Re: Doinas & taksim

[Judy Pinnolis <pinnolis...>]

Josh:
THANKS! 
Judy

At 06:50 PM 7/20/99 +0100, you wrote:
>> For us doinas-illiterates, can you give specific musical examples (i.e.
titles/tracks) from some currently available albums sprinkled into an edit
of this...  
>
>Sure Judy, but only if you include me in your club of doina-illiterates
>and let me use some Budowitz tracks.... I'll sprinkle them in between
>the sections in capital letters. Other stuff comes from my field
>recordings and manuscripts and things, so I can't give you a reference
>there yet... Take care. J....
> 
>> >The whole ritual of seating the bride is called the bazetsns (some
>> >called it badekns, baveynens or bazingens, too)
>
>KURT BJÖRLING'S TAPE CALLED: JEWISH FOLK MUSIC OF THE UKRAINIAN S.S.R
>THERE IS A THEATRICAL BUT VERY GOOD SUNG KALE BAZETSNS THERE. In
>actuality, what
>> >happens is the bride is seated (bazetst) , veiled (badekt), sung to,
>> >(bazungen) and brought to tears (beveynt), so any of these words can and
>> >do function separately to describe the entire ceremony. The ceremony
>> >itself involves the badkhn and klezmorim, and traditionally the women.
>> >The badkhn sings or ?zogt?
>
>A ZOGN VERSION  IS ON THE CD: TREASURE OF JEWISH CULTURE IN UKRAINE,
>PUBLISHED BY THE VERNADSKY LIBRARY OF UKRAINE  (the musical ones used
>their voices partly to
>> >sing, whereas the less musical ones used  Sprechstimme) a
>> >semi-improvised text, which the klezmorim punctuate with chords. At the
>> >beginning there was often an instrumental ?opshpiln? which served as an
>> >introduction, and at the end a nokhshpil, which served to end this
>> >portion of the ceremony, with interludes placed at the end of the
>> >strophes. Sometimes the same procedure was done for the bridegroom
>> >(called Khosn bazingns, in which case there might have been an escort
>> >piece like a gasn nign which was played while walking to the groom, or
>> >another opshpiln was played. There was no standard, as the mood created
>> >was probably something which differed from kapelye to kapelye and
>> >belonged to each kapelye?s original style. The character of the kale
>> >bazingns was generally ?light?, instructive and in Yiddish, with very
>> >little Hebrew, as it was not expected that the bride know loshn Kodesh,
>> >whereas the character of the khosn bazingns was generally more serious,
>> >with more quotes in Hebrew from the holy books, and could also have been
>> >sung or ?gezogt? in a deeper voice, at least that?s how Majer Bogdanski
>> >and Toyvye Birnbaum both performed it for us.
>> >
>> >What you hear on the early recordings as a bazetsns (i.e., Brandwein and
>> >co.) is generally a condensed version of what the badkhn would ?sing?
>
>TRACK 3 OF THE CD YIKHES, PLAYED BY BRANDWEIN, CALLED *VIE TSVEY IZ
>NAFTULE DER DRITER
>
>ALSO BUDOWITZ MOTHER TONGUE. TRACK 1
>> >?zogt?. There is a specific modality and basic modulation scheme he uses
>> >which seems to be fairly standard and is closely related to synagogue
>> >prayers, though, like the doina, the tempo and rate of modulation differ
>> >from performer to performer. Since there is syncretic overlap between
>> >the historically predated bazetsns (I don?t know how old it is, but can
>> >tell you that I am fairly sure it is the oldest strata of klezmer melody
>> >we have and goes back as far as any Mogen Ovos  and Adonoy Molokh
>> >prayers) and the later doina, it would appear that the doina gradually
>> >replaced the bazetsns and became a genre unto itself. Certain
>> >characteristics of the doina did in fact make their way into the
>> >bazetsns ceremony, though the VOCAL  portions never changed, they just
>> >gradually disappeared as the function of the badkhen became outdated.
>> >So, in fact what seems to have happened historically is:
>> >
>> >The instrumental OPSHPILNS which heralded the Badkhn gradually took on
>> >characteristics of the doina. And when the badkhns ?hamule? was no
>> >longer a fixed part of the ceremony, the  INSTRUMENTAL IMITATION of the
>> >vocal portion could also have begun to sound more and more like a doina,
>> >though a klezmer playing a bazetsns melody to the bride would be more
>> >likely to sound like a badkhen than a doina, and his audience (up till
>> >roughly the 1930?s) in eastern Europe would recognize clearly the
>> >difference, as this is not difficult when you?ve heard both (typical
>> >bazetnsn move between say D mogen ovos to F adonoy molokh to r and G
>
>RUBIN AND HOROWITZ: BESSARABIAN SYMPHONY, TRACK 15 (THIS BEGINS IN F
>ADONOY MOLOKH AND THEN MOVES TO G MOGEN OVOS THEN DOWN TO D MOGEN OVOS.
>THE BAZETSNS PATTERN IS ALSO FOUND AS A DANCE NIGUN ON TRACK 9 OF MARTIN
>SCHARTZ'S KLEZMER MUSIC 1908-1827 ARHOOLIE RECORDS   
>> >mogen ovos, Whereas the standardized doinas move from D mi shebarakh to
>> >G mogen ovos to D Mi shebarakh to G adonoy molokh to A freygisg, etc).
>
>RUBIN AND HOROWITZ: BESSARABIAN SYMPHONY, TRACK 5 (JOEL TOOK THIS FROM A
>BRANDWEIN RECORDING)
>> >The period of this transition whereby the doina was used for opshpilns
>> >begins, in my opinion, around 1900 and not much earlier. The bazetsns
>> >which uses the doina opshpilns seems to have already begun to disappear
>> >from the repertoire of the klezmorim in the Ukraine by the time
>> >Beregovski was doing his work.
>> >
>> >Beregovski writes a short paragraph about the sung part of the kale
>> >basetzns being in minor (actually Mogen Ovos) while the extended
>> >instrumental interludes between the verses were in freygish. Well, sure
>> >enough, all the recorded examples of bazetsns I had showed this
>> >characteristic. The texts were remarkably consistent in all the
