Re: Information about tzimbls

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

Owen Davidson <owend (at) tp(dot)net> wrote:

> employed in our present context generically for instruments with strings
> stretched over a flat or flattish sound-box without a neck."  Baines goes on 
> to
> define both the kanun and the many forms of the hammer-dulcimer as modern
> refinements of the psaltery (psalterion), which he defines as a "zitherized
> harp."

Forget about Baines, at least on this question.  The dulcimer 
(doulcemer) developed in France during the 15th century from the
psaltery; the Hackbrett developed a few years earlier in German-
speaking areas from the string drum.  Their design converged in
the early 16th century.  The santur arose independently, probably
in Iran, during the 15th century.  

Although minstrels used the dulcimer in the 15th century, it became
more of an amateur's (aristocratic women) instrument, but the 
Hackbrett became almost exclusively a minstrel's instrument.  
The word cimbalom was first applied to the Hackbrett during the 16th
century in Hungary and it migrated to Galicia soon afterwards 
(c.1590).  It was exclusively a minstrel's instrument; Jews can be
documented using it as early as 1629.

Jews spread the instrument (using the word 'cymbal' or some variant) 
to Bohemia, Moravia, Germany, Holland, as well as to an area from 
eastern Latvia and Pskov district in Russia south through Hungary and 
Moldavia, and even into Constantinople (c.1850) (actually the 
traditional range closely follows the Pale). In this latter area, 
there are close design and tuning similarities. Gypsies in Hungary 
adopted it c.1750-1780, and in Romania, c.1850-1900.  Freed serfs 
also started using it after 1861 in the Russian Empire (though 
Hutsuls had adopted it much earlier).

The earliest known Jewish cymbalist in America appeared with a circus 
in Ohio in 1824.  There was a German Jewish dulcimer player who died 
in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1790s, so they wandered far afield.

Paul Gifford





> The name kanun points to a Greek or Byzantine origin, originally kanon or
> "rule."  As the leader's instrument, it sets the makam.
> 
> The "beaten psaltery," according to Baines, may be of Persian origin.  
> Certainly
> the name of the eastern variant of the instrument, santur, points to Persia,
> where the instrument survives in a simple and elegant form. Is this the
> ancestral form of the instrument?
> 
> Convergent or divergent evolution?   Or just a really good idea, which was 
> bound
> to crop up invarious spots.  I used to see a black street musician  by a 
> subway
> station in the East Village, playing an autoharp with a pair of chopsticks.
> What would you call that?
> 
> As to the question of actually playing the thing, I'll quote from Nikos
> Kazantzakis' converstion with Alexis Zorba:
> 
> "Married?"
> 
> "Aren't I a man?" he said angrily.  "Aren't I a man?  I mean blind. Like
> everyone else before me, I fell headlong into the ditch.  I married.  I took 
> the
> road downhill.  I became head of a family, I built a house, I had children -
> trouble.  But thank God for the santuri!"
> 
> "You played to forget your cares, did you?"
> 
> "Look, I can see you don't play any instruments.  Whatever are you talking
> about?  In the house there are all your worries.  The wife.  The children.  
> What
> are we going to eat?  How shall we manage for clothes?  What will become of 
> us?
> Hell!  No, for the santouri, you must be in good form, you must be pure.  If 
> my
> wife says one word too many, how could I possibly be in the mood to play the
> santuri?  If your children are hungry and screaming at you, you just try to
> play!  To play the santuri, you have to give everything up to it, d'you
> understand?"
> 
> Owen
> 
> Eliezer Kaplan wrote:
> 
> > 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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> 
> --
> Owen Davidson
> Amherst  Mass
> The Wholesale Klezmer Band
> 
> The Angel that presided o'er my birth
> Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth
> Go Love without the help of any King on Earth
> 
> Wm. Blake
> 
> 
> 
> 

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