2015 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9781439909034 |pages=19–21}}</ref> Therefore, while there may have been Jewish musicians in different times and places since then, the concept of a "Klezmer" musician arose much more recently.<ref name="Stutchewsky 29-45">{{cite book |last=Stutchewsky |first=Joachim |title=הכליזמרים : תולדותיהם, אורח-חיים ויצירותיהם |date=1959 |publisher=Bialik Institute |location=Jerusalem |pages=29–45 |language=he}}</ref> The earliest written record of the use of the word was identified by {{ill|Isaac Rivkind|he|יצחק ריבקינד}} as being in a Jewish council meeting from [[Kraków]] in 1595.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rivkind |first=Isaac |title=Pereq be-Toldot Ha-Amanut Ha-'Amamit |date=1960 |publisher=Futuro Press |location=New York |page=16 |language=he}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 62-3">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer : music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=62–63}}</ref> They may have existed even earlier in [[Prague]], as references to them have been found as early as 1511 and 1533.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zaagsma |first=Gerben |title=The Klezmorim of Prague: About a Jewish Musicians' Guild. |journal=East European Meetings in Ethnomusicology |year=2000 |volume=7 |pages=41–47}}</ref> It was in the 1600s that the situation of Jewish musicians in [[Poland]] improved, as they gained the right to form [[Guild]]s (''Khevre''), and therefore to set their own fees, hire Christians, and so on.<ref name="Feldman 2016 71-3">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |pages=71–73}}</ref> Therefore over time this new form of professional musician developed new forms of music and elaborated this tradition across a wide area of Eastern European Jewish life. The rise of [[Hasidic Judaism]] in the late eighteenth century and onwards also contributed to the development of klezmer, due to their emphasis on dancing and wordless melodies as a component of Jewish practice.<ref name="Netsky 1998" />

====The Eastern European klezmer profession (1700–1930s)====
[[File:Portrait of Pedotser (A.M. Kholodenko).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Pedotser (A. M. Kholodenko), nineteenth century klezmer virtuoso]]

The nineteenth century also saw the rise of a number of klezmer violin virtuosos who combined the techniques of classical violinists such as [[Ivan Khandoshkin]] and of [[Bessarabia]]n folk violinists, and who composed dance and display pieces that became widespread even after the composers were gone.<ref name="Horowitz 2012 195">{{cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Joshua |editor-last=Simonett |editor-first=Helena |title=The accordion in the Americas : klezmer, polka, tango, zydeco, and more! |date=2012 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=9780252094323 |page=195|chapter=9. The Klezmer Accordion}}</ref> Among these figures were Aron-Moyshe Kholodenko "[[Pedotser]]", Yosef Drucker "[[Stempenyu]]", Alter Goyzman "[[Alter Chudnover]]" and [[Josef Gusikov]].<ref name="Stutchewsky 110-4">{{cite book |last=Stutchewsky |first=Joachim |title=הכליזמרים : תולדותיהם, אורח-חיים ויצירותיהם |date=1959 |publisher=Bialik Institute |location=Jerusalem |pages=110–114 |language=he}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Rochester University |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=28}}</ref><ref name="JIFM 2nd I7-I9">{{cite book |last=Beregovski |first=Moshe |last2=Rothstein |first2=Robert |last3=Bjorling |first3=Kurt |last4=Alpert |first4=Michael |last5=Slobin |first5=Mark |title=Jewish instrumental folk music : the collections and writings of Moshe Beregovski |date=2020 |location=Evanston, Illinois |isbn=9781732618107 |pages=I7–I9 |edition=Second}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 149">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=149}}</ref>

Unlike in the United States, where there was a robust Klezmer recording industry, there was relatively less recorded in Europe in the early twentieth century. The majority of European recordings of Jewish music consisted of Cantorial and [[Yiddish Theatre]] music, with only a few dozen known to exist of Klezmer music.<ref name="Wollock 1997">{{cite journal |last=Wollock |first=Jeffrey |title=European Recordings of Jewish Instrumental Folk Music, 1911–1914 |journal=ARSC Journal |date=Spring 1997 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=36–55}}</ref> These include violin pieces by artists such as [[Oscar Zehngut]], [[Jacob Gegna]], [[H. Steiner]], Leon Ahl, and Josef Solinski; flute pieces by S. Kosch, and ensemble recordings by [[Belf's Romanian Orchestra]], the Russian-Jewish Orchestra, Jewish Wedding Orchestra, and Titunshnayder's Orchestra.<ref name="Wollock 1997" /><ref name="Chekhovs Band liner">{{Cite AV media notes |title=Chekhov's Band: Eastern European Klezmer Music from the EMI archives, 1908–1913|last=Rubin |first=Joel |first2=Michael |last2=Aylward |year=2019 |type=CD |publisher=Renair Records |location=London}}</ref>

