This entry is part of the Lexicon of Klezmer Terminology (LKT). The LKT compiles a wide array of source materials that shed light on the historical and contemporary state of knowledge about klezmer music. Each entry includes a number of citations from primary and secondary sources that include or refers to the term in question. It also indicates whether musical notation or sound recordings are included in the source. By clicking on the bibliographic hyperlink at the end of each citation, you get the full reference.
“Sher: One of the most common dance forms in the Jewish repertoire, similar to a square dance or a Russian quadrille.” Alpert 1996b, p. 59. (Musical notation included).
“A klezmer...told me that in the 1890s he played in a band in Brusilov (Kiev area), which used to play for Ukrainian artisans...at their weddings and celebrations, to which they invited Jewish musicians. The Ukrainian youth there danced the šer as well.” Beregovski 1935 [= Beregovski/Slobin 1982, p. 526, n. 18].
“Gathering data on Jewish folk dances, and especially on the widespread frejlaxs and šer, we stumbled on the fact that the šer was never mentioned in Jewish literature, either in belles lettres or in memoirs. We copied out a whole series of descriptions of Jewish weddings, among them some which were very precise, with many details, for example, the wedding description in Ettinger’s song ‘Di lixt.’ Various dances are mentioned in all these descriptions, but never the šer.
It is worth noting that for the most part, the descriptions of weddings date from the nineteenth century, and at that time men did not participate in couple dances. The šer and other couple dances were done by women (or girls) alone. In all the descriptions of weddings no special women’s dances or the šer. There is evidence that in earlier centuries women did indeed dance together with men; however, it is never indicated what sort of dances were performed.
In L. Levanda’s article ‘Starinnye evereiskie svadebnye obichai (Perezhitoe 3), the author lists the dances done by girls with the bride at the preliminaries including: polka, waltz, mazurka, quadrille, and lancers. The šer is not mentioned there. I imagine this happened because Levanda wrote the article in Russian and did not try to include dances other than those generally known; thus, it is typical that the frejlaxs is also not cited. Most of the dances Levanda mentioned were widespread among the masses only in the second half of the nineteenth century. As is known, the polka was created only around 1830 (in Czechoslovakia) and the quadrille in the early nineteenth century (Parisian), and the lancers was first performed in the Berlin ballet only in 1857. There is no question of the ‘Old Jewish wedding customs’ of the title of Levanda’s article.
Except for isolated references, the šer is also mentioned very rarely in folk songs. These folk songs are all from the Ukraine (cf. Cahan 1912a: 18 from Tshemirovits, Podoliya; Cahan 1912b:47 from Uman; Beregovski 1962, from the Kalindorf and Kherson regions).
Was the šer known only to Ukrainian Jews? Certainly not. Although we have no data from the literature. according to the information from a whole series of informants we do know that the šer was widespread in Belorussia, Lithuania, and Poland. Even if we do not find this dance in other regions and countries in recent times (perhaps even in the last half of the nineteenth century), it does mean that it was not known there previously. The Jews could not have adopted the dance from the Ukrainians (or in general from the Slavs), since they have no such dance, and whenever Ukrainians do dance the šer, they adopted it from the Jews.
In Bohme 1886:56 we find a dance named ‘Der Scherer oder Schartanz.’ In Schünemann 1923:275 we find as subtitle to no. 158 ‘Scher-lied oder Tanz,’ and the same for no. 339. In the note to no. 339, Schünemann writes: ‘This is a popular dance-song which consists at the beginning of incomprehensible word constructions as we find in children’s and counting songs’ (Schünemann 1923:413). This is all we could find in the German dance repertoire that has anything in common with our šer. We can approach the music to such dances very carefully for comparison with the šer. The melody of Bohme’s ‘Scherer’ dates to the year 1562. The sher-lieder were transcribed by Schünemann at the time of World War I. In terms of melodic structure, the two tunes are quite different. ‘Der Scherer’ is in 2/4 time and consists of several sections, while Schünemann’s examples are both in 3/8 with a melody in one section (four musical phrases corresponding to the four lines of the verse).
