Re: tsvay strunes

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Theoretically, Hungarians make the distinction between the normal
4-string viola (bracs, pronounced brotsch) and the 3-string viola
(called Kontra and when referrring to the tuning, Zsido Bracs, the
latter meaning Jewish viola) There can be 2 primas' in a band, in which
case one is an *assistent primas*. The 3rd violin, called Tercprimas,
refers not to the fact that the player plays a *3rd part* but rather to
the fact that he plays 3rds or sixths with the melody, which is specific
only to cafe styles and salon music. The Tercprimas comes from western
European salon and orchestral music via Austria, Czech Republic and
Moravian music adapted to local styles. I have heard players referring
to any type of secondary violin melody part as being a secunda part.

Obviously all of the terminology is borrowed from the Italian, as all of
these terms Prima (first) contra (against) secunda (secondary)
Tercprimas (primary violin playing 3rds) Bracs (from Viola da braccio
(shoulder viola) which in German is Bratsche. 

One other name for Klezmer chordal violin is Fturke (I don't have any
idea where this term comes from - maybe it has something to do with
Turkish something or other or may come from Klezmer-lushn) The term
contra or Kontra is commonly used, because it simply means *against*
something, namely against the strong beats of the meter. When the contra
plays its chords, it's usually on the 
off-beats, hence *contra*. German folk music calls this style of
accompaniment 
*Nachschlaggeige* (lit. *after-the-beat violin*) and Hungarians call the 
off-beat playing style *Esztam*, maybe coming from the French Estampe.

As far as Jewish styles go, (underline the *s* in styles... yes, there
are different styles of Klezmer music (whoa! wait a minute! explain
yourself please!): Every kapelye has its own style, usually determined
by the primas or leader of the band. Musicologists have preferred to
call these styles by region, when in fact the more precise determination
of style has always been the ensemble itself, this in turn being
determined by the leader of the ensemble. Since any one region will have
a dominant band or bands, it always appeared as though there were
regional styles. When talking to active rural musicians, they usually
refer to the style of the primas. Styles can differ as little as by the
hardness with which the primas bows his fiddle to the entire ensemble
formation and repertoire of the group. 

So if we turn to the Belf group, we indeed get a 2 primas group, in
which the 2 primases (violin and clarinet) play the same melody in a
heterophonic style almost always in octaves. There is also a contra
violin player present in some of the recordings. 

In a double primas (2 melody situation) kapelye with a chord playing
fiddler, these would be the terms possible:

1) violin player: ershter fidler or Primas  
2) 2nd violin player playing heterophonic melody: tsvayter fidler or
sekund   
3) chord violin (fturke or contra fidler, ALSO SEKUND); chord viola
(groyse fidl)

The term sekund refers rather inexactly to any function which is
subordinate to something else. Inexactitude is also part of the picture.
In reality, musicians make themselves understood in the most practical
way possible in the situation they find themselves in. In our band we
also have a double primas situation (violin and clarinet). When the
violinist plays in the high octave, we say he's playing the primas part,
and when he plays in the low octave below the clarinet he is playing the
sekunda part. Our contra player almost always plays contra, so we say he
plays contra. Folk music doesn't take anywhere near the care in
terminology as does classical music, so while there are many established
terms, these tend to be inexact by those who use them. 

As for the development of the actual style of the contra playing on the
offbeats, it seems fairly clearly to have developed from the bordun
technique of repeating fixed notes in melody lines. I'll give an example
in minature: Take the following melody strain of the popular G major
Romanian Sirba in 16th notes, in which the D is repeated below the other
notes:

B d C d   B d C d   B d C d   B  C  C# D // B d C d   B d C d   B d A
d   G  

If the melody is split up so that one instrument plays the capital
lettered notes as 8ths exactly where they are and the other player plays
those d's exactly where they are on the second instrument, we have a
primitive kind of contra playing 

B  C     B   C      B  C      B  C  C# D // B  C    B  C    B  A   G  
  d    d     d    d      d   d     etc
  
This d need only be filled out by stacking 1 or 2 notes above it. I'm
sure you know tons of solo melodies which do this - its found in
abundance in Irish music, Scottish bagpiping or any bagpiping for that
matter, and is found in practically every folk music from here to mars.
This alternating bordun is a style of solo playing which the player
*accompanies himself or herself*. Even in Baroque music you find the
technique, which developed into what is called 
* implied counterpoint*, a technique which involves a MOVING bordun that
implies a second melody. but because it is on the unaccented beats, is
not explicitly heard. Baroque composers obviously borrowed it from
peasant dances, but these styles have been around since the middle ages
at least. Paul it's hard to say when the contra developed from this
style to the full-fledged chording. It would have to come after
functional harmony developed though, i.e. after 1700. Josh

Paul M. Gifford wrote:
> 
> 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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