====Klezmer in the late Russian empire and Soviet era====
The loosening of restrictions on Jews in the [[Russian Empire]], and their newfound access to academic and conservatory training, created a class of scholars who began to reexamine and evaluate klezmer using modern techniques.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> [[Abraham Zevi Idelsohn]] was one such figure, who sought to find an ancient Middle Eastern origin for Jewish music in the diaspora.<ref name="Netsky 2015 10-1">{{cite book |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. |date=2015 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9781439909034 |pages=10–11}}</ref> There was also new interest in collecting and studying Jewish music and folklore, including Yiddish songs, folk tales, and instrumental music. An early expedition was by [[Joel Engel (composer)|Joel Engel]], who collected folk melodies in his birthplace of [[Berdyansk]] in 1900. The first figure to collect large amounts of klezmer music was [[Susman Kiselgof]], who made several expeditions to the [[Pale of Settlement]] from 1907 to 1915.<ref name="Sholokhova 2004">{{cite book |last=Sholokhova |first=Lyudmila |editor-last=Grözinger |editor-first=Karl-Erich |title=Klesmer, Klassik, jiddisches Lied: jüdische Musikkultur in Osteuropa |date=2004 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=9783447050319 |pages=63–72|chapter=Zinoviy Kiselhof as a Founder of Jewish Musical Folklore Studies in the Russian Empire at the Beginning of the 20th Century.}}</ref> He was soon followed by other scholars such as [[Moisei Beregovsky]] and [[Sofia Magid]], Soviet scholars of Yiddish and klezmer music.<ref name="Grözinger 2008">{{cite book |last=Grözinger |first=Elvira |title="Unser Rebbe, unser Stalin – ": jiddische Lieder aus den St. Petersburger Sammlungen von Moishe Beregowski (1892–1961) und Sofia Magid (1892–1954); Einleitung, Texte, Noten mit DVD: Verzeichnis der gesamten weiteren 416 Titel, Tondokumente der bearbeiteten und nichtbearbeiteten Lieder |date=2008 |publisher=Harrassowitz |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=9783447056892 |pages=40–3}}</ref><ref name="Beregovski 1941">{{cite journal |last=Beregovski |first=M. |title=Yidishe klezmer, zeyer shafn un shteyger |journal=Literarisher Alamanakh "Sovetish" |year=1941 |volume=12 |pages=412–450 |url=https://archive.org/details/Beregovsky1941/ |publisher=Melukhe-farlag "Der Emes" |location=Moscow |language=yi}}</ref> Most of the materials collected in those expeditions are now held by the [[Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine]].<ref name="Feldman 24">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |page=24}}</ref>
[[File:KLEZPO.png|thumb|right|Klezmer musicians at a wedding, Ukraine, {{circa|1925}}]] Beregovsky, writing in the late 1930s, lamented how little scholars knew about the range of playing technique and social context of Klezmers from past eras, except for the late nineteenth century which could be investigated through elderly musicians who still remembered it.<ref name="OJFM 530-48" />

