Re: ¿origins of klezmer tonality?

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

At 01:06 PM 10/4/97 +0000, Joshua wrote:



>Players in the Maramures area don+t even know what minor chords are.
>They play a contra style of violin based only on an AEC#E tuning, which
>becomes an AEA tuning when they tune their 3-string guitars and just
>move up or down according to the general contour of the melody. The
>guitar becomes a rhythm instrument in this case, and the bi-modality
>creates dissonances that make an outsider think,
>
>*can+t they play in the same key?*
>
>I first understood Bartoks major-minor mixes when I heard this music. It
>hasn+t changed since his research. In fact, if you listen to the
>dissonance as rhythm and not as a tonal structure, you can hear that it
>adds punch rather than detracts intonation, and this is the way its
>performers perceive it.
>
>Likewise, basses are often of such bad production quality, that you
>can+t even speak of them providing a true harmonic ground- they were
>also used as rhythm instruments. As far as bows go, well, string players
>take pride in telling you how they single-handedly held the horse still
>and simultaneously plucked the hairs one by one from the tail of the
>animal, and the bows are usually clear evidence of this.

All this brings to mind an instrument called *gardon* which is used in that
same area.  It resembles a cross between a 'cello and a watering-trough.  It
is entirely, definitely and unabashedly a rhythm instrument. The strings are
alternately beaten with a stick and snapped against the neck with the other
hand.  I've been moved to wonder at the seemingly almost blasphemous
resemblance to that most noble of viols.  Now I have to wonder whether this
gardon might have been the best local approximation of a 'cello that was
available.  In other words, that the gardon might be the extreme end of a
continuum of 'cello decrepitude.  By which I don't mean to disparage the
gardon, because its use in the folk music adds a savage energy that seems to
connect to something primal in the soul.  Very exciting.  I know that the
'cello was often used to provide the bass line in village violin bands. It's
tempting to imagine a harmonic-rhythmic spectrum with a flowing, well-shaped
'cello line at one end and someone beating on a gardon at the other.

Take care, all.

Owen  
____________________________________________________________________________
________         Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.

        I look into its glowing screen 
        And see the Adversary,
        And know that it, could it see me,
        Would see the Beast all hairy.