The Bottom Line: This album recreates the lost Jewish music of Transylvania with the help of Muzsikas, and two Gypsy master musicians familiar with the old Jewish repertoire.
soothsayer's Full Review: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania by Muzsikas
When you first hear the first notes of Maramaros, The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania, you are in for in for some treat. This is no ordinary klezmer music. The album features Hungarian Jewish music once thought lost.
Transylvania was not a happy place for Jews, not during the War, or before when the place was contested by Romania and Hungary. During the War, when Jews were deported to concentration camps, and many never returning, most of the Jewish music repertory of the region disappeared with them. The material featured on this album been reconstructed with the help of material collected in the 1940's, and from two Hungarian Gypsy musicians familiar with this music.
Both Gheorghe Covaci, lead violinist of Farkasrev, and Arpad Toni, a virtuoso cimbalom [FN1] player, played for Jews before the War. They are featured on this album leading most of the songs accompanied by Muszicas on bass, guitar, and violin. The performances are excellent throughout the album. Occasionally a drum (with cymbal attached) and zongura (guitar like instrument tuned to D) accompanies the music, but on some of the songs, they sounded like metronomes keeping time. Most are instrumental pieces, with the exception of two, and Marta Sebestyen provides vocals on those. Muszikas consists of Mihaly Sipo on violin, Peter Eri (viola, and buzuki or Bouzouki), Sandor Csoori (Violin, viola, guitar), and Daniel Hamar (contrabass, small hammer dulcimer).
FN 1:what is a cimbalom? see http://www.santoor.com/cimbalom.html
The liner notes for this CD were written by Judit Frigyesi, and are very informative containing history, personal anecdotes, and a very technical section on Jewish music theory. If you like Hungarian folk music, "old-time" klezmer, and/or are curious about an aspect of Hungarian/Romanian Jewish music and culture that has disappeared since World War II and Communism, then this album comes highly recommended.
Khosid Wedding Dances This is a great Hungarian folk dance, very happy and upbeat with an inversion of melody in the middle. When you hear this song, you are first thrown for a loop because the strong hook of the Jewish-tuned violin and the thumping rhythm of the bass and drum makes it sound like a bluegrass stomp, but then seconds later, the melody is inverted (or at least that is what I think it is), and it sounds more like klezmer. This apparently was a very popular song requested at wedding parties.
The dancing doesn't stop with Dance From Maramaros played on cimbalom whose sound is reminiscent of an old-fashioned player piano. The melody is infectious, and the tempo just speeds up like a tarantella. Jewish Dance From Szaszregen also played on cimbalom, has a slow, tango like rhythm. The song feels very intimate, and according to Arpad Toni, was a favorite among the Szaszregen community where the women and men danced it together in a closed circle.
Hat A Jid A Wejbele . The music is wickedly fun. The cimbalom playfully climbs up and down scales twisting and turning as it goes from spectacular highs to bottomless lows.
Among the many dances are several liturgical style pieces. Ane Maamin is a very expressive piece played on violin and accompanied by drum and cymbal. The song is supposed to be sung alongside no.12 of Maimonides' 13 Articles of faith. Another liturgical type of song is Farewell to Shabbat, a devotional song meant to be sung by women. The lovely voice of Marta Sebestyen sings this one (no translation on text, though, but that's ok). She also sings The Rooster Is Crowing, a slow and expressive piece accompanied by violin, cello, and, hammered dulcimer. The music has a quiet beauty to it.
There are several other dances, and liturgical type pieces on the album that are also interesting, and worth mentioning, but because I am out of time, let me cue Farewell To The Guests as my signal to you that this review has ended.
Track Listing:
01. Khosid Wedding Dances
02. The Rooster Is Crowing
03. Dance From Maramaros
04. Lamenting Song
05. Ane Maamin
06. I Have Just Come From Gyula
07. Farewell To Shabbat
08. Jewish Dance From Szaszregen
09. Hat A Jid A Wejbele
10. Jewish Csardas Series From Szek
11. Khosid Dance
12. The Greeting Of The Bride
13. Haneros Halelu
14. FareWell To The Guests
Great Music to Play While: Hunting wascally wampires in the wilds of Transylvania
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