Jewish music in the Soviet Union, and the continued use of klezmer music, went through several phases of official support or censorship. The officially supported Soviet Jewish musical culture of 1920s involved works based on or satirizing traditional melodies and themes, whereas those of the 1930s were often "Russian" cultural works translated into a Yiddish context.<ref name="Shternshis 2006 xv-xx">{{cite book |last=Shternshis |first=Anna |title=Soviet and kosher : Jewish popular culture in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=0253347262 |pages=xv-xx}}</ref> After 1948, Soviet Jewish culture entered a phase of repression, meaning that Jewish music concerts, whether tied to Hebrew, Yiddish, or instrumental klezmer, were no longer allowed to be performed.<ref name="Wollock 2003">{{cite journal |last=Wollock |first=Jeffrey |title=Soviet Recordings of Jewish Instrumental Folk Music, 1937–1939 |journal=ARSC Journal |date=Spring 2003 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=14–32 |location=Annapolis, MD}}</ref> Moisei Beregovsky's academic work was shut down in 1949 and he was arrested and deported to [[Siberia]] in 1951.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sholokhova |first=Lyudmila |title=Beregovskii, Moisei Iakovlevich |url=http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Beregovskii_Moisei_Iakovlevich |website=YIVO Encyclopedia |publisher=YIVO Institute |access-date=8 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 129">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=129}}</ref> The repression was eased in the mid-1950s as some Jewish and Yiddish performances were allowed to return to the stage once again.<ref name="Estraikh 2008 57">{{cite book |last=Estraikh |first=Gennady |title=Yiddish in the Cold War |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9781351194471 |page=57}}</ref> However, the main venue for klezmer has always been traditional community events and weddings, not the concert stage or academic institute; those traditional venues were repressed along with Jewish culture in general, according to anti-religious Soviet policy.<ref name="Shternshis 2006 3-4">{{cite book |last=Shternshis |first=Anna |title=Soviet and kosher: Jewish popular culture in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=0253347262 |pages=3–4}}</ref>

===United States===
====Early American klezmer (1880s–1910s)====
The first klezmers to arrive in the United States followed the first large waves of Eastern European Jewish immigration which began after 1880, establishing themselves mainly in large cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston.<ref name="Netsky 1998" /> Klezmers—often younger members of klezmer families, or less established musicians—started to arrive from the Russian Empire, the [[Kingdom of Romania]] and [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref name="Rubin 2020 39">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=39}}</ref> Some of them found work in restaurants, dance halls, union rallies, wine cellars, and other modern venues in places like New York's [[Lower East Side]].<ref name="Heskes xix-xxi">{{cite book |last=Heskes |first=Irene |title=Yiddish American popular songs, 1895 to 1950 : a catalog based on the Lawrence Marwick roster of copyright entries |date=1995 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0844407453 |pages=xix=xxi}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 36">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=36}}</ref> But the major source of income for klezmer musicians seems to have remained weddings and [[Simcha]]s, as in Europe.<ref name="Loeffler 2002" /> Those early generations of klezmers are much more poorly documented than those working in the 1910s and 1920s; many never recorded or published music, although some are remembered through family or community history, such as the Lemish klezmer family of [[Iași]], Romania, who arrived in Philadelphia in the 1880s and established a klezmer dynasty there.<ref name="Netsky 2015 98-9">{{cite book |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. |date=2015 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-1-4399-0903-4 |pages=98–9}}</ref><ref name="Loeffler 2002">{{cite book |last=Loeffler |first=James |editor1-last=Slobin |editor1-first=Mark |title=American Klezmer : its roots and offshoots |date=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22717-0 |pages=35–51 |chapter=3: Di Rusishe Progresiv Muzikal Yunyon No. 1 fun Amerike The First Klezmer Union in America}}</ref>

====Big band klezmer orchestras (1910s–1920s)====
[[File:Max Leibowitz orchestra from 1921 score cover (Cropped).jpg|thumb|Max Leibowitz orchestra from 1921]]

The vitality of the Jewish music industry in major American cities attracted ever more klezmers from Europe in the 1910s. This coincided with the development of the recording industry, which recorded a number of these klezmer orchestras. By the time of the [[First World War]], the industry turned its attention to ethnic dance music and a number of bandleaders were hired by record companies such as [[Edison Records]], [[Emerson Records]], [[Okeh Records]], and the [[Victor Recording Company]] to record 78 rpm discs.<ref name="Brooks FLR">{{cite web |title=Columbia Repertoire History: Foreign Language Recordings – Discography of American Historical Recordings |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/122 |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings |access-date=12 February 2021}}</ref> The first of these was [[Abe Elenkrig]], a barber and cornet player from a klezmer family in Ukraine whose 1913 recording {{transliteration|yi|Fon der Choope}} (From the Wedding) has been recognized by the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name="LOC declaration">{{cite web |title=The Sounds of Fighting Men, Howlin' Wolf and Comedy Icon Among 25 Named to the National Recording Registry |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-10-116/national-recording-registry-adds-25/2010-06-23/ |website=Library of Congress|access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sapoznik |first=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=1999 |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=9780028645742 |page=68}}</ref><ref name="Netsky LOC PDF">{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/FonDerChoope_Netsky.pdf|title=Fon der Choope (From the Wedding) - Abe Elenkrig's Yidishe Orchestra (April 4, 1913)|last=Netsky|first=Hankus|website=[[Library of Congress]]|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 June 2021}}</ref>

