Maramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania

Muzsikas | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B000000625
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,319 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #21 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Hungary

Track Listings

1. Khosid Wedding Dances

2. The Rooster Is Crowing

3. Dance From Maramaros

4. Lamenting Song

5. Ane Maamin

6. I Have Just Come From Gyula

7. Farewell To Shabbat

8. Jewish Dance From Szaszregen

9. 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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music, not all of it "lost", October 14, 2002

By 

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania (Audio CD)

This is a fine performance of some beautiful Old World Jewish melodies. As the very complete liner notes explain, most Eastern European musicians in the pre-Holocaust world knew both Jewish and non-Jewish music, because they would play at all kinds of events for both communities. Sadly, the Jewish musicians who played this music perished in the Holocaust, but the music was remembered by non-Jewish musicians and later collected. Hence the reference to "lost" music. However, some of it is not really as "lost" as the notes imply. For example, "Ani Maamin" is well-known among Jews in the USA and is almost always sung at Holocaust Remembrance Day services. The words (not sung here -- the CD is instrumental) are from Maimonides (12th century) and the tune is attributed to the Breslover Hasidim, whose 18th-century Rebbe, Nachman of Breslov, taught them never to despair under any circumstances. Because of this theme, the tune later became popular in the concentration camps and among the resistance fighters. Hence the current association with the Holocaust.

There are other pieces on this CD that I've heard at Jewish weddings, long before this CD came out. In short, the music may have been lost in Eastern Europe, but much of it had already crossed the Atlantic before the Holocaust. I found myself wondering if the ethnographers who collected this were familiar with the American Jewish community. Nevertheless, what makes this CD special is the performance itself, which is based on the Hungarian/gypsy style, rather than the "Americanized" versions. It's definitely worth buying.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transylvanian Klezmer 2, December 3, 2002

By 

rkchin (new york city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania (Audio CD)

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, but reconstructed here 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 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. Most are instrumental pieces, with the exception of two, and Marta Sebestyen provides vocals on those.

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. rkchin. http://www.nychinatown.org

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Musical Archaeology, October 17, 2002

By 

Eugenio Moutelik Aguiar "moutelik" (RECIFE Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania (Audio CD)

This is the closest we can get to musical archaeology. The Muzsikas Ensemble did a marvelous work, researching the remnants of a dead culture. But, even if you consider its musical quality only, this record still stands on highest ground. The music, rhythm, the voice of Marta Sebestyen... This is the kind of CD you'll like the first time you hear. I do highly recommend it.
(And yes, the theme of 'The English Patient' is there also. It is an old Yiddish prayer).