Contemporary Klezmer: Music, Identity, and Meaning
Journal: Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Year: 2019

Klezmer, the traditional instrumental music of Eastern European Jews, developed as the accompaniment to weddings and other communal celebrations. After an initial blossoming in the early-twentieth century United States, the style lost prominence due to a variety of historical, political, and social factors. Since the 1970s, however, Jewish and non-Jewish musicians have revived and transformed older styles of playing, both in North America and across the world. This thesis examines American disco