Fwd: Re: Very first klezmer recordings

[Sam Weiss <SamWeiss...>]

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>From: Kurt Bjorling <KB (at) muziker(dot)org>
>To: Sam Weiss <SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net>
>quoting Paul Gifford:
> >> With regard to the "Mihai Viteazul" record, it should be
> >> noted that it is clearly a Jewish, rather than Romanian
> >> group that is playing.  I don't know the record details,
> >> but Mihai Viteazul was a prince who in 1600 united Wallachia,
> >> Moldavia, and Transylvania.  Either the record company used
> >> the pseudonym in order to market it to Romanians or perhaps
> >> it was the band of the "Mihai Viteazul" Regiment, or something
> >> like that.  I do have a recording of a Romanian military
> >> band from 1906 or 1908 playing a medley of Romanian tunes,
> >> and it definitely has more of a standard military band sound.
> >>
> >> Another interesting point (from Jeffrey Wollock's article
> >> in the ARSC Journal about early European klezmer recordings),
> >> that most of the recordings were by what appeared on the
> >> label as "Romanian Orchestra" (like "Romanian Orchestra of
> >> J. Belf"), is that Romanian Gypsy orchestras were quite
> >> popular in Russia at that time and appeared on record,
> >> like Goulesco's Romanian Orchestra.
> >>
>
>I am confused about the main point(s) of
>this message, maybe because I am not following the whole thread.
>But given what I have here, I feel like commenting as follows:
>1. I am interested to know how the band on the early 'Viteazul / Viteatso"
>recording is known to be clearly Jewish.  There is nothing in the musical 
>or stylistic content which indicates this to me, but maybe there is some
>history which I don't know.
>2. Regarding the reference to the Belf Orchestra - "most of the 
>recordings" - Which recordings?  Is this saying that Belf's Orchestra was 
>a Romanian gypsy band? or that they actually came from Romania? (They 
>probably didn't) I think J. Wollock's article makes it pretty clear that 
>Romanian
>(specifically Moldavian) music was very popular among Jews in Poland where 
>the Belf records seem to have been made and that labeling them as 
>"Romanian" or "Oriental" was, at the time, a well-understood euphemism for 
>"Jewish".  The fact that most of the Belf records are titled in Yiddish 
>(written in Cyrillic characters) reinforces this point.
>By the way - the labels on the Syrena records by Belf's Orchestra indicate
>"Romanian Orchestra under the direction of V. Belf" (Not J. Belf).  Some 
>of
>us who tinker with this stuff suppose that V. is for Velvel (or Volf
>(Wolf)).
>Kurt Bjorling
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Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ


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