Lecture 8

Music & Migration

Case studies in Flamenco & Klezmer, &
Chinese N. America (with Yun Emily Wang)
Migration
Movement or displacement of a population
Diaspora communities (Gr: dispersion)
For transnational ethnic minorities, music is a marker of ethnic and cultural
difference
Music expresses distinctive ethnicity highly meaningful when identity is
suppressed, censored, or persecuted by mainstream
Portability of music
Power of music to carry stories and experiences
Some musical styles/repertoires maintained intact when transplanted; others
transformed or discarded
Why?
Cultural retentions
A cultural practice maintained with little change because it continues to serve
some purpose: some deep social function
Change would compromise its function
Most common in musical forms associated with religious ritual, or rites of
passage
Trinidad
East Indian population
Abolition of slavery (1833)
Sugar plantations
Indentured labour
Coolies
Newly-Arrived Coolies in Trinidad, late 19C
Byah ke git wedding songs
A cultural retention?
Literal meaning of text forgotten
Context understood (This is sung when)
Cultural isolation: music culture exists in isolation from its true homeland, it often
lacks evolutionary stimulus
New stimuli in new world: music can either
absorb ideas from the new environment or continue in isolation, rejecting the
new, maintaining an archaic, often increasingly arcane form

Spain: Gypsies (Gitanos)

Ethnic and linguistic connections to India? (difficulties of comparison)
Internationally known as Roma
Entered southern Spain in 15C
A community on periphery of society, persecuted, ostracized
Now central to Spanish national identity
Popular global image of flamenco
Flamenco
Has always absorbed influences: N. Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian
subcontinent
Fused with elements of Jewish / Arab musics: Jews, Muslims & Gypsies fled to
Andalucan mountains, escape Catholic persecutions / forced conversions
Gypsy clans maintained strong oral tradition
Flamenco: combination of
Cante (song)
Toque (touch)
Baile (dance)
Flamenco: expression of personal / communal triumph over despair; proud,
aggressive display of self-esteem
c.1800: Gypsies moved to larger cities in Andaluca: Jerez de la Frontera, Cdiz,
Sevilla, Utrera & Alcal
Entertainment associated with bars & brothels
1850: focus shifts to urban caf cantantes
Popular with upper & middle classes
Modern structure and repertoire c.18501900 (Golden Age)
Decline 1930s to early 1960s
Revival late 1960s
1980s on flamenco in many syncretic guises
staple of the popular world music scene
El Camarn de la Isla
19501992
The Shrimp
Chiefly responsible for the flamenco revival
La Gitana Morena
Accompanied on the guitar by Paco de Luca (payo non-Gypsy)
Cante
Wild, fierce expressions of pain
Rough vocal tone, shouting, sobs, gesticulations

Pauses, breaths, body / facial gestures indicating pain and anguish can transform
performances into cathartic events
Emotion dominates over text
Text in Andalucan dialect of Spanish
Couplets (some fixed, others improvised)

Jaleo: encouraging shouts from other performers / aficionados in audience; promotes an

environment of encouragement
Finger-snapping (palillos)
Hand-clapping (palmas)
Syncopation:
Strong rhythmic framework: sesquialtera possibilities
Typical pattern(s)
Toque

Lighter than most acoustic guitars; produces bright sound, less sustain
Spontaneous accompaniment: organizes the rhythmical lines of song
Voice & guitar interact closely in dialogue
Guitar interludes reflect mood of the singer
When rapport is established, emotions of song are intensified (e.g. El Camarn &
Tomatito)

Baile
An expression in movement of songs of flamenco singer
Each rhythmic pattern involves basic set of moves and timings, but improvisation
plays a large role
Physical / emotional control over the body: head and torso held proudly erect
Intricate footwork
Dates to about 1750 (?)
Developed in the 19C caf cantantes
Moved into Spanish theatres in early 20C
Creation of flamenco ballets
Flamenco toured around world from 1930s to 1960s
Buleras
Boisterous, festive form
(Burlera = fun; bullera = a din, shouting)
Get-together, finale
Rapid tempo, quick rhythms
Ideal for jaleo and palmas
Singers / dancers take turns coming to centre of circle to express songs (often
sequence of fragments)

Flamenco (Carlos Saura, 1995)

La Paquera de Jerez (19342004)

