Re: kobza

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

Seth Austen <seth (at) sethausten(dot)com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Jeff,
> 
> I am curious as to where you found and purchased the kobza. Were you able to
> find one in the US, or are they only available in eastern Europe? I'd
> appreciate any information you could provide regarding this instrument.

I don't know how Jeff got a cobza, but I would guess they are hard
to come by. My friend, Nicolae Feraru, a cimbalom virtuoso who lives
in Chicago, got his friend Ion Laceanu to bring one to the U.S., which
I bought. He got it from Vasile Strimbeanu, who's about the only 
professional cobzar in Bucharest. It's tuned like a mandolin, the G 
course being tuned two octaves apart, the D and A an octave apart, 
and the E course in unison. Nicolae's father played it, so he knew the
basics---it's traditionally played with a goose quill, the point cut 
and folded back and tied with string. I bought a live goose and 
eventually used the feathers up. However, a flat pick probably works 
better. Mine looks to be about 60-70 years old. I don't know about 
currently made instruments. It is virtually extinct in parts of 
Romania, but I guess some non-Gypsies in Moldavia or Bucovina use it, 
including even some women singers. In southeastern Romania it was 
strictly an instrument for lautari. When in play, the hand is at a 
right angle to the forearm. The Romanian spelling is "cobza"; the 
Ukrainian "kobza," formerly used by the gentry there, is obsolete. In 
Moldova, the cobzas used in the ensembles in the pictures I've seen 
are "modernized," with a flat back, and have a different sound. The 
article by I. Kara at the Di Naye Kapelle website mentions Jewish use 
in the past. In the southeast, they usually play *tiituri* 
(accompaniment patterns) on it, the same as the t,ambal. For some 
reason, the soloists on record seem to like to play geamparalele in 
7/8 as solos. So I'd say go to Bucharest and contact Strimbeanu, 
maybe by going to the musicians' *bursa* at the restaurant 
in Cismigiu Park Thursdays around 2 to 5 in the afternoon (where 
people come to hire them for weddings), or whenever it is, and tell 
them Haliciumba sent you. It probably wouldn't be hard to find one, 
since they have them and no longer use them.

Paul Gifford

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