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Sleeve Notes
In 1988, we were invited to play at the opening of the photo exhibition of Janos Köbányai, an old friend of ours. Since the theme of the exhibition was the life of religious Jews, we thought it appropriate to play some Jewish pieces. During our field trips, we had already encountered pieces which were known as "Jewish csárdás" and had also heard of "Jewish tuning" but paid no special attention to these phenomena. However, after this concert, we became involved with Jewish instrumental music. We found encouragement and guidance in the teachings of Zoltán Simon whom we were introduced to by Köbányai. Simon came from a Jewish family in Makó, one of the most important rural centers of Jewish life in Hungary. While studying composition at the Academy of Music in Budapest, Simon was encouraged by Zoltán Kodály to collect Jewish folk music at Hungarian villages. He carried out fieldwork in the Máramaros (Romanian Maramures) county of Transylvania in 1946, and later at some other places in Hungary, and the fruits of this research he shared with us.
Simon gave us some of his so-far-unpublished transcriptions. He transcribed only the melody and indicated nothing but the name of the village where the piece came from. But he also sang the pieces, so that we had an idea of the tempo, and he explained the accompanying rhythm. When we asked him about the performing style, he explained that it was no different from the style of the Hungarian ensembles of the same region, since the same group of musicians played for both Jewish and non-Jewish communities. He told us that Jewish orchestras from Máramaros often played at Hungarian weddings, and they were even invited as far as the Mezöség and Kalotaszeg regions of Transylvania. Simon suggested that we try to arrange the tunes to our best knowledge according to the style of the Hungarian village music of the region. In a few weeks we performed for him the pieces as we reconstructed them on the basis of our experience with Transylvanian music. Hearing our performance, Simon was deeply moved. "The dead notes are alive again. Only if Szabolosi could have heard this!" he said, remembering Bence Szabolcsi, the founder of Hungarian musicology, who was never able to realize his cherished plan to document the music of the Hungarian Jews.
Simon also encouraged us to continue to search for the remnants of Jewish instrumental music. He supposed that musicians who used to play for Jews before the war could still be found. "Your task is to find the link between Hungarian and Jewish folk music," he said to us. That is how we started our journey in the search of Jewish folk music. The fruit of this search is this record.
In our field trips we indeed found two excellent Gypsy musicians who regularly played for Jews before the War: Gheorghe Covaci (known as Cioata), a primás (leading violinist) from Farkasrév (Vadu Izei) of Máramaros county, and Árpád Toni, a cimbalom player from Vajdaszentivány (Voivodeni) of Maros (Mures) county.
As a child, Covaci used to play with his father who was a fine violinist. His father was the primás, while Gheorghe, then a child, accompanied him as a kontrás (second violinist). They were invited to play at weddings and dance parties. At Purim they went from house to house to entertain Jewish families with their performance. After the war, Covaci continued to play to those who returned from deportation.
Árpád Toni is the best known cimbalom player of the Maros region, a real virtuoso who is capable of playing with ease in various styles and is therefore often called upon to play for different communities. He may provide the accompaniment for the melody but he often performs solo in his inventive, improvisational style. Before the war, he was often invited to play at Jewish dance parties, especially for the Jewish community of Szászrégen (Reghin).
We talked with both Covaci and Toni several times and recorded their playing. Later we learned the pieces with them, in their style, following their instructions. The pieces of this record are from their repertoire, most of them played by all of us together. In the case of Covaci, we joined in with his usual accompanists Ioan Florea (drum) and Gheorghe Florea (zongura), both from Máramaros. In most of the pieces (tracks 1 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14) the lead part is taken by either Covaci or Toni.
Covaci's usual accompaniment, provided by the Florea brothers, consists of a drum and the so-called zongura. They use something like a snare drum, only somewhat larger and held by a strap around the neck.
A large-headed mallet is used. The jingling sound is produced by a cymbal fastened to the top of the drum and struck by a thin metal stick. The zongura is a guitar type of plucked instrument, tuned to D. Our ensemble consists of leading and accompanying violins, threestringed viola, bass and a small cimbalom.