>> >bazetsns, and the interludes were almost always in freygish, though
>> >varied in contour. ALMOST always. I had one bazetsns from Beresh Katz
>> >with a different modality which indicated an older type - at least
>> >that's what I think, because I think the FREYGISH interlude was the
>> >overlapping link with the Moldavian doina particularly popular among
>> >Jews around the turn of the Century, but not much earlier.
>> >
>> >Well, then we interviewed Majer Bogdanski in London (born in Piotrkow,
>> >Poland), and he sang still another interlude type. I looked at the
>> >regions of the other bazetsns, and they all came from the Ukraine
>> >(Beregovsky's region was VERY contained- west Ukraine, radius average
>> >about 200 Km), so Beregovski?s observation that the bazetsns are sung in
>> >Mogen Ovos, while the interludes are played in Freygish, while common,
>> >does not represent an exclusive type. Since both the Katz bazetnsn and
>> >that from Majer had NO Freygish interludes, we can assume that the
>> >Ukrainian type was not omnipresent and there were others.
>> >
>> >I think the bazetsns represents the oldest layer of klezmer music we
>> >know, for these reasons:
>> >
>> >1) The text and modality of the sung parts are the most static,
>> >independent of region (according to my sources)
>> >
>> >2) The static quality of the text and it's modality (Mogen Ovos- one of
>> >the oldest of the Jewish modes) are religious in nature and content, and
>> >therefore less subject to change.
>> >
>> >3) It represents the only organic use of the voice in the wedding
>> >ceremony.
>> >
>> >4) It was the first genre to disappear on American soil, indicating it's
>> >incompatibility with modern trends
>> >
>> >So I think the key to understanding a whole pile of questions lies in
>> >comparing the differences in text/modality of the sung parts (minimal
>> >variance) AND the interludes (more variance than previously assumed).
>> >The bazetsns ceremony has fairly dissappeared now, but the doina has
>> >remained as its last vestige, ironically, since it probably wasn't
>> >originally connected to the basetzns.
>> >
>> >The syncretic characteristics of the bazetsns and doina are:
>> >
>> >1) The typical doina used makes use of a simple and concise formula
>> >which can be completed quickly as the badhkn indicates.
>> >
>> >2) That type of doina was simply very popular and widespread (at the
>> >expense of the more interesting ones, perhaps)
>> >
>> >3) The modality of that doina corresponds sycretically with Mi shebarakh
>> >prayers.
>> >
>> >The whole of our knowledge about whether or not Jews played Taxims is
>> >based on a sketchy statment that Beregovsky made when one of his
>> >informant stated that they were unfortunately not played anymore, and
>> >Jews only play doinas now. What that was supposed to mean in musical
>> >terms we'll never know, because we don't have a reference point for the
>> >Jewish taxim. We don't know if they were played commonly, occasionally
>> >or infrequently. Nor do we know what could have been meant by the term.
>> >The nominal taxim is played mainly in southern Romania. The rest of
>> >Romania plays doinas, and many different kinds. There are a few
>> >different modulation schemes which were used by Jews, but these
>> >represent a mere fraction of what was, and still is played all over
>> >Romania (why is everybody talking about doinas in the past tense? They
>> >are still quintessentially Dacian expressions). Because the Jewish
>> >doinas were already standardized by 1920, they became known as the
>> >*Jewish Doina* The schemes are limpid in comparison to what else exists
>> >and what is possible. People seem to forget that, while the modal
>> >modulation used in doinas is very limited, the motives used have very
>> >specific functions, and while flexible, are also recognizable at any
>> >moment. Therefore there are opening motives, connecting motives,
>> >episodal motives, closing motives, and motives which signal a change of
>> >modal area. This type of musical thinking is absolutely necessary to
>> >complete the ritual portions of the wedding, where musicians had to
>> >communicate non-verbally - another reason for adopting it. Gypsies still
>> >use motives when playing to indicate anything from, check out the cute
>> >girl to the left of the Primas, to watch out, here comes the Balaboste,
>> >etc.
>> >
>> >If the doina were played at table, it's function would be emotional, and
>> >I'm convinced that one of the long lost vestiges of the klezmorim was
>> >the ability to weave zmiros motives into their improvisations in order
>> >to please religious members of the audience (thereby of course getting
>> >more tishgeld). In fact I would go so far as to say that many dances
>> >which formed came out of these improvisations. The *sher* technique,
>> >cutting and pasting motives from various dances to form a chain, uses
>> >the technique, so you no longer have a typical AABB or ABCBA dance form,
>> >but a chain form, AABBCCDDEEFF etc. Though the shertants is relatively
>> >new, the technique used in it's construction is probably quite old.
>> >
>> >The doina was never a lullaby for sheep (why do I picture all those
>> >fluffy creatures snoozing on a green pasture?) One of my field
>> >recordings from Radioia Romania is a doina of violin and tsimbl. There
>> >is virtually no difference between this and the myriad Doinas you hear
>> >played by Jews on those old 78's. I would love to hear comments on this
>> >theme, because in truth, I don't feel I know what I'm talking about-
>> >just rambling on and on. So stop me, please. Josh Horowitz
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> 
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