Re: recorders and Jewish instruments

[Hope Ehn Dennis Ehn <ehn...>]

Judith Cohen wrote:

> I think that unless it's a clear case, like the tsimbl, an instrument
> becomes "Jewish" when played as part of Jewish life (Ashkenazi or
> otherwise), when it acquires, in that context, a style which
> distinguishes it from other styles. Klezmer violin is Jewish. Concert
> violin, I would sugggest, is not, even if many high-profile
> professionals have been/are  Jews.  I would imagine that when the viol
> was played by Jewish musicians in Renaissance ensembles it was no more
> Jewish than the music composed for it. If they took their viols to, say
> a wedding, then I imagine the viols became viols played 16th century
> local Jewish style. Sounds nit-picky but I think we shouldn't be too
> glib about identifying this and that as "Jewish".

I don't think we know for sure what specifically Jewish music was played
by Jews in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, but it is most
likely that for playing that music, they used the instruments of the time
-- such as recorders and viols. Most of the instruments we now associate
with Klezmer music -- saxophones, pianos, clarinets, accordions, etc. --
did not exist then. (The only exception to this statement is the 
trombone, then called the sackbut.) 

The fact that Jews were known to play recorders and viols in other
contexts strengthens the likelihood that these instruments were what they
used also for playing specifically Jewish music. There is some evidence
that at least in Italy, Jewish musicians were hired for non-Jewish
weddings. If non-Jews went out of their way to hire Jews, this would
suggest that they wanted a kind of music that only Jewish musicians
played, and that non-Jewish musicians did not know. For a wedding
celebration, this would probably have been Jewish dance music. This does
not mean, of course that dance music was the only genre of Jewish music. 

Hope Ehn                <ehn (at) world(dot)std(dot)com>

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