Re: Jewish music crafts and guilds

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

-- Budowitz Home Page: http://www.merlinms.dircon.co.uk/budowitz/

You mean that's all Wischnbitzer has to offer in the way of musicians'
guilds?? Thanks for the checking Robert...The story of the Prague guild was
first documented by Paul Nettl in 1923. The entire 3-way letter exchange
shows a much more complicated history than Wischnitzer's quote. There was no
one answer from the Church and their response shows as much sympathy for the
Jews as it does antipathy. The Church basically responded to the requests of
both sides by bending to whoever wrote, i.e. when the Gentiles complained,
the Jews were constricted, when the Jews protested  the Church granted them
playing rights. This went on for over a decade. As Gerben Zaagsma pointed
out in an earlier posting, Prague was probably the most forward-looking of
the klezmer centers of geographical central Europe in terms of organization
(ither centers being Constantinople and Odessa, later Kiev and Iasi.  My
guess (but no proof) is that the Jewish musicians' guilds (yes, Reyzl, they
were bonafide guilds, not dynasties nor families, not clans nor gangs, we're
talking about organized guilds with statutes, fees, rules and regs and
primitive forms of insurance) which spread out among Europe after that point
were based upon the Prague model. Josh

> For those interested:  I (briefly) checked out the book (Reyzl?) mentioned,
> A HISTORY OF JEWISH CRAFTS AND GUILDS (Mark Wischnitzer). Results:
>
> There are just a few pages on musicians.  Au speaks of a band in Lwow, in
> the 1620s, that "had an arrangement w/ the local *Christian* musicians'
> guild (1629) permitting it to play at Catholic weddings and banquets, upon
> paying ten zloty to the guild and two zloty to the municipal treasury"
> (emphasis added).  Au notes a source who believes that the Church frowned on
> guild musicians [i.e., I assume, Christians] playing at weddings.
>
> "In the 16th century, persons not belonging to the Christian musicians'
> guild were forbidden to perform.  Jews were not admitted to the guild."  In
> towns owned by the nobility, Jews sometimes enjoyed a protected status,
> allowing them to play for Gentiles--though sometimes not at baptisms [what a
> loss!--rlc] and (Christian) weddings.
>
> BUT:
>
> "The Jewish musicians in Prague had a well-organized guild"--formed in the
> 17th century as a result of "clashes w/ Christian musicians, who protested
> against Jewish bands playing at Catholic baptisms and weddings, and at
> parties given by Christians on Sundays and holidays." Au reports that the
> Christian musicians' guild objected (to the Archbishop of Prague, in either
> 1641 or 1642--Au is inconsistent) to the Jews' being allowed to play at such
> occasions, "but the prelate decided in favor of the Jewish musicians."
>
> Hope this helps, which is why I looked it up--certainly not my area of
> expertise at all.
>
> --Robert Cohen
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