Klezmer “revivalisms” to the test of real or supposed cultural borders: the stakes of memory and objects of misunderstanding
Klezmer “revivalisms” to the test of real or supposed cultural borders: the stakes of memory and objects of misunderstanding

Summary/Abstract: As a musical style, klezmer is historically associated with both the bodydancing at weddings and the European Jewish cultural area. Furthermore, the great political and economic emigration waves from the 1880s to the 1920s and the destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War have created a vacuum between the original tradition of ancient klezmorim and the actual ways of playing klezmer music. Since the 1970s, a wave of revival has grown from North and South America reaching Europe in the following two decades. Incidentally,while reading some musicians’ writings, the klezmer and neo-klezmer phenomena are narrowly linked with the questions of memory and revival. Their productions, the way they conceive their relationship with the historical lands of ancient klezmorim and their discourses based on such notions as “roots” and “authenticity” ask in a specific way the question of cultural borders, as a question of representation.

• Details
• Contents