Among the European-born klezmers recording during that decade were some from the Ukrainian territory of the [[Russian Empire]] (Abe Elenkrig, [[Dave Tarras]], [[Shloimke Beckerman]], [[Joseph Frankel (musician)|Joseph Frankel]], and [[Israel J. Hochman]]), some from [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] ([[Naftule Brandwein]], [[Harry Kandel]] and Berish Katz), and some from [[Romania]] ([[Abe Schwartz]], [[Max Leibowitz]], [[Max Yankowitz]], [[Joseph Moskowitz]]).<ref name="Heskes xxxiv">{{cite book |last=Heskes |first=Irene |title=Yiddish American popular songs, 1895 to 1950 : a catalog based on the Lawrence Marwick roster of copyright entries |date=1995 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0844407453 |page=xxxiv}}</ref><ref name="Feldman 2016 279">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244514 |page=279}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Lt. Joseph Frankel's Orchestra - Discography of American Historical Recordings |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/111994/Lt._Joseph_Frankels_Orchestra |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}</ref><ref name="Sapoznik 1998 87-94">{{cite book |last=Sapoznik |first=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=1999 |publisher=Schirmer Books |location=New York |isbn=9780028645742 |pages=87–94}}</ref>

The mid-1920s also saw a number of popular novelty "Klezmer" groups which performed on the radio or [[vaudeville]] stages. These included [[Joseph Cherniavsky]]'s Yiddish-American Jazz Band, whose members would dress as parodies of [[Cossacks]] or [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]].<ref name="Sapoznik 1998 107-11">{{cite book |last=Sapoznik |first=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=2006 |publisher=Schirmer Trade Books |location=New York |isbn=9780825673245 |pages=107–11 |edition=2nd}}</ref> Another such group was the Boibriker Kapelle, which performed on the radio and in concerts trying to recreate a nostalgic, old-fashioned [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galician]] Klezmer sound.<ref name="Wollock 2007">{{cite journal |last=Wollock |first=Jeffrey |title=Historic Records as Historical Records: Hersh Gross and His Boiberiker Kapelye (1927–1932) |journal=ARSC Journal |year=2007 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=44–106 |url=https://klezmerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Wollock-Boiberiker-Kapelye.pdf}}</ref> With the passing of the [[Immigration Act of 1924]], which greatly restricted Jewish immigration from Europe, and then the onset of the [[Great Depression]] by 1930, the market for Yiddish and klezmer recordings in the United States saw a steep decline, which essentially ended the recording careers of many of the popular bandleaders of the 1910s and 1920s, and made the large klezmer orchestra less viable.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century: the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781787448315 |pages=260–263}}</ref>

====Celebrity clarinetists====
Along with the rise of klezmer "big bands" in the 1910s and 1920s, a handful of Jewish clarinet players who had led those bands became celebrities in their own right, with a legacy that lasted into subsequent decades. The most popular among these were [[Naftule Brandwein]], [[Dave Tarras]], and [[Shloimke Beckerman]].<ref name="Sapoznik 1998 99-109">{{cite book |last=Sapoznik |first=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=2006 |publisher=Schirmer Trade Books |location=New York |isbn=9780825673245 |pages=99–109 |edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Jews and American popular culture |date=2007 |publisher=Praeger Publishers |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=9780275987954 |page=86}}</ref><ref name="Rubin 2020 2-4">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Joel |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=Rochester University |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |pages=2–4}}</ref>

====Klezmer revival====
In the 1970s there was a renewal of interest in Klezmer music centered primarily in the United States. Notable early figures and groups were [[Giora Feidman]], [[The Klezmorim]], Walter Zev Feldman, [[Andy Statman]], and the [[Klezmer Conservatory Band]]. They drew their repertoire from recordings and surviving musicians of U.S. klezmer.<ref name="BKG1998">{{cite journal |last=Kirshenblatt-Gimblett |first=Barbara |title=Sounds of sensibility|journal=Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought |year=1998 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=49–79}}</ref> In particular, clarinetists such as [[Dave Tarras]] and Max Epstein became mentors to this new generation of klezmer musicians.<ref name="Netsky 2015 4-5">{{cite book |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. |date=2015 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9781439909034 |pages=4–5}}</ref> In 1985, [[Henry Sapoznik]] and Adrienne Cooper founded [[KlezKamp]] to teach klezmer and other Yiddish music.<ref name="Slobin 2000 4">{{cite book |last=Slobin |first=Mark |title=Fiddler on the move: exploring the klezmer world |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195161809 |page=4}}</ref>
[[File:Elane Hoffman Watts 2007.jpg|thumb|Elane Hoffman Watts, klezmer drummer, in 2007]]

