Klezmer Revival?

In my last article about the history of klezmer music I dealt with its early development in the United States of America and looked briefly at the lives of Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein. In this posting I want to look briefly at the development of klezmer in the later 20th. century and examine a bit more closely some of the artists involved in more recent developments.

Shirim Klezmer

For the sake of convenience we can look at the revival of klezmer as taking place in two distinct stages. The first took place in the United States of America and Europe and it was led mainly by Giora Feidman, Zev Feldman, Andy Statman, The Klezmorim and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. These artists developed their repertoire from earlier recordings and surviving klezmer musicians in the United States. I want to look a bit closer at these artists and groups to place them in their proper context.

Giora Feidman

Giora Feidman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 26th. March, 1936. He is renowned as an Argentinian klezmer music folklorist and clarinetist and he also plays the bass clarinet. His parents immigrated from Argentina to escape persecution as they were Bessarabians. Feidman was born into a family of klezmer musicians, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all involved in performing klezmer music for weddings, bar mitzvahs and holiday celebrations in the Jewish ghettos of Eastern Europe.

Giora Fiedman began his musical career as the youngest ever clarinetist to play with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He left this orchestra in the early 1970s to embark on a solo career. He has subsequently performed as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet. He also notably played the clarinet solos for the score to the film Schindler's List, which won an Academy Award. The themes from this film are often featured on radio stations such as Classic FM. He has collaborated and recorded with many musicians including Ariel Ramirez and the Moroccan Ali Hafid. Ariel Ramirez is an Argentinian classical composer, pianist and music director who was very influenced by Argentinian folk music.

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Zev Feldman

Walter Zev Feldman is a leading researcher in both Ottoman Turkish and Jewish music. He is also a versatile performer on the klezmer, dulcimer and cymbal (tsimbi). He has written a book entitled 'Music of the Ottoman Court: Makam, Composition and the Early Ottoman Instrumental Repertoire'. This was first published in Berlin in 1996 and is cuurently being translated into Turkish. He wrote the 'Ottoman Music' and 'Klezmer Music' articles for the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 2001 as well as the Turkish, Chaghatay and Turkmen Literature articles for the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Feldman is a part-time associate professor at Bar-Ilan University in Tel-Aviv and a fellow of the Centre for Jewish Musical Research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He worked as co-editor of the Medimuses Project for Modal Music of the Mediterranean for the EnChordais School in Thessalonika, Greece, which was sponsored by the European Union (2002-05). In 2004 Feldman co-direceted the UNESCO application of the Mevlevi Dervishes as a Masterpiece of the Oral and intangible Heritage of Humanity. He more recently co-produced the CD Tanburi Isak with the Bezmara Ensemble of Istanbul for EnChordais. In 2003 he curated the concert series 'The Revival of Klezmer and Yiddish Music' in New York at the CUNY Graduate Centre. He was artistic director of Music and Dance of the Jewish Wedding at the 92nd. Street Y. The following season he served in the same capacity for the Y's titled Shared Sacred Space: Music of the Mystics.

Zev Feldman and Andy Statman

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Andy Statman

Andy Statman on clarinet and guitar

Andy Statman is a notable Klezmer clarinetist and a bluegrass and newgrass mandolinist. He first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering the blugerass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, as a Jew, soon became aware that bluegrass was not really his natural music and so he turned to Klezmer and traditional Jewish music. As he was by now a clarinetist as well as a mandolinist, he became involved in recording various Klezmer albums which became very influential in the Klezmer revival that began in the late 1970s.

Later on, in the 1990's, he started experimenting with Hassidic melodies, fusing bluegrass, klezmer and jazz music very effectively.

Andy Statman was taught to play clarinet by the legendary Klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras who we considered in my earlier article. Dave Tarras bequeathed his clarinets to Andy Statman and so they obviously had a great rapport as musicians.

