Re: Jewish music crafts and guilds

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

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

Gerben,

thanks for the quotes and comments. The description of the laws from the
Kahal are particularly interesting. It does seem as if every law you quoted
was designed to keep a low profile, as you said. Of course the laws within
the Jewish communities themselves were not the guilds' laws. The guilds had
to answer to both the Jewish Community as well as the Surrounding non-Jewish
community, sometimes even to the non-Jewish guilds! (hences the dues which
were previously mentioned). Certain Jewish communities were granted
autonomy, but that was the exception. In Eisenstadt, Burgenland, the
"shabbatkette" was a chained off area which sectioned off the entrances of
the ghetto. Contrary to philo-semitic assertions, the chain was designed to
keep rowdies OUTSIDE of the Jewish quarter, and not to keep Jews
"imprisoned" INSIDE. Some degree of protection was given to Jews in order to
keep violence to a minimum when pogroms were not supplying local amusement.

Gee, the quote by Wolf in his 'Fahrende Leute' which you selected sounds
indistinguishable from your average Berlin klezmer band "... 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."

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..)

My error - it was your article on the Prager Klezmorim which you sent to me.
I'd forgotten that it was posted on Ari's page and that not all of our
discussion was public. Josh

>>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
>>>
>>>
>>
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