KLEZMER Music of the Ashkenazi Jews and Israel

Bring something a little bit different to your music classroom for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or Chanukah, by studying and celebrating the wonderful traditional music of the Ashkenazi Jews – Klezmer. This is a fully-resourced project aimed at Years 9 to 10, but it would also work for higher-ability Year 8 classes. There are enough activities for more than 3 hours of fun-packed, exciting, quality learning.

This project deals first with characteristics of Klezmer Music, and then moves onto Klezmer instruments. Listening and written tasks are incorporated, here. Students are introduced to the Avaha Rabboh mode with opportunities to create their own. Students then meet Albert Einstein, one of the most famous Ashkenazi Jews, and learn all about his musical talents (he was a violinist!). Then, you have the option to deliver the linked PSHCE task studying Einstein’s lifelong commitment to nuclear disarmament. Students then learn a little about drum notation, before moving onto the main task, which is a 5-part Sher Dance, composed by myself: Poyk; Bass; Accordion/ Guitar; Fiddle; Clarinet (all of which can be performed on a keyboard with synthesised voices). Students are taken through each part, and then set to task on a group performance. Extension tasks offer the opportunity to include dreydlekh (Klezmer ornamentation) in the form of glitshn and krekhts, or to create their own exciting Klezmer drum beat using their newfound knowledge of drum notation. Finally, students assess themselves against the 10-point success criteria on the PowerPoint and complete an evaluation.

In this download pack, you will receive:

1 x Starter Word Search introducing key words associated with Klezmer Music (Literacy)
1 x 17-page worksheet with 10 separate tasks covering the whole range of listening, theory, and performing skills, plus contextual and historical knowledge of Klezmer.
1 x MP4 4-minute annotated introduction to Klezmer Music video.
1 x 23-slide PowerPoint, beautifully presented and animated with objectives, outcomes, and every single task ‘chunked’ for easy content delivery, including answers, extension tasks, embedded audio files, and much more.
1 x 4000-word Teacher guide, fully explaining and supporting every PowerPoint slide, along with teaching strategies and other useful suggestions.
1 x Main task focusing on group performance.
1 x Extension task full score in PDF format.
24 x MP3 files modelling the individual parts, the main task and extension tasks.
1 x ‘Einstein and Nuclear Disarmament’ fact sheet. (PSHCE)
1 x Crossword for a homework or revision task. (Numeracy)

I am extremely proud of all my resources and I endeavour to publish work of only the highest quality for you. I greatly value feedback, suggestions, and enquiries from all of my colleague-customers around the world, and I invite you to contact me by email at rainynightmusic@hotmail.com should you wish to ask me anything about my work. Many thanks for considering this resource.