The Andy Statman Trio, which includes bassist Jim Whitney and drummer Larry Eagle, plays regularly at Derech Amuno Synagogue in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Although Andy Statman has had a huge influence on the development of both Bluegrass and Klezmer, he has remained a musician of great integrity and tends to remain out of the limelight. Every year he performs in a Klezmer concert series in which he teams up with Itzhak Perlman (of classical violin fame) and other big names in the Klezmer world. He was featured as a guest artist on Bela Fleck and the Flecktones holiday album 'Jingle all the way', released in 2008. Here he played both clarinet and mandolin; the album won the prize for Best Instrumental Album at the 51st. Grammy Awards. He also joined this group in concert on 10th. December, 2008 at the University of Buffalo Centre for the Arts and again on 16th. December, 2008 at Philadelphia's Kimmel Cenre.

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You can find some further interesting details about the Andy Statman Trio at the link provided below.

http://www.indypendent.org/2006/11/02/klezmer-bluegrass-andy-statman/

The Andy Statman Trio

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The Klezmorim

L. to R.: Brian Wishnefsky, Kevin Linscott, John Raskin, David Julian Gray, Lev Liberman.

In 1975 a motley crew of street musicians from Berkeley, California was instrumental in giving a kick start to a worldwide klezmer revival. Their story, as told by their co-founder and saxophone player Lev Liberman, can be found via the following link.

http://klezmo.com/index2.html

David Skuse was the other person who helped found the new group. There are also details of the current band line up and their biographies on this website.

Founded in Berkeley, California in 1975, the Klezmorim origianlly featured strings, notably the virtuoso violin of David Skuse. Skuse left the band in 1977 and it then changed into a brass band led by Lev Liberman's saxophone and David Julian Gray's clarinet (Gray was also a founder member).

They then concentrated on trying to recreate the sounds of the early 20th. century klezmer bands, for which they achieved worldwide acclaim, receiving a Grammy nomination in 1983 and selling out concerts in North America and Europe throughout the 1980s. By 1986 all the original players had left and it was tuba player Donald Thornton, (he joined in 1979), who ensured that the Klezmorim continued to tour under their original name, featuring leading players of the klezmer revival. Lev Liberman took the new line-up on a successful tour of Europe in 2004 and there are continued rumours that they are due to release new recordings.

In my next article I hope to look at the work of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and some of the artists who featured in the second wave of the klezmer music revival. Meanwhile, you might like to listen to some of the artists I have mentioned in this article. You could try Last FM or Spotify who have quite good catalogues of klezmer music.

I still like Klezmer

In my last posting I gave a very potted history of the roots of Klezmer, tracing it back to Biblical times and its connection with the Jewish synagogue cantorial music. We then saw how in New Testament times instrumental music initially went out of favour but was later restored because of the need for instrumental performance at weddings, festivals and other special occasions. This is a very brief summary of the story so far, if you want more details then I suggest you read my earlier article before proceeding with this one.

Jews have been resident in the United States since the colonial period of the 17th. century, although they were initially small in numbers, having mainly immigrated from Spain and Portugal. These early immigrants were almost exclusively Sephardic Jews. The biggest group until 1830 was the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina. Large scale immigration began in the 19th. century with the arrival of many Ashkenazi Jews from Germany, most of whom became merchants and shop-owners. By 1880 the number of Jews in the USA had escalated to around 250,000, many of whom were well educated secular German Jews, although a minority of the older Sephardic Jewish families remained influential.

Over 2 million Jews immigrated to the United States between the late 19th. century and 1924. This included a distinct wave of Yiddish speaking Ashkenazi Jews from the poor rural Jewish populations of the Russian Empire which consisted of Poland, Lithunia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and the Russian-controlled part of the former Duchy of Warsaw. A large number of these Yiddish speaking Jews settled in New York City and the New Jersey area thus establishing one of the world's biggest major concentrations of the Jewish population.

