Re: A QUERY

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

wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com wrote:

> From: Klezcorner (at) aol(dot)com <Klezcorner (at) aol(dot)com>:

> >Theodore Bikel lived and traveled with Gypsies for an extented period
> of time.
> >
It should be noted that Gypsy musicians (whether in Hungary, Romania, 
or Ukraine) are sedentary. Either Bikel toured as a part of a 
performing troupe (such as with Russian Gypsies playing for White 
Russian exiles) or lived with nomadic groups that did such work as 
blacksmithing, cleaning pans, making troughs, etc. The former seems 
more likely to me.

Incidentally, before 1917, Romanian Gypsy ensembles were very popular 
with the Russian aristocracy. Russian Gypsy singers and choruses were 
also very popular, but they weren't instrumentalists (apart from using 
the guitar and tambourine). This fashion seems to have begun in the 
1880s, and continued in exile at places like the Scheherezade 
Restaurant in Paris and the Maisonette Russe in New York into the 
1940s. I've wondered whether these ensembles might have been 
responsible for the introduction of such eastern Wallachian tunes as 
"Doina Oltului" and "Ce mai foc si ce mai jale" into the Jewish 
repertoire, but who knows. Gregor Serban, of Holland, has a webpage 
with some old pictures of his father's group---they were Romanian 
Gypsies who went to Russia and then western Europe.

Paul Gifford

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