Klezmer, short for Klei Zemer in Hebrew and Yiddish, means musical instruments or, according to the Manchester Klezmer band's website, "vessel of song" or "tool of melody." Originally the term klezmer referred to instruments that made the classic, brassy sound, but in the mid-17th century musicians began referring to themselves as Klezmer (thus a Klezmer band).
The Bible describes ritualized instrumental music played in Jerusalem that Klezmer-buffs and music educators identify as ancient Klezmer songs. When the Romans destroyed the second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the grieving Jews abstained from playing music by "halakhic" (rabbinical) orders except for the shofar (ram's horn) on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holy days. Since the temple's destruction, musical instruments were banned from the synagogue. Thus, Klezmer instruments and songs remain significant and impassioned in Jewish life.
The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" gives a fictionalized portrayal of life in a shtetl ("small town" in Yiddish). Klezmer (or Klezmorim) bands were based in a small village or town and residents hired the bands to play for engagement parties, weddings or concerts when nobility visited the area.
Often the only professional musicians in an area, other than Rom--Gypsies who played a kind of belly dancing music--the Klezmorim defined Jewish folk music. The Jewish musicians played with Rom and both types of musicians borrowed and spread the others' music genre in whatever venues and lands they played. In Hungary, this musical germination preserved Klezmer tunes in the second half of the 20th century, when most of Hungary's Jewish community was destroyed by war.
The earliest ensembles for dance comprised lute and a drone bass played on a bagpipe-like instrument. Later, Klezmer groups added medieval musical instruments, like the dulcimer, harp, gamba (in the viol family) and harpsichord. Typical Klezmer instruments also included the clarinet, violin, accordion, grand bass and acoustic guitar.
As of 2010, it is common to hear Klezmer bands playing traditional Klezmer music on electric instruments.
In the late 19th century, the reign of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) altered the sound and practice of the klezmorim. Earlier, if a literate, Jewish musician wanted to study and perform Klezmer music (known as Jewish music), he had to convert to Christianity. Alexander changed this so that for the first time Jews were allowed to study music freely and find music work in a gentile (non-Jewish) society.
Klezmer music was originally associated with Central and Eastern European Jewishness and not with synagogue music. Klezmer borrowed musical styles and instrumentation from Central and Eastern Europe cultures, as well as Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian and German folk music. When Jewish populations emigrated to the U.S., Klezmer musicians folded American musical styles, like jazz, into their sound. But Klezmer held on tight to their Middle-Eastern roots (from their Ottoman Empire origins), and also from the liturgical music in their ancient homeland, Israel.
Through all the years of assimilation, blending, merging and folding, Klezmer music remains unmistakably Jewish. People identify the Jewish sound in the
cantillation (ritual chantings) of the Torah and other Biblical excerpts. Instead of using long-drawn-out notes, like those found in Oriental music, Klezmer musicians write text-heavy lyrics and bookend notes with signature trills, chirps, and glissandi.