The 1980s saw a second wave of revival, as interest grew in more traditionally inspired performances with string instruments, largely with non-Jews of the United States and Germany. Musicians began to track down older European klezmer, by listening to recordings, finding transcriptions, and making field recordings of the few klezmorim left in Eastern Europe. Key performers in this style are [[Joel Rubin]], [[Budowitz]], Khevrisa, Di Naye Kapelye, Yale Strom, The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble, The [[Maxwell Street Klezmer Band]], the violinists [[Alicia Svigals]], Steven Greenman,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stevengreenman.com|title=Steven Greenman|work=stevengreenman.com|access-date=19 January 2016}}</ref> Cookie Segelstein and [[Elie Rosenblatt]], flutist Adrianne Greenbaum, and [[tsimbl]] player [[Pete Rushefsky]]. Bands like [[Brave Old World]], [[Hot Pstromi]] and [[The Klezmatics]] also emerged during this period.

In the 1990s, musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area helped further interest in klezmer music by taking it into new territory. Groups such as the New Klezmer Trio inspired a new wave of bands merging klezmer with other forms of music, such as [[John Zorn]]'s Masada and Bar Kokhba, Naftule's Dream, Don Byron's Mickey Katz project and violinist [[Daniel Hoffman (violinist)|Daniel Hoffman's]] klezmer/jazz/Middle-Eastern fusion band Davka.<ref name="BKG1998" /> The New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.klezmers.com/ |title=Home |website=klezmers.com}}</ref> also formed in 1991 with a mixture of New Orleans funk, jazz, and klezmer styles.

Starting in 2008, "The Other Europeans" project, funded by several EU cultural institutions,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.other-europeans-band.eu/archiv_the-other-europeans/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430003657/http://www.other-europeans-band.eu/archiv_the-other-europeans/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 April 2011 |title=The Other Europeans |publisher=other-europeans-band.eu |access-date=19 January 2016 }}</ref> spent a year doing intensive field research in the region of [[Moldavia]] under the leadership of Alan Bern and scholar Zev Feldman. They wanted to explore klezmer and [[lăutari]] roots, and fuse the music of the two "other European" groups. The resulting band now performs internationally.

A separate klezmer tradition had developed in Israel in the 20th century. Clarinetists Moshe Berlin and Avrum Leib Burstein are known exponents of the klezmer style in Israel. To preserve and promote klezmer music in Israel, Burstein founded the Jerusalem Klezmer Association, which has become a center for learning and performance of klezmer music in the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jerusalemklezmer.org|title=The Jerusalem Klezmer Association}}</ref>
[[File:ပွဲတော်.jpg|thumb|30 year anniversary of [[International Klezmer Festival in Safed|Klezmer festival in Safed]]]]
Since the late 1980s, an annual klezmer festival is held every summer in [[Safed]], in the north of [[Israel]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Out and AboutUpcoming Events·1 min read |date=2023-03-20 |title=The annual Safed Klezmer Festival returns to wow the north of Israel! |url=https://igoogledisrael.com/the-annual-safed-klezmer-festival-returns-to-wow-the-north-of-israel/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=The ESSENTIAL guide to Israel {{!}} iGoogledIsrael.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Klezmer Festival in Safed |url=https://www.safed-home.com/klezmerfestivalofsafed.html |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=Safed Israel}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Steinberg |first=Jessica |date=2019-08-08 |title=Annual Klezmer Festival opens Monday in Safed |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/annual-klezmer-festival-opens-monday-in-safed/ |access-date=2025-08-05 |work=The Times of Israel |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-08-13 |title=Galilee dreaming: Safed's venerable Klezmer Festival turns 36 with a ste {{!}} The Jerusalem Post |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-754538 |access-date=2025-08-05 |website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com |language=en}}</ref>

