Re: JI in klezmer

on 9/26/01 3:00 PM, tuning@yahoogroups.com at tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> From: "Adam S. Fine" <afine@hfx.eastlink.ca>

> It's also too bad that Halifax doesn't have much of a Secular Jewish music
> scene. I do have a sort of Klezmer/Free-Jazz group called ZemmyBemmy, but
> that's about it. What are things like in NH?

There is a small Jewish community here, I live in a rural area, so
opportunities to play klezmer, or anything else for that matter, are
somewhat limited. To my knowledge, there is only one other klezmer band
besides us in the entire state. Luckily, as I often tell people, you don't
have to be Jewish to listen to and like klezmer, so we play out a reasonable
amount. I play a number of other folk styles too, so between everything else
I keep pretty busy.

> And more on topic, has there been any past discussion on tuning issues in
> Jewish music?

There's been a few mentions here and there. Over time, I've experimented
with playing klezmer in JI on the fiddle, I think it works quite well. I am
a folk oriented player though, and for the most part don't like to over
analyze what I'm doing. Whether playing klezmer, or Celtic/Appalachian, etc,
I just intonate the tunes how I want to hear them at any given moment. Based
on the fact that I am not predisposed to 12 ET thirds and sevenths, I know
that I'm usually doing something JI or microtonal when I play.

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth@sethausten.com
klezmusic@earthlink.net

I have a friend who plays Klezmer music in Burlinton VT. Website is http://www.wanderingjews.com
they just did a us tour and made their second CD

erik

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Le Samedi, la 29a de Septembre 2001 13:32, vous avez écrit :

> There is a small Jewish community here, I live in a rural area, so
> opportunities to play klezmer, or anything else for that matter, are
> somewhat limited. To my knowledge, there is only one other klezmer band
> besides us in the entire state. Luckily, as I often tell people, you don't
> have to be Jewish to listen to and like klezmer, so we play out a
> reasonable amount. I play a number of other folk styles too, so between
> everything else I keep pretty busy.

Ah! Were you one of the tsimblists at KlezKanada this past summer? I think
I was involved in the masterclass on Doina with you (I was playing electric
bass at that time).

> There's been a few mentions here and there. Over time, I've experimented
> with playing klezmer in JI on the fiddle, I think it works quite well. I am
> a folk oriented player though, and for the most part don't like to over
> analyze what I'm doing. Whether playing klezmer, or Celtic/Appalachian,
> etc, I just intonate the tunes how I want to hear them at any given moment.
> Based on the fact that I am not predisposed to 12 ET thirds and sevenths, I
> know that I'm usually doing something JI or microtonal when I play.

As a double bassist, I'm trying to be sensitive to different kinds of
intonation, but of course it's so hard to be really accurate. I don't think
my ears are really up to things yet either.
I've been noticing recently how much monophony there is left in the
melodies of Klezmer music (especially those in the so-called Misheberakh
mode). Even though they are often given harmonic progressions, some of those
melodies seem to have been conceived as 'melody over drone' and thus ripe for
JI.

- --
- --Ad[dy]
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on 10/4/01 6:41 AM, tuning@yahoogroups.com at tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> From: "Adam S. Fine" <afine@hfx.eastlink.ca>

> Ah! Were you one of the tsimblists at KlezKanada this past summer? I think
> I was involved in the masterclass on Doina with you (I was playing electric
> bass at that time).

Yes, I remember you and the bass/soprano sax doina you played. I was indeed
at KlezKanada studying tsimbl, was mostly playing mandola in the doina class
though, sitting next to Beverly who played tsimbl throughout. That was a
great class.

> I've been noticing recently how much monophony there is left in the
> melodies of Klezmer music (especially those in the so-called Misheberakh
> mode). Even though they are often given harmonic progressions, some of those
> melodies seem to have been conceived as 'melody over drone' and thus ripe for
> JI.

Yes, because of the monophonic nature of the melodies, JI works quite well.
I particularly like the sound/texture of the resultant interval between b2
and major 3, ie 16/15 to 5/4 in JI, although I certainly deal with its 12-ET
counterpoint when playing a fretted instrument.

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth@sethausten.com
klezmusic@earthlink.net