Raiders of the Lost Charts

Moishe Beregovski is considered to be one of the foremost documenters of Ashkenazi Jewish folk music. From roughly 1929 to 1947, Beregovski made ethnographic trips collecting secular Jewish music in various parts of Soviet Ukraine. His works make up the largest and most carefully notated collection of such music from pre-WWII and early post-war Europe.

Geographies and generations later, klezmer musicians may find themselves trying to make sense of klezmer nomenclature, repertoire, and function. Beregovski’s collection of hundreds of carefully transcribed and described tunes offers a window into this old world. Beregovski’s systematic approach presents an organized system for decoding old world klezmer names, tunes, and functions.

Workshop attendees will receive a broad overview of Beregovski’s work, focusing on Volume III: Jewish Instrumental Folk Music (Evreiskaia narodnaia instrumental’naia muzykaorient). We will then play through sheet music from the collection, hear various settings of pieces from the collection, and receive information for continued exploration of this repertoire.

Sheet music will be provided in treble clef, concert and Bb transposition. Additional transposition can be provided upon request. Musicians with basic proficiency on their instruments are welcome, as are singers, and those who are interested in listening in to learn.