In the 18th century the Hassidic religious movement
emerged within the Eastern European Jewish community. A new religious leader emerged
in Poland, Israel ben Eliezer known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, who taught that there
was no division between the sacred and secular and stressed an individual relationship
with God that could be expressed through prayer, song and dance.
The Hassidic
movement was led by a series of Rebbes, spiritual leaders, who were teachers,
mystics and healers. They established their 'courts' in different towns. People
gathered there for religious festivals and events. This religious tradition popularised
the nigun or song without words, plural nigunim. Klezmorim played at the courts
of the Rebbes for festivals, weddings and other events.
The musical traditions
continue to the present day in Hassidic communities and have developed to include
rock and pop. Some of the unaccompanied singing of the choirs and individuals
still expresses these roots.
Shlomo Carlbach was a 1960s contemporary of
Bob Dylan and a popular and successful musician who updated the traditional Hassidic
style. Currently Mike Tabor, who lives in North Manchester and played with Carlbach,
performs in Carlbach's tradition, telling stories and anecdotes, as well as researching,
singing and playing nigunim.
Simultaneously elsewhere in Europe other movements emerged within the Jewish
communities. The Haskallah (Enlightement) movement led to a reform of religious
practices in Western Europe whilst the Gaon of Vilna encouraged a balance between
traditional and secular studies. In Western Europe the Jews were being absorbed
into mainstream society - in the Austro-Hungarian Empire the Jews were emancipated
by Frances I and then given universal suffrage by Franz Joseph I.
As Jews
adopted the mainstream culture they left their secular music behind and 'reformed'
their religious practices. In the late 19th century, the progressive reign of
Tsar Alexander II (1855 - 1881) brought about changes for the klezmorim. From
earlier times there were some literate musicians who played from written music
for the non-klezmer repertoire but they were prevented from entering the conservatoires
to study music unless they converted to Christianity. Under Alexander this changed
and for the first time Jews could study music and obtain work in the gentile music
world.
Generally the music played by the klezmorim didn't cross over into
the urban bourgeois gentile culture with its classical music performed in concert
halls and salons. There were exceptions, for example Michael Joseph Gusikov who
became famous in Western European salons in the early 19th century. He played
a shtroyfidl (straw fiddle) - a set of wooden tubes placed on a bed of straw which
was played with wooden sticks. He toured in Eastern Europe in 1836 and then played
in Vienna and Western Europe in the following couple of years where he achieved
fame and success. His appearance created a fad in Paris where women's hairstyles
copied his Jewish sidelocks. He died young, of a lung complaint, probably consumption,
a celebrity of the time.
Whilst there wasn't much crossover from klezmer
to classical, music crossed over the other way - the klezmorim would play the
popular tunes of the time including current dances and light classical works for
the gentry. For the other gentile events they played local folk dances and tunes
and for their own events they had a full repertoire.
A Jewish wedding would
have different tunes for each stage of the proceedings - greeting the guests,
tunes as the bride had her hair cut and was veiled, was led to the chupa (the
bridal canopy under which the wedding ceremony is performed), tunes as the couple
came from the chupa, tunes to accompany the in laws, the broyges dance of anger
and reconciliation between the mothers of the bride and groom, dances such as
clapping dances, freilachs, shers (a dance for 4 couples), good-night songs to
get the guests to leave as well as local tunes and dances.
Next - Explosion
of Yiddish culture c1900 to WW2 - Yiddish Theatre - Vaudeville