We know Jewish šers that have been written down in recent years. Many of these šers are in the klezmer repertoire of the late nineteenth century. They have features in common with the older German ‘Scherer’ and not with the ‘Scherlieder.’ The Jewish šer is always in 2/4 and consists of several sections (usually two, less often three). We must again state, however, that in speaking of the ‘Jewish šer’ we have before us only a few examples collected and transcribed in the Ukraine. It is impossible to say whether these šers are similar in music and dance style to the šer in Poland, Czechoslovakia, or Galicia, Rumania, and so on [fn. 3: Here I do not mean melodic variation of one or another šer but of the very style of the melodies itself. The Ukrainian šers are in general very close to the frejlaxs. Is this a local or universal phenomenon?] To date we have no publications and no data bearing on this question, and it may well be that nothing has been collected either. This is not the place to describe the šer in more detail. However, we can advance the hypothesis that this particular dance was adopted by Jews in Germany several centuries ago and that it was ‘Jewishized’ to a great extent (at least musically). A broader, more definitive statement can be made only when we have the Jewish material from a series of countries.” Beregovski 1937 [=1982, 533-534].
“Jewish klezmorim often played at non-Jewish weddings, festivities, entertainments, and so on. Here it is interesting to establish whether non-Jews adopted Jewish dances. We know of cases in which Ukrainian peasants took up Yiddish frejlaxs and šers. The šer is also widespread in Moldavia among the non-Jewish village population (they call the tune srayer). We would need to collect more data to understand how widespread this phenomenon was.” Beregovski 1937 [= Beregovski/Slobin 1982, pp. 540-41].
“Many Jewish love songs have been sung to the tune of the šer dance, for example, ‘Špilt mir op di naje šer,’ no. 14. This song is part of a cycle we might call ‘young love,’ where a tender and shy feeling is expressed simply, modestly, and sincerely. The šer is one of the most widespread and beloved of wedding dances, and its melody, always lively and merry, is somehow permeated with the holiday spirit of the wedding...” Beregovski 1962 [= Beregovksi Slobin 1982, pp. 293-94]. (Musical notation included).
“The šer is a couple folk dance, done by four or eight couples, mostly young people. The folk translate the name of this dance as ‘scissors,’ but that is incorrect.” Beregovski 1962 [= Beregovski/Slobin 1982, p. 293, n. 8].
“The šer is a couple dance, danced by four or eight couples. From the music and its character it is very hard to distinguish the šer from the frejlaxs, if the latter is in a moderate tempo. The tempo of the šer is more or less always the same: allegro. In practice. the klezmorim never played the same p-iece for both a frejlaxs and a šer. Each band had several pieces which it played for the šer. Collecting materials from klezmorim of various regions, we often found the same piece used as a šer in one region and a frejlaxs in another.” Beregovski 1962 [= Beregovski/Slobin 1982, pp. 502-03, n. 93].
“Sher.” Beregovski/Goldin 1987, #169-197. (Musical notation included).
“‘Der shneyersher sher,’ ‘der shistersher sher,’ ‘sher dance,’ ‘der saverns sher,’ ... ‘The waiters sher’... ‘With the close of their work in the kitchen the cooks and wiaters would roll up their dresses and enter the wedding hall as guests, in their honor they played special ‘sher’ dances, symbolizing the end of the wedding was near.” [Orgajev, Bessarabia, c. 1930s-40s]. Bik 1964. (Musical notation included).
“It must be acknowledged, that among our large masses, for a long time now the folkdance has had been accompanied by singing and song; and not only to [modern couple dances such as] the polka did people improvise and sing songs, but also to the polonaise, quadrille, waltz, raynlender, mazurka, sher, beroyges-tants and others.” Cahan 1952b, p. 89.
“Play me the new sher/which is out now.” [Tshimerovits, Podalia, pre-World War II]. Cahan 1957, pp. 243-44 (#260).
“Moshe, Moshe, Come here already, we are going to dance a polke with a sher!... we will dance in eight a sher... Khaye, Khaye, come here already, we are going to dance a mazurke and a sher!... we will dance a polke and a sher.” [Uman, Kiev province, Ukraine, pre-World War II]. Cahan 1957, pp. 268-69 (# 296).
