Re: OT: jaw harps, jews harps....................

["James Pokorny" <j.pokorny@worldnet.att.net>]

Bret wrote:
>Thanks for the explanation of your jaw instruments.  The phrase jew's
>harp was the original and only phrase I had heard for this class of
>instruments, until recently.
>The etymology of the phrase jew's harp seems unclear, but it certainly
>predates Ellis Island immigrants. I found the following at the Jew's
>Harp Guild

...snip...

Wow, Bret, thanks for the great post.  This is just the kind of thing an
amateur etymologist/musicologist like me lives for!  :-0

It's amazing to see how many musical cultures throughout the world use that
curious and curiously-named little twangy instrument.  There's a fantastic
CD on PAN Records called "Khomus - Jew's harp music of Turkic peoples in 
the
Urals, Siberia and Central Asia."  (catalogue # PAN 2032 CD, distributed, I
believe, in the States by Arhoolie)  Although it's not for everyone, this 
CD
has an amazing range of both traditional (i.e., "folk") and "serious
composer" (for want of a better term) pieces for the jaw harp.  The title 
of
the CD "khomus" refers to the Turkic root name for the instrument.  I'm no
authority on Turkic languages, but I believe the term "khomus" (or "komuz,"
"kobuz," "kobyz," etc.) is a generic term for "musical instrument."  A
Turkish musical friend of mine had done some fieldwork studying the music 
of
Kirghiz (Central Asian former Soviet Republic) immigrants in Istanbul, and
one of their main instruments was called "shan-kobyz."  My friend explained
that this literally meant "mouth-instrument."

In India/Pakistan the same instrument is called "murchang."  Surprisingly
enough, it has exactly the same derivation, from Hindi "munh" (mouth) and
"chang" (instrument).  In North India it's strictly used as a folk
instrument, either solo or providing melodic percussion effects in an
ensemble.  However, in South India it has full "classical" status, and is
generally played as an accompanying percussion instrument (along with other
drums) to vocalists and instrumentalists.

As Rick mentioned, the instrument is also widespread throughout Southeast
Asia and Indonesia, as well as Eastern Europe.  For years I always thought
of it as strictly an American "folk instrument" from jugbands, etc.  I was
really surprised to see how ancient and far-flung an instrument it is.