klezmer percussion

[Itzik Gottesman <itzik...>]

Re: Klezmer percussion: Moyshe Nussbaum,(1906-1988) a fiddler from Rypin a
Polish town on the German border, learned how to make a "broombass" from a
German musician, and he then made one in my basement in the Bronx.
According to Henry Sapoznik the American equivalent of the "broombass" is
called a Devil's Stick: a broomstick with a wire  or string going from the
top to the bottom; cymbals nailed on top (in the one he made he used three
tops of round metal candy boxes). he then took a one foot long round stick,
like a short broom stick, cut a notch into the broombass, and that was his
"smitchik", his bow. One bounced it and hit it with the smitchik at the
same time.  He also added some bells to the "cymbals". I don't think they
used this broombass in his kapelye in Rypin when they performed, but did
use it for private, parties at home. - Itzik Gottesman

-----------------
Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman
Assistant Professor
Yiddish Language and Culture
Department of Germanic Languages
EPS 3.102, University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX  78712-1190
phone: 512-471-4123
fax: 512-471-4025
Itzik (at) mail(dot)utexas(dot)edu


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