Song Notes
Khosid Wedding Dances (Chaszid lakodalmi táncok) — According to Gheorghe Covaci, this is a "huset" dance that he often played with his father at weddings. He told us that at Jewish weddings, the bridegroom personally was in charge of the musicians. There was no advance money paid to the musician; on the contrary, the musician paid a sort of deposit to the bridegroom. In this way they were sure he would show up at the wedding, for he did not want to lose his money.
"I earned as much as I played. There was a certain fee for each song. At the wedding, we used to count the songs by marking them on a chalkboard. It often happened that the same song was requested by several people. I was lucky, I could make all of them pay for it. Only the bridegroom did not have to pay, he could request a song free."
The Rooster Is Crowing (Szól a kakas már) — This song is mentioned as the favorite tune of Gábor Bethlen in the trilogy "Erdély" by Zsigmond Móricz. Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania (1613-1629), was an unusually enlightened nobleman for his time whose tolerant politics allowed all religions and ethnic groups, including the Jews, to prosper and develop in the Transylvanian Principality. According to legend, this was the melody of Reib Eizik, the Tsaddik of Nagykálló. Bence Szabolcsi summarized the story as follows: The Tsaddik who loved nature and had a poetic vein, once set out for a walk to the nearby meadow. On his way he heard a song from a shepherd boy. He was immediately captured by its beauty and felt as if an inner voice was forcing him to learn it. He approached the shepherd boy and offered him two pennies for his song. At the moment the deal was made, the rabbi possessed the knowledge of the song. The shepherd boy, however, forgot it forever.
This song is known all over Hungary and can be considered the most popular folk song among Hungarian Jews, usually performed in Hungarian with insertions of Hebrew lines.
We play a short piece as an instrumental prelude and postlude to the song. This is based on one of Covavi's rubato pieces which he used to play with his father at Purim.
Dance From Máramaros — The melody of these pieces come from Máramarosszigeti tánc (Sighetu Marmatiei) and are known as the transcriptions of Zoltán Simon. They are played here by Árpád Toni at our request. Previously, Toni was not familiar with these tunes. They seemed to make perfect sense to him, and after he had heard them from us, he willingly performed them in his typical virtuoso style. It is interesting to note that the first tune is identical with what Zoltán Simon used for the section "hodu la-adonai" (PS. 117) of the Hallel prayer. The melody is known in different versions and occurs with various liturgical and para-liturgical texts among East-European Jews. (See the zemer No.33 "Tsur misheloi ochalnu" in Vinaver, Anthology of Hassidic Music.)
Lamenting Song (Keserves) — This piece is an example of the 'rubato' genre which makes up a substantial part of Covaci's Jewish repertoire. When we played him the piece entitled "Haneros Halelu" (see track 13 of this record), he remembered similar pieces that he used to play for Jews. He called them "Keserves", for this is the name used for improvisative rubato pieces in Transylvania. He told us how as a child, he accompanied his father on the violin while they played these "Keserves" pieces, going from house to house at Purim. His sensitive, rubato playing and the tension created by the drum accompaniment was a unique experience for us.
Ane Maamin (Ane Mamin) — Covaci knows this piece as "My Dear Mother" and according to him, those who sing it think of their mothers. He remembers that Jews who returned from Auschwitz used to sing this song weeping. He did not know the text but recalled that the same text was also performed with another melody before the War.
In reality, the title of this piece is the beginning words of Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith, part of the prayers in the daily morning service (Shaharit).
It is a well-known metric piece in moderate tempo sung with the words of the 12th section of Maimonides' text. The performing style — sensitive but unornamented violin playing with 2-voice drum accompaniment — is unique to the Klezmer tradition. (See more detailed description in the section on style, genre and function.)
I Have Just Gome From Gyula (Most jövök gyuláról) — This combines two pieces known all over Transylvania and often played at weddings and dance parties as the accompaniment to Lassú (slow) and Friss (fast) csárdás. The Hungarian texts begin with the lines "I have just come from Gyula..." and "I love Johnny so much," respectively. We included these pieces for it is known that they were often played for Jews.
