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Klezfiddle1 uploaded a new video
(1 hour ago)
A mystical, meditative voyage, accompanied by a spontaneous improvisatio...
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A mystical, meditative voyage, accompanied by a spontaneous improvisation on a replica of the 3000 year old Lyre of the Ancient Hebrews! Voyage with me now, on my Magical, Mystical Musical Journey, to hear once more, the Healing, Haunting Refrains, of King David's Lyre...
Please visit:
http://www.ancien...
Many thanks for watching!
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Klezfiddle1 uploaded a new video
(1 day ago)
I learnt this incredible melody, from an amazing CD, "Music of the ...
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I learnt this incredible melody, from an amazing CD, "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians & Greeks" by "The Ensemble De Organographia". This video features my arrangement for solo lyre, of the academic reconstruction of this ancient Egyptian melody, from c.1400BC!! The scale used, was taken from a three-holed Egyptian vertical flute, still in a playable condition. The images in the video feature incredible, vibrant illutrations of ancient Egyptian Theban Banquets and ancient Egyptian dancers...
The academic reconstruction of the melody heard here, was deciphered from illustrations on a tomb painting of a Banquet Scene found at Thebes - the specific hand gestures of the individuals depicted in this scene were found to be an example of an ancient system of musical notation often used in antiquity, called called "Chironomy" - this is a system of hand gestures which were used, to denote both the pitch and ornamentation of a melody.This ancient lost art is discussed at length in this fascinating article:
http://www.rakkav...
The Theban Banquet Scene depicting these chironomy genstures, shows a scene of four rows of seated guests preparing to attend a banquet, with the guests on the left of each row displaying these chironomy signs, depicting the melody being played by the musicians on the sitting on the right.
In my arrangement of the melody, I have used many lyre-playing techniques also used in antiquity - finger-stopping the strings & strumming rythm,using plectrum for tremelo accomaniment,glissandos and simple chordal accompaniment in the left hand, whilst the melody is being plucked with a plectrum in the right hand.
It MAY be of significance, that the tonality of the scale heard in this tune, is based around the Natural Minor - the Natural Minor scale can still be heard today, in almost all traditional Egyptian folk music (please see my other series of 7 videos, "Echoes of Ancient Egypt" - the Natural Minor is evident in every tune!).
This is my second arrangement of the melody on Youtube -featuring a MUCH better digital WAV recorder Mic...and this time, thankfully no unnecessary EONS of added reverb! Maybe THIS time...Anubis may spare my poor Soul!! ;o)
For details of all my MYRIADS of "Musical Adventures in Time Travel", please visit my brand new website:
http://www.ancien...
Many thanks for watching...
Shalom, Salaam...PEACE!
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Klezfiddle1 uploaded a new video
(2 days ago)
A set of 2 of my favourite oldtimey mountain banjo melodies - "Wild...
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A set of 2 of my favourite oldtimey mountain banjo melodies - "Wildwood Flower", followed by the wonderfully titled "King-Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" (Folkways FA 2951), accompanied with beautiful images of Appalachian wildwood flowers and the majestic Smokey Mountains...
The banjo is tuned here to that incredibly rich open C Mountain modal tuning: GCGCD...this open tuning makes the banjo sound almost like an Appalachian Dulcimer!
The banjo I play, is a "Deering Goodtime"...with custom scooped neck - so that I have an even BETTER time, in avoiding bashing my knuckles on those useless frets right at the top of the finger board, when searching for those really mellow oldtimey sounds!
For details of all my recordings, please visit my brand new, official website:
http://www.ancien...
Many thanks for listening!
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Klezfiddle1 uploaded a new video
(3 days ago)
This is a short clip from my debut Klezmer Fiddle MP3 Single, "The ...
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This is a short clip from my debut Klezmer Fiddle MP3 Single, "The Lost Klezmer Music of Hungary - Restored!" The COMPLETE track is available for INSTANT download, from Apple iTunes, and www.cdbaby.com:
http://cdbaby.com...
This unique Klezmer Fiddle MP3 Single, features a truly amazingly precious gem of Jewish music, "Khosid Dance" - a melody which uniquely demonstrates the fusion of Jewish and Romanian-style Gypsy Music which existed in Hungary, prior to the totally pointless, barbaric destruction of both these communities and their centuries of fabulously rich and diverse musical culture, during the sheer horror of the Holocaust...I first learnt it by ear from a fantastic CD called "The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania"(Hannibal 1973) -
http://www.muzsik...
