For Josef Gazsi, Gypsy Music Has Provided the Soundtrack to His Life
Birth, marriage, death—there is a melody, a song, a wild dance for almost every occasion
Upon arrival at the home of his bride, the groom delivers a bottle of fine champagne to her father as a symbolic gesture in order to enter the house. The band standing outside with the growing crowd picks up the tempo. As the women sway, feet hardly moving while swinging their hips as belly dancers might, the men match the fiendish pace of the fiddler’s fingers with their wild dance. It is morning and the start of a wedding that will last until the sun rises the next day. The figure of the Gypsy fiddler has stirred violin virtuosos and composers for hundreds of years. His charisma, deep tone, weeping glissandos, and hair-raising speed inspired such pieces as Haydn’s Gypsy Rondo, Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, and Ravel’s Tzigane.
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