Farewell To Shabbat (Szombateste búcsúztató) — Marta Sebestyén was shown this song by Zoltán Simon who encouraged and helped her to learn it. She performs this song following his singing style.
Although the song has a liturgical text, it is not liturgical music per se. Women were not allowed to lead the service — to be precentors or hazzans — nevertheless, they sang prayers at the synagogue and sang devotional songs at home. Simon did not explain the origin and the exact function of this song but it is likely to be a devotional song for women. Both the melodic and rhythmic style are related to liturgical recitative, and the motifs are consistent with the main motif of the Ahavo rabbo mode. (See the musical analysis.) Nevertheless, the strophic, symmetrical form indicates that this was a para-liturgical song rather than part of the liturgy.
Jewish Dance From Szászrégen (Szászrégeni zsidó tánc) — This piece was remembered by Árpád Toni as a favorite of the Jewish community in Szaszrégen. According to him, the Jewish dance parties always started with this number. Men and women danced it together, forming a closed circle.
The melody of this song belongs to a well known melodic type of Jewish song, variants of which can be found all over Eastern Europe. The model of this piece is the famous Yiddish song "Belz". This Yiddish melody, usually heard in parlando-rubato style, is performed here metrically with Tango-like rhythmic accompaniment.
Hat A Jid A Wejbele —This is one of the most popular songs among the Jews of Eastern Europe and was supposedly played in Hungary wherever Jews lived. Árpád Toni performed this song to us as he remembered playing it to the Jews of Szászrégen. The title of the piece is known by him as "Ite-ite babele."
Jewish Csárdás Series From Szék (Széki zsidó csárdások) — Szék (Sic) is a traditional Hungarian village of the Mezöség in Romania. Since 1950 many ethnomusicologists and musicians, including ourselves, have made it a source of material. According to local custom, the primás (leading violinist) does not perform "pieces," as it were. Rather, he plays a variety of different melodies, appropriate for the given dance, thus creating new cyclic forms on each occasion. The individual melodies (which cannot be regarded as complete pieces) are identified with the person who considers it as his or her favorite melody. In this way, the tunes are known as, for instance, the csardas of Zsuki, or the csardas of Lebedi. Some tunes of the Szék repertoire are known as Jewish csardas.
The pieces played here were collected by Bela Halmos in 1973. He heard them from István Ádám (known as Icsán, born in 1908) who was one of the best primás of the village. We know from István Ádám that Jewish families of Szék had their own special dance parties and weddings. Their dances were similar to those of the non-Jews of Szék except that the men and women did not hold hands, but established contact during the dance through holding a handkerchief. According to Adam, these melodies were played exclusively for Jews and never to Hungarians. One of them was called "orosz", meaning Russian, and is a tune known with Ukranian text from Karpathia.
Khosid Dance (Chaszid tánc) — Similar to No. 1, this piece is played mostly for dancing at weddings. According to Covaci, it accompanied a chain dance: "When we played this particular piece, they all formed a big circle, all of them, the whole family. It was easy to see how they enjoyed this moment. All of them, women mixed with men, they were all in the circle and sang and danced. This song was frequently requested at weddings."
The Greeting Of The Bride (Menyasszony-búcsúztató) — These pieces are remembered by Gheorghe Covaci as having a specific function during the wedding ceremony. He recalled that weddings were held on any day except Friday or Saturday. It was usually in the afternoon and started with the wedding feast. The slow, rubato melody that can be heard at the beginning of this number was played before they started the procession toward the synagogue. This was probably a "Kaleh Bavejnen", since according to Cavaci, it was with this piece that the bride said farewell to her parents, the parental home and childhood. "At this moment, everybody was weeping. They wept so much that some of them had their shirts all wet from their tears," he said. "Then the rabbi married the young couple in the synagogue. At that point they broke the plates, [sic] After this they proceeded to the place where they held the party and the dance. At the evening, around 9 or 10 o'clock they held up a sheet, under which the bride was led away from the dance."