==Popular culture==
===In music===
While traditional performances may have been on the decline, many Jewish composers who had mainstream success, such as [[Leonard Bernstein]] and [[Aaron Copland]], continued to be influenced by the klezmeric idioms heard during their youth (as [[Gustav Mahler]] had been). [[George Gershwin]] was familiar with klezmer music, and the opening clarinet glissando of "[[Rhapsody in Blue]]" suggests this influence, although the composer did not compose klezmer directly.<ref name="Rogovoy 2000 p. 71">{{cite book | last=Rogovoy | first=S. | title=The Essential Klezmer | publisher=Algonquin Books | year=2000 | isbn=978-1-56512-863-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JT86oo5_99kC&pg=PA71 | access-date=1 May 2017 | page=71}}</ref> Some clarinet stylings of swing jazz bandleaders [[Benny Goodman]] and [[Artie Shaw]] can be interpreted as having been derived from klezmer, as can the "freilach swing" playing of other Jewish artists of the period such as trumpeter [[Ziggy Elman]].

At the same time, non-Jewish composers were also turning to klezmer for a prolific source of fascinating thematic material. [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] in particular admired klezmer music for embracing both the ecstasy and the despair of human life, and quoted several melodies in his [[chamber music|chamber]] masterpieces, the [[Piano Quintet (Shostakovich)|Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57]] (1940), the [[Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)|Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, op. 67]] (1944), and the [[String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich)|String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110]] (1960).

The compositions of Israeli-born composer [[Ofer Ben-Amots]] incorporate aspects of klezmer music, most notably his 2006 composition ''Klezmer Concerto''. The piece is for klezmer clarinet (written for Jewish clarinetist [[David Krakauer (musician)|David Krakauer]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bernsarts.com/dkorchestra/dkorchestra-ben-amots.html|title=Ofer Ben-Amots: The Klezmer Concerto|author=<!--Staff writer; no by-line.-->|year=2006|publisher=Bernstein Artists, Inc.|access-date=6 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606222154/http://www.bernsarts.com/dkorchestra/dkorchestra-ben-amots.html|archive-date=6 June 2014}}</ref> string orchestra, harp and percussion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ben-Amots|first=Ofer|date=2006|title=Klezmer Concerto|location=Colorado Springs|publisher=The Composer's Own Press |isbn=978-1-939382-07-8}}</ref>

===In visual art===
[[File:Issachar Ber Ryback - Wedding Ceremony.jpg|thumb|Issachar Ber Ryback - Wedding Ceremony]]
The figure of the klezmer, as a romantic symbol of nineteenth century Jewish life, appeared in the art of a number of twentieth century Jewish artists such as [[Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan]], [[Issachar Ber Ryback]], [[Marc Chagall]], and [[Chaim Goldberg]]. Kaplan, making his art in the [[Soviet Union]], was quite taken by the romantic images of the Klezmer in literature, and in particular in [[Sholem Aleichem]]'s [[Stempenyu]], and depicted them in rich detail.<ref name="1972 Soviet ed">{{cite book |last=Suris |first=B. D. |title=Анатолий Львович Каплан. Anatoliĭ Lʹvovich Kaplan. |date=1972 |publisher=Khudozhnik RSFSR |location=Leningrad |pages=234–236}}</ref>

===In film===
* ''[[Yidl Mitn Fidl]]'' (1936), directed by [[Joseph Green (actor)|Joseph Green]]
* ''[[Fiddler on the Roof (film)|Fiddler on the Roof]]'' (1971), directed by [[Norman Jewison]]
* ''[[The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob|Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob]]'' (1973), directed by [[Gérard Oury]]
* ''Jewish Soul Music: The Art of Giora Feidman'' (1980), directed by [[Uri Barbash]]
* ''A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden'' (1988), directed by Michal Goldman
* ''Fiddlers on the Hoof'' (1989), directed by Simon Broughton
* ''The Last Klezmer: Leopold Kozlowski: His Life and Music'' (1994), directed by [[Yale Strom]]
* [[Beyond Silence (1996 film)|''Beyond Silence'']] (1996), about a klezmer-playing clarinetist, directed by [[Charlotte Link]]
* ''A Tickle in the Heart'' (1996), directed by Stefan Schwietert<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rubin-ottens.com/p7.html |title=A Tickle in the Heart |first1=Joel |last1=Rubin |first2=Rita |last2=Ottens |date=15 May 2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404114534/http://www.rubin-ottens.com/p7.html |archive-date=4 April 2009}}</ref>
* ''Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler's House'' (1996), aired 29 June 1996 on Great Performances (PBS/WNET television series)
* [[Man Is a Woman|''L'homme est une femme comme les autres'']] (1998, directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann with soundtrack by Giora Feidman)
* [[Dummy (2002 film)|''Dummy'']] (2002), directed by [[Greg Pritikin]]
* ''Klezmer on Fish Street'' (2003), directed by Yale Strom
* ''Le Tango des Rashevski'' (2003) directed by [[Sam Garbarski]]
* ''Klezmer in Germany'' (2007), directed by [[Kryzstof Zanussi]] and C. Goldie
* ''A Great Day on Eldridge Street'' (2008), directed by Yale Strom
* ''The "Socalled" Movie''<ref>[https://www.nfb.ca/film/socalled_movie/ ''The "Socalled" Movie'']</ref> (2010), directed by Garry Beitel
* ''The Klezmer Project'', 2023 Argentine documentary <ref>{{cite web | last=Katz | first=Seth | title='The Klezmer Project' Review: A Heady Journey of Preservation | website=Slant Magazine | date=2025-02-26 | url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-klezmer-project-review/ | access-date=2025-09-02}}</ref>