Nueva flamenco
Syncretism: flamenco with popular music forms from N. Africa, Latin America,
Blues
Paco de Luca: Brazil 1970s
formed sextet with electric bass, flute, saxophone & Latin percussion
Continuing adaptive strategies?
The Gypsy Kings
Reyes (King)
Migrated to southern France during Spanish Civil War (193639)
Greatest Hits: biggest-selling world music album of all time
Bem Bem Bem Maria
Klezmer
An eclectic musical genre associated with the Jewish (Ashkenazic) Diaspora in
North America
Jews in Europe
Jews: diasporic communities throughout Europe since the destruction of Second
Temple by Romans (AD 70)
Large, influential communities in Spain (Sephardic) and Germany/Central Europe
(Ashkenazic)
Persecution, explusions (forced migrations):
Sephardic communities to Mediterranean and Balkans
Ashkenazic to Eastern Europe
Language and Politics
Yiddish (German-based with Hebrew words) flourished in Ashkenazic
Communities
Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) in Sephardic ones
Jewish polity anchored in religion not in nationalism (because Jews had no
state)
Jewish Music
Jewish music, concepts of music, and systems of music arose as part of Judaism
Singing of religious texts by the khazn (cantor) unaccompanied florid and
virtuoso style, using old modes
Syllabic style
Melismatic style
Other influences on Klezmer
Unaccompanied folksongs that reflected broad diversity of East European Jewish
life:
love, marriage

lullabies, childrens songs

work songs
ballads detailing natural and national disasters
Yiddish folk songs: Toire is die beste Schoire
Folk traditions of other communities

The Hasidim
The Hasidim (or Chasidim): charismatic religious sect
Developed spiritual interpretation of piety encouraging song & dance, as opposed
to religious texts, as valid approach to prayer
Niggunim
Niggunim (wordless songs): melodies bypassed the burden of words in quest for
oneness with God
Use of vocables:
These tunes build in intensity as they progress, accompanied by clapping,
stamping, enthusiastic dancing
Musical characteristics
Niggunim from eastern Hungary
Violin and folk lute
Unmetered section: highly ornamented melodic lines
Pitch bending
Melancholic and highly emotional
Metered section: duple metre, slow and deliberate, but getting quicker
Klezmer
Klezmer is a blend of influences: a syncretic instrumental music for
entertainment, in theatres, salons, weddings, etc.
Bands of Klezmerim (pl.) became wandering professional musicians throughout
Eastern Europe
Jewish immigration to North America
Between 1881 and 1924, between 2 and 3 million Jews migrated to North
America to get away from the social and political upheavals and resultant
persecution they faced in Eastern Europe; New York saw largest concentration of
Jewish migrants
Dave Tarras
Many Jewish musicians found work; some formed klezmer bands, began making
78-rpm recordings that were all the rage in late 1920s
Tarras played with the Abe Schwartz Orchestra in NYC
Unzer Toirele (1928)

1930s 1970s Decline

In the 1930s, new trends in Jewish jazz began to erode the popularity of klezmer
Former klezmer musicians began to perform more popular, American-based
styles, including swing and Latin music
1970s Rediscovery
Inspiration? New Ethnicity Movement (e.g., black pride and Roots movement)
Young Jewish musicians began searching for their own musical roots
Discovery of 78-rpm recordings from the 1920s
Neo-Klezmer bands
Musicians rediscovered many of the old klezmer legends, like Dave Tarras
The commercial and international spread of Klezmer
1996, renowned classical violinist Itzhak Perlman toured klezmer circuit with a
backup supergroup of bands, rocketing Klezmer to much greater international
visibility
Canadian Klezmer
Allan Merovitz
Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band (Toronto)
KlezMerovitz (Calgary)
In Kalgary er voynt a Klezmer (In Calgary there lives a Klezmer musician)
New trends
1990s: Queer klezmer
Gay/lesbian concerns
Bands: Gay iz mir; Isle of Klezbos
Progressive values seen in Yiddish culture by younger musicians and audiences in
New York City, and elsewhere
Drug culture
The Klezmatics
Mizmor Shir Lehanef (The Reefer Song)
Shabbos brings Jews rest,
Repose, equilibrium.
Every morning is Shabbos for me
When I light up a spliff
And start to do all right