klezmern.adj.

1929 A. Z. Idelsohn Jewish Music xx. 455 In almost every city there were professional klezmorim.

1929 A. Z. Idelsohn Jewish Music Notes 521 [He] was grateful to the Jewish klezmer all his life for the perfect and wonderful production of tone he taught him.

1968 L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 183 As characters, the shabby klezmorim were familiar to all Ashkenazic Jews.

1979 Jewish Chron. 14 Dec. 23/5 In one corner of the ‘stage’ a band of klesmers played the beloved traditional melodies of the Galut, surprisingly so just here where nothing less Galut-like could be imagined.

1998 Strad June 593/2 My father was a real klezmer, self-taught.

1977 N.Y. Times 3 Aug. c19/4 (television listing) Jewish Dimension: ‘Klezmer: a song of soul’.

1991 Boston June 32/2 Picnic under the stars with the Klezmer conservatory Band..playing turn-of-the-century klezmer.

1996 Economist 6 Apr. 104/3 After klezmer was brought to America by Jewish immigrants, it became popular..among Yiddish-speaking city dwellers during the 1920s and 1930s, and influenced the jazz of both Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.

2000 S. Broughton et al. World Music: Rough Guide II. 583/1 Although klezmer is essentially secular music, it flourished in a religious society, and it draws some of its distinctive quality from the particular ornamentation and expression of cantorial chant.

1961 B. Z. Goldberg Jewish Probl. Soviet Union i. ii. 90 They seemed to have a special interest in Jewish folk music... Nearly done was a book on klezmer music, the generally improvised folk melodies played by itinerant fiddlers at Jewish weddings.

1968 L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 183 Klezmer music was played on trumpets, bugles, flutes, clarinets, fifes, violins, cellos, drums. A typical group would contain three to six members.

1983 Shakespeare Q. 34 228/1 These two pantomime moments, accompanied by the music of a strolling Klezmer band, suggested what might have been had word and action complemented each other throughout.

1992 Down Beat Feb. 15/2 Enough 78s survived to be dusted off for a klezmer renaissance in the '70s.

2000 S. Broughton et al. World Music: Rough Guide II. 583/1 Many klezmer musicians worked in Istanbul, and one of the common klezmer dance forms is called a terkishe—similar in rhythm to the Greek syrto.