Re: Jankowski Tsimbl / Alcock Sticks

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

<ro (at) panix(dot)com> wrote:

>Last summer I bought a Jankowski instrument, and he provided his
>style of sticks, which are very different from cimbalom or
>tsimbl sticks.   Several good tsimblists felt they were not
>appropriate for the Jewish sytle (which is not to say they are 
>bad sticks, they're kind of neat.  Just not appropriate for the 
>style).

Just a comment here---maybe the subject's too specific, but perhaps 
it's of interest.  Such things as sticks can be individualized and
adapated, and that's OK, but as far as describing the _traditional_
use and style, that's another thing. If Jewish tradition on the
instrument is considered to be in the same areas as the Belarussian,
Ukrainian, and Rzeszowskie traditions (Galician, etc.), and certainly
Rzeszow playing seems to have derived from Jewish tradition before 
World War I, then Jankowski's sticks are indeed more "Jewish." These
vary, but are bare wood; the Belarusian are longer and don't have the 
holes for the index fingers that some of the Ukrainian and Rzeszow 
hammers do.

The Hungarian variety, padded with cotton, is used in Romania and 
Greece, though for the tzambal mic and santouri, they are usually 
shorter.

Conversation on this list before pointed out the hand-damping 
technique used in Ukrainian tsymbaly playing, which is different than 
that used on the old Hungarian cimbalom without pedal, or Romanian 
instrument. I can't say if there are any recordings, though maybe 
there are some of the Ukrainian-Canadian players.

So if "Jewish" style refers to Galician, as with the recordings made 
in Lviv, then short wooden sticks, without padding, would be 
traditional. This isn't meant to knock Gillian's hammers, however 
(incidentally, it sounds like she is making them like a Detroit 
cimbalom maker, Alex Sagady, did thirty and more years ago).

Paul Gifford

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