Re: Information about tzimbls

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

Could it be that the 'tsimbl' and kanun are related? Maybe some common
ancestor?
                EK



At 03:47 PM 4/30/99 EDT, Paul Gifford wrote:
>Warschauer (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
>
>> You friend should contact Kurt Bjorling in Chicago (muziker (at) 
>> aol(dot)com).
Kurt 
>> builds tsimbls.  Amazing, considering his musical, scholarly and teaching 
>> activities, but true.  
>
>I'm not familiar with his instruments, but just wanted to say that at
>one level, there is no such thing as a "Jewish" dulcimer or cimbal 
>(tsimbl), but at another level, all the traditions of the cimbalom 
>family go back to Jewish tradition.  This includes the Hungarian 
>cimbalom (originally part of a Central European variety, also 
>including Bohemian and German instruments), which Gypsies adopted from 
>Jews during the 18th century,
>Belarusian/Ukrainian/Lithuanian/Galician variety (which can be broken 
>down into subtypes), and the Romanian tzambal mic.  There are some
>tuning similarities between the Eastern European variety stretching
>between Vitebsk, Belarus, Rzeszowskie, in Poland, and southern 
>Romania, and similarities in design and structure which suggest that
>a lot of features from about 1700 were retained into this century.
>
>Thus Jewish players who were active c.1900 in places like Daugavpils, 
>Latvia; Vitebsk, Belarus; Rzeszowskie, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; 
>Koloszvar, Hungary; and Galatz, Romania (all documented), would have 
>used instruments of the same style as players of Gypsy or peasant 
>background. Today I would think one would either use what the person 
>happened to have or acquire or find a Ukrainian-Canadian or small 
>Romanian instrument. For the latter, avoid the "Doina" factory 
>instruments and see if the music store on Calea Victoriei in 
>Bucharest has an older one for sale.  Traditional Belarusian 
>instruments would be very difficult to acquire (but not "modern" ones 
>made in the Minsk factory).  My father had one in the late '30s he
>bought from a klezmer in New York City that was probably Moldavian.
>
>Paul Gifford
>
>
>
>

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