[ENG] The 1000
Names of the Jew’s harp Nomenclature
of over thousand proper names for the Jew’s harp from all over the world … mainly arisen between 1986 and 1992, while the
author studied and wrote about
the Jew’s harp, grown out to a knick-knack and is
supposed to be a unique study matter for Jew’s harp lovers. lay-out: Phons Bakx / linguistic corrections: emer.
prof. Frederick Crane Who has
helped this list growing: Lindsay
Porteous [Scotland], emer. prof. Frederick Crane [Iowa, USA], Tapani Varis [Finnland], Henk
van der Zee [Netherlands], Georg
Decristel [Austria], Dr. Fred
Gerrits [Australia], Steev
Kindwald [Far East/USA], Tran Quang Hai [Vietnam/France], Walter Maioli [Italy], Daniel Roy [Quebec, Canada], Michael Wright [Oxford, England], Pat Missin [Jackson, USA], Aksenty
Beskrovny [Siberia], Mathias
Esnault [France], Bernhard
Folkestad [Norway] Étienne
Rouleau-Mailloux [Quebec], Daniel Roy
[Canada], Dr. Brian Diettrich
[Aotearoa/New Zealand] and
others. Preface In the period that I studied the cultural anthropology of the
Jew’s harp, many times the different proper names for this instrument came
across my way. At first I had no intention to collect them, but later, when I
noticed the expansion of it, I start to find pleasure in collecting them, and
wrote down the names in an exercise-book. When possible I have annotated
their meaning or the material from which the Jew’s harp is made, as well as
some of the geographical or ethnographical data concerning their place of
finding. Most European Jew’s harp names have a designation of
pre-industrial origin. Then, before the popular rise of the industrial
mouth-harmonica in the nineteenth century, the Jew’s harp was reputed as
folk instrument in general. A lot of its names originated in the time-layers
of rural culture. In practice they were compared with names of musical
instruments that already had found their way to several European language
groups during the early days. In this context we find name-adoptions with
words as fiddle, bell, drum, trumpet,
horn, harp, organ, string, hurdy-gurdy, rattle or guitar, often accompanied by the word ‘mouth’. From these linguistic roots a group of names for the
Jew’s harp was derived, in which the embouchure of mouth-instruments is
indicated. Very near to this group are the name-adoptions that associate the
part of the head which is concerned to the Jew’s harp playing: mouth, lips, teeth, throat, tongue and
jaw. Another type of name for the Jew’s harp is the linguistic association
with the physical or mechanical movement of the material of the instrument,
for instance as the Hungarian word doromb,
meaning ‘vibrate’. Because of the growing clerical nomenclatures of latin
synonyms for musical instruments, it occurred that the Jew’s harp received official
[associative] names such as trombola,
crembalum, cymbalum orale, aura
or tremolo. Jew’s harp names also
appeared as a variant on classical names, e.g. the Greek/Latin symfonia
[sumfonia], the Vulgar Latin harmonica and arganum, and the old Mid-Greek organon [organon]. A very few contemporary names are spent on industrial trade.
Most of the names are collected by fieldwork. Ethno-linguistic studies on the
names of the Jew’s harp already have been made. Among them we find very comprehensive
ones, like the study who was made all over Another interesting study concerns the
Jew’s harp as it is originated and written in different English ways, like
Jew’s trump, Jaw’s harp, jaw harp,
et cetera. It was done by emer. prof.
Frederick Crane (1927-2011) Of importance was the linguistic
fieldwork over the small A brief study about the Jew’s harp on
New-Guinea [ In ‘primitive’ culture we often find the Jew’s harp downright as
an instrument of pre-musicality, that’s to say, no other musical intention
will be aimed than intoning rhythms and timbres of spoken words through the
Jew’s harp. Many Asiatic names may be bound to this principle, but a lot of
it is still unknown about it. Another section to give a name to the Jew’s harp is based on the
ritual context in which the instrument is used. In ‘primitive’ societies of
the eastern world we find different ritual contexts: soundsignals for
courtship, initiations of manhood, soundsignals for protection spirits,
shamanistic healing practices, soundcalls for bird spirits, sounds for
funerals et cetera. But again, in
these cases many of the designations for the instrument are still unknown. Among the group of wooden Jew’s harps and the very primitive
parallel-instruments of the Jew’s harp, we may find name-adoptions from the
grassy microcosmos of nature. The names than often are associated with the
glossary of insects and with the sound they make. Very near to this are the
name-adoptions of onomatopoeia:
giving a name to an object by imitating the sound [the object is making] in
verbal forms. For example: the Malaysian djing-gong. The question how does it
come that there are so many names for the Jew’s harp? is difficult to
answer, and obviously more than òne answer may fit. From my own opinion, one
of the answers should be that the Jew’s harp is definitely an instrument of
language itself. Musical instruments may find a primary example in the
capability of the human Physique to produce sounds, and the Jew’s harp refers
specific to the speaking voice, maybe the most because of the presence of a glottis in the instrument. And it was
exactly the human voice itself that has expressed the names to designate the
objects. It’s my intention that this nomenclature of Jew’s harp names is
valuable for everyone who wants to know about it. And in case when it
seems as incomplete, I hope someone will still feel its value as an excentric
knick-knack. Here below you will find the main references for all the proper
names that I’ve found in literature.
Phons
Bakx [3rd edition] (Click here) ► for the
Nomenclature of Jew’s harp Names References in Literature 1. Vertkov, Konstantin et alii 1975. The Jew’s
harp in the 2. Crane, Frederick 1982. Jew’s [Jaw’s? Jeu? Jeugd? Gewgaw? Juice?] Harp. In: VIM 1. 3. Boone, Hubert 1986. De Mondtrom. De
Volksmuziekinstrumenten in België en Nederland. Brussel. p. 9-11, 51; 4. Plate, Regina 1992. Bezeichnungen
für die Maultrommel. In: Kulturgeschichte
der Maultrommel. 5. Chenoweth, Vida 1976. Musical Instruments of 6. Marcuse, Sibyl 1964. Musical Instruments: A
Comprehensive Dictionary. Garden City. p. 264-265, s.v. Jew’s harp 7. Wright, John/McLean, Mervyn 1984. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. 8.
Dournon-Taurelle, Geneviève/Wright,
John 1978. Les Guimbardes du Musée de l’Homme [Catalogue]. Institut d’Ethnologie. Paris. Passim p. 9. Ypey, Jaap 1976. Mondharpen.
Amersfoort. uitg.:
Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundige Bodemonderzoek [R.O.B.] - p. 209-231, in: Antiek, nr. 11 [1976/1977] -
UFSIA: MAG – T 277:87 10.
V.I.M.-Volumes, editor Frederick Crane – for overview click
here: http://www.antropodium.nl/allVIMs.htm#oversightvim 11. Bachmann-Geiser,
Brigitte 1981. Die
Volksmusikinstrumente der Schweiz. Zürich. p. 38-40 |