The newly arrived Jews in the United States developed their own support networks which consisted of many small synagogues and Ashkenazi Jewish 'Territorial Associations' (Landsmannschaften) for Jews from the same town or village. Most of them became increasingly assimilated into the American culture and 500.000 comprising half the American male population between the ages of 18 and 50 fought in World War II. After the second World War many of them joined the American trend towards suburbanization as a result of which there was a greater tendency to intermarriage and secularization.

At the same time this was occuring, new centres of Jewish communities became established and Jewish School enrollment doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s. Jewish affiliation with synagogues increased from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960.

The 20th. century wave of immigration which followed the Holocaust that destroyed most of the European Jewish community, resulted in the United States becoming home of the largest Jewish population in the world during the 20th. century. Whereas at the beginning of the 20th. century there were approximately a million Jews in the United States, by the end of the century there was a population of nearly 6 million. It is estimated that the current intermarriage rate for Jews in the United States is in excess of 50%.

In the 21st. century, where we are now (I think?), the American Jews have become widely diffused in major metropolitan areas in New York, South Florida, Philadelphia, California, New England, Ohio and Illinois.

All the above account may be seen as forming a backdrop to the development and transition of klezmer from its roots in the Middle Eastern and Eastern European music to what it has now become, a musical genre in its own right. It was inevitable that when they immigrated to the United States the Jews took their culture and music with them. This was also the case when they immigrated to other parts of the world and so klezmer music was to become something which could be enjoyed all over the globe. To begin with not a great deal of klezmer music was maintained by the American Jews but there were a few Yiddish singers who kept the vocal music tradition alive.

In the 1920s the clarinetists Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein evoked a brief, influential revival of klezmer music. Very few of the performers of this time regarded themselves as klezmorim (performers of klezmer) and the term cannot be found in any Jewish instrumental recordings of the time. As the Jews became assimilated into the American culture, the popularity of klezmer declined slowly and Jewish celebrations tended to become more and more accompanied by non-Jewish music.

Dovid Tarraschuck, generally known as Dave Tarras, was born in 1897 in the small town of Ternovka near the Ukranian city of Uman. He was exposed to klezmer music early in his childhood because his father performed as a klezmer trombonist and batkhn. The wedding jester, or batkn was the bandleader, master of ceremonies, comedian and storyteller, all rolled into one. As he grew up, Dave played for a while in his father's family kapelye (band), performing on balalaika, cobza, guitar, mandolin and flute. In 1915, by which time he was also playing clarinet, Dave was conscripted into the Czar's army. His skills enabled him, like many klezorim before him, to serve in the military band, which was infinitely better than the trenches. A combination of the Russian Revolution, pogroms and an unfavourable economic environment forced Tarras to immigrate to New York City in 1921. On arrival he worked first in a clothes factory and then as a caretaker. He suffered from an inferiority complex, thinking he was not good enough to become a professional musician. He soon had a reality check and discovered that he was better than most of the musicians he heard and he subsequently earned a lot more money by playing the clarinet than doing other work.

Dave's ability to transpose and read music fluently made him a much sought-after player, launching his career as well as a long term rivalry with his colleague and fellow clarinetist Naftule Brandwein. In time Dave's sight reading skills and placid disposition won him Brandwein's place in Joseph Cherniavsky's ensemble, the Yiddish American Jazz Band. He eventually died in 1989.

Dave Tarras

Naftule Brandwein, sometimes spelled Naftuli Brandwine, (1884-1963) was a Jewish clarinetist who beacme perhaps one of the most influential figures in the history of Klezmer music. He was born in Przemyslany, Galicia (now Ukraine), into a family of klezmer musicians, who were also part of the Strettener Hasidic dynasty of Rabbi Yehuda Husch Brandwein of Stratyn. His father Peysekhe played violin and was an improvising badhkn. He had thirteen sons, Moyshe played

violin, French horn and valve trombone, Mendel played piano, Leyzer played drums and Azriel played cornet. Azriel became Naftule's first music teacher and had a lasting impact on his playing. This is an unusual case of a father being taught music by his son, usually it's the other way round.

