Re: Koboz/cobsa (long)

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

"Robert Cohen" <zaelic (at) elender(dot)hu> wrote:
> 
> The tuning used in Moldavia and by extension, in Hungary, is GDGc or AEAd 
> with 
> all kinds of combinations for the octaves. I have seen a couple of  mandolin 
> tuned ones among city musicians, but you canAEt really do the tipturi 
> patterns 
> well on them.

Thanks for all the good information. But I don't think the mandolin 
tuning makes it hard to do tiituri (the hard part for me is the right 
hand, anyway). The hardest are the super fast patterns for cintece 
batrinesti.  I learned the tiituri on the cimbalom first, then 
transferred them to cobza.  Tiituri clearly were developed on the
cobza first, and tambal players then imitated them. It's hard to
say which instrument is easier to play them on, but probably the 
cobza.
 > 
> As for Jewish cobsa, there was mention of it in early writings, but my hunch 
> is 
> that Jews used it only occaisionally, preffering the tsimbl for 
> accompaniment. 
> The fact that it remained a folk instrument in Moldavia but was elevated to 
> cafe instrument (and subsequently died out as fashion switched to 
> cimbalom/accordion)  in southern Romania may be due to the fact that Jewish 
> musicians were predominant in Moldavia and rarer in Bucharest. 

It was used in the 19th century in elevated surroundings (like with 
Barbu Lautaru, of Iasi), but as the cimbalom (no doubt adopted from 
Jews) took hold, the cobza disappeared. In Urziceni (Muntenia), there
was a cobzar around 1940. Nicolae Feraru's father came from Caracal 
(Muntenia) to Bucharest in the '30s, but I don't know if he played it
at weddings in Bucharest much. He played a small tambal in the city 
at weddings through the '60s. I played the cobza a bit with the 
Clejani lautari at my house, and asked them about it, but didn't get 
a clear answer when the last one there died.

Paul Gifford

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