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Jewish
Music in Romania III |
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Jewish Music in Transylvania In Transylvania we find fewer traces of Jewish musicians. One reason is the different social development of Transylvania’s Jews under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In this region, as in Hungary (after 1825), it was mostly Gypsy musicians who provided instrumental music for Jews. Transylvania was a part of Hungary previous to 1920. As "Hungarian" Jews, Transylvanian Jews were enfranchised as citizens in 1867, and even before that date were accepting social assimilation to a "Hungarian" national identity, after the German Jewish model. In 1867 Hungary’s Jewish communities split into Neolog (sort of "Reform") and Orthodox, with certain communities remaining as "Status Quo Ante". Thus, communities in Cluj (Kolozsvar in Hungarian), Arad, Sibiu, and Timisoara (Temesvar in Hungarian) were predominantly Neolog, and adopted Hungarian language in place of Yiddish. Alongside many other Hungarian customs they adopted, Jews were great patrons of Hungarian popular music, or Magyar notak, and a Neolog wedding allowed for mixed-sex dancing. Gypsy musicians were hired for Jewish weddings, and played a few Jewish songs (usually "Belz" alongside various Yiddish theater songs and a few Sabbath zmiros) while providing csardas music for dancing. In Fizesul Gherleii (Ordongosfuzes in Hungarian) as well as Sarmas, local Gypsy village bands also played sets of "Jewish Dances". Zoltan Blum, a Jew from Fizesul Gherleii, remembers Jews dancing in a circle to this music before WWII. He also says that Jews in the village lived harmoniously with their neighbors, except for three things which they would never do with non-Jews: eat with them, bathe with them, or dance with them. Conclusion This article is intended only as a basic overview of research I have been doing for the last decade, primarily on instrumental music in a Jewish context. I haven’t yet touched on Jewish music in Bucharest, Braila, or many other places that I hope to visit in the future. I have yet to do fieldwork in the Republic of Moldova. I have not mentioned Sephardic Jewish music in south Romania, and I have not mentioned liturgical music, vocal traditions, or theater music. Yet. Expect updates soon. To wrap up, much archive research still remains to be done in Romania, as the Jewish population of Romania slowly shrinks due to emigration. For a fascinating look at the early history of Jewish musicians in Moldavia, read an article by Itzik Schwartz. |
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Jewish Music in Romania -
Part I - Repertoire
Part II - Iasi |