Brandwein emigrated to the United States in 1908 at the age of 19 and once there he soon became a star of the 78 rpm record era, (really the first proper recording era) and he then proclaimed himself to be the 'King of Jewish Music'. He may thus be considered to be among the first wave of American klezmer artists, those who were trained in the Old World, as opposed to the second generation who learned the art of klezmer whilst actually having become resident in America.

Between 1922 and 1927 Brandwein produced 24 records, first as a member of Abe Scwartz's orchestra and then as a solo artist from 1923 onwards.

Naftule Brandwein was renowned for his colourful personality as well as for his musical talent. He often appeared to perform with a neon sign round his neck which read 'Naftule Brandwein Orchestra'. He would also perform with his back to the audience so that they could not pick up on his fingering tricks. In this way he can be seen as a forerunner of contemporary pop and rock artists who frequently indulge in unusual light displays and different ways of holding and playing their instruments. Sometimes it became a dangerous game, as when he wore plugged-in Christmas lights as part of his costume. These once shorted out when he perspired too freely, almost electrocuting him!

Naftule Brandwein

Although traditional performances may have declined, many Jewish composers who had secured success as clssical composers, such as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, continued to be influenced by the klezmeric idioms which they had heard when they were young and in their formative years. Gustav Mahler also shows evidence of the influence of klezmer in his composition. Some have even suggested that Gershwin was influenced by the Yiddish of his youth and that this is evident in the opening clarinet solo of Rhapsody in Blue. Played in the right way this magical opening can appear to be improvised rather than being lifted from the musical score. The musical playing style of the jazz clarinetist Beeny Goodman may be seen as somthing akin to klezmer.

While all this was going on, some non-Jewish composers were also showing the influence of klezmer in their composition. Dmitri Shostakovich was a great admirer of klezmer music because of its ability to embrace both the ecstasy and the despair of life. Several klezmer musical borrowings can be seen in the Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57 (1940), the Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, op. 67 (1944) and the String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110 (1960).

It can thus be seen that klezmer music is of importance and great influence to both jazz and classical music. It may also be seen that jazz and classical genres have invested certain characteristics and idioms in klezmer music. With the increasing trend of performers to 'crossover' between Jazz, classical and klezmer we can look forward to some exciting developments in the future; as they say, 'Watch this space!'

Having traced the development of klezmer and its transposition to the United States of America, I hope to look at its subsequent revival and some of the more recent historical developments. This should be followed by a closer look at the musical structure and content of klezmer before taking a more in-depth look at the artists, repertoire, performances and recordings of klezmer.

Meanwhile, you may want to listen to some of the music mentioned here; try using Last FM or Spotify to check out Benny Goodman, Rhapsody in Blue (introduction), Shostakovich, Bernstein and Mahler. See how many influences of klezmer you can identify and also in your other general classical and jazz listening. You could also try finding the recordings of Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein on Last FM or Spotify.

The following link to 'Klezmer meries in the Memorial Book' gives some interesting references to klezmer and klezmorim after the Holocaust, if you want some further reading before perusing my next article.

http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/klezmer/kle267.html

Please contact me at http://erikretallick@yahoo.co.uk if you have and observations, comments or questions relating to this article.

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The Historical Roots of Klezmer

In my last posting I made the admission that I like Klezmer music and gave a brief introduction to what is a vast subject. In the course of my ramblings I mentioned that it was formerly known as Yiddish or Freilach music. Yiddish is the term referring to anything concerned with the culture of Ashkenazic Jewry, as in the Yiddish language and Yiddish literature. The Yiddish language, written in the Hebrew alphabet, became one of the world's most widespread languages, appearing in most countries with a Jewish population by the 19th. century. The earliest known Yiddish literature dates back to 1096, consisting of a list of proper names. A Yiddish rhymed blessing dates back to 1272, and the extensive Camridge Yiddish Codex of 1382 was discovered in Egypt and contains Jewish tales about Abraham, Joseph and Moses.

