Klezmer is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. 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. The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including Ottoman music, Baroque music, German and Slavic folk dances, and religious Jewish music. 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. 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, Sid Beckerman and Ray Musiker.
Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. Greetings are sometimes used just prior to a conversation or to greet in passing, such as on a sidewalk or trail. While greeting customs are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship, they exist in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures. A greeting, or salutation, can also be expressed in written communications, such as letters and emails.
Naftule Brandwein, or Naftuli Brandwine, was an Austrian-born Jewish American Klezmer musician, clarinetist, bandleader and recording artist active from the 1910s to the 1940s. Along with Dave Tarras, he is considered to be among the top klezmer musicians of the twentieth century, and has a continuing influence on musicians in the genre a century later. Along with Tarras and other contemporaries like Israel J. Hochman, Max Leibowitz and Harry Kandel, he also helped forge the new American klezmer sound of the early twentieth century, which gradually gravitated towards a sophisticated big-band sound.
A badchen or badkhn is a type of Ashkenazic Jewish wedding entertainer, poet, sacred clown, and master of ceremonies originating in Eastern Europe, with a history dating back to at least the seventeenth century. The badchen was an indispensable part of the traditional Jewish wedding in Europe who guided the bride and groom through the stages of the ceremony, act as master of ceremonies, and sing to the bride, groom and in-laws with the accompaniment of klezmer musicians. They also had a traditional role on holidays such as Hanukkah or Purim. Today they are primarily found in Chassidic communities.
Abe Schwartz was a well-known klezmer violinist, composer, Yiddish theater and ethnic recordings bandleader from the 1910s to the 1940s. In his various orchestras, he recorded many of the leading klezmer musicians of the early twentieth century, including Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras.
Dave Tarras was a Russian-born American klezmer clarinetist and bandleader, a celebrated klezmer musician, instrumental in Klezmer revival.
Parting phrases, which are valedictions used to acknowledge the parting of individuals or groups of people from each other, are elements of parting traditions. Parting phrases are specific to culture and situation, and vary based on the social status and relationship of the persons involved.
The Nazi salute, Hitler salute, or Sieg Heil salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm from the neck into the air with a straightened hand. Usually, the person offering the salute would say "Heil Hitler!", "Heil, mein Führer!", or "Sieg Heil!". It was adopted in the 1930s by the Nazi Party to signal obedience to the party's leader, Adolf Hitler, and to glorify the German nation. The salute was mandatory for civilians but mostly optional for military personnel, who retained the traditional military salute until the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944.
Susman Kiselgof was a Russian-Jewish folksong collector and pedagogue associated with the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg. Like his contemporary Joel Engel, he conducted fieldwork in the Russian Empire to collect Jewish religious and secular music. Materials he collected were used in the compositions of such figures as Joseph Achron, Lev Pulver, and Alexander Krein.
Max Leibowitz was an American klezmer violinist, composer and bandleader in New York City primarily in the 1910s and 1920s.
Israel J. Hochman (c.1875-1940) was an American klezmer bandleader, music arranger, and Yiddish song accompanist of early Twentieth Century New York City. He recorded prolifically for Edison Records, Emerson Records, Okeh Records, and Brunswick Records during the period of 1916 to 1924.
Sofia Magid was a Soviet Jewish Ethnographer and Folklorist whose career lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s. Among the materials she collected were folksongs of Volhynian and Belarusian Jews and among the only prewar field recordings of European klezmer string ensembles, as well as the music of Russians and other ethnic groups of the USSR. Although she was largely unknown abroad during her lifetime, in recent years she has been seen alongside Moshe Beregovski and other Soviet Jewish ethnographers as an important scholar and collector of Jewish music.
H. Steiner was a klezmer violinist who recorded for two discs of violin and cimbalom duets for the Gramophone Company in around 1909. Although he had a small musical output and his biography is mostly unknown, his recordings serve an important function for Klezmer revival musicians as they are rare examples of recorded European klezmer violin style.
Wolff N. Kostakowsky (1879-1944) was a Russian-born klezmer violinist known mostly for his publication of a book of klezmer dance tunes titled International Hebrew Wedding Music, published in New York City in 1916. That book was one of the earliest collections of klezmer repertoire published in the United States.
Pedotser (1828-1902), also pronounced Pedutser in some Yiddish dialects, was a nineteenth century Klezmer violin virtuoso, composer and bandeader from Berdychiv, Russian Empire. His real name is sometimes given as Aron-Moyshe or Avram-Moyshe Kholodenko. He was one of a number of virtuosic klezmers of the nineteenth century, alongside Yosef Drucker "Stempenyu", Yehiel Goyzman "Alter Chudnover" and Josef Gusikov.
Avraham-Yehoshua Makonovetsky was a Russian-Jewish Klezmer violinist who acted as a key informant to the Soviet Ethnomusicologist Moisei Beregovsky in the 1930s. His extensive handwritten manuscripts, which are now in the collection of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, serve as a rare example of nineteenth-century Klezmer violin music.
Abraham "Abe" Katzman was a Klezmer violinist, bandleader, composer, and Brunswick Records recording artist of the 1920s. He was the father of film producer Sam Katzman, uncle of American arranger and bandleader Louis Katzman and the great-uncle of Henry Katzman and Leonard Katzman.
Alter Chudnover, whose real name was Yehiel Goyzman or Hausman, was a nineteenth century Klezmer violinist from the Russian Empire. He was one of a number of virtuosic klezmers of the nineteenth century, alongside Yosef Drucker "Stempenyu", A. M. Kholodenko "Pedotser" and Josef Gusikov. He was also an early teacher to the violinist Mischa Elman.
Ivan Vasilievich Lipaev was a Russian music critic, composer, writer, social advocate, pedagogue, and trombonist active in both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. He played trombone in Russia's first brass quartet starting in around 1888, and in the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra from 1893 to 1912 and from 1924–31. He was also dedicated to the modernization of music pedagogy in the Russian empire and advocated for better conditions for music students and orchestra members. He was made Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1925.
Jeremiah Hescheles was a Yiddish-language modernist poet, journalist, and Klezmer violinist. Because of his sharp memory and varied life experiences, he was an important resource for researchers of Yiddish culture and Klezmer music in the late twentieth century.
