A little klezmer music theory from Yonatan Malin...
"Here, I would like to dig a little deeper and ask questions about the tunes themselves, and especially their use of musical modes. What can we say about the klezmer modes based on this repertoire? How do the modes differ by genre or by informant?"
https://blog.klezmerarchive.org/posts/between-two-worlds-modes-in-motl-reyders-notebook-from-the-kiselgof-makonovetsky-digital-manuscript-project/
the 4 Abe Katzman tracks from the 1920s can be streamed on the Mayrent Collection. Katzman was born in ChiČinÄu in the 1860s and was playing klezmer in NY since at least the 1890s so I feel like these fairly conventional '20s klezmer tracks are just a glimpseš¤
https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/digital?filter%5Bfacets%5D%5Bnames_facet~Katzman%2C+Abe%5D=yes
well, there are some bigger historical #Yiddish choirs from NY I should probably write #Wikipedia articles about first, but I photographed a bunch of documents from the Kultur Gezelshaft Khor back at YIVO so I figured I should type up what I could find. a Yiddish art choir that broke away from the communist choir in 1929 to be non partisan heh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Culture_Society_Chorus
From JIMENA:
Sontinuity: The Tree and the Web
The scientific study of sound explains how Sephardic Jews have been able to transmit tradition and culture over time despite a history of traumatic rupture.
By Vanessa Paloma Elbaz
More than just a written reflection, this piece includes audio recordings that allow readers to experience the musical traditions discussed ā a rare opportunity to not only read about heritage, but to hear it come alive.
Click below to read and listen to this unique exploration of Sephardic memory through sound:
https://www.distinctionsjournal.org/the-tree-and-the-web/
#Mazeldon #Jewish #Judaism #Sephardi #Mizrahi #MENA #JewishMusic
highly recommend this YIVO talk which took place today with Berlin-based music historian Jascha Nemtsov, one of the few people researching, performing and publishing about Jewish art music in the late Russian empire and interwar Germany, Austria and Mandatory Palestine. I learned a lot and want to read his book someday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIUVbZvzpi0&ab_channel=YIVOInstituteforJewishResearch
Riding the bus to work and thinking dang I should learn this 1952 banger of a #klezmer tune
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AHTZOTUMCJNPMX8P/A3N3354JTG3KIM8N
"Beyond Joseph Moskowitz" .. I started writing this post in Brooklyn back in April, but I soon realized it would be a lot of work and would be a distraction from my archival research. But now that I've been back I've had time to finish researching it and typing it up. A look at some of the better and lesser known Jewish cimbalom players from the directories of A.F.M. local 802, 1922-50. A truly niche deep dive for my own interest!
https://alte.klezmor.im/2025/05/24/jewish-cimbalom-players-of-the-a-f-m-local-802-directory-1922-50/
Just listening to the tail end of my friend Uri Schreter's PhD defense. such fascinating research about postwar Jewish weddings, music, and attitudes about culture.
new #klezmer album just came out by the Magid Ensemble, who are playing here in Vancouver next week šš¶
https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/shterna-the-lost-voice
I registered for this talk .. Jascha Nemtsov is one of the only people writing in English about the fascinating history of Jewish art music in the interwar years. Shall have to read his new book at some point too from @harrassowitzverlag
š
https://yivo.org/New-Jewish-School
Ezekiel's Wheels, Jacobs Ladder, Framingham, MA, May 15: https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/things-to-do/events/?_evDiscoveryPath=/event/106713251n-jacob-s-ladder-ezekiel-s-wheels #klezmer #jewishmusic #bluegrass
I was a fan of #Matisyahu for many years, so it is with great sadness that I'm sharing this petition.
Excerpt: Matisyahu has, in recent months, become a prominent supporter of BETAR, a movement on the far-right of Zionist political spectrum. Matisyahu himself is featured prominently on the homepage of BETARās website, in a video playing the guitar and wearing a shirt with BETARās logo, and a headband with the logo of the Jewish Defense League. Matisyahu has also publicly posted about his support of BETAR and the other organizations mentioned all throughout his various social media channels. BETAR began as the youth wing of a right-wing Zionist group with fascist influence and a long-standing hostility to Arabs, critics of Israel, and to Jews and Israelis seeking peace and coexistence. In recent months BETAR has ārebootedā and has been actively threatening Jews, and non-Jewish officials, critical of Israelās war in Gaza. In the spirit of Meir Kahaneās legacy they encourage violent confrontation when working through the censoring mechanisms of the state to deport critics are not available.
BETAR is heir to the legacy of far-right militias and movements which were inspired by European fascism and hypernationalism. One of BETARās most famous products was the late Prime Minister Menachim Begin, who, as a leader of the far-right Irgun, terrorized both the British and the local Arab populations. In 1948, as Begin was forming a right-wing political party in the new State of Israel, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and other Jewish luminaries signed an open-letter decrying Beginās fascist influences and the crimes of the Deir Yassin massacre. Like Einstein then we protest now the welcoming of a supporter of this latest iteration of far-right Zionism.
#Peace #ShalomSalaam #ResistFascism #Fascism #Judaism #JewishMusic #Mazeldon #Palestine #israel
highly recommend this new klezmer tunebook from Szilvia Csaranko & Susi Evans, a well known clarinet and accordion duo. they curated a set of pieces that would be good to know in a jam session in Berlin, Montreal and NYC.
https://www.shades-of-folk.com/english/klezmer-playbook/klezmer-playbook-2/
I'm preparing my post-fellowship lecture (May 8th) and went back and listened to my friend Uri's lecture after the same fellowship in 2023.
I thought I had seen it but I now realize it was a different zoom lecture (a great one about Mickey Katz). this one is great too, I learned a lot about the post-WWII Jewish music biz in New York. some of his conceptual framing is quite interesting too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CrA-8C4zs&ab_channel=YIVOInstituteforJewishResearch
OK, sometimes the fun is in New York.
More Info: https://www.circle.org/events/chaias-yiddish-electronic-album-release-party
Yiddish New York has put out a 2025 Call for Proposals for presentations this coming December. It's the first time they've done it this way, and because it's hybrid you don't have to be in NYC.
https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/2025-call-for-proposals/
"Music of Exile" book presentation, concert, Wed, May 7, 7pm, HUC, NYC https://hmlf.org/event/sing-memory-register/ #jewishmusic #holocaust
Practice your Yiddish with (or just listen to) a Sing-a-long!
#Mazeldon #jewish #Judaism #Yiddish #JewishHistory #JewishMusic
It just looks like a mess of paper, but.. while I was in Montreal Josh Dolgin (Socalled) invited me to his office at McGill to look at the boxes of Yiddish choral music which were discarded after the sale of the former Arbeter Ring (Workers Circle) building. It's about 3 big boxes with many duplicates so he's still trying to match parts together and make sense of what is in there.
#archives #JewishMusic #Yiddish #Montreal #choir #MusicManuscripts #MusicHistory
I'm going over all my research from NY in preparation for my lecture in a few weeks. feels like quite a daunting task at the momentš² funny, of all the "immigrant Jewish musicians" I'm studying this is the only one who immigrated from Toronto to New York, not from Eastern Europe. although his parents were Polish Jews so it was probably an intermediate step for Manny's father on the road to a profitable music career in NY.
