BELARUS JEWISH MUSIC -Reply

[Peter Rushefsky <rushefsky_p...>]

BJ-- wasn't quite clear on your question.  I'll volunteer to take first
crack-- though I'm certainly no expert (help-- need experts).  I'm
hoping someone will step forward to correct the holes here:

If you are asking about the uniqueness of Belorussian Jewish music as
compared to Non-Byelorussian Jewish music (& I'll limit this to
instrumental klezmer music in the Pale of E. European settlement), I've
heard/read that the Jewish music found in Byelorussia may be "older"
than what was found in Bessarabia/Moldavia.  In these southern regions,
Rom (Gypsy) music was incorporated in the latter part of the 1800's to a
greater degree, especially with regard to the Doinas and Bulgars.  May
not have had the late 1800's/early 1900's Yiddish Theater influence to
the same degree either in Belarus.  This Bessarabian/Moldavian sound was
what became popular in New York.  I would guess the Belorussian klezmer
repertoire would have a higher concentration of older shers &
freylekhs-- similar to what Beregovski found in the Ukraine.  

Incidentally, a good example (per Netsky's Klez Kamp lecture) of
Belorussian klezmer may be Harry Kandel's Russian Sher (also known as
the Philadelphia Sher).  Was brought over by Morris Fried, who hailed
from Brest.  This is the sher played and danced  in Philadelphia, and is
different from the sher commonly played and danced in New York.

Not sure about the non-Jewish folk music of Belarus (how it relates to
other non-Jewish folk musics of E. Europe).  I think that Belorussian
culture has generally been dominated by Russian culture (not many
Byelorussians even speak Belorussian, they speak Russian), so I'm
guessing that the music may be similar as well.  Are there differences 
in instrumentation-- are hammer dulcimers as prevalent in what is today
Russia as they are in Belarus and the Ukraine?  What about the bagpipe
that was shown in the picture?  Accordions?

>>> "B.J. Adrezin" <BJ99 (at) concentric(dot)net> 01/24/99 11:26pm >>>
Thank you Peter for providing that link to those beautiful
instruments.
     Would anyone be able to describe the uniqueness of belorussian
music?  How different is it from jewish music from surrounding areas of
eastern europe?
     Thank you.
     B.J.



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