Dreydlekh (plural of ''dreidel'') or "spins" are musical ornaments of

klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

music, particularly

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, used to produce its characteristic "tear in the voice" sound., by

Yale Strom Yale Strom is an American violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright. Strom is a pioneer among klezmer (musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe) revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Cent ...

, "The absolutely complete klezmer songbook", 2006,
Introduction
/ref>Yale Strom, ''Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer'', 2012
p. 94
/ref> The main ''dreydlekh'' are ''glitshn'' (

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the co ...

s), ''krekhtsn'' ("sobs", "wails"), ''kneytshn'' ("wrinkles"), ''tshoks'' (a kind of

bent note Bent may refer to: Places * Bent, Iran, a city in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran * Bent District, an administrative subdivision of Iran * Bent, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Rijnwoude, the Netherlands * Bent County, Colo ...

s of cackle-like sound), and flageolets (

string harmonic Playing a string harmonic (a flageolet) is a string instrument musical technique, technique that uses the node (physics), nodes of natural harmonics of a musical string (music), string to isolate Overtone, overtones. Playing string harmonics prod ...

s). Sometimes the term ''dreydlekh'' is used only for trills, while other use it for all Klezmer ornaments. Krekhts or krekhtsn (Yiddish for "sobs") are kind of ''dreydlekh'' ornamentation in klezmer music, especially on the

. In an article about Jewish music in Romania, Bob Cohen of

Di Naye Kapelye Di Naye Kapelye is a Hungarian klezmer music group. The band formed in Budapest in 1993, and perform frequently throughout Europe. Their lyrics are primarily in Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is ...

describes krekhts as "a sort of weeping or hiccoughing combination of backwards slide and flick of the little finger high above the base note, while the bow does, well, something – which aptly imitates Jewish liturgical singing style." He also noted that the only other place he has heard this particular ornamentation is in

Turkish music The music of Turkey includes mainly Turkic and Byzantine elements as well as partial influences ranging from Ottoman music, Middle Eastern music and Music of Southeastern Europe, as well as references to more modern European and American popular ...

on the violin.Cohen.

wrote that the use of ''dreydlekh'' by American violinists gradually diminished since 1940s, but with the

klezmer revival Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

on 1970, dreydlekh had become prominent again. , there have been no musical methodology book teaching ''dreydlekhn'', and they may be learned only by listening and mimicking.

References

* * Jewish music Klezmer Ornamentation {{judaism-stub