According to Covaci, the dance melody that can be heard after the rubato piece was known as the "dance of the young couple." A woman from Karpathia knowledgeable about Jewish customs told us that such melodies were also used in the synagogue when the men danced with the Torah at the holiday called Simhat Torah. It was used also as a separate song, apart from the wedding ceremony. It should he also noted that melodies of the same type can be found among the Csárdás tunes of Mezöség and the forgatos melodies from Marosszék.
Haneros Halelu (Chonukka gyertyagyújtás) — We encountered this piece on the record "Klezmer Music; Early Yiddish Instrumental Music" (Folk Lyric Records 9094). It is a re-edition of an early recording (from ca. 1910) made in Europe by the violinist H. Steiner. The title means "Bless ye the candles," and is the first line of the blessing used for the lighting of the candles during Hanukkah. There is little known about the custom of instrumental music in liturgical or para-liturgical context. We know, nevertheless, that in Russia, Jewish musicians played before the lit candles on the first night of Hanukkah.
Although this item is not part of the Hungarian Jewish instrumental tradition, it was essential for our work and for the creation of this record. It was this piece that we played for Gheorghe Covaci, asking him whether he knew similar ones. By hearing this piece, he was able to recall the "Keserves" pieces which can be heard on this record.
In our performance we use the duo of the violin and the cymbalom which is without doubt one of the most traditional performing ensembles of Jewish instrumental music. This type of Jewish ensemble has been long known in Hungary among the Jews: Mihály Csokonai, the famous Hungarian poet of the 18th century, mentions the violin and cymbalom ensemble of the Jewish musicians of Toponár in his poem "Dorottya."
Farewell To The Guests — Árpád Toni used to play this short variant of track 8 at the end of dance parties, as a farewell piece to the guests.
— Péter Éri, Mihály Sipos, Daniel Hámar, Sándor Csoóri with Judit Frigyesi
The Historical Value of the Record "Máramaros — The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania"
Jews in Hungary had been, for centuries, engaged in music as professional musicians. A number of written documents testify to the existence and the excellence of Jewish instrumental musicians, the so-called Klezmorim. Yet so far nothing has been discovered of their repertoire. No recording, notation, or verbal description of specific Jewish genres of music or dances survived from the Hungarian-speaking Jewish communities. How could such a gap be interpreted? Did Hungarian Jews play exclusively Hungarian music, perhaps in a Jewish style, that did not need to be notated? Or did every trace of this tradition disappear during the Holocaust?
Contrary to the Hungarian situation, some recordings and numerous notations of Jewish music came down to us from the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, etc. territories, where Jewish communities were located east of Hungary. The main notated source of this repertoire is Beregovski's, whose fieldwork and essays on East European Jewish instrumental music are the most extensive to date. Since there was no trace in Hungary of any specifically Jewish instrumental tradition whatsoever, it was reasonable to suppose that Hungarian Jewish musicians shared a common Hungarian repertoire rather than creating their own. But in light of the material that the research of the Muzsikás ensemble brought to the surface, this supposition is not tenable any longer.
To be sure, we are far from able to draw a picture of Hungarian klezmer music, or even to reconstruct its significant genres. It is clear, however, that Jewish orchestras with a specific Jewish repertoire and performing style existed in the Jewish-Hungarian communities. According to Gheorghe Covaci in Máramaros, where 5000 families lived before the war, there were several soloists and a large orchestra. In addition, the Jewish community often hired Gypsy musicians as well. The Jewish music of Máramaros was entirely wiped out by the Holocaust: not one Jewish musician returned from deportation.
