Klezmeriana

Composed in 2013

The instrumental music of the Yiddish-speaking Jews, especially those of Eastern Europe, is known as klezmer. This terminology was originally used in Jewish cultural life as the name of a musician who plays at weddings. At Jewish weddings, which usually last several days of days, klezmer musicians played not only dance music but also ceremonial music – for example during the wedding ceremony, and also music that was listened to during the wedding feast. Originally, there was no special term for this style of music. It was simply referred to as ‘Jewish wedding music’. In the 1970s, the music – which is actually a fusion of different influences – enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and came to be known as klezmer. This music contains not only the sounds of the Balkans, but also influences of oriental and gypsy music, too.

I used no original klezmer melodies for Klezmeriana, but composed a series of ‘sound-alikes’ in an instrumentation for woodwinds.

Composer:	Jan de Haan
Instrumentation:	Woodwinds (flexible instrumentation)
Genre:	Concertwork
Level:	Easy/average
Duration:	6:15
Publisher:	De Haske Order this work

Klezmeriana

Klezmeriana

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