Re: Yiddish and klezmer

[Paul M. Gifford <PGIFFORD...>]

Solidarity Foundation <svzandt (at) igc(dot)apc(dot)org> wrote:

> Soem time during (I think) the last two weeks, somebody posted a question 
> regarding the connection between Yiddish and klezmer. I apologize to the
> person who posted it, because I want to reply but, going back through my
> mailbox, I cannot find it. 
> 
I don't think it was me, but in researching the cymbal (tsimbl) 
historically as well as intrumental combinations of both Jewish, 
Gypsy, and peasant groups in Europe from Germany and Austria in the 
west to Russia in the east (roughly speaking), I've noticed some
interesting correlations to Yiddish dialects.  I'm pretty well 
convinced that Jewish klezmorim had the largest influence in the 
spread the use of the modern violin, the cymbal (dulcimer), and the 
bassett (basolja, cello) to those areas.

The second violin (playing rhythmic double stops, not parallel 
harmony with the melody) occurs in Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania,
and southern Poland today, and appears with Jewish groups in Germany 
and Bohemia by c.1675-1700 (interestingly, much the same style of 
second fiddle was popular in the rural northern U.S. in the 19th 
century).  The German/Bohemian/Hungarian Cymbal/cimbalom shares 
similarities in tuning.  The Galician cymbaly, however, is a 
different type (close to the Ukrainian variety), but I think this 
overall pattern correlates to the area of the western Yiddish dialect.

Having seen lots of cymbaly-s in Belarus, and pictures of others in 
Lithuania and Latvia, I feel comfortable in treating instruments in
the "Lithuanian" dialect area as a single type.  The Rzeszow and 
Ukrainian instruments belong to a different type, but closely related.
In the 1880s, Jews in this area were the main players of this 
instrument.  Thus there is some correlation to this dialect area.  
Also, one could probably list the use of the buben (tambourine), 
rather than the baraban (bass drum), as historically part of the
Lithuanian dialect area.  Pjotr Dahlig has mapped out a 19th-century
distribution of instruments associated with fiddles in Poland, and 
the baraban/buben association follows the boundaries of Congress 
Poland.  The baraban is widespread today in Belarus, Lithuania,
and the Ukraine, but perhaps in the early 19th century, the buben
was more typical of the northern region.  For example, in Rimsky-
Korsakov's youth in Tikhuin, towards St. Petersburg, the Jewish 
musicians who played for the landowners' dances (c.1855) did so on 
violin, cymbal, and buben.  This was well inside the Pale, 
incidentally.

The 1st fiddle/2nd fiddle/cymbal/bass combination is attested for
klezmorim in Podolia, Ukraine, 1802, and in "Russia," 1904.  This
is interesting because, as far as I've been able to learn, the
second fiddle didn't get transferred to the peasants, yet it appears
to be evidence for the migration of a style from further West (Western
Galicia/Hungary).

Other correlations----"lezim" in western Yiddish vs. "klezmorim" 
elsewhere; "marshalik" (Polish; Bohemian) / "badkhn" .  I bet this
is just the tip of the iceberg.  Are there others?

Paul Gifford