Re: Cimbalom

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>Aaron Bousel <apbousel (at) valinet(dot)com> wrote:
>
>> Can anyone give me some information on the cimbalom?  I've certainly heard
>> it plenty on recordings but I only have a vague idea of what it looks like,
>> mostly from pictures on CDs.  Is there a specific design that is used in
>> klezmer?  Is anyone making them?  Are there used ones available?

I have an image on my klezmer site of someone playing a cimbalom
   http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/
(down at the bottom)

It's from the cover of Rita Ottens/Joel Rubins wonderful "Yikhes"
compilation.

Kurt Bjorling, of Chicago Klezmer Ensemble and Brave Old World
makes them. You can get cheap ones in Austria easily, as the
instrument is designated a "national folk heritage instrument"
or some such. I was tooling around with Josh Horowitz a couple
of years ago and we visited this guy who mass produced them for
the schools. I think the excerpt is called, "A cymbalom player
in Graz":
   http://www.ivritype.com/eeuro96/austria/in.transit.html#graz

Kurt can be reached at: mailto:muziker (at) aol(dot)com

ari


Ari Davidow
The klezmer shack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/
owner: jewish-music mailing list
e-mail: ari (at) ivritype(dot)com