All our information about Transylvanian klezmer music comes from secondary sources; not from Jewish musicians but from Gypsies who played for Jews some 40 years ago. These musicians, Covaci and Toni, were invited and paid by the Jews for their performances — an indication that their playing was accepted by the Jewish community. In this sense their music is authentic. It is unlikely, however, that their performing style is identical with what had been characteristic of the Máramaros Jewish ensemble or that they ever knew the entire repertoire. They had little contact with either the Jewish community or with the Jewish musicians, hence they could not have a true understanding of the function of their own playing. This is clear from Covad's description of the Jewish wedding ("they broke the plates" etc.) and from their misunderstanding of the titles of the songs. Simon believed that the style of the Jewish orchestras was no different from the Hungarian instrumental style of the same territory. But it is significant that when during an interview, an unidentified recording of Jewish music was played to Covaci, he immediately recognized it as Jewish. He remembered so clearly the style of Jewish orchestras that even after not having heard any for more than forty years, he identified the style instantly. "Where did you get this from?," he asked, "I am certain... I'm hundred... thousand percent sure that this is Jewish music." But when he played Jewish pieces, he performed them in a style different from what he himself recognized as Jewish.
Clearly, Covaci and Toni can transmit to us only a small fragment of the Jewish repertoire and through a channel not entirely authentic. Yet the importance of this record and the fieldwork behind it cannot be overestimated: this material alone makes us reconsider the issue of Hungarian klezmer music. We can say now with all certainty that there existed a specific Hungarian-Jewish instrumental repertoire. This repertoire was related to the klezmer music of the further Eastern Jewish territories in its melodic and performing types, forming in this way part of a larger Jewish instrumental tradition. Yet it did not only produce a local variant of Jewish music, but had its own genres and performing styles which are not identical with either the main Jewish or the Hungarian instrumental styles.
(1) Melodic types In Eastern European folk music, we cannot always draw a clear cut line between instrumental and vocal repertoire. Particularly, the style of certain genres of Hassidic niggun (songs performed by Hassidic Jewish sects) and Yiddish songs show great similarity with some instrumental genres. It would be wrong to suppose, however, that these pieces are simply instrumental renditions of Jewish songs. Rather on the contrary: the form and the variability of these vocal melodies suggest that many of them are in fact sung versions of instrumental themes. Whatever the origin of these two repertoires could have been, it is clear that they share not only melodic types but structural features. For instance, in the case of the niggunim, we find the kind of free combination of melodic phrases that is typical of instrumental music. The fact that several of the pieces of this record were referred to by the musicians as "songs" and identified by text, does not contradict the fact that they are essentially instrumental in nature. Nor should we be surprised by the fact that the same tunes are used for dance as well as for prayer — such interchange between sacred and secular domains is not uncommon in Jewish culture.
Melodically, most pieces of the record are part of the core repertoire of the Jewish tradition. The third melody of track 11 (Hosid) of our record is known in its entirety from another Jewish source: it is almost identical with No. 176 Sher in Beregovski's collection (Yevreiskaia Narodnaia), except that in this latter the coda-like phrase is missing.
What is more important, however, is that the melodic style of our material as a whole is similar to the style known from other Jewish instrumental sources. All the pieces recorded here are based on two scale types, both common in Jewish music.
(Example 1) The first can be derived from the Seliha and the Mogen Ovosmodes of the liturgy, while the second is a combination of the Ahavo Rabbo and the Mi-sheberakh modes.
(Example II) Rather than scales, it is better to conceive of these melodies as the combination of small tonal segments indicated by Arabic numerals. In the melody, these tonal segments may be combined in various ways: for instance, a piece may contain motif 3 and 4 of both scales alternately.
When we try to understand the melodic types of this music, we should not consider entire pieces, but rather musical phrases as independent units. In instrumental music, and especially in dance music, the length andform of the piece depends largely on the occasion. If the occasion requires it, the musician can elongate the piece by adding another phrase or section. Of course, certain musical phrases are more appropriate for middle section, others are used typically for something like a Coda, and in general, there is some kind of expectation regarding the large-scale form. It is also not unusual that a piece becomes popular as it is, then transmitted without much variation. In most cases however, melodic types of this repertoire could be conceived less as prototypes of pieces but rather as a sort of structurally neutral melodic idea which may serve as the basis for a motif, pair of motifs, phrase or an entire piece.
