Re: tsvay strunes

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

Joe Kurland <ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com> wrote:

> If you don't want to ruin a good 
fiddle, you can get a reverse curve bow
> and leave the bow hair rather loose.  This way you can play 3 strings at
> once without flattening the bridge and switch to your regular bow for
> playing melody.  Search for a Baroque bow or a Greek lyra bow to get one
> with a reverse curve.

But, even though a lot of people these days are familiar with the 
three-string Transylvanian-style viola, some of us are still more
familiar with four-string violas played by Gypsies of Slovak or 
Hungarian background. They mostly play on two strings. The musician
Gypsy community of Detroit (ancestors came from Saris, Slovakia, late 
19th century) always had such viola players, but the last one died a 
few years ago, the arch-top guitar mostly having replaced it. 

Another possible survival is the second fiddling of Volga Germans,
still done in the '20s in Colorado, but I don't know whether anyone
out there still plays it. I think that both this and Hungarian Gypsy 
styles (or rather instrumentation) derive from Bohemian Jewish styles 
of the 17th century.  The Volga Germans held it sideways, like the 
Hungarian Gypsies. Their ancestors came mostly from Hesse in central 
Germany in the 1760s, and they preserved a style which died out in 
Germany itself.

Nobody's mentioned that "tsvay strunes" is the Turkish chifte telli,
also used in Romania.

> Now here's a question.  In Hungarian Gypsy fiddling, I understand that
> sekund refers to counter melodies and Contra refers to the chording.  How
> did sekund become the word for chording in Jewish fiddling.

I can't answer the second, but in Hungarian Gypsy music, at least 
among American Gypsies, "tenor" is the term used to describe the part 
which plays parallel harmony with the primas, or lead violinist. 
Maybe Josh can say what the Hungarian term is. This is a relatively 
recent development, like mid-19th century, probably associated with 
Viennese waltz music. In 19th century American dance music, "second" 
fiddling was pretty common, rhythmic chordal playing. How this relates
to other traditions is a bit mysterious. 

Nettl's list of Prague musicians about 1650 (in Walter Salmen's book) 
shows that there were four groups, each with two violins, cimbal, 
bass, and harpsichord, at least the way I interpret it. Based on later 
practice, one might interpret that the harpsichord was used in 
relgious services, the cimbal substituting for it at dances, taverns, 
etc. Then of the two violins, one played the melody, and the other an 
accompaniment (chords, drones). There may be Italian influence 
at work here, if there is early 17th-century evidence for chordal
playing in the second violin part. The influence could also be coming 
from the two-fiddle music popular in the 16th and earlier 17th 
century around Lvov and in Moldavia. These fiddles were called 
"serbska" and probably equivalent to the lira da braccio (or Sorbian 
"husla," Polish "smyk," etc.), all of Byzantine origin. 

What about the terms "primas" and "kontras"? I've seen the term 
_Primgeiger_ in old German texts. Obviously this comes from violino 
primo, first violin. But it would be interesting to know how "kontra" 
got in there.  Presumably Yiddish "sekund" would derive from "violino 
secondo." Thus the origin may be due more to Italian than to Galician 
influences.  Any ideas?

Paul Gifford


t wanted to mention that Steve Greenman has been playing 
tsvay strunes
> >(though I can't recall the tuning he uses) with his new group Khevrisa 
> >(Steve,
> >Zev Feldman, Stu Brotman & MIchael Alpert).  As Ari has mentioned, there
> >will be
> >an album coming out shortly.
> >
> >>>> Joshua Horowitz <horowitz (at) styria(dot)com> 09/12/99 11:41am >>>
> >> May I second that? (Now where can I get an old viola?)
> >> Lucy
> >
> >Hi Lucy,
> >
> >even if your parenthetic question was rhetorical in nature, I want to
> >say that it's a great idea to get into the intricacies of contra
> >playing. In eastern Europe, although almost every good primas can play
> >contra (Yidd. Sekund) as well (Some Gypsies only let their kids play
> >contra for years before they are allowed to melody in the ensemble), the
> >job of contra playing is a full-time one. Our contra player ONLY plays
> >contra (okay, he is also the cook of the band). The difference between
> >playing with him and playing with musicians not familiar with the
> >full-time job of contra playing is that he accepts his position in the
> >band (poor unwitting soul) and never says "I'm bored and want to do
> >something else." He's responsible for coordinating breaks with the
> >cello, voicing the chords to support what's happening in the melody,
> >solidfying tempo changes and determining articulation of the rhythm
> >through broad bowings or short bowings, etc, and suggesting alternate
> >harmonies. It really is a job, and it would be great to see folks in the
> >klezmer scene take the time to find a good contra player to find out
> >what a seemingly simple job really entails. If you have a Hungarian
> >community in your area, check out if there are any bands playing (they
> >have developed the job of contra to an artful science). It would also be
> >great to see someone learn how to play the Jewish *tsvay strunes* style
> >(2 string style), which involved taking the high E string of the violin
> >and tuning it DOWN to the A an octave below the A string, filing an
> >extra notch in the nut so as to move the string closer to the A string
> >to enable playing both of the strings at the same time and playing
> >melodies sempre glissando. You can hear this technique played a bit by
> >Abe Schwartz on the Doina portion of the well-known National Hora. It is
> >a very dissonant string sound, and noone in the scene has yet had the
> >patience or (am I allowed to say) courage to *ruin* their violins to
> >develop this technique. And if you can't find an old viola, take the
> >plunge and ruin your present axe. It's still more fun than playing
> >obbligato lines in the Mozart Klarinet Konzert...
> >
> >In spite of the notion that modernization of klezmer music has brought
> >more
> >*dissonance* to the music, in fact the opposite is true in my opinion.
> >The regularity of beat, roundness of tone, the replacement of
> >non-harmonically oriented passages with colorful harmonies, the
> >replacement of ambiguous cadential chords with clear ones and the
> >uni-modal harmonization of formerly poly-modal passages in many modern
> >reworkings of neo-traditional klezmer music has resulted in an end
> >result which is actually more consonant than the older klezmer styles.
> >
> >When I studied counterpoint privately in Boston with Hugo Norden, olav
> >ha shulem, I remember him once saying that the counterpoint books of
> >today got everything wrong by teaching students to use dissonance
> >sparingly and correctly. An in-depth analysis of Bach's music will often
> >show that his most moving pieces have an extremely high density of
> >dissonance, as this is where the music derives its emotional power from.
> >And dissonance need not always be treated correctly to be effective.
> >There are parallels....Good luck!  Josh
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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