Re: David Krakauer

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Joshua Horowitz wrote:
> 
> Dear Professor Jacobowitz;
> 
> actually, I didn´t want to get involved in what could turn into a sandbox
> peefight, but as I´m so geographically far removed  from the
> possibility of any dialectic Klezmer fisticuffs, I just couldn´t resist. Since
> you addressed some issues which are being presented in the 36-page text
> portion of my new CD: Budowitz: Mother Tongue - Music of the 19th Century
> Klezmorim (Koch International Records, to be released in Fall - yes this is
> an advertisement), I thought I would include part of the text and some more,
> too.
> >
> > You wrote in response to Seth that Klezmer music is....
> >    "...from the early 18th C. to today." It has not stopped
> > being Jewish Party muscic. It is not a museum exhibit. It is alive and
> > kicking.
> 
> You could go back even further. Here are some facts about the Jewish
> Musicans´guild- official evidence of the earlier existence of music from
> Klezmorim which may interest you:
> 
> The earliest Jewish Musicans´ guilds appear to have been formed first in
> 16th Century Poland. Also in Prague, 1558, klezmorim formed a guild which
> received the right to play for non-Jews in 1641. The Prague guild was very
> strict with its members. The master had to be married, his assistents had to
> read the Torah daily in the Synagogue and the apprentices had to study with
> a teacher on Shabbes. In 1629 in Lvov, the 13 members of the klezmer guild
> had to pay taxes to the Christian guild as well as to the city council in 
> order
> to play for non-Jews. The Jewish musicians´ Guild of Iasi, Romania existed
> as early as 1819 and had it´s own Synagogue for klezmorim on Pantelimon
> Street. One existing document  from 1856 shows that the klezmer, Mendel
> from Iasi, led a kapelye in Constantinople. One of his Gypsy musicians
> received news that his wife had fallen ill while they were in Constantinople.
> Mendel sent a request to the guild in Iasi to pay money to her for her
> recovery, which they endorsed. The klezmer guilds in the Ukraine can be
> traced back to the mid-19th Century. At that time, the number of klezmorim
> was rapidly increasing, partly due to the fact that the internal Jewish
> political organisation, the Kahal, lost it´s administrative rights, which
> previously constricted the formation of klezmer groups. The guilds were
> autonomous organizations which dealt with inheritance, health insurance,
> disability pension, and indemnity. If klezmorim travelled to a town to play a
> wedding where local klezmorim  already existed, the guild might try to pay
> compensation to the foreign band to keep them away. If that didn´t work,
> they called in a colleague from a nearby shtetl to mediate. Sometimes they
> had fistfights. In cities where no Jewish guild existed, the Jews sometimes
> paid into the local musician´s guild and received certain privileges. The
> guilds were often looked down upon by the Jewish communities in general,
> and klezmorim were made fun of through all
> kinds of nicknames. The music was loved, but the musicians themselves
> were often actually feared.
> 
> Part of the foregoing touches on the next question about the travelling
> radius of Klezmorim... You wrote...
> >
> >  contrary to popular myth Klezmorim were not gypsies. They
> > lived in towns and "worked the area", just as we do today.
> 
> Beside the fact that, in fact, Gypsies and Jews did play with each other, I
> guess the question is, "How big was `the area´?"  There are many factors
> which need to be known - impossible to ascertain now - to be able to answer
> this question accurately. Some of those are:
> How many Klezmorim were there living in a particular region?
> For whom did they play and in which cities or towns?
> What mode of travel could they make use of?
> What restrictions from authorities did they undergo, etc, etc.
> 
> Here are some facts pertaining to this...
> 
> Actually, the professional caste of klezmorim was highly stratified:
> klezmorim at the top of the hierarchy were those who were acknowledged
> outside of their immediate sphere, for instance by rulers, landowners and by
> the established concert world. Then there were composers at the Hasidic
> hoyfs who were supported by their community and didn´t need to hit the
> streets. Next, there were semi-professionals who worked their main jobs in
> other trades; and then there were the itinerant klezmorim who were
> constantly on the move to play, often for non-Jewish engagements. Jews
> were frequently required to pay a Jew-toll at a high cost to enter a
> foreign city, and were commonly only allowed to stay for 24 hours. They
> weren´t always allowed to play after dark either. The occupational
> restrictions limiting Jewish activity in czarist Russia forced many talented
> amateur musicians to become professionals. In Russia there were about
> 3000 professional klezmorim by the end of the 19th Century, 2000 in the
> Ukraine alone. Non-Jewish engagements were non-kosher by definition,
> which in part accounted for the low status within the Jewish community of
> the klezmorim who played them. The income categories of the different
> strata were classified hierarchically as: 1) gifts from the nobility 2)
> regular salaries 3) tips and 4) dance and table money (whereby there were
> different prices for different kinds of dances). Musically, there were
> differences between the sub-classes of klezmorim
> which ranges from the Jewish court and concert music to the rough village
> fare, but qualitatively, there´s no really difference between these milieus.
> 
> You wrote...
> Most of my
> > band's playing is within a one-hour drive from my house. About the same
> > travel time  (or even LESS) than way back when.
> 
> This would imply that Klezmorim way back when did in fact have to travel
> large distances, though I agree that they generally did probably serve a
> limited radius. Though one has to include the trade fairs, which popped up all
> over Europe as early as the Middle Ages, and were a mecca for musikanten.
> The only information on this subject which I know is Wolfgang Suppan´s book
> in German called "Mittelalterliche Spielleute und Musikanten" which has
> some interesting, but also speculative information on the subject of
> travelling routes of musicians.
> >
> > You wrote...
> 
> >         Let's put this bubbeh Meisse (grandmother's tale) to rest once
> > and for all, please: Benny Goodman ***NEVER!!!!**** played Klezmer. Anyone
> > who can prove
> > otherwise (I haven't even ever heard any anecdotal evidence to bear this
> > out) sure hasn't surfaced in the last twenty years...
> 
> Actually, I agree, you´re right about Goodman being "Over-klezmicized"
> and Goodman himself brushed off the assumption, though didn´t a friend of a
> friend of a friend see him playing at the Bar Mitvah of a friend of mine back
> in the...when was it now?
> 
> You wrote...
>  As for
> > Ziggy, when he played Jazz, it was Jazz. No Klezmer sounds...
> 
> But what about that unmistakable krekhts at the B-section??
> 
> You wrote...
>  It's like
> > being bilingual. I you speak French and Spanish well, you don't clutter
> > up one with the other's accent, expressions, idioms, etc.
> 
> Tell that to my bilingual Bobe and she´ll smack you with a shmatte on your
> tuches.
> 
> So, that´s all for now. Have fun in the meantime. Josh Horowitz