Guests at last night’s annual Drummond Place garden party were greatly entertained by the expert, toe-tapping performances of a seven-strong Klezmer band.
Among their number was retired architect, local resident and regular Spurtle contributor Peter Verity (pictured far left with drum, below).
Verity says he first learned this music, the traditional style of Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews, at his grandfather’s knee. Rather an unusual place to learn it since his grandfather was a Church of England vicar.
Writing in last autumn’s Clarion online here, Verity explains his fascination with collecting and playing musical instruments, and goes into more detail about the kind of music Drummond locals were treated to yesterday evening. Below is a short extract:
Although modern ‘Klezmer‘ uses brass instruments, saxophones etc., my personal preference is for the traditional ensemble from the days when ‘loud‘ instruments were reserved for Gentile musicians. This may be seen in old paintings of ‘Jewish weddings‘ and - at its minimum - usually seemed to have a fidl (fiddle, of course, played in a very vocal and emotive style, with slides and sobs), a ‘bassetl‘ (small bass such as a violincello) and ‘tsimbl‘. The latter is a chromatic ‘hammer dulcimer‘ (a small trapezoidal box, strung with ‘courses‘ of strings – 3, 4 or 5 per note - interlacing across the box) played with small padded hammers. I most commonly use my Greek ‘santouri‘, which is similar, having about the same range of notes as a guitar. Traditionally it is hung round the neck and played walking in a promenade (which is way beyond me or the state of my neck). If I am playing with a bigger group, I might get out my acoustic double bass, or for maximum volume outdoors I would use ‘poyk mit tats‘ – bass drum with a cymbal on top (but if it is going to rain, a cheap snare drum with a plastic head is much less worry!). Just occasionally, my playing for Morris dancing past recurs, and the dust gets blown out of my concertina.
You can enjoy three tracks by the Amsterdam Klezmer Band for free here. They are something like what the Pogues were to the Dubliners, and – good though they are – do not quite echo the gentle, occasionally ironic nuances of the Drummond Place musicians.
