" Klezmer is an interpretation of art and life based not solely on Jewish folklore, but rather on a cosmopolitan divergence of musical genres" Giora Feidman

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Abraham Zvi Idelsohn

The father of Jewish musicology

It is quite impossible to dissertate on Klezmer, Jewish music and ethnomusicology in general without mentioning Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, "The father of Jewish musicology". He was a Hazan (cantor), a composer, a musicologist, a indefatigable collector of traditional melodies and an invaluable investigator in the field of comparative musicological research.

A.Z.Idelsohn

Born on first of July 1882 (the date varies according to the sources, this is due to disparities between the Hebrew, Gregorian and Julian calendar), in Filzburg, a little town of the tsarist district of Courland (present-day Latvia).
His father who was a cantor introduced him to the synagogal modes (zmirot) and the Jewish folksongs. At home he received an orthodox education and learned for five years in a Lithuanian Yeshiva. He trained to be a cantor with the Hazan Mordechai Rabinowitz. Then he pursued his musical education in Berlin and Leipsig. Idelsohn was immersed in two rich musical backgrounds, the Eastern cantorial tradition and the Western classical music. This duality will paved the way of his journey from liturgy to ethnomusicology.

As a fervent supporter of Zionism, Idelsohn moved with his family to the Holy Land.
Arrived in Jerusalem he was overwhelmed by the diversity and riches of the Jewish traditional communities and their musical tradition and he knew that he will devote his time researching this musical and linguistic heritage. Armed with a phonograph (for recording on cylinders) and a notebook he started what will become a phenomenal, monumental ten-volume Thesaurus of Hebrew-oriental melodies.(Hebraisch-Orientalischer Melodienschatz).

He was a multi- disciplines researcher and opened new fields in musicology like the influence of the languages and different dialects on music expression. He made over a thousands original field recordings and countless transcriptions. It was the first integration of never heard ancient traditional oriental melodies with Eastern European Jewish music.

The approach to the Yemenite community was particularly resourceful because this community was geographically secluded for many centuries thus less prone to external cultural influence. Their Hebrew pronunciation and their musical tradition had to be the closest to these of the Biblical epoch. This particular study exposed Idelsohn to the fact that there were affinities between the microtonal and monodic Yemenite songs with the Gregorian Chant.
The conclusion was that the Roman Christianity adopted the music of the temple as his own liturgical music. A step further in the argumentation led him to the deduction that all the Western music was founded on the ground of Biblical temple music.

Idelsohn also studied the traditions of Persian, Syrian, Bukharian, Babylonian, Moroccan, Samaritan (Shomronim), Oriental and Ladino Sephardi, German and Hassidic communities.

To really understand the core of Klezmer and Jewish music it is of the utmost importance to master the Biblical cantillation (intoned recitation), so he recorded samples of the Haftara (selection of Biblical text which is read and sung in the synagogue on Shabbat and festival days), Birkat Hacohanim (Priestly Blessing) and various liturgical music and reading.

His devoted work was only interrupted by the WW1, He was enrolled in the Turkish army (Palestine was then part of the Ottoman Empire).
This monumental work spread over twenty years; another milestone of his numerous publications is "The Jewish Music Its Historical Development" (1929) which is a book of reference to people involved in klezmer and Jewish studies.

In 1922 he composed the "first Hebrew opera ever written", "Yphtah" performed in Jerusalem the same year (he used a lot of musical material collected in the Thesaurus).
In 1924 he settled down in Cincinnati as a professor of Hebrew and liturgy. He published his Thesaurus in ten volumes in English, German and Hebrew edition. (In the Hebrew edition he made the first attempt to write the score from right to left according to the Hebrew writing. This initiative had no follow-up, musicians were reluctant to learn a new way of music reading.)

Idelsohn died in 1938.

Idelsohn was an humanist, a multi-domains researcher, a man who's goal was to gather an almost lost heritage and bequeath it to future generation, thanks to him an invaluable patrimony was preserved and transmitted to us. The Klezmer revival proofed that the tradition is still alive and prosperous thanks to pioneer like Abraham Zvi Idelsohn.

Hava Nagila, the best known Israeli song and an international standard is the creation of Idelsohn. Learn more next page...

Traditional Jewish Yemenite music Achinoam Nini

Traditional chants and Yemenite prayers sung accompanied by hand clapping and drums. Achinoam Nini (Noa) is a world renowned Israeli singer who's family is originally from Yemen. She is a wonderful singer who integrates true traditional Yemenite musical patrimony with contemporary folk music. In this clip you can appreciate her charm and authenticity

Yemenite Jewish Dance

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Giora Feidman
"We have one Torah, one shofar, one flag, and the expression of all that is the nigun, any nigun. It's not a song, it's an energy which results from an interpretation of the faith."

"Long live Giora, his clarinet and his music! He builds bridges between generations, cultures and classes, and he does it with perfect artistry!" Leonard Bernstein