“Scher... This dance is performed by four couples standing in a square, one couple on each side of the square, the boy on the girl’s right...From this point on, the music continues by repetition, and the steps do not fin int any fixed wzay to the music. The steps are sometimes to one part, sometimes to another part of the music. Consequently the dance steps are given without any indication of the corresponding bars of the music.” Chochem and Roth 1978, pp. 52-53. (Musical notation included).
“Sher.” Delakova and Berk 1948, pp. 30-32. (Musical notation included).
“Sher, Sherele, Quadrille, dances based on square and longways dances performed with partners.” EncyJud 1971, p. 1266.
“Two groups developed dance forms of their own--the Hasidim and the Yemenites. Of the former, only the wedding dance, the sher, won acceptance in Erez Israel.” EncyJud 1971, p. 1270.
“The bands themselves fashioned fitting melodies for the various situations and moods during the wedding, such as bazetsn di kale, badekns, unterfirung, khupe-marsh, troyer-nign, and so forth -- these were up until and during the ceremony, and later, during the meal: sherele, mitsve-tentsl, droshe-geshank-oyfshpiln and other entertainment songs...” Fater 1985, pp. 60-61.
“The core repertoire featured principally dances named freylakhs with a large number of equivalent names, skochne, sher, and khosid. These names implied choreographically, but not musically, different structures. Beregovski stated that the freylakhs and sher were ‘the most popular dances.’ He considers all four names to have a pan-regional distribution. He devotes particular attention to the origin of the dance sher, which was a group couple dance. He notes that the sher had been adopted into Moldavian and Ukrainian folklore from the Jews. He also states that ‘from the music and its character it is very difficult to distinguish the sher from the freylakhs, if the latter is in a moderate tempo.’. The name skochne referred to a freylakhs, sometimes not in a dance context. There were a large number of linguistic variants for the freylakhs (such as hopke, dreydl, rikudl ), but these had no musical significance. Beregovski did not include any examples of khosidl in his published collections. Judging by commercial recordings from Europe and the United States, some khosidls had the same structure as freylakhs (such as ‘Behusher Khosid,’ recorded in New York by Max Leibowitz, and ‘Sedugurer Khosid,’ recorded by Josef Moskowitz; see Folklyric Records 9034). Others resembled the vocal dance-tune (nign). We are led to the conclusion that the three names--frelakhs (with its variants), sher, skochne (and at times also khosid)--referred to a single musical entity.” Feldman 1994, p. 7. (Recording references included).
'‘Sher’ (Sherele). From the point of view musically, there is no significant difference between the ‘sher’ and the ‘freylakhs’ ( in every respect there is no very distinguishable difference between dances of the Ukraine). The difference is in the fundamental issue of tempo. The two dances are also identical in movements in the duple meter of 2/4. In the execution of the ‘freylakhs,’ it is more inclined to accelerate freely. The motivic development of the ‘sher’ (which means -- along with the sherele -- scissors) tends to a more calm rhythm and to graceful expression. The klezmorim knew well how to discern between these two dances and every one of them often produced several creations.” Fridhaber 1960, p. 31. (Musical notation included).
“These two wedding dances, the ‘sher’ and the ‘sherele,’ are without a shadow of a doubt authentic Jewish wedding dances, that are widely found in the accounts of Jewish Ashkenaz in Eastern Europe, and they are danced among us up until this very day in the latest variants...'
...It is possible that this dance settled in among Jewish Germany and in the course of time became established in a permanent place among Jewish wedding dances in Germany and from there travelled with the German Jews that migrated to Russia and to the rest of Eastern Europe, following their expulsion from various lands of Ashkenaz during various periods. We find in one German book of songs support for this position and theory. Concerning the song-melody known as the ‘sher’ dance, the name is: Das Lied der deustschen Kolonisten in Russland... (the song of the German colonists in Russia), from here it is concludable that the song and the dance migrated with these emigrants to the land of new settlement, which would have been Russia, and probably returned from there to Germany... It seems that in Russia and in the other lands of Eastern Europe, this first dance developed into the forms that are known here until this very day
... The names these dances received were no doubt due to the dance-steps and the hand movements between the dancers, the performers during the dance. The changing of place and especially the hand movements in definite places, are similar to the arm movements of scissors when they are working. They suggest wide circles, because the source of these dances’ names comes especially to remind people of hair cutting, the experience of the bride before the wedding ceremony.
