Issue 7 12/98
High-tech drowns the world in a melting pot of
cultures. In this feast of miscellany, authenticity
often plays a role as wallflower. When reason
dances, the magic disappears. In that circom-
stance there is a need for music that gets the
soul in touch again with primal nature as the
breeding ground of life. This brings us to the
revival of a tiny, long forgotten musical
instrument: the Jew's harp, also known as
jaw harp, trump or (in Germany) Maultrommel.
Throughout centuries and within practically all cultures the Jew's harp bridged the gap between all day life and the mysteries of nature, especially the gap between man and gods, or between male and female.
Five millennia ago the Jew's harp was deve- loped out of the running reed in the Far East. Rooted in shamanistic or animistic cultures the metal type of the Jew's Harp was transmitted into the folkmusic of Medieval Europe. For a while the instrument even appeared in the composed chamber music at the courts. The industrial revolution made an end to the popularity of the instrument. A special reputation was maintained in the more agricultural regions of North-Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Scotland and Romania.
The folk-revival of the last twenty-five
years gave the Jew's harp a new chance.
Every folk music-group may have used the
Jew's harp, mostly as a rhythmical voice-
instrument, but on the whole the Jew's harp
has been considered in Europe as a poor
limited sound-instrument on which you never
can develop a worthy sound. In these present
days we can break with this point of view:
The Jew's harp had proved to be a very rich
instrument, but it's possibilities still are unknown
to many of the musicians. It also takes a lot
of energy to master some of its
sound-possibilities. So as it may concern every
musical instrument, the Jew's harp is hard
to handle.
Nowadays the Jew's harp more and more appeares in electronic pop, avant-garde jazz and world music. The overtones of the tiny instrument even shimmer in techno beat dance halls. Specialists from all over the world give new life to the instrument and explore the rich possibilities, all in the variated background of different cultures. Last summer a main group of near hundred Jew's harp specialists gathered in the Austrian village Molln, where the 'Third World Congress and Festival for the Jew's harp was held. You could have met there all type of players, investigators, ethno-musicologists, publicists etc. from Japan, Siberia, Kyrgyzistan, Bashkortostan, Tuva, Altai-region, Austria, Germany, Norway, Holland, Finnland, Hungary, Switserland and the USA. For more info and photo's of the musicians, playing in Molln, you can mail to: paclax@zeelandnet.nl
The Jew's harp consists mainly of two parts: a
stabilizing frame and a moveable lamella that is
fixed on the frame. The lamella has to be plucked in
front of the openend mouth agains the theeth.
The mouth-cavaty serves as the sound resonator,
and it also influences the timbre of the harmonic tones.
or overtones. The Jew's harp can be seen as a
melodic instrument reaching over the natural (pen-
tatonic) scale. Each plucked tone presents the
going-on sound (if we could hear it!) of the keynote
wherein the Jew's harp is tuned. In this way
we can call it an old fashioned burdon-instrument,
that has been used for many centuries in rural
and traditional folk-music in Europe. It's also a
rhythm instrument, for instance in combining
the fingerpluckings on the lamella togheter with
breathing-pulses.
The Dutch artist Phons Bakx has written the history of the Jew's harp in a Dutch standard- work called 'de Gedachtenverdrijver' (The thoughts Dispeller). Around him an internationally orientated Jew's harp culture developed over the past ten years. Various aspects of this can be heared on his cd A Song for the Jew's harp. More information about Bakx Jew's harp music and publications you can find at his Internet-site: the Dutch Jew's harp pages
Some other cd's on which the Jew's Harp playes the dominant role are:
Drawing by German artist Annegret Haensel; for more info on the artist, look at the editorial page
To the content of the FolkWorld columns
To the content of FolkWorld online music magazine Nr. 7
© The Mollis - Editors of FolkWorld; Published 12/98
All material published in FolkWorld is © The Author via FolkWorld. Storage for private use is allowed and welcome. Reviews and extracts of up to 200 words may be freely quoted and reproduced, if source and author are acknowledged. For any other reproduction please ask the Editors for permission.