For instance, one can consider as a melodic type the ascending fourth interval on the notes D - G. (Examples: I/1; II/1) This idea is most typical as an opening gesture and sometimes the entire piece or section of a piece is based on it. (See track 7) In some cases, the emphasis is on the open fourth interval, like track 2 and track 5. In other instances it is filled in with notes, forming an augmented second scale fragment: (C) - D -Eb - F - G (like in the coda of track 11)
Another common melodic formula is built around the notes Bb - C - D, using all possible combinations within these three notes.
(Example 113) In this type we feel a trace of the recitative style of Jewish music: motifs are formed by repetitions of notes and note groups. (See for instance tracks 2, 5, and 8)
Virtually all the motifs and phrases that can be heard on the record could be analyzed similarly having their parallels among the other pieces as well as in other categories of Jewish music. None of these melodic fragments could be linked to one mode or genre only: they are typical in several musical modes of the liturgy, occur in Jewish metric songs in liturgical, para-liturgical and secular contexts and are specially common among Hassidic niggunim, Yiddish songs and klezmer pieces.
(2) Style, genre and function: the relationship of the Transylvanian Jewish repertoire to the core repertoire of klezmer music. As mentioned before, written and recorded sources of the Jewish instrumental repertoire survived mainly from the former Russian territories. This musical material indicates a flourishing instrumental folk tradition which appears to be relatively unified its styles and genres and known by all Jewish communities within this area. The core repertoire of klezmer music consisted of (1) dances in double meter such as the freylakh, sher, and khosid; (2) various wedding themes, the majority of which were similar to a triple meter dance type (zhok or hora); (3) impro-visative pieces in free rhythm used at wedding or in other para-liturgical contexts (as the taksim or the do ina). (See Walter Feldman, "Bulgareasca, bulgarish, bulgar...")
How can we relate our material to this central repertoire? The first difference appears in the social function of klezmer music. While in the Ukraine or the Russian Empire, according to Beregovski, the most important occasion for instrumental music was the wedding. In Transylvania we find two other events that called for instrumental music: dance parties and Purim. Apparently in Hungary, instrumental music was played at Purim apart from the Purimspiel. Rubato melodies were favoured and listened to without any specific function, as a form of entertainment: Covaci remembered going from house to house with his father, playing "Keserves" pieces. Both Covaci and Toni recall Jewish gatherings with no religious function, where people got together only to sing and dance. I have heard of similar occasions from Karpathia (although more typically singing than dancing). Dance parties (sometimes called dance houses) are common among the Hungarians of Transylvania.
We find two major instrumental genres represented on the record. The first large group is those of the dances in double meter; they are called either csárdás or hosid or by the title of a song associated with the melody. These pieces are similar to the largest group of dance pieces of the klezmer repertoire: the group of frey-lakhs, shers and khosids. It is not clear whether frey-lakhs and shers were danced in Transylvania, but apparently Hungarian dances or versions of them were danced by Jews.
A significant genre of the wedding repertoire is conspicuously missing from the Transylvanian tradition: we found no example of zhok-type, triple meter pieces. Such pieces were used less for dancing than as an accompaniment to specific events of the wedding ritual such as the greeting of the bride and the parents, or processional music accompanying the young couple. The zhok had been derived from the Moldavian zhok (joc), and developed in various klezmer genres. Since this diffusion seems to have begun only in the later 19th century and essentially to the northeast of Moldova (the Ukraine, etc.), it is unlikely that it had reached Hungary at all. But we cannot say for certain whether this genre was not known in Hungary, perhaps it was only missing from the Gypsy musicians' repertoire. It is interesting however, that according to Covaci, a rubato piece was played while the young couple proceeded to the place of the wedding. So it may be that the place of the zhok was taken by rubato pieces.
