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14063 |
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BOOK WORLD
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4 / 1996 |
2,415 Words |
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Lee Congdon
Lee Congdon writes regularly on modern literature. He teaches
eastern European history at James Madison University. |
BURY ME STANDING
The Gypsies and Their Journey
Isabel Fonseca
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995
322 pp., $25.00
Some years ago, the New Yorker published a cartoon that depicted a band of Gypsies sitting listlessly around a campfire. One Gypsy woman had turned to another to ask (I am quoting from memory), "Whatever happened to the days when we danced with reckless abandon?" One smiled because of the absurd self-awareness the question presupposed, but the cartoon also had a serious side; it revealed something about the romantic--and not entirely false--view that many gadje (non-Gypsies; defiled ones) have of Gypsies.
In a world that is becoming ever more regimented, these peripatetics stubbornly maintain their freedom and independence. While others remain imprisoned in what Max Weber called the "iron cage" of rationalization, they continue to live the uncalculating life of the passions. They do not, and in many cases cannot, read or write, but they do make music that ranges emotionally from fiery defiance to tearful melancholy. Think, for example, of Bizet's Carmen, flamenco dancers, or Hungarian Gypsy bands.
Indeed, musical creativity, particularly in the area of interpretation, remains the Gypsies' principal contribution to European culture, not least because it inspired such luminaries as Brahms (especially the Hungarian Dances) and Liszt. The latter was so taken with Gypsy musicians like the legendary primás (lead violinist) János Bihari that he
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