Re: Jewish music crafts and guilds

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

At Iasi in 1835, Itsic Tsambalagiu (or Zimbler, in germanicized 
Yiddish) was the _staroste_ (leader) of the musicians' guild. They 
had their own synagogue. This is from Poslusnicu's _Istoria musicei 
la Romania_ (1929).  (Incidentally, do you think "leader" is an 
adequate translation for this word, which appears in various Slavic 
languages? "Provost" is a possibility.)

In regards to the 1629 Lemberg/Lviv agreement: Majer Balaban says 
the Jewish musicians were part-time musicians, but that this 
agreement indicated increased demand by gentiles for Jewish 
musicians. Incidentally, I think that at this time Jewish musicians 
were adapting (or rather, had already adapted) the instrumentation of 
the two groups of Christian professional musicians of this city, who 
were known as "Italians" and "Serbs" (or "Sorbs"). They took the 
_cymbal_ from the "Serbs" (who got their name from the so-called 
"serbska" fiddles that they played---a form of the Byzantine fiddle, 
or lira da braccio (not the _gusla_, by the way). They commonly used 
two of them with cymbal; they also played the hurdy-gurdy (lira) and 
fipple flute, or _szyposze_), and violins and bass from the 
"Italians," basically exchanging the "serbska" fiddles for violins.  
The "Italians" (who were named not after their nationality, but after 
the style of music they played) played in churches and at court and 
read music; the "Serbs" played at weddings and banquets. Sources here 
are Karol Badecki, Aleksandra Szulcowna, and Barbara Szydlowicz-
Ceglowa, plus some other obscure Polish references (sorry for 
the vague citations; proper ones will appear in the chapter on the 
history of the cimbalom family, in my forthcoming book on dulcimer 
history, published by Scarecrow Press).

Paul Gifford












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