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Belf's Romanian Orchestra (, ''Romanian orchestra under the direction of V. Belʹf'') was a Jewish music recording ensemble from the Russian Empire. Although little is known about them, their numerous recordings for
Syrena Rekord Syrena Record was a Polish record company "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publi ...
during the period of 1911 to 1914 are among the earliest documented examples of recorded
klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...
music and are played in a style very different from the better-known American klezmer recordings of the 1910s and 1920s.


History

This small
klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...
ensemble, which performed under the leadership of a bandleader known only as V. Belf, was recorded on
78-rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...
discs for the
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
-based
Syrena Rekord Syrena Record was a Polish record company "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publi ...
company starting in 1911. The recordings typically featured a clarinet playing the lead, a violin loosely following the melody, and a piano and second violin playing chords. Despite being labeled as a Romanian orchestra, with "Bucharest" often added to the disc labels and Romanian titles often given to sides (e.g. , , , and ), their style was Jewish rather than Romanian, even when they played Romanian tunes. Belf’s repertoire consisted mainly of Jewish instrumental dance music, Hasidic music and some
Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satire, satiric or nostalgic revues; melodr ...
music played in a klezmer style. "Romanian" was apparently a euphemism for "Jewish"; most researchers agree that the ensemble probably came from Southwestern Ukraine, possibly from
Podolia Podolia or Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and northeastern Moldova (i.e. northern Transnistria). Podolia is bordered by the Dniester River and Boh River. It features ...
. As well, a number of their disc titles refer to places in Southwestern Ukraine, such as (), (), and () which are named after
Lypovets Lypovets (, ) is a small city in Vinnytsia Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. Until the administrative reform of 2020, it served as the administrative center of the former Lypovets Raion. Population: It is located in the historic region of Pod ...
,
Skvyra Skvyra (, ) is a city in Bila Tserkva Raion, Kyiv Oblast (region) of central Ukraine. Skvyra has an area of . It hosts the administration of Skvyra urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately Name In additio ...
, and
Khotyn Khotyn (, ; , ; see #Name, other names) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city in Dnistrovskyi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi. It hosts the administration of Khotyn urban hromada, one of th ...
. The period of recordings by this group began when the director of Sirena, Philip Lazarevich Tempel, was expanding the company aggressively in 1911 and attempting to enter "ethnic" markets. In that year he hired Belf and his ensemble to record what were apparently the label's first klezmer (instrumental Jewish) recordings. The records were marketed with titles that alluded to
Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...
rabbis, wedding rituals, or klezmer dance genres. Despite the fact that Belf was not a celebrity klezmer like
Pedutser Pedotser ( or , 1828–1902), also pronounced Pedutser in some Yiddish dialects, was the popular name of Aron-Moyshe Kholodenko, a nineteenth century Klezmer violin virtuoso, composer and bandleader from Berdychiv, Russian Empire. He was one of a ...
or
Stempenyu Stempenyu (; 1822-1879) was the popular name of Iosif Druker (), a klezmer violin virtuoso, bandleader and composer from Berdychiv, Russian Empire. He was one of a handful of celebrity nineteenth century Jewish folk violinists from Ukraine; others ...
, the records were extremely successful, and the company claimed that thousands of discs were shipped south to markets in Ukraine and
Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
. Hence Tempel continued to have Belf record more discs, eventually totaling around 30 or 40; Belf also recorded for other labels such as Amour Gramophone () and Extraphone in 1914. In addition, their popularity inspired another ensemble to record "Belf-style" recordings for Stella Grand Records during the same time period, although the identity of this group (or groups) is unknown. Sirena's boom in production was cut short by the start of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in August 1914; the owners of the record label were imprisoned in Germany during the war, and after their release they never reached their prewar level of success. It is not clear what happened to the Belf ensemble during or after the war, but they do not seem to have recorded again.


Legacy

Because the Belf recordings were mass-produced and sold widely, copies were still circulating by the 1970s and attracted the interest of Klezmer revivalists. The tracks began to appear on reissue albums, including ''Klezmer music (1910-1927): early Yiddish instrumental music'' (Folklyric, 1983), ''Klezmer pioneers: European and American recordings, 1905-1952'' (Rounder Records, 1993), ''Yikhes (Lineage): early klezmer recordings, 1911-1939, from the collection of Prof. Martin Schwartz'' (Trikont, 1995), ''Klezmer music: early Yiddish instrumental music, 1908-1927'' (Arhoolie, 1997), ''Warsaw's Jewish mermaid: Syrena recordings from the Orvomaa archive 1909-1933'' (Renair Records, 2018), and a number of others. The richly ornamented style of the recordings and the interplay of the instruments in a smaller ensemble have influenced revival groups in recent decades. Currently the largest collection of Belf recordings is available in the Mayrent Collection of Yiddish Recordings at UW-Madison.


References


External links


Belf's Romanian Orchestra recordings
in the Mayrent Collection at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

Belfology
- lead sheet transcription of roughly 40 Belf's Orchestra recordings
Belf recordings and discographic information
on Russian Records
Belf Orchestra
recordings on the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
{{Authority control Klezmer groups Musicians from the Russian Empire Musicians from Warsaw