Re: Need Yiddish Vocabulary for Music

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

According to Anthony Baines in _Musical Instruments Through the Ages_, the
recorder belongs to the family of flageolets, which are fipple-flutes.  He
cites as the first use of the name 'recorder':

"...in the household accounts for 1388 of the Earl of Derby, later Henry IV, *i
fistula nomine Ricordo*: 'a flute called a keepsake,' evidently from some
Italian nobleman."

Random HouseWebster's College Dictionary gives as the etymology of "flageolet:"

"[1650-60 < F. sp. var. of OF *flajolet* = *flajol* flute (< VL *flabeolum,*
der. of L *flare* to blow) + *-et* et]"

I'd like to point out, however, the similarity of the name to the Greek
*floyera* (in Romanian, *fluier*), which is the shepherd's flute.

Perhaps the term *pastukh-fleyt* is the name to choose, but this takes no
notice of the refinement and nobility brought to the recorder by Renaissance
instrument makers.

This is the best my little bookshelves have to offer. What the heck, I'll let
the folks with the letters after their names take it from here.

Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:

> Someone wrote:
> >try chaleel for recorder. the ch is like in chupa.
>
> Chaleel is Hebrew, not Yiddish.
>
> When you look at Mordkhe Tsanin's Hebrew-Yiddish Dictionary, you find the
> following definitions for the Hebrew term 'chalil':  fleyt, pastukh-fleyt
> (shepard's recorder/whistle), fayfiyol.
>
> We all know that a 'fleyt' is a flute, but the other two sound good for the
> recorder term people here are looking for.
>
> Neither Weinreich or Harkavy have a term for 'recorder'.
>
> My problems with defining recorder as 'fayfl' is that it is always used as
> the term for a whistle, all kinds of whistles, although some whistles are
> also called a 'fayf'.  The other problem with 'fayfl' for a recorder is
> that it does not differentiate itself from a 'fife', the small, high
> pitched wind instrument played with drums in military bands.
> Uriel Weinriech defines a fife as a 'dude' [Remember in Yiddish
> transliteration an 'e' is always pronounced as 'eh', not as in the English
> term dude ranch.].  We also have the Yiddish expression 'haltn zikh mit der
> dude' which means "to be left holding the bag.  This expression may suggest
> the old Yiddish term for bagpipes, which is a different instrument.  Paul
> Abelson's "English-Yiddish Encyclopedic Dictionary" (1924) defines bagpipes
> as a 'dudl-zak' or 'zak-fayf' (the latter being Harkavy's term too).   So
> now we may want to know what is a 'dudke'.
>
> In his 1908 "Complete English-Jewish Dictionary", Harkavy defines 'fife' as
> 'kver=fife' and 'fleytl' while in his 1928 "Yidish-English-Hebreyish
> Verterbukh", he defines 'fleyt' as 'flute' in English and 'chalil' in
> Hebrew.  However, he also has the following Yiddish terms:
>
> 'fayf'= fife in English and 'chalil' in Hebrew.
> 'fayfiyol'= flute in English and 'chalil' in Hebrew.
> 'fayfer'= whistler, piper in English and 'mekhalel bachalil' in Hebrew.
> 'fayfke'= blowpipe in English...
> 'dude'= pipe in English and 'chalil' in Hebrew.
> 'dudke'= pipe in English and 'chalil' in Hebrew.
>
> My home dictionary shows 5 different kinds of German recorders and none of
> these recorders look like the traditional plastic ones most kids get in
> school today or the wooden ones most people saw in Israel in the last 50
> years.
>
> It seems that there are so many different kinds of recorders, fifes, and
> whistles, that even the lexicographers couldn't tell them apart or how they
> were different.  This confusion may mean that they didn't bother to ask the
> experts.  It may also be the case that some of these instruments were used
> by the armies and not by Jews; or (2) that these instruments had limited
> use (geographic or functional) and there were not sufficient reason to for
> Jews to develop a terminology for them.
>
> We do know that:
> Sirene = siren, which should be the same as a ' liaremfayfl'
> Dampfayfl should mean a "steam whistle"  (Is there any other kind of
> instrument propelled by steam??)
>
> It would be nice to know precisely what any of the following are:
> fifak, verbl, tibye, flazsholet, hudok/gudok.
>
> No time for any more research.
>
> Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
>
> ----------
> From:  Itzik Gottesman [SMTP:itzik (at) mail(dot)utexas(dot)edu]
> Sent:  Wednesday, March 22, 2000 10:49 AM
> To:  World music from a Jewish slant
> Subject:  Re: Need Yiddish Vocabulary for Music
>
> According to Stuchkov's entry under "muzik-instrumentn, shtim" group 286,
> pages 256-257, the following are listed under the "flute" category:
> "fleyt, fyol, shtolper [klezmer language], aktavfleyt, pifero, fayfyol,
> tibye, pikolo, flazsholet" . So piccolo is listed in this group.
>
>  A paragraph later he has another grouping " fayf, fayfl, fifak, verbl,
> dude, dudke, svistok, svistshun, visl [american], fabrikfayfl, hudok,
> gudok, liaremfayfl, sirene, dampfayfl, damffayfl etc"
>
> I thought Paula/Perl's suggestion of "fayfl" for recorder was a good one.
>
> As you see, Stuchkov includes some klezmer jargon. Other terms he lists:
> clarinet - vursht (as in sausage, salami)
> fiddle - varplye
> trumpet - tshaynik [yes, as in "hak mir nit in."]
> drum- tshekal
> drummer - tshekalnik
> klezmer - labroshnik
> cantor - zhokhalnik
>
> - Itzik
>
> -----------------------------------
> Dr. Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman
> Assistant Professor, Yiddish Language and Culture
> Department of Germanic Studies
> University of Texas at Austin
> EPS 3.102
> Austin, TX 78704-1190
> NEW PHONE NUMBER (512)232-6360 work
> (512)444-3990 home
>
> NEW WEBSITE! http://Yiddishlandrecords.com
>

--
Owen Davidson
Amherst  Mass
The Wholesale Klezmer Band

The Angel that presided o'er my birth
Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth
Go Love without the help of any King on Earth

Wm. Blake


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