Klezmer music so beautifully expresses the joys and pains of life. WRTI's Debra Lew Harder takes us into its rich world and heritage with esteemed Klezmer scholar and musician Hankus Netsky, a Mount Airy native now living in Boston, who has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Theodore Bikel, and other big mahoffs, and who authored a facsinating book in 2017 about Klezmer music in 20th-century Jewish Philadelphia.
A Happy and Healthy New Year to all of our listeners celebrating the Jewish High Holidays!
Klezmer captures all who hear it weep, sing, sigh, and celebrate.
Debra spoke with renowned Klezmer music scholar, ethnomusicologist, and performer Hankus Netsky, to learn about Klezmer music. Netsky serves as Chair of Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory in Boston. He’s the author of a 2017 book published by Temple University Press, Klezmer: Music and Community in Twentieth-Century Jewish Philadelphia. Hankus is also the founder and director of The Klezmer Conservatory Band, an ensemble that has specialized in klezmer music and Yiddish song for the past 30 years.
Radio story:
Opening Music: “Doyne/Freylakhs,” performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band
After the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed 2000 years ago, and during the Jewish diaspora that followed, rabbis banned the performance of instrumental music, to mourn the loss of the Temple.
But, as renowned Jewish music scholar Hankus Netsky says, “Whenever you’re reading about something being banned, you know people are doing it all the time.”
Music: “Meron Nign,” The Klezmer Conservatory Band
A rich tradition of instrumental music outside the synagogue grew from what Netsky describes as “the very human need” to celebrate important moments in life, like weddings. Jewish musicians absorbed the music of the communities around which they settled: Turkish, Greek, Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, and gypsy music, and later, in the United States, they took in jazz.
Yet they retained something distinct: even in non-religious celebration, the prayers and cantorial singing of the synagogue came through. This combination created music whose passion, Netsky says, “is not in any way suppressed.”
Music: “Freilach,” Giora Feidman, clarinet
The music was given the name “klezmer” in the 1930s, and comes from the Hebrew word meaning “vessel of song.” Raw emotion, fired through the kiln of prayer — klezmer captures all who hear it weep, sing, sigh, and celebrate.
Happy New Year to everyone celebrating the Jewish High Holidays!