The form of these dances has always been that of four couples grouped in a quartet. Also the essence of the dancing and their participation is explained by various different theories. In a widespread Jewish folk song that describes these dances, the words are as follows: Twenty kopeks is the price of the ‘sherele’ the sum is fixed high enough...
On this issue of partner dances between the two sexes, it is difficult to agree with the opinion of the researcher Yoachin Stuchevsky, since this phenomenon of mixed dancing occurs much earlier than the nineteenth century, in many Jewish communities and especially in Jewish Ashkenazi communities, Poland, Italy and Turkey, an issue which we do not see as much as a complete line about in the rabbinic responsa books and rabbinical Musar books from the centuries preceding the nineteenth, the furor over this phenomenon that took root in the people and nevertheless with regards to wedding dances, is still not useful. In striking contrast is the great folklorist Dr. Yom-Tov Levinsky, who heard this song sung by boys imitating the Haredi communities standing beneath the window of the wedding hall while they danced in the ‘sher’ dance...” Fridhaber 1968, pp. 24-26.
“We find in a memorial book of the community of Dubno... in the repertoire [of the klezmorim]...: the ‘sherele,’ danced in pairs, with a slow beginning and a fast ending until they reached a raging ‘gallop’...” Fridhaber 1978b, pp. 30-31.
“‘And the klezmers thunder through the ‘sherele’ and ‘kadril’ tunes,”[Gedara, Palestinee, c. 1910s]. Fridhaber 1992, p. 398.
“[At weddings] Hersh the klezmer with his band of his three sons... really played out with a sher, a kadril... [When the bride was dressed,] Hersh the Klezmer came then with his whole band including cymbals and a drum. He struck up a sher, a polke, a beroyges-tants. This time the in-laws also danced.”[Kremenits, Poland, pre-World War II]. Gilernt 1954, p. 386.
“A Jewish wedding in the shtetl was a holiday... When Arish the klezmer with his band played a nign from ‘Kale’she, kale’she veyn’ or the march ‘sher’ for the bride’s badekns , everyone cried.” [Apt [Opatov], Poland, c. pre-World War I]. Glat 1966, p. 108.
“The fact that German Jews borrowed the sher dance was discovered by Beregovski. There is no mention of the sher in Yiddish literature even though, as he pointed out, this dance was wide-spread in Belorussia, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine. Beregovski hypothesized that the Jews had borrowed the dance many centuries ago in Germany and had largely assimilated it, or at least its melody. Let us quote the outstanding German folklorist Franz Bohme, whose work on the history of the dance in Germany (1967 [1886], 1:56) served as the basis for Beregovski’s hypothesis: ‘The Scharer or Schartanz is still a wedding dance to honor the groom in the Bavarian highlands. A certain number of dance couples (a Schar [crowd or troop] agrees to pay for the music and the dance goes on according to their desire and agreement...The custom is that each Schar is danced by no more than four persons....[sic] A Scharer lute melody has been preserved in a lute book from 1562.’ Thus the Scharer or Schartanz is of South German origin. It is a wedding dance with several participants. That is also what the sheris among East European Jews. Neither Bohme nor Beregovski says anything about the choreography of the dance so it is impossible to compare the choreography of the German and Jewish versions. The music of the only preserved old German Scharer has nothing in common with the music of the Jewish instrumental pieces known under the name sher. The sher is mentioned in several published songs. The first verse of one othem, ‘Der nayer sher’ (‘The New Sher ‘), is as follows....This text is sung to various melodies. The best known one, which is unusally developed in form, is a blend of Jewish, Slavic and German melodic elements (Beregovski & Fefer 1938: 166-7). On the other hand the melody printed in Beregovskii 1962:(#14) (Slobin 1982:319)has almost no Jewish national characteristics.” Goldin 1989, pp. 56-7.
“1) Sher. a pair of scissors... 2) a kind of dance.” Harkavi 1928, p. 513.
