Re: Bitchin' about the role of percussion in Mideastern in

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

Ernie Gruner <erniegru (at) mira(dot)net> wrote:

> My understanding of KLEZMER (east european jewish music - the early stuff
> before it came to america) is that percussion instruments were not strong
> or even present and  that the percussion came from the  way the instruments
> were played etc.

The buben (large tambourine with a handle) and baraban (bass drum, 
with cymbal on top) were quite common.  Rimsky-Korsakov, for example,
described a Jewish trio of violin, tsimbaly, and buben, which appeared
in his hometown Tikhvin (in northern Russia, outside the Pale) in the 
mid-1850s, and became the fashionable musicians among the landowners. 
 The same instrumentation still is used in Belarus and Ukraine.  I 
heard a similar Ukrainian-Canadian trio (but with a drum set instead 
of a bass drum) about 20 years ago in Windsor, Ontario----the 
percussion definitely is prominent.

Paul Gifford

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