Jews with tsimbls in Greece

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Hi Paul,

I want to respond (below) to the following comments you write below
about the hypothesis that Jews brought the tsimbl to Greece, as I was
not able to when you originally posted. I wrote:

"Also, it was used in Smyrniac Rembetiko (Last I talked to Marty
Schwartz, he thought this was because some of the instrumentalists who
played Rembetiko may have been Jewish) I think it's simply another case
of pan-Balkan motive sharing, though."

and You responded:

"I don't know, Josh----how did Greeks near Smyrna end up playing the
santouri, held up by a neck strap, in wedding processions, and why was
the violin/santouri/cello ensemble sort of standard in Smyrna in the
1910s (for example, on early recordings of Marika Papagika)....probably
didn't come from Ottoman influence. What about the 40 Jewish refugees
from Romania who settled in Smyrna in 1892 (see Avram Galante's
history)? They seem like the logical source for things like that."

So here's the continuance of my response:

That's a great historical detail, but I think you would have to know
their occupation to draw the connection to the tsimbl coming from their
presence. I'm wary of attributing the use the sandouri/tsimbl in Smyrna
(or anywhere for that matter) etc. solely to Jews just by virtue of the
fact that they played them. Gypsies have an equal claim to that as an
ethnic group, and since the santur is the backbone of the Persian
classical ensemble, we would also have to mention the Persian minorities
living in Smyrna as a possible source also, wouldn't we? Demography is
important to consider, but not enough to attribute cause and effect. 

In fact, the santur was played as early as the 15th Cent in Turkey (See
Zev Feldman's excellent book, Music of the Ottoman Court) and it was
used frequently in the Ottoman court music of the 17th Century, but
began a rapid decline with the emergence of the modern Turkish system at
the beginning of the 19th Century, because it's construction could not
play the 25-odd discrete notes required in the new system. Santuri Hilmi
Bey (ca. 1820-1895) originally played the Ottoman santur before
switching over to the Romanian Tambal mic, which should give us an
indication when the modern chromatic tuning was being passed around
eastern Europe. The Ottoman occupation of Greece ended in 1821. At this
time, Jewish nightclub musicians in Turkey were still  playing the
Turkish Santur. The last virtuoso of the Turkish santur was  Santuri
Edhem Efendi (1855-1926), but he played the *a la Franca santur*
(Turkish term for anything coming from the west) a hybrid instrument
which was a cross between the santur and Romanian tambal mic. 

In Greece itself, Foevos Anoyanakis, in his book *Greek Musical
Instruments* writes: that according to Eduard Daniel Clarke, who
travelled to Greece in 1802, the dulcimer was already widely diffused in
Greece, and said, *Very few Greeks knew the proper way to play the
dulcimer*. I wouldn't take this as meaning that Jews did, however. He
could have been ethnocentrically comparing it to the, uh, refined
playing style of the British Isles, as opposed to the near eastern music
of Greece.

In Smyrnaic Rembetika, Marika Papagika was usually accompanied by her
husband, Kostas on the Tsimbalo, and wasn't Jewish. Other Rembetiko
sandouri or tsimbalo players were Dimtros Atraidis, Kostas Kanulas,
Kostas Tzovenos, none of whom have traceable Jewish names (and if they
did, this would also say nothing of origins of their instruments).
Following the fall of Smyrna in Greece in 1922, the sandouri fairly fell
out of use. According to the period indicated by your mail, Paul (i.e.
Jews settling in Smyrna in 1892) and the demise of the sandouri in that
region in 1922, this would give us a much too short sandouri shelf-life
of 32 years (or should I say shoulder life - actually players of the
Cafe Aman style placed them on tables, but you're right, the wedding
players hung them around their necks). 

One possible connection to the *Jewishness* of the chromatic tuning
system (but not the instrument as such, because the instruments had been
in existence long before the new tunings arrived) i.e. the family of
tunings found in southern Romania-Belorussia-Galizia and Smyrna, is that
it's most powerful agent might have been Michael Joseph Guzikov, a Jew
from Shklov Belorussia, who played flute and tsimbl, then switched to
his wood and straw instrument (an early xylophone layed out a bit like a
glockenspiel) ca.1830 which either he or his teacher Jacobowski
developed from a  G-major based instrument to a fully chromatic one.
(cymbalom makers in Hungary will tell you that only the small
instruments (Kis Cymbaloms) that are G-based, are correctly tuned, even
if teachers lower the tuning down to an F, which is not uncommon). The
instrument spread via Guzikov's famous trans-European concert tour of
1835. Later we hear that Vitebsk, Belorussia became the Jewish center
for tsimblists, and indeed, the modern national Belorussian instrument
retains the chromatic tuning which is almost identical to the tuning
family mentioned above, and Guzikov has not been totally forgotten
there, either. Also, Guzikov's xylophone tuning became the established
standard in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (which Mendelssohn
conducted). And Yes, Guzikov was acknowledged for this as well, proven
by Otto Seele, the Orchestra xylophonist who credits Guzikov with
spreading that tuning in a late19th Century Xylophone method. Whether
Guzikov's tuning had anything to do with Wenzel Joseph Schunda's
development of the modern Hungarian cymbalom tuning in 1874, may never
be known. There are striking similarities though, and both systems are
also related to the southern Romania-Belorussia-Galizia-Greek sandouri
chromatic tuning family. However, since there are earlier examples of
chromatic tuning systems (i.e. 17th Cent) in north central Europe, i.e.
pre-Guzikov I don't think we can actually even say with any certainty
that any one ethnic group is responsible for transmission of forms or
ideas. It's a complex neuron network of facts, too elusive to make broad
conclusions from, as attractive an idea as it is.
What do you think?

I want to also respond to your comments on the doina again, but  later. 
Josh Horowitz

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