Kobza Recordings

[Sandra Layman <sandl...>]

Pete Rushefsky inquired about cobza recordings, and also about C. Brailoiu
archival recordings.

See if you can obtain the Swiss AIMP 3-CD album (VDE CD-537/539) of
reissues of recordings made from 1933-43 by the Romanian Constantin
Brailoiu. (The recordings came from the (then) Institute of Ethnology and
Dialectology in Bucharest.) There are extensive notes by Speranta
Radulescu. There is one CD, for example, entitled "Roumanie: Musique de
Villages (B): Moldavie: Fundu Moldovei et la Bucovine" put out in 1988 by
the Archives Internationales de Musique Populaire, Ethnographic Museum,
Geneva, Switzerland (number: AIMP VDE CD-538). The reissue collection was
(is?--I don't know about more recent offerings) put out under the
supervision of Laurent Aubert. If you can't obtain this CD in this country,
try the following address or phone: Disques VDE-GALLO, 1407 DONNELOYE,
Switzerland; tel. 024/33 15 46; TELEX 457 219. Or you could try: Archives
Internationales de Musique Populaire, Musee d'ethnographie, 65-67 boulevard
Carl-Vogt, CH-1205 GENEVE, Switzerland.

Some recordings made by Bela Bartok are now reissued on CD by Folkways, but
I don't have the current info at my fingertips right at this moment.

A number of Romanian recordings with (older-style) music from eastern and
southern Romania will have cobza on them.

I'm not familiar with the term "tzipturi," and neither do I find anything
resembling it in my Romanian references. Where did you hear or see this
term? I'd be curious myself!

Sandra Layman


----------------------
<Can anyone tell me where I can find recordings of the kobza?  From what I
understand, it is a fretless lute that preceded the tsimbl in klezmer
bands.  I'm a banjoist, and I'm hoping to get some ideas from hearing a
klezmer approach to a finger-picked instrument.  In particular, I'm
interested in finding out where I can get recordings of the kobza tzipturi
style (which can be almost banjo-like).  One name that has been suggested
is Constantine Brailou's recordings, but I'm not sure where to find them. 
I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks, Pete Rushefsky>