| ...
in 1992 I wrote an extensive 62 page article on the klezmer modes (centering
on the freygish mode) which was accepted by Musica Judaica for publication
of volume 13 of that journal. Lately (ahem) they have had problems, and
every year I'm told the article will come out so in the past 7 years I haven't
offered it to any other journals. ... I've extracted a few chapters, because
I think there is such scant info out there, that maybe only this can justify
the long mails I've been sending. I get a few dissertations and masters
theses sent me every year, mostly from Germany of students writing about
klezmer music, and found that misinformation has the curious property of
multiplying. So here is a summary definition with some mechanics of the
modes. Again comments appreciated... |
| Because
Klezmer music has not, to date, been fully penetrated by music theorists,
the definition and nomenclature of its modes has remained unclear. Attempts
to define the modes (Yidd. Shtayger, Scarbove or Gusto) in terms of their
similarities to oriental modes, i.e. Turkish and Arabic Makamat, have been
made. Such connections should, perhaps, remain comparative and not definitive
in nature. Other attempts have been made to define the Klezmer modes on
the terms of Western tonality or church modality, thereby disregarding essential
differences in tonal content and behavior between the Klezmer modes and
their objects of comparison. Klezmer modes are comprised of more than 7
notes - a fact which alone makes them unsuited to Western heptatonic theory.
A mode, then, is more than just a scale, implying also the way the notes
making it up are used. Each mode implicitly contains a mood and a set of
motives which are specific to it, though the melodic contour of these motives
overlaps extensively from mode to mode, whereby the intervals are the varying
factor. Cantorial recitative improvisations (Yidd. Zogachts), as well as
Klezmer tunes and improvisations, utilize these motives as their melodic
basis. The basic content of a mode can be represented as a scale, though
this can only provide a partial understanding of the mode. Therefore aach
mode has it's own typical Scaler Form, Motivic Scheme, and Typical Cadence:
Forms |