Freilach is a Yiddish word meaning 'happy' or 'cheerful' and is most commonly used in reference to music. The music to which it usually refers is that which we are investigating, currently known as klezmer.

Does this mean that klezmer is always happy and cheerful? I think it is this characteristic of the music which first caught my attention, however to me it also seems to have a sense of desire, yearning and reaching out for something greater and beyond myself. I believe this gives it a spiritual dimension which becomes more evident with further listening. Owing to the minor and modal variations and often slow tempi which I intend to investigate in a future article, I think it is also sad at times and seems to explore the whole range of emotions we experience, rather like a symphony. It may be more apt to compare each musical entity to a symphonic movement which expresses a particular aspect of life. If you have already listened to some klezmer music as suggested in my earlier posting you will have already experienced your own individual response to what you have heard so far. I assume that, like me, you have been drawn in to the world of klezmer, otherwise you would have probably by now abandoned my blog and looked for other kinds of music!

In essence the roots of klezmer can be seen to go back to Biblical times and follow the development of the Jewish nation. The Old Testament section of the Bible makes a great deal of reference to instrumental, orchestral and group music making, particularly in a liturgical setting as can be seen in Numbers 10:1-2 and Psalm 150. The shofar (ram's horn) and the silver trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10 were used for calling the community together, usually for prayer and worshipping God. In New Testament times, after the destruction of the Second temple in 70AD many rabbis discouraged the use of instruments for musical performance. The need for music did not diminish, however, as some kind of musical performance was required for weddings, bar-mitzvahs and other festive occasions. New musicians emerged to fulfil this need, who were known as the klezmorim. The first klezmer known by name was Yakobius ben Yakobius, a player of the aulos, a wind instrument devised by the Greeks, in Samaria. The earliest written record of the klezorim dates from the 15th. century. The music they played is unlikely to have been recognizable as the klezmer we hear performed today. Contemporary klezmer and its style is more likely to have come from 19th. century Bessarabia and this is where the larger part of today's traditional repertoire was written.

The secular instrumental music performed and used by the klezmorim for weddings and other feasts was based on the devotional vocal music of the synagogue, especially cantorial music, where a solo voice sings, alternating with a full choir. To begin with the klezmorim, like other entertainers, were frowned on by Rabbis because of their secular travelling lifestyle. Klezmorim often teamed up with Roma musicians ('lautan') for performance and they tended to also travel together. They got on well together because they occupied similar positions in society. They therefore also had a great influence on each other musically and linguistically, the extensive klezmer argot in Yiddish borrows parts from the Roma.

Klezmorim were renowned for their musical expertise and wide repertoire but they were not restricted to playing only klezmer. Sometimes they would be requested to play for services at Christian churches and they even gave instructions to Italian classical violin virtuosos. They also performed for local aristocracy who requested their services for special occasions.

As was the case with other professional musicians the klemorim were sometimes stopped from playing by local authorities. Ukranian restrictions lasting until the 19th. century banned them from playing loud instruments. This is partly why they adopted the use of the violin, tsimbl (or cymbalon), and other string instruments which were much quieter.

The first musician to introduce klezmer to European concert audiences was Josef Gusikov, who played a type of xylophone of his own invention, which he called a 'wood and straw instrument'. It was arranged like a cymbalon and received favourable comments from Felix Mendelssohn but was frowned upon by Franz Liszt. Around 1855 the Ukraine at last permitted the performance of louder instruments and subsequently the clarinet started to replace the violin as the instrument of choice. There was also a move towards incorporating brass and percussion instruments into klezmer bands as a result of klezmorim being conscripted into military band

I hope to look at the modern development of klezmer music in my next article. Meanwhile, take a further listen to some klezmer music on Last FM, Spotify or CBS klezmer station. See if you can identify some of the instruments we have already mentioned and then see if there are any others you can add to the list. Also, see if you can identify traces of the influences of cantorial synagogue music and Eastern European gypsy music. There may be other influences and styles you can identify and which you may have heard in other genres.

