Re: Slow hora, slowing down...

[Joe Kurland <ganeydn...>]

While there is a Romanian dance to music with this rhythm, I've 
suspected that the Jewish use of the music was traditionally 
something else.  My only clues are these:
        1.  "Firn di mekhutonim aheym"  means leading the parents of 
the bride and the groom home.  Presumably these are people old enough 
to be a bit tired after dancing through a wedding and so might be 
walking rather slowly. Feels kind of good to walk at one step per 
measure.
        2.  In Yidl Mitn Fidl, in the wedding scene, the bride does 
her seven circles around the groom under the khupe to a Roumanian 
Hora.

This evidence is not conclusive, of course.  Titles were given to 
recordings with no need for them to have anything to do with what the 
music was used for.  There's no certainty that movies reflected 
reality.  But considering that the movies were made in Eastern Europe 
with American stars and European extras, there's a good liklihood 
that these scenes reflect something of the tradition.

Khupe marches (e.g. by the Boiberike Kapelye) were much more lively 
than what a lot of people like  for processionals these days.  I 
suspect that the dignified processional is borrowed from the 
surrounding culture, and that the older Jewish tradition was more 
like the exuberant singing and clapping with which the groom is led 
from the khosn's tish (groom's table where the ketuba is signed) to 
the badekn (veiling), continuing on the the khupe.

Zayt gezunt (be healthy),

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.WholesaleKlezmer.com



At 1:57 PM -0400 6/3/00, HNetsky (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
>You're right that slow horas have slowed down in the revival.  Part of this
>is the fact that pieces like "Firn" are used so often now as dramatic concert
>showpieces (the dance doesn't enter into the discussion).  Also, slow horas
>have become popular as wedding processionals, and most people in that
>situation seem to be in no hurry.
>
>In Philly the old guys make a distinction between horas (like Kandel's hora)
>and volakhs (like Oriental Hora) - the volakh is the slow one.---Hankus
>

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