Kevin Burke - Itzikel

Recorded at a house concert/session in Dover, New Hampshire on 04/15/12 Kevin Burke brought this tune into the tradition. He was visiting Scandinavia once, and heard some musicians playing it. He liked it, and learned it, and asked them what the name was, and where it came from. They said that it was a Yiddish tune come over from Russia. They didn’t know much of anything else about it, though. Later, he was visiting a doctor in Alaska, who’s hobby was to collect Yiddish sheet music. Kevin played the tune for him, and the doctor found it written down under the name Itzikel, which is a form of the name Isaac. Freilachs (Feailachs or Freylachs) is a general yiddish word meaning a “happy tune“ and is one of the standard tune types from the klezmer (Eastern European Jewish instrumental) tradition. it is a 4/4 dance tune. Klezmer dance tunes don’t usually have names. They are just known by their general (dance) types. Names such as Itzikel were only probably given for the