Re: Gusikow's music

[Marlene Segelstein <cookfidl...>]

Josh Horowitz asked me to post this.

Cookie Segelstein

Guzikov's fame rested upon his elaborations on the works of Weber, Hummel,
Hoffmeister, Paganini, etc. Yes, his concert programmes did include
*Fantasias and Variations* on Polish, Russian, French, German and even
Jewish folk tunes, but these were generally played as encores or as the last
pieces on his program. He could not have penetrated the upper crust as he
did with these alone, but rather used them for effect.

Guzikov's fame as a legendary klezmer today has rested upon scant,
hopeful statements by Idelssohn and Beregovski, who tried to raise the
status of Jewish folk art by using Guzikov as a *klezmer who made it
big.* Neither Idelsohn nor Beregovski researched and analysed what kind
of music Guzikov's fame rested upon, nor were their explanations as to the
multifarious reasons for his popularity by any means complete.

There is no evidence whatsoever which points to Guzikov's music having
entered the general klezmer repertoire of the 19th century, in spite of the
speculative claims made by Ottens/Rubin, who, in their chapter on Guzikov in
the German book, Klezmer-musik, calls him "...surely the most mysterious,
famous, and certainly most important personality who brought forth the
Klezmer genre..." (pg. 157). Even more startling is the assertion that
"...as in many similarly structured communities of Eastern Europe, the
Guzikovs, in their function as klezmorim, played an important role in the
spreading of Nigunim, not only from one Hasidic dynasty to another, but also
from between Misnagdim and Hasidim..." (pg. 159).

That's a mouthful, especially in light of the fact that Guzikov's documented
repertoire gives names only to classical works, with his National (read
Folk) repertoire consisting of usually one suite per concert of anything
from French to Russian ditties couched in a quasi classical Theme and
Variations setting. Bauerle's Theaterzeitung as well as the the Vienna
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde give accounts of these programmes. (the
publication of my biography of Guzikov was begun under the auspices of the
Academy of Sciences in Vienna, but was aborted due to lack of funds, but I
do hope to publish it eventually).

The Ottens/Rubin book, through its relentless, yet characteristic method of
selective validation of personalities deemed worthy of cult status in the
klezmer world, perpetuates many of the myths associated with Guzikov, the
most irresponsible of which is the idea that Guzikov had an appreciable
influence on the repertoire, style or fostering of klezmer music in the 19th
century or subsequent to it.

Guzikov's favored concert structure is fascinating in and of itself. Most of
his concerts were opened by local highly regarded musicians from the Hof
orchestras. Guzikov then typically made a dramatic debut, played a few
pieces, left the stage, then received a curtain call, at which time he
played his "lower" repertoire, which usually ended in a tizzy of
pyrotechnics. Rarely did he present more than a handgul of pieces on a
program, which made up half of a concert program of contemporary length. He
made himself cleverly scarce, so as never to saturate the attention span of
his audience, thereby assuring that his novelty effect could continue beyond
the constraints of one concert evening. Forced scarcity does not
characterize Hasidic nigunim by any stretch of the definition.

What I find more interesting is the fact that both Pedotser and Guzikov
placed such importance on the Variation form. In light of the fact that
this was the quintessential form for showcasing virtuosic instrumental
talent in the classical world in the early 19th Century ( as opposed to
the earlier Rococco Sonatas, Baroque Ricercares and Fugues, and
Renaissance Pavannes and Preludiae) this is interesting in that it shows
early examples of  musicians familiar with the klezmer genre with a foot in
both worlds striving to synthezise them musically, implying that the chasm
between folk and classical was not as big as some historians and observers
would like us to believe, and that the sophistication we find in klezmer
music today has a longer history than ideological depictions suggest.

Josh Horowitz 


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