The rubato pieces form an important genre of Transylvanian klezmer music. We do not know what these pieces were called by the Jews: whether Covai's usage of the word "Keserves" indicates an accepted or even a possible Jewish term for this genre. In the main klezmer repertoire, instrumental improvisations were modelled partly on the recitative style of the liturgy and partly on the instrumental improvisations of co-territorial folk music. We know, for instance, that Jewish musicians in the 19th century played an improvisatory genre called taksim. Little is known about this genre, which seems to have been derived from the Romanian tac-sim, part of the ballada (cintec batrinesc) genre, and probably with some influence of the Turkish taksim genre. Around the turn of the century, in the Jewish repertoire, the taksim was replaced by the doina, an improvisational genre of Rumanian folk music that Jews played in a manner indistinguishable from that of the Rumanian Gypsy violinists. The Transylvanian Hungarian Jew's were probably familiar with the Hungarian improvisative "Keserves" as well as the Rumanian doina. (The doina could have been transmitted to them directly by Rumanian as well as by Jewish musicians.)
The origin of the rubato pieces of this record is difficult to determine. They share certain melodic turns with the doina, while some ornamental figures may have come from Hungarian improvisative violin style. Moreover, most of these motifs and figures are familiar also from the improvisations of hazzanim and fit well in the framework of liturgical modes.
In a sense, these pieces might have been developed as a result of all of these influences. At the same time, they represent an individual style different from those found in the rubato pieces in any of the above mentioned cultures. They are less ornamental or, at least, the ornaments are slower than in most Jewish doinas. In general, they are closer to liturgical music: the slow tempo and the emphasis on note repetition appears to derive from the style of liturgical recitative. The vocal quality of the violin is also different from what is typical in Jewish music; it is a stronger, richer sound (which may be the result of Gypsy playing). Most unusual is the track 4 "Keserves " where free rhythm improvisation is accompanied by drum — a style that so far has not been known in either the Rumanian, Hungarian or Jewish music of the area. 'Two pieces of the record suggest the existence of possible Jewish genres and/or performing styles which, according to my knowledge, have not been known previously from other Jewish sources. The cimbalom dance from Szaszregen (track 8) transforms a Jewish rubato melody into a Tango by changing the rhythm of the melody and adding a rhythmic accompaniment (both realized on the solo cimbalom). The combination is so successful that it makes one suspect that more pieces might have existed in this style. I have previously heardf rom Orthodox Jews of Karpathia that they danced the Tango at weddings but no specific music was ever recorded. This piece may have been used by Jews to dance Tango. It illustrates the method by which Jewish dance music was created by transforming Jewish pieces to suit a non-Jewish dance type.
The piece called "Ane Maamin'' (track 5) is also unique. Although the melody is well-known (it is a 20th century Lubavitcher niggun), instrumental renditions of slow metric pieces of this type without function at a wedding or dance is not known in klezmer music. The melody and the slow tempo relates this piece to the most noble niggunim; those which were sung at festive moments at the table of the Tsaddik or those which were used to reach the state of devekut (called Tish niggun and devekut niggun, respectively). (Compare this piece to No. 72, 73 in Vinaver, Anthology of Hassidic Music.) Although these niggunim are performed in para-liturgical context, their spiritual importance approximates that of the religious service. By singing the devekut niggun, a Hassid reaches the state of devekut; that is, union with God. In this case, the structure of the melody, the tempo, and the reference to liturgical text together with the fact that Jews were weeping when singing this melody suggest that "ane maamin" might have become a kind of instrumental devotional piece. The sensitive, relatively unomamented, slow melody on the one hand and the two-voice, drum accompaniment on the other provides us with a unique petforming style. We have no example of slow tempo, metric instrumental pieces performed in this manner.
In spite of the questions and problems we are left with, the research of the Muzsikás ensemble allows us to suggest that Hungarian Jewish village music, at least in Transylvania, was an indigenous, relatively independent Jewish tradition; one that had its own characteristics and genres, different from both the other Jewish traditions and from the surrounding Hungarian tradition. It shared the basic Jewish melodic repertoire, but used it somewhat differently creating individual performing styles, context and genres.
— Judit Frigyesi, Princeton University
I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Walter Zev Feldman for his valuable information and suggestions about klezmer music, especially with regard to the history of the zhok and that of Jewish instrumental rubato genres.
