Klezmer

Klezmer music originated from the Eastern European Jews in the 16th Century.  It is traditional celebration music and was originally performed at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs for people to dance to.  It was brought into Western society in the 1890s where it was influenced by many other styles.  It practically disapeared in the 1940s and the term ‘klezmer’ was abandoned until its revival in the 1970s by musicologists such as Henry Sapoznik and Lev Libermann.