Re: Jewish music crafts and guilds

[Gerben Zaagsma <gerbn...>]

Catching up with my email and saw this discussion on the guilds.. Very
interesting subject; to start with a little self-promotion :-) > Ari has
been so kind as to put an english translation of a small article I wrote on
the Prague guild on his klezmershack.

I'd like to add some things here. Documents on the so-called petition war
mentioned below were published by Nettl in Alte Jüdische Spielleute und
Musiker  (Prague 1923) 49-55 and 'Die Prager Juden-Spielleutezunft' in:
Paul Nettl, Beiträge zur böhmischen und mährischen Musikgeschichte (Brünn
1927) 70-92. Part of this material (but not all) was also published in:
Salme's Juedische Musikanten und Taenzer. Good to see Wischnitzer has been
checked out btw, when I checked it a year ago I only saw something on
Prague if I remember well.. There's simply hardly any info in print on the
guilds and it's a good thing Nettl took the trouble to write about the
Prague guild, apparently realising this was an important chapter in jewish
music history.

Regarding regulations some interesting sources have been published by Wilma
Iggers in 'Die Juden in Böhmen und Mähren. Ein historisches Lesebuch'
(München 1986). She mentions an Anti-Luxus Gesetz from the Prague Jewish
community (about 1760) which has some regulations on musicians playing at
weddings. Iggers, by the way, points out that the 'Gesetz' illustrates the
way of life in middle-upper class jewish circles. The regulations were
rather strict I think, although Josh probably can judge better how strict
they were in comparison to other places. A rough translation of one of the
regulations which deals with weddings:

"Dance music in the wedding week is only allowed sunday afternoon until 9
pm. The bridegroom is not allowed to go around in a festive procession on
the evening before the wedding. Diner on the evening before the wedding is
meant only for the next of kin and should be ended by 10 pm in winter and
12 pm in summer. He who pays less taxes than 100 fl. is not allowed to give
this diner nor have music. On the wedding day everybody can have music, but
not more than four players. At the wedding diner only 15 male and 6 female
guests are allowed, not including the next of kin." There follows a bit
more on what the really rich can do.My knowledge of Jewish Prague is not
big enough to analyze this in-depth but I guess one reason for trying to
keep weddings a bit "low profile" has to do with the fact that only 20-25
years earlier the Jews of Prague had been baned from the city by Maria
Theresa which supposedly had something to do with a big festive procerssion
the Prague Jews held in 1741 in honour of the birth of Josef II. Among the
participants were musicians of the guild. Wolf in his 'Fahrende Leute'
writes that in the procession also were "the Jewish Spiel-leute with the
big guild pot/ can [? 'Kanne' in German] and a .. [Zettul] on which was
written the word Vivat, on the [Hute]. One of them was an 80 year old man,
dressed up as a woman, who blew the bassoon."
Sometimes there were secret gatherings, for example, a Purim ball with
music and dance in 1799 (mentioned by Iggers). No festivities were allowed
since Purim coincided with Easter that year. The matter was investigated
and the house owner had to pay a fine, the musicians were punished with 12
hours 'Arrest' (interesting detail; a police officer who hadn't immediately
reported the matter was also disciplined). Iggers also has another
reference to Purim, someone's memories of a Purim play he attended (Josh
this might be interesting for your Purim research?? It's at pages 113-117)
and the role a Jewish violinist played there, nicknamed Itzig Fiedele.
People sang a song about him to tease him:

Itzigel Fiedele,
Sing' mir a Liedele!            Sing me a song
Spiel' mir a Taenzele,  Play me a dance
Praeger Schwaenzele!    Prague drip

I'm beginning to become a bit of a citing machine I notice.. More another time,

Gerben

btw: Josh, my memory is probably declining due a drink and the nice summer
weather here but: what earlier positing of me are you referring to (did I
say that? Boy..)




>-- 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
>> ________________________________________________________________________
>> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>>
>>
>



--------------------------

Gerben Zaagsma
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The Netherlands
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