Enjoy your further listening and please contact me if you have any questions or comments on this article, at my email address below.

erikretallick@yahoo.co.uk

I Like Klezmer music

I wrote in my blog a few days ago about how in recent months I have become increasingly drawn to klezmer music. Although I am a musician by profession, when I first came across the word klezmer I didn't have the faintest idea what it was.

About 4 years ago we had a holiday in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, partly because we wanted to experience some live concerts at the renowned festival held at the Snape maltings, a festival which was founded by Benjamin Britten in 1948. We managed to secure tickets for two concerts during the week we had booked our holiday flat, one of which featured the Geneva Chamber Orchestra performing Dvorak's Serenade, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mendelssohn's Octet. The other concert was given by Burning Bush, a group who played Jewish pieces, sung and instrumental, which they had collected from all over Europe and many of which came from Israel. They performed these on violins, guitar, clarinet, double bass, accordion, rebec and various other eastern plucked string instruments. The songs expressed both joyful celebration and a yearning for deliverance from enemies, persecution and suffering. At the end of the evening which was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying from a musical point of view, I had, without realizing it at the time, experienced my first klezmer concert.

The label klezmer was unknown to me at the time even though I am supposed to have received a fairly wide musical education. The problem is that when I went to school just after Noah came out of the ark we were not taught anything about world music as it is now known. Italian grand opera was something we heard with regular monotony, as this happened to be the music particularly favoured by our Secondary school music teacher.

Approximately 10-12 months ago I was listening to music on Last FM when I happened to light on one of the musical tags which they feature which was the word klezmer. The word klezmer originates from Yiddish, 'kley' meaning instrument and 'zemer' meaning song. In Hebrew the word klizemer literally means musical instrument. In its contemporary setting the word klezmer is used to define a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism.

About the time of the 15th. century a tradition of secular Jewish music was developed by musicians which came to be known as klezmorim or kleymurim. This music relied on devotional traditions which went back to Biblical times and this has continued to evolve into the klezmer music we hear today. Like all traditional and folk music, because it is not generally written down it continues to change and there are often various different versions of any particular piece as a result. In many ways klezmer music is akin to jazz, featuring instrumental improvisation and vocal embellishments. I have noticed that some piece are more structured, rather like traditional jazz and other pieces seem almost random and ostensibly chaotic, something reminiscent of modern jazz.

The repertoire of klezmer music consists mainly of dance songs for weddings and other celebrations, of which there are many, as the Jews hold feasts in accordance with the instructions given to Moses in the Torah (law) in our Old Testament. Owing to the fact that this music comes from Ashkenazi roots, the lyrics, terminlolgy and song titles are generally in Yiddish.

To begin with, klezmer referred to musical instruments and later was a name given to the musicians themselves. It was only in the mid to late 20th. century that the word was adapted yet again to identify the musical genre. Earlier 20th. century recordings and writings usually refer to it as 'Yiddish' music, although it is also sometimes called Freilech music. In contrast to most other European folk music styles, very little is known about the history of klezmer music and there is a great deal of conjecture about when and how it developed.

In future postings I hope to explore the wonderful world of klezmer; its musical structure and characteristics, its historical development, its use in social and cultural settings and its entertainment potential. I also intend to look at some of the artists involved in the art of performing klezmer.

If you would like a listening preview of the adventures which await, try one or all of the following options.

1) Login to Last FM and type in 'Burning Bush' or 'Klezmer', then listen to the radio.

2) Login to Spotify and type in the search box 'Burning Bush' or 'Klezmer'. Enjoy!

3) Login to Winamp and select the CBS radio player channel which is devoted to klezmer.

If your musical tastebuds are stimulated by this exercise then look out for my next article. If not, then I hope to engage your attention again in the near future. Meanwhile I wish you great joy and happiness in your listening to music.

Why is Mozart good for you?

Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, over 253 years ago. He died a pauper and was buried in a mass grave because there wasn't even enough money for him to be buried properly (what a contrast to Michael Jackson). I am often humbled when I play Mozart's music in concerts that the amount of money I have earned from performing his music is vastly more than he ever even dreamed of earning. Perhaps he was born in the wrong time. Herbert Brugger of the Salzburg tourism office says that if Mozart were alive today he would probably be 'a pop-star -- somewhere between Prince, Michael Jackson and Robbie Williams.

It may be that Mozart's legacy to his future and our world today cannot possibly be measured or quantified in terms of dollars, pounds or euros, unlike much contemporary so-called art and music.

In 2006 Peter Gumbel wrote an article in Time magazine January 16, 2006) entitled 'The Power of Mozart'. He makes the point that Mozart is supposed to be good for our health.

Amongst other things listening to Mozart is claimed to be good for healing many childhood ailments such as stuttering, of which Gerard Depardieu is a notable example. It has also been shown to be helpful in combatting slow learning and hyperactivity. In adults it has been known to be a good antidote to depression and anxiety. Some more recent claims have been made that Mozart's music is good to listen to whilst revising and being involved in other learning actvivities, leading to better exam results and greater absorption of information and knowledge.

So great are the effects of Mozart's music that a Paris physician named Alfred Tomatis actually pioneered treatment in his institute, using Mozart as a prime ingredient. Although few national authorities recognize the treatment and many music therapists are skeptical, Poland is introducing Tomatis' methods to help children with learning difficulties.

A 1993 article in 'Nature' found that college students listening to Mozart's Sonata in D major for 2 pianos performed better in a spatial reasoning test involving mentally unfolding a piece of paper. Further interesting results involving rats finding their way out of mazes have shown similar enhancements of brain power associated with listening to Mozart.

As a result of the above findings there has been a surge in the production of CD recordings featuring the music of Mozart either in short bite-size exerpts or full performances of symphonies, concerti, operas and religious choral works. Some titles include 'Mozart for Mommies' and 'Daddies-Jumpstart Your Newborn's IQ'. The U.S. of Georgia even handed out classical CDs to parents of infants, and example followed by Colorado, Florida and elsewhere.

Don Campbell, a U.S. musician was quite quick to trademark the term 'Mozart effect' and he has apparently written two books on the subject. He says that 'in an instant, music can uplift our soul. It awakens within us the spirit of prayer, compassion and love'. He also states that 'it clears our minds and has been known to make us smarter.'

Others have indicated that Mozart may not be as important for the brain as the general sense of mood of arousal brought about by something that is enjoyable. This assessment seems to me to really be the key to listening to music by Mozart and also to listening to music by many other composers.

When considering the music of Mozart, is it the well structured balance of the phrasing, the logical but often predictable harmonic progressions, the unmistakably straightforward melodies, the clean and pure texture of the instrumental writing or the clean and effective vocal lines, or a combination of some or all of these factors that make it so sublimely musical? To me it is more than this that moves me, it is the sheer joy and celebration of life which he brings to his art which makes it music of the highest calibre. I intend to continue listening to and performing it for many years to come and I hope you do also.

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Erik's Musings

In my earlier blog I talked a little bit about listening to different types of music and how I personally have found this to be of great enrichment to my philosophical, religious and logical thinking. I realize that this is very difficult to quantify and do not profess to be able to produce concrete results of my investigations. Perhaps at a later stage I will be able to do so. Meanwhile, I would like to follow up my earlier musings with a few thoughts about internet radio.

One of the great advantages of listening to radio online is that you are not limited by broadcasting range limits and other such concerns. I listen to radio stations from Alaska, The Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Australia and India all the time.

There is no doubt that the whole world of internet radio listening is vast and is expanding at a phenomenal rate. I began my internet radio listening experience by using sites like Radiotime and Reciva which have databases and listings of internet radio stations worldwide.