“A ‘sherele,’ which as many couples as wanted could dance... was a dance which began in a slow tempo and in the end reached a thundering gallop.” [Dubno, Poland, pre-World War II]. Katshke 1966, p. 666-67.
“The Sher: A form of square dance with partners.” Lapson 1943, p. 461.
“..[A] special wedding dance was the ‘sherele’-dance (scissors dance). The date of origin and source of the dance are unknown. Some explain its name through the diagonal movements of the dancers in the form of scissors...” Levinson 1947, p. 159.
“Sher (Sherele). Russian dance (lit. ‘scissors’) in moderate duple meter, at one time prevalent among Jews of Eastern Europe and now found in Israel and the Diaspora. The sher was a favorite of the tailors’ guild, and in its execution the dance describes a pair of shears and the threadingof a needle. It is generally performed at weddings and similar joyous occasions.” Nulman 1975, p. 224.
“Sherele.” Pasternak 1987, p. 25. (Musical notation included).
“Sher.” Pasternak 1987, p. 32. (Musical notation included).
“Rushishe Sher #1. This piece is not played at the usual freylakh tempo of shers; it sounds more like a wedding march.” [I.J. Hochman; A. Statman/W. Feldman]. Phillips 1996a, p. 41. (Musical notation and recording references included).
“A sher is a ‘scissors’ dance that... comes from Russia. The sher tunes are a relatively old part of the klezmer repertoire. Old ercordings titled ‘shers; were usually medleys of many short tunes. Rhythmically they were performed like freylakhs.” Phillips 1996a, p. 78.
“A Laibediga Honga...is based on the Kandel’s Orchestra 1925 recording [Poland]...Whatever sort of dance a honga is, its musical form is very much like the shers transcribed later in this section.” Phillips 1996a, p. 108. (Musical notation and recording references included).
“Rushishe Sher #2(A) [A. Schwartz] This title has also served as a catch-all for medleys of manby short motives. Abe Schwartz’s Orchestra recorded several related pieces... Rushishe Sher #2(B) [Tarras]... Rushishe Sher 2(C) [Klezmatics]... Rushishe Sher 2(D) [H. Kandel, 1917]... Rushishe Sher #3 [A. Schwartz, 1920]. The sher is usually referred to as a Russian ‘scissors’ dance although it apparently is a Jewish take on an old German dance... Rushishe Sher #4. This medley of tunes was recorded by Kapelye... Rushishe Sher #5. This is the Harry Kandel collection of sher melodies...It was recorded in 1917 under the title Russian Sher Part One.” Phillips 1996a, pp. 124-137. (Musical notation and recording references included).
“Shers were always played as medleys. They’re usually two part tunes, not elaborate. Modulationwas achieved by playing a bunch of different shers....Then there were shers, although there are plenty of freylakhs that could be shers. But the things recorded as shers were usually done as medleys.” Phillips 1996ab, p. 178.
“The name ‘sherele’ is the diminuitive form of the old ‘sher’ or ‘shir’ which used to be danced at weddings by two rows facing each other. While singing the rows would come together and then move apart. This dance is similar to one of the old Polish national dances, the Polonaise. As far as lyrics go, they are part of a longer song actually sung by grown-ups at weddings.” Pipe 1971b, p. 521.
“I want to reveal that the ‘Volozhin Dance’ that I described in another place, is rather the ‘scissors’ [sher] dance, and the accompaniment to this melody was danced in the Volozhshin Yeshiva during festivals... Generally they danced the ‘sher,’ in four pairs... but my recollection is that at times there were sixteen people...” Rivkind 1960, p. 32.
“The sher is a Jewish dance for four or eight couples. From a musical standpoint there do not appear to be significant differences between sher and freylekhs melodies, although the sher may ve played at a bit more moderate tempo. In order for the dancers to carry out all of the figures, the sher would need to last 20 to 25 minutes. Among Eastern European Jews in the 19th century, the sher was apparently only performed by girls and women.” Rubin 1997, p. 21. (Musical notation included).
