Re: The Music of the Mountain Jews

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Chevra and Simon,

OK, now for Double Jeopardy. 

The earliest "Mountain Jewish" recordings I know of were made ca. 1904.
Writing of the Gramophone company, Pekka Gronow notes, "A branch office was
established in Tiflis, the most important commercial center in
Caucasia...In 1904, the repertory already included Ossetian and Central
Asian music. In the following years, the Tiflis offce saw that new markets
were successively opened in Northern Cacasia and Daghestan. Recordings of
Chechen, Ingush, Kabardin, Kumyk and "Mountain Jewish" music were issued."

DO ANY OF THESE RECORDINGS STILL EXIST? 

Thanks, Joel

P.S. For subscribers in Israel, these discs can be obtained from Yissum.


At 03:37 PM 2/14/99 EST, you wrote:
>We have just received a shipment of some of the most unusual and fascinating
>Jewish Music I have ever heard.
>Since this is all new to me , I will quote from the accompanying booklet.
>
>"The Music of the Mountain Jews"
>
>The term Mountain Jews is a general designation for the Jews dwelling in the
>eastern Caucasus(Azervbaijan, Chechnya, Daghestan, and Kavbardino-Balkar). It
>appears for the first time in the Russian language (gorsky yevrey) during the
>first half of the 19th Century, when the Russian Empire conquered eastern
>Caucasus. The Mountain Jews called themselves "Juhur". Linguistically, the
>language of the Mountain Jews, Juhuri, is related to Northern Iranian
dialects
>of Persian, reflecting the geographical origin of this Jewish tribe. Through
>the ages, these Jews absorbed Azeri and Hebrew words into their local
language
>which eventually evolved into the present Juhuri or Judeo-Tat. After the
>conquest of the Caucasus by the soviets, Russian became the 2nd language of
>the Jews. The Judeo-Tat language was originally written in Hebrew
>characters:in  1929 the Latin alphabet, and afterwards in a Cyrillic based
>alphabet were adopted.
>The present recordings includes examples of different genres of litergical,
>folk and instrumental music of the Mountain Jews. This music was recorded on
>location among the Jewish communities of the Caucasus and more recently among
>those who immigrated to Israel in large numbers after 1989.
>
>This recording includes four musical genres of the Mountain Jews: liturgical,
>folk song, dance and Azeri music (Mugham). The close relations between Jews
>and Muslims in eastern and northern Caucasus throughout the past 500 years
are
>particularly reflected in the instrumental music of the Jews; these two
>groups[ share repertoires, musical instruments, musical genres and actual
>performances. In mixed villages it was common for Jews to invite Muslims to
>their celebrations and vice versa. It was customary for Muslims to engage
>Jewish Musicians for their festivities.
>
> The musical instruments on these performances include; 
>Aziatskay Grmoshka ( Asian accordion)
>Balaban-"a diatonic double-reed oboe" (called "duduk" in Armenian)
>Zurnov-also a double-reed oboe
>Komoncha-"a spike fiddle of four strings...the player holds the instrument on
>his knees, perpendicular to his body, moving the instrument sideways in order
>to create special effects.
>Tar-the Caucasian version of the plucked longneck lute of ancient Persian
>origin.
>Ghovol-called "nagara" in Azeri- is a cylindrical drum consisting of a wooden
>frame and two membranes. Also called "tap" in northern Caucasus.
>
>The booklet accompanying this CD consists of 16 pages in English, and 7 pages
>in Hebrew. This is an EXCELLENT recording!
>
>Another Cd in this series is called "Ottoman Hebrew Sacred Songs"
performed by
>Samuel Benaroya, sung without any musical instrumentation.
>
>Simon
>Hatikvah Music
>
>
>
>.
>
>
>


Joel Bresler
250 E. Emerson Rd.
Lexington, MA 02420 USA

Home:   781-862-2432
Home Office:    781-862-4104
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Cell:           781-622-0309
Email:          jbresler (at) ultra(dot)net

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