Once I had explored Reciva, Radiotime and a few other similar sites I discovered that itunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp also had their own radio databases, Winamp leaning heavily on utilising Shoutcast and CBS/AOL radio. I also bought a plugin dongle called Aluratek internet radio jukebox which claimed to give me access to 15,000 plus internet radio stations. As I am a rather curious (in both senses of the word) person, this number of stations was not sufficient for me, so I decided to start making my own database of the electic stations which I wanted to make an integral part of my listening experience. After all, I am a musician and normal music becomes boring after a while (I jest, of course).

I then downloaded atunes which is available from Sourceforge.net at the grand price of £0.00. Initially I intended to try this as an alternative music/mp3 player. You are probably aware that each music player is configured differently and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I therefore tend to use them according to my mood and whim and enjoy the fact that they are not all alike. I compare it to playing one of my piano pieces on ten different pianos, the tone and acoustic will vary considerably.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that on atunes it is possible to add your own radio stations to those already included on the downloaded software. I proceeded to do this and decided to make this the main database for my own personally preferred radio stations. To date this has been quite successful and I am now regularly adding new stations to this growing database. It is also possible to add stations to Winamp and itunes but this is a bit more involved than it is on atunes. I hope to write more about this and look at other related questions and possibilities.

Having dealt with the technical aspects of this subject I would just like to add that I am open to questions and suggestions about internet radio and aspects of listening to music raised in my earlier posting. Please contact me on erikretallick@yahoo.co.uk with any questions or comments. I know others of you may be much more advanced in the knowledge of the world of internet radio but would like to hear from you anyway.

Erik's Musings

Music is such a vast subject that I hardly know where to start. I have written blogs on all sorts of subjects and topics but have hesitated to start writing about what is supposed to be my specialist subject.

I am fascinated by the websites and questionnaires where they ask you to specify or tick your favourite kinds of music. I always end up ticking a whole load of boxes and adding a few extra categories wherever space is left to do so. With the possibilities which have opened up to me of listening to an almost endless number of internet radio stations, I have begun to explore various genres and music from farflung regions of the earth (world music) which at one time I would never have contemplated listening to. I intend to explore the subject of internet radio in a later posting, my concern here is with listening to music in general.

As a performing artist and a teacher I have mainly been associated with Classical music throughout my career, but I occasionally dip my toes into jazz, middle of the road and even pop and classic rock music. However, when it comes to my listening habits, these are much more diverse. I have always enjoyed listening to classic rock music, specifically Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Eagles and Bob Dylan, but more recently I have taken to listening to Folk, Persian, Indian, Klezmer and Latin music which at one time I would hardly have known existed! This has been most enriching and I believe it has opened my mind to looking at news ideas in the philosophical, religious and political aspects of my life as well as to absorb news concepts in scientific and technological development. Having said this, I do not profess to know much about the kinds of music I listen to, particularly Persian, klezmer and Indian music. However this lack of understanding doesn't seem to impair my appreciation of these types of music.

I have read some recent papers where they claim that music is most effective when it coincides with the brain and body functioning processes such as breathing, alpha rhythms and the rate it takes us to process our thoughts. Another article I have seen claims that it is possible through MRI scanning to actually listen to the 'music' of the brain. They hope that by listening to 'brain music' in different people they will, for example, be able to understand the variation in brain patterns between schizophrenic and other people. Whilst these kinds of investigations are in the early stages, there is no doubt that listening to music can have a profound influence on our behaviour and mood patterns and is undoubtedly of high therapeutic value.

I recently undertook a questionnaire which addressed the question of which metal group I represented. I know these kinds of surveys are often rather whimsical, but imagine my complete surprise when the answer given at the end of the questions asked was Limp Biskit. The instructions given were for me to never darken the doors of the world of metal music ever again and to go back to listenening to my rap music. I happen to like listening to quite a number of metal bands, some heavier than others, but if there is one band I feel least inclined to listen to I would say it is Limp Biskit, and the genre I find the least appealing of any I have ever heard is rap music!

I wish you all great joy and happiness in your music listening, playing and exploration of the vast world of music.