These scores have been gathered to provide a repertoire for Shpilkes, The Temple Aliyah Klezmer Band. The arrangement is approximately alphabetical. Since I haven't always transliterated consistently, there may be some anomolies.
I've also been using Pete Sokolow's Guide to Klezmer Arranging and Orchestration as a tool to figure out what ought to work in the arrangements. If you see anything that looks insane, let me know. I'm still a "Grine Kusine".
Clarinet, violin, trumpet and alto sax all should be considered lead instruments. As such, their individual parts will generally include a melody line. I have, in many cases, also included either a tenor or baritone line as an alternative. These are usually derived from the tenor sax and trombone parts.
If you don't see a part for your instrument, look around. There may be some other instrument of similar range and style you can borrow. Flute can easily take a violin part, perhaps playing up an octave. Soprano sax can take a clarinet part. Or ask me to provide a transposition. Bumping that B♭ clarinet part to C or E♭ is a piece cake. So is bumping that B♭ tenor sax part to C and bass clef.
Trombone is generally a counter melody. In some cases, the trombone and the tenor saxophone are playing the same part. In a small number the trombone part is more like the bass part. If the trombone is missing choose from what is there.
The piano and accordion parts for the Kammen songs are pretty good. For other pieces they vary. Some of them are pretty abysmal. If you look at the piano part and it is bad, do two things. First send me mail and see if I can do something about it. Second go to the leadsheet pending my response.
I just added a link to The Klezmonauts. They are a (maybe the) Klezmer band based in Wales. We have been exchanging email and arrangements.
I have, per Judy's request, transposed Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn into Gm and Tum-Balalayke into Cm.
I have also started on an Alto part for Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn that is a true backing part and not a melody or a harmony that follows the melody. This is not complete but is available in the A section.
Per Barbara Maxwell's observation, I have fixed the mistransposition of the bass part in Goldene Khasene. I agree with Barb's observation that the initial key of the song looks odd. I have not fixed that yet.
I had added the tenor and trombone parts to Abi Gezunt, but had neglected to add the links to them in this page. That has been remedied. I also fixed the vocalization ni the yiddish title.
I upgraded the version of LilyPond again. I am at 2.10.2 now. I've been running convert-ly on the sources bring them up to version. The only difference there should be the version number in the footer of the final page.
I have also put the comicbook style font back into the bass parts. What I observed is that these are read and print just fine using Acrobat on Windows. The display just fine, but I can't get them to print using KPDF on my Linux box. Acrobat on Linux won't read them. If you have other observations or find this to be a problem, let me know.
The following were run through convert-ly and have the fun returned to the bass part.
I added tenor and trombone parts to Abi Gezunt.
I added a tenor part to Tsena (not all instruments). I also cleaned up the placement of rehearsal marks.
Did some general clean up of rehearsal mark placement and line breaks. This became necessary because of some differences in the new version LilyPond.
Got MP3 recordings of the following.
Added first cut at Yehudah Katz's Nigun Halelu. I'm trying to turn a folk rock nigun into a klezmer one. Experiments galore!
Added a bass line to Rumenye, Rumenye.
Added a first cut at Abi Gezunt.
I put the rest of the lyrics in Rumenye, Rumenye. This should make it ready to rehearse.
I rebuilt all of the PDF files. Because of an upgrade to LilyPond, I had to change the parts of the source that put in the instrument names on the conductor's scores. This version also seems to have problems with Comic style fonts I was using in the conductor's scores, the bass parts and a few other places. Until I can figure out the source of that problem, I will leave things in a more traditional font.
We are now moving into doing Yiddish songs, rather than pure instrumentals. Of the songs on this site, the following have lyrics on the leadsheets.
In addition, the following songs have lyrics that I haven't entered yet. Those will be coming along soon.
Added or changed the example recordings for the following songs:
I'm making progress on this. The parts from different sources are pulled together better.
The recording provided is a medley of 2 different freylekhs, Sid's Freylekhs and this one. You have to listen out to the second half to get this melody.
This is a medley of Itsikel, Kolemeyke (K. 1-21) and Sid's Freylekhs.
You must listen to the MP3 to get the playing approach that is appropriate here. You can listen to the MIDI to pick up on this specific arrangement. A key source that I used to get started on this was found at www.musicstudents.com.
Jerry is still interested in this piece. I've rearranged things so that the trumpet is carrying melody. One thing that I can readily do is to provide in B♭ and C scores with the melody, harmonies and counter together. In the mean time, it is what it is.
This piece is one that Jerry liked from The Compleat Klezmer by Henry Sapoznik. It is a Roumanian style hora, not an Israeli style. It is in 3/8 and the beats are on 1 and 3.
The harmony parts are a 3rd or 4th below the melody and a 5th or 6th below the melody. Trombone and flute are currently scored to play a counter. At Rich's suggestion most of the glissandos have been removed from the trombone part.
I do not have a recording of this, so you will have to use the MIDI.
The Compleat Klezmer attributes this to Abe Schwartz.
This appears to be the same as the Maxwell St. Kolemeyke above.
The alto sax part was based on the the trombone part. However, I got a copy of the B♭ version of the book and it had distinct alto and tenor sax parts.
The trombone glissandos now reflect what is in the book. The clarinet and flute have high melody parts. The violin and trumpet have low versions of the melody. The trumpet can play the tenor (or a transposition of the alto) instead of being heavy on the melody. The piano is just the melody and the octaves of the bass line, sorry! I hope to get to it soon.
This is still in progress. The freylekhs part was pulled from Klezmer Band Folio, Yale Klezmer Band and thus started as a pretty complete orchestration. The hora part is from The Compleat Klezmer and thus started as a lead sheet. I am still expanding the orchestration in that part.
This is a very exciting bulgar. I have heard a number of variations. What I have presented an arrangement from The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band.
The book has an alto sax part but no tenor sax part. I have constructed the tenor part by using liberal quotes from the alto part and from the violin part.
The violin part is NOT a melody part! The violin part is most definitely a harmony part. In the violin score, the melody is a C transposition of the clarinet part. The primary violin part in the book is the second part in this score.
I'm making some progress on this. There is more to come. I finally found an arrangement to emulate and expand on.
This style is also known as a Pas D'Espagnol, a Russian Spanish Waltz.
Despite being titled as just a hora, this is a medley of a Romanian hora and a bulgar. The combination of starting slow and then kicking up the pace works particularly well.
This is a medley of a Roumanian hora and a bulgar. The combination of starting slow and then kicking up the pace works particularly well.
The A and C parts of this are the same as the A and B parts of No. 29 Russian Sher No. III in Kammen International Dance Folio, No. 1. I haven't transcribed that yet. The B part has this great circus feel to it.
This is the same as the Russische Sher, 2A in Mel Bay's Klezmer Collection by Stacy Phillips.
