Scan 229
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
11 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The gypsy has little music of his own, but everywhere he has gone he has appropriated that which pleased him. As Kipling puts it:
3An' what 'e thought 'e might require,
4'E went an' took, the same as me.
6Russia is the only country where the gypsies have taken up the vocal side of the art, for elsewhere they are instrumentalists, the violin and cembalo being the instruments they call peculiarly their own.
8And what is the secret of the fascination which gypsy music has for all of us? Truly, it is not so much the music itself as the rendition of it which moves us so strangely. Gypsy, Magyar, and Hungarian music, which are almost synonymous, can be performed rightly only by one born a gypsy or Hungarian; one "whose pulse beats the measure."
10The Zigáni or gypsies of St. Petersburg and Moscow, especially the women, are renowned as singers. Many of them have risen to positions of affluence and power through their gift of song. The gypsy may be a thief and a vagabond at all other times, but, while giving himself up to the inspiration of his music, the man is a true rom (gentleman) and the woman a ranee (lady). Charles G. Leland tells of hearing the gypsies of St. Petersburg sing. He writes: "And I listened to the strangest, wildest, and sweetest singing I ever had heard, the singing of the Lurleis, of sirens, of witches. First one damsel, with an exquisitely clear, firm voice, began to sing a verse of a love ballad, and as it approached the end, the chorus stole in, softly and unperceived, but with exquisite skill, until in a few seconds the summer breeze, murmuring melody over a rippling lake, seemed changed to a midnight tempest, roaring over a stormy sea, in which the basso of the Kalo shureskro (the black captain) pealed like thunder. Just as it died away a second girl took up the melody, very sweetly, but with a little more excitement. It was like a gleam of moonlight on the still agitated waters, a strange contralto witch-gleam; and then again the chorus and the storm; and then another
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