“Silkene Pajamas is a well-known Russian-Jewish folk tune with a variety of texts in Russian and Yiddish, some of them quite risqu’e, and it has often been used by klezmorim as a sher (Russian-Jewish square dance) or freylekhs.” Rubin and Ottens 1995, p. 26. (Musical notation included).
“The sher is generally a moderate-tempo figure dance in 2/4 time, resembling the American square dance and the Russian quadrille.” Schlesinger, Alpert and Rubin 1989. (Recording references included).
“The ‘Sher’ (Scissors) was another popular chassidic dance. It is now a universal wedding dance among Yiddish Jews. The basic figure may have been inspired by a Jewish tailor for it follows the pattern if an open pair of scissors. The ‘Sher’ figure comes in during the ‘visits,’ when one dancer vists another dancer of the next couple...” [New York, 1970s]. Seid 1975, p. 14.
“Jewish folk dance melody ‘sher kadril’. This melody was recorded in 1959 in Bucharest... [and was originally heard] forty to fifty years earlier from klezmorim that played in Moldavia and Bessarabia at Jewish weddings. This dance melody is interesting because of the clapping accompaniment which forms a counter-rhythm. This line influences the rhythm. Also interesting is the augmented second here.” [Moldavia/Bessarabia, c. 1910s-20s]. Sekulitz 1966, p. 50.
“The Sher / A set dance, similar in steps to the Virginia Reel. It is played in duple meter, usually written in 2/4, at a moderate tempo, between a khosidl and a bulgar. The drummer plays the 8/8 rhythm I [sic] rhythm at the slower tempo for the sher...” Sokolow 1987, p. 20.
“Eastern European Jews were accustomed to invite each guest to [pick] an especially favorite dance: one prefers the ‘freylakhs,’ another the ‘volekhl,’ after that a ‘sher,’ yet another a ‘kozakl,’ a ‘polka’...” Stutschewsky 1959, p. 169.
“Because the things written about Jewish music in the twenties and thirties of the last century in the USSR are not available and the music is not available we could not trace the development of the Jewish sher until it reached the Jewish weddings. There are Jewish songs in which the name sher is mentioned. One can assume that the name is German in origin and that german jews gave it its Jewish character... [In a] collection edited by George Sheynman, Das Lied der deutschen Kolonisten in Russland, 1923, the ‘song of the German settlers in Russia’ is printed ‘song or dance of the sher’ (song #158, p. 275) in 3/8 time... the ‘sher’ dance was even in use among Jews during the Middle Ages and moved with them over time to Eastern Europe. It was danced very often, and not only in the Ukraine, where it was especially popular, but also in White Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. Since until the end of the nineteenth century men and women in Eastern Europe were accustomed to dance separately, we gather from this that a figure-dance was originally a women’s dance or girls’ dance...” Stutschewsky 1959, pp. 170-71. (Musical notation included).
“‘Freylakhs’: as we said, they would dance the ‘freylakhs’ in both a slow and fast tempo. The melodic structure is clear and the meter is duple – 2/4. There are some two-part, three-part or four-part ‘freylakhs.’ I have never witnessed a ‘freylakhs’ in 3/4... From a musical standpoint there is no significant difference between the ‘sher’ and the ‘freylakhs’ (generally there is no special difference between Ukrainian dances). The difference is with regards to tempo. The two dances also the same in their movements in duple meter, 2/4. In performance the ‘freylakhs’ tends to speed up more... The opening motive of the ‘sher’ (also known as the ‘sherele’) tends to a more quiet rhythm and a graceful expressiveness. The klezmorim knew well how to decide between these two dances, and each one of them created many distinct compositions... In Yiddish literature the ‘kozatz’keh’ is mentioned much more frequently than the ‘sher’. Stutschewsky 1959, p. 214. (Musical notation included).
“After the wedding-feast they began to dance. The dances were varied according to generation. The young people would dance: ‘polke,’ ‘polka-mazurka,’ ‘krakoviak,’ and the main dance for the young people was ‘vals’... Middle-aged Jews would dance ‘balgareske,’ ‘kozatshok,’ and especially the ‘sher.’ The ‘sher’ was considered by many Jews to be the classic dance until this day.” [Podalia, c. 1909].” Tshernovetski 1946, pp. 97-114.