This recording uniquely features Hungarian Jewish Klezmer melodies, thankfully remembered by a handful of surviving Hungarian Gypsy musicians, who played these very melodies with Jewish musicians, and also at Jewish Weddings in Hungary before World War II - thus preserving a precious remnant of the amazing Hungarian Jewish/Gypsy culture which once so wonderfully merged & thrived together for literally centuries...
In my own, personal arrangement of the melody, I have attempted to covey this fusion of Romanian Gypsy and Jewish Klezmer fiddle styles, by beginning and closing the piece passages in the style of a typical, mournful Romanian "Doina" - a free improvisatory style of fiddle playing, which the Klezmer musicians seem to have directly adopted and adapted from the Romanian-style Gypsy music they heard.
In certain parts of "Khosid Dance", hints of the familiar Jewish Klezmer "Ahava Raba" mode can be heard (AA#C#DEFGA), but the Gypsy/Romanian influence can clearly be felt in both the phrasing and general "mood" of the music.
Above all the musical styles which influenced the traditional Klezmer musicians of Eastern Europe, the Romanian influence seems to be the strongest and most enduring. This fact is reflected in the dance forms found throughout the entire surviving Klezmer music repertoire, e.g. Horas, Doinas, Bulgars etc.
In my intention to covey the terrible loss of the Hungarian Jewish & Gypsy cultures which once so harmoniously blossomed together in Hungary for centuries, until their almost total destruction in the holocaust, my arrangement of the melody is much slower and mournful than the dance-style rendition heard in the perfomance of this piece by Muzsikas.
I also attempt to emphasis this saddness by means of the fiddle technique often heard in traditional Jewish Klezmer music, which is known as a "cretche" - literally attempting to create a "sobbing" effect on the fiddle, by means of lightly stopping the strings at the end of playing certain notes in the melody...which has the effect of "cutting short the breath" of these notes, just like the sound of someone sobbing.
This fascinating cultural exchange of musical ideas is certainly not unique to Jewish Klezmer music - it seems to have happened throughout all of History, whenever two entirely different cultures find themselves living side by side, for example, Cajun music - an absolutely incredible fusion, of quaint French Dance Music...and Louisiana Blues!
The rather rustic "rough edges" in my fiddle playing, (which the classically trained violinist will no doubt detect), is simply a consequence of the fact that I am totally, entirely self-taught - just like most of the Eastern European Jewish Klezmer musicians of old, I never had either the money or the opportunity to take violin lessons... in my opinion, folk music played by a classically trained violinist, simply no longer sounds like authentic folk music!
If music can "Capture the Soul" of a People, then may this tiny, insignificant piece of Cyberspace be my tribute to the Jewish & Gypsy musicians of Eastern Europe who were so brutally & pointlessly butchered by the Nazis during the Holocaust - at least this little melody which some of them once played, will now, forever, live on...
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Klezfiddle1 uploaded a new video
(3 days ago)
This is my own arrangement for solo lyre, of another fantastic melody I ...
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This is my own arrangement for solo lyre, of another fantastic melody I heard on the CD by the Egyptian Simsimiyya band, El Tanbura; "Between the Desert and the Sea" (2006) - an outstanding album, which almost transports the listener back to the Court of Ramses the Great! This album features the haunting, ancient sounds of the Egyptian Simsimyya and Tanbura lyres - which have their origins dating back to the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt, almost 4000 years ago!
This is my own arrangement of track 10 of the album,"Salah" - one of Egypt's most ancient traditional songs. On the album , it is sung in an old form of the Arabic language. "The song's orgins can probably be attributed to the ancient tribal groups from Arabia and the Persian Gulf through a reference to Indian girls tending to the sick" (quoted from the liner notes)
My arrangement of the melody heard here, is played on my own replica ancient lyre; a reconstruction of the Lyre of the Ancient Hebrews, and my very own, very ancient the Levite ancestors, who once played this lyre in the Temple of Jerusalem over 2000 years ago, to accompany the singing of the Levitical Choir! For full details, please visit:
http://www.ancien...
Thanks for listening!
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