Compendium of Fiddle Styles/Klezmer

Lubliner klezmorim march2009.jpg

Klezmer (Yiddish:Klezmer (Yiddish כליזמר or קלעזמער, pl כליזמר ,כליזמרים, from Hebrew כלי זמר vesssel of song") is a genre of fiddle music rooted in the medieval shtetl (villages) of Eastern Europe where wandering Ashkenazi musicians (Klezmorim) played at bar mitzvahs,weddiongs and holidays (simkhes). ritual of rabbinic Judaism.

Proponents of the style
Alicia Svigals Her band is Klezmatics and she is considered by many to be the world's foremost living klezmer fiddler.

Leon Schwartz Leon Schwartz (1901–1989) was a klezmer and classical music violinist

Bob Cohenalso a reviewer

Kenny Kosek Generalist, also plays bluegrass and country

Michael Alpert klezmer singer and multi-instrumentalist

The Kharkov Klezmer Band (Харьков Клезмер Бенд), also known as Kharkiv Klezmer

Alan Bern

Yale Strom

Sophie Solomon

Dave Tarras highly influential klezmer clarinetist, played with Claude "Fiddler" Williams ,who is also known as a jazz and swing fiddler

Roby Lakatos, billed as "The Devil's Fiddler", credits include "Klezmer Karma with the Franz Liszt Chamber"

Antecedents
Some academic musicology suggests that ancient Semitic traditions preceded and influenced, along with Tanahk hymns, Greek Pythagoran music praxis. (It was a blend of dance tunes, liturgy and meditative chant (nigunim). In Archeomusicology of the Ancient Near East, Richard J. Dumbrill of City University of New York traces evolution of Jewish harp, balags, lyre, lute and aerophone instrumental music. . Following the destruction of the second Temple, all rejoicing and use of musical instruments was banned, with the exception of occasional use of the Rams Horn (Shofar).

Medieval
Traditions blended ikn medieval klezmer include Greek, “Gypsy”, Turkish, Slavic and in the later phase, Jazz. Some modern bands| incorporate " gospel, punk, and Arab, African, and Balkan rhythms"

Fusion
As per the above description, all klezmer is eclectic and thus the term fusion, as used with reference to combinations of disparate genres, may be redundant, but some klezmer musicians combine the specific eclecticism of klezmer with very specific genres such as rock, dub or reggae.

Amsterdam Klezmer Band ft. Shantel - Sadagora Hot Dub

Style
Dissonance is frequently employed, harmonically, and klezmer uses accidentals quite freely, creating its signature mood tones.