Born in Shklov (now Sklou, Belarus) to a family of musicians, Michael Joseph (Mikhl Yosef, also Yekhiel Mikhl) Guzikov made inroads for traditional klezmer musicians into broader European music with his performances on the tsimbl, a variety of xylophone. The instrument remained popular in itinerant bands in Europe from the High Middles Ages until the early nineteenth century, when it caught on among bourgeois composers for use in symphony orchestras. Guzikov himself attracted the attention of Felix Mendelssohn and other renowned composers on his tours of the Russian Empire and Europe.
“Practically everyone has seen the prize-winning musical about the lovable people in that little village in Old Russia called Anetevka [sic]. Well, as far as we’re concerned, ‘Fiddler’ made a goof!” M…
Dear readers! I am giving you a rare and precious treasure, which has hitherto been lying in a library for three hundred years. Jews have always been thinking and talking about this treasure…
Likute Yosef (The Compilation of Joseph), a commentary on prayers, is an important source of information about the Jewish religious culture of Worms, Germany, one of the oldest and most important…