Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World (American Musicspheres) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019513124X ISBN 13: 9780195131246

Synopsis

"Klezmer" is a Yiddish word for professional folk instrumentalist - the flutist, fiddler, and bass player that made brides weep and guests dance at weddings throughout Jewish eastern Europe before the culture was destroyed in the Holocaust, silenced under STalin, and lost out to assimilation in America. Klezmer music is now experiencing a tremendous new spurt of interest worldwide with both Jews and non-Jews recreating this restless, volatile, and vibrant music culture. Centered in the United States, klezmer has paradoxically moved back across the Atlantic as a distinctly "American" music, played throughout central and eastern Europe, as well as in many other parts of the world.

About this title

Review

"Written by one of the most distinguished ethnomusicologists working today and accompanied by an illustrative CD, Fiddler on the Move is a thoughtful, essay-like contemplation of klezmer music in contemporary US society and of its culture-historical background....Addressing music scholars and informed music lovers, Slobin synthesizes theoretical perspectives from which klezmer music may be studied and thus contributes to ethnomusicological method and theory as well as to American and Jewish studies."―Choice

"A beautifully written book on a timely topic....important for anyone interested in contemporary Jewish and American studies and current trends in ethnomusicology." ―Notes

"Well researched and rich in anecdotes...makes a compelling case for the importance of Klezmer in American musical and cultural studies." ―Library Journal

"Mark Slobin is probably the person best -placed to write about the klezmer revival. He has not only written extensively about Eastern European folk musics..., but may have been the first Jewish ethnomusicologist to see that the klezmer revival was relevant to Jewish music and Jewish community.....Here, Slobin puts the revival into a cultural and musical context that will be sheer delight to people engaged in playing the music, or wanting to understand that context better....Slobin's insights and breadth of understanding contribute to an enormously wonderful volume. ...this is the first book about klezmer music and about the klezmer revival that offers perspective and grounded historical fact....Once again, Mark Slobin writes the (so-far) definitive work. This is a book that was needed. Now I look forward to the next volume."―Ari Davidow, klezmershack.com

"Fiddler on the Move is written in a style that is very accessible....Slobin is at once more understanding and more critical of the music's past and its future. He cares about why people are called to klezmer, and how it functions in an age of world music....[The book] provides a rich sense of klezmer's historical and cultural roots, of the meaning of the music in both the old and new worlds....[He] gives the reader a sense of the music as it is played, with a detailed look at how several players interpret a common tune....Slobin does a great job of describing...the impact of so much loss of material on our understanding of klezmer today. This book will appeal to readers looking for insight into why klezmer pulls in so many listeners, [and] why it is we―and so many others―have developed a love for this music at this time."―Kim Bates, The Green Man Review

About the Author

Mark Slobin, an accomplished Klezmer musician, is Professor of music at Wesleyan University. He is general editor of Oxford's American Musicspheres series.

Edition details

• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019513124X
• ISBN 13: 9780195131246
• Binding: Hardcover