Klezmer

The book is a well-researched and vivid introduction to klezmer music against the backdrop of the living conditions of Eastern European Jews. Klezmer music, its function as wedding music, and its stylistic elements, from krekhts to klezmer keys, are described in detail, and exemplary analyses of numerous examples from the core and transitional repertoires complement the presentation of the basics. After explaining the origins, the book goes on to describe in detail the further development of klezmer music in the USA: the Bulgar, Yiddish vaudeville, and the influence of swing.

But the book is not just about music. It also provides a detailed account of the social situation of Eastern European Jews—as a discriminated religious and cultural minority in Eastern Europe and as a migrant minority in the US, where a Yiddish-American hybrid culture emerges in the Yiddish microcosm of New York.

Based on theories of hybridity (Bronfen/Marius), acculturation (Berry), and polysystem theory (Even-Zohar), the function of music as a reflection of the social situation becomes clear: from the tension between separation and integration in Eastern Europe to the postmodern-seeming multiple identities in the USA and the resulting musical patchwork products.
The appendix contains interviews with contemporary klezmer musicians: Frank London, Alan Bern, Kurt Bjorling, Stanislav Rayko, David Krakauer, and Michael Alpert.

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