A unique and unparalleled collection of klezmer music that contributes to our understanding of a musical and cultural movement that have become widely appreciated and emulated across the world today.Moshe Beregovski's collection of klezmer tunes is the only such treasury collected under expert fieldwork conditions before World War II. It represents the full range of melodies dating back to the late nineteenth century as played by surviving musicians in Stalinist times in the Ukraine.The introduction is the best single essay available on early twentieth century klezmer lifestyle and performance practice. This first English-language edition includes sheet music and extensive annotation by Michael Alpert, a pioneer klezmer researcher, and contains tunes not previously available in print, as well as an appreciation of Beregovski by Russian scholar Izaly Zemtsovsky.