Klezmer music is the laughing, crying, wailing, heartfelt instrumental music of Eastern European Jewish life. Sometimes erroneously described as "Jewish Jazz," it is essentially ethnic functional music, each musical form being connected to one part or another of the traditional Jewish wedding. Having developed over many centuries, it incorporates influences from synagogue chant and from Romanian, Hungarian, Slavic and Middle Eastern music. All of the elements were slowly absorbed, changed and worked into a mix which expressed the rhythms and emotions of Jewish life (quite distinct from the lifestyles around it.)
Naturally the influencing went both ways, as Jewish musicians (klezmorim) frequently played at non-Jewish events. In America, Jewish immigrants picked up some of the rhythms and harmonies of American pop music of the teens and twenties as well. At the heart of this rich musical stew is the spiritual yearning of the Jewish soul, in its many moods.