===In literature===
In Jewish literature, the klezmer was often represented as a romantic and somewhat unsavory figure.<ref name="Netsky 2015 9">{{cite book |last=Netsky |first=Hankus |title=Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. |date=2015 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9781439909034 |page=9}}</ref> However, in nineteenth century works by writers such as [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]] and [[Sholem Aleichem]] they were also portrayed as great artists and virtuosos who delighted the masses.<ref name="Beregovski 1941" /> Klezmers also appeared in non-Jewish Eastern European literature, such as in the epic poem ''[[Pan Tadeusz]]'', which depicted a character named Jankiel Cymbalist, or in the short stories of [[Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]].<ref name="YIVO encylopedia article" /> In [[George Eliot]]'s ''[[Daniel Deronda]]'' (1876), the [[German Jews|German Jewish]] music teacher is named Herr Julius Klesmer.<ref name="Feldman 2016 60">{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Zev |title=Klezmer: music, history and memory |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780190244521 |page=60}}</ref> The novel was later adapted into a Yiddish musical by [[Avram Goldfaden]] titled {{transliteration|yi|Ben Ami}} (1908).<ref name="Heskes xix">{{cite book |last=Heskes |first=Irene |title=Yiddish American popular songs, 1895 to 1950 : a catalog based on the Lawrence Marwick roster of copyright entries |date=1995 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0844407453 |page=xix}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of klezmer bands]]
* [[List of klezmer musicians]]
* [[Secular Jewish music]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* [http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Music/Traditional_and_Instrumental_Music YIVO Encyclopedia article on Traditional and Instrumental Music] of Eastern European Jews
* [https://klezkanada.org/ KlezKanada], [https://yiddishsummer.eu/ Yiddish Summer Weimar], [https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ Yiddish New York], festivals where klezmer music is taught
* [https://klezmerinstitute.org/ Klezmer Institute], an academic group aiming to study and discuss klezmer
* [https://www.loc.gov/collections/yiddish-american-popular-sheet-music/ Yiddish American Popular Sheet Music], a collection of public domain and unpublished scores in the [[Library of Congress]], including the handwritten scores of a number of early American klezmer artists
* [https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AMayrentRec Mayrent Collection of Yiddish recordings], an open archive of digitized Yiddish and klezmer recordings
* [http://www.klezmerguide.com KlezmerGuide.com]. Comprehensive cross-reference to klezmer recordings and sheet music sources
* [http://klezmerpodcast.com/ Klezmer Podcast] and [http://danblacksberg.com/category/podcast/ Radiant Others] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330032843/http://danblacksberg.com/category/podcast/ |date=30 March 2022 }}, two podcasts (currently inactive) which interviewed klezmer performers and scholars
*{{cite book|title=How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of Americans|author=Stowe, D.W.|date=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674012905|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRbwN1GDsDIC&pg=PA182|page=182|accessdate=2015-11-09}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.dinayekapelye.com/jmfiddle.htm|title=Jewish Music in Romania|first=Bob|last=Cohen|work=Jewish Music in Eastern Europe|publisher=Di Naye Kapelye|accessdate=2015-11-09|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701143546/http://www.dinayekapelye.com/jmfiddle.htm|url-status=dead}}

{{Folk music}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Klezmer| ]]
[[Category:Dance in Israel]]
[[Category:Hasidic music]]
[[Category:Jewish music genres]]
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[[Category:Yiddish culture]]
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