RE: tsimbls in Amsterdam in the 17th century

[Gifford, Paul <pgifford...>]

Cor van Sliedregt [mailto:sliedreg (at) knoware(dot)nl] wrote:

The ethnomusicologist D.F.Scheurleer wrote an article in the magazine
Journal of the Association for the Dutch Music History (³Tijdschrift
van de
Vereniging van Nederlandse Muziek Geschiedenis² in the twenties) about
two
small books from the 17th century with details about the musical life
at
that time.

The first book ³Le Putanisme d¹Amsterdam² was published in Amsterdam
(1681)
and Bruxelles (1683), in a Dutch and French edition.
It contains the report of a businessman who wants to find
³speelhuizen²
(playhouses). A ³speelhuis² was a kind of pub/bar with live musicians
playing. 

Thanks very much, Cor, for posting this information!  It confirms what
I
believed about Ashkenazic Jews introducing the cimbaal to Amsterdam at
this time, which I wrote in my book (p. 108). A poem, Krispyn,
Musikant,
published in 1685, includes a line "I play the lute, the harp, the
_Simbaal_,
and the cittern."  The _cimbel_ is mentioned in other Dutch sources
from
about 1700 and about 1710.  There are earlier references, of course,
to the _hakkebord_, but the new term obviously reflected new
influences.

I feel pretty certain that itinerant Jewish musicians were also
finding
their way to London about this time.  There were Jewish tavern owners,
whoremasters, etc., in Covent Garden, and they would have been the
employers
of such musicians. As far as I know, there is no solid evidence yet,
but
as research into contemporary London newspapers progresses, it will 
probably turn up.  Such evidence is already there for Dublin in the
mid-18th century.

Paul Gifford

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