Klezmer Music: Roots and Revival
- Course Code:
- 15PMUH011
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Any
- Taught in:
- Term 2
This course aims to provide in depth knowledge and understanding of the Jewish klezmer music tradition, including its roots among the Jewish diaspora in pre-World War II Eastern Europe, its transformation in early twentieth century America and its revival and contemporary trends in the USA, Israel and Europe. Students will understand the musical construction of core klezmer repertory (modes, forms, melodies, performance practice), together with the influences of other musics (Jewish liturgical music, Hasidic music, Ottoman elements) on the klezmer tradition. This course also seeks to provide knowledge and understanding of the corpus of scholarship relating to klezmer music, in particular highlighting the different approaches taken by scholars working in different places (Russia and America) and during different periods (early, mid- and late twentieth century). Via this subject matter, this course seeks to develop understanding of wider issues in ethnomusicology including developments in ethnomusicological scholarship, and issues such as diaspora, insider/outsider status of performers, and the transformation of functional performance traditions for the “world music” concert stage.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
This course aims to provide in depth knowledge and understanding of the Jewish klezmer music tradition, including its roots among the Jewish diaspora in pre-World War II Eastern Europe, its transformation in early twentieth century America and its revival and contemporary trends in the USA, Israel and Europe. Students will understand the musical construction of core klezmer repertory (modes, forms, melodies, performance practice), together with the influences of other musics (Jewish liturgical music, Hasidic music, Ottoman elements) on the klezmer tradition.
This course also seeks to provide knowledge and understanding of the corpus of scholarship relating to klezmer music, in particular highlighting the different approaches taken by scholars working in different places (Russia and America) and during different periods (early, mid- and late twentieth century).
Via this subject matter, this course seeks to develop understanding of wider issues in ethnomusicology including developments in ethnomusicological scholarship, and issues such as diaspora, insider/outsider status of performers, and the transformation of functional performance traditions for the “world music” concert stage.
Scope and syllabus
Focus will be placed on an analytical understanding of the musical structures and forms of traditional klezmer music, and upon the exploration of issues of diaspora, identity and musical change, via understanding of the corpus of ethnomusicological scholarship relating to klezmer.
The course will be taught via two-hour lectures followed by hour-long seminars in which material covered in the corresponding lecture will be explored in greater depth, particularly including in-depth critical evaluation of scholarly literature.
Outline of lectures:
- Introduction to Ashkenazi Jewish culture
- The core East European klezmer repertory: dance forms
- Klezmer music and the synagogue modes
- Performance practice and ornamentation
- Klezmer in the New World
- The 1980s klezmer revival: music and identity
- Reading week
- New stylistic approaches: Budowitz, Brave Old World and the Klezmatics
- Expanding the klezmer repertory: Yiddish song and Hasidic nigunim
- “Klezmology”: academic approaches to klezmer music
- Klezmer in Germany and eastern Europe
- New directions: fusions and hip hop klezmer
Method of assessment
Two coursework (40% + 50%) plus seminar presentation (10%)Suggested reading
- Slobin, Mark. 2000. Fiddler On the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Rogovoy, Seth. 2000. The Essential Klezmer. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin
- Sapoznik, Henry. 1999. Klezmer!: Jewish Music From Old World To Our World. New York: Schirmer.
- Slobin, Mark, ed. 2002. American Klezmer: its roots and offshoots. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Jack Wertheimer, A people divided: Judaism in contemporary America. (Hanover and London: Brandeis University Press, 1998)
