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Music from the East. |
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gipsy style is to be heard in greater perfection among the hordes of Hungary than in Russia. The far-famed gipsies of Moscow—among the most deadly and dangerous sirens a corrupt society has ever encouraged—are, he tells us, made up for show. Of all showy things, show nationality is the worst.
The race has favourite instruments of its own. The violin, in some form more or less primitive, goes everywhere. To this the gipsies add the cymbal; not the pair of Mambrino's basins clashed, or quietly thrilled, one against the other, which we call by that name, but a sort of wicked dulcimer whipped by the player. The name clings to instruments of its class, handled by vagrant musicians, as does the name vie lie, viola, or gironda among those of the hurdy-gurdy family. There was one, only a few years past, played on by a poor old woman in the London streets. Perhaps the name may be accepted as defining a harsh and stinging tone : —' cembalo ' defines a harpsichord in Italian. The Hungarian gipsy cymbal, the Abbe Liszt says—on what authority I cannot ascertain—dates from the fifteenth century. The player on it shares, with the first violin the task of bringing out and lengthening |
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