Psychedelic Sonic Journey Through Victorian Countryside

Desolated plains of Australian countryside, forests sharing its skyline with bush, sleepy roads and hidden paths leading to unknown places... Marko's film - premiered last May in Cannes Short Film Corner - was a fantastic visual inspiration leading me through the exploration of my woodwind collection. Most profound sounds are those of fujara - Slovakian mountaineers' overtone flute - Irish low whistle, bassoon, ney, duduk, tin whistles - they all fit seamlessly with the landscapes I was presented with by the director. However the music would never happen without Ukrainian bandura, zither and our modest piano. Like a glue to interweave throughout contrasting textures: human voice and a handful of electronic gadgets... Did I mention jaw harp? ;)

"The Journey - Original Soundtrack" will be available soon on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and other digital retailers - stay tuned :)

"THE JOURNEY - Première mondiale"

Hurdy Gurdy: Contemporary Destinations (II)

Short excerpt from "Nomenclature" section clarifying some issues regarding etymology of the instrument' s name"

"

Nomenclature 

It is believed that the name ‘hurdy-gurdy’ is onomatopoeic in its origin and in Old English its meaning is often  equivalent  to loud commotion, disorder and havoc1.  

The  English term  ‘hurdy-gurdy’ is shared with a musical device known as the barrel organ. These are  often confused by  their superficial similarities, such as crank action or continuous sound. 

For the purpose of this work, the name of the instrument – hurdy-gurdy – has been used exclusively to describe the lute- or guitar-shaped mechanical fiddle, equipped with buttons stopping melodic strings and a rosined wheel touching strings to produce friction and vibrations just like a bow moved across the strings. 

This serves  the purpose of differentiating  the hurdy-gurdy from a barrel organ, even though the latter is commonly called ‘hurdy-gurdy’ in English. 

The English name of the instrument is the only  thing  shared between two different, mechanically unrelated and musically distant entities.2

National versions of the instrument  have  names associated with a specific region or a country of Europe where it  is played. For example,  the Polish hurdy-gurdy  is known as  Lira Korbowa  (lit. lyre with a crank), Ukrainian – Lira (which is often used with variations across Eastern Europe), Hungarian – tekerőlant and German Drehleier. Zanfona is an Italian instrument, while one the most appropriate replacement for English word ‘hurdy-gurdy’ is French la vielle à roue or simply a vielle3.

. 

Since most of those regional names are idiomatically related to specific variants of the hurdy-gurdy, I will be using them interchangeably to outline the notion of  the  international presence of this instrument.  

  
                                                            
1. Oxford English Dictionary - entry for hurdy-gurdy 
2. Robert Green; Hurdy Gurdy in XVIII Century France. Publications of the Early Music Institute,  
Indiana University Press, 1995 
3. Margaret J. Kartomi: ‘On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments’. In:   
Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago Press, 1990 

"

Hurdy Gurdy: Contemporary Destinations (I)

Below is an opening from my recent paper on hurdy-gurdy in contemporaneity. The entire work will be published soon and is aimed mostly at the enthusiasts of the instrument:  

"The aim  of this dissertation is to  bring  the fact of presence of  a  relatively unknown musical instrument  –  the hurdy-gurdy  –  to reader’s attention  while focusing on the musicality of the instrument and its constant evolution throughout the history to modern times.   

The hurdy-gurdy is often considered a musical oddity – a novelty – often misunderstood due to its inaccurate etymology and – oddly enough – suffering a stigma of marginalisation which originated from outdated social class divisions throughout our history of culture. 

Those who decided to uncover the true past of the instrument often had to confront problems of a logistic or economic nature – e.g. the hurdy-gurdy is not easy to acquire, to build or to purchase. Those conditions  though lead to the creation of a special bond with the instrument, which I as a composer, researcher and hurdy-gurdy player, find unique and very rewarding; a bond which I could not successfully form with any popular and widely available musical instrument. 

While enthusiasm and dedication is necessary to become  a  competent player, the appreciation of the past of the hurdy-gurdy is very satisfying and inspirational adventure taking aspiring players through the sounds and musical idioms which are not easily found in popular streams  originating from past three centuries of popularized tradition.  

By presenting  the  current  status  quo  of this instrument, I am aiming at delivering  an  accessible compendium of information and insight into the plethora of potential musical application for the hurdy-gurdy, – with respect to currently available instruments, performed and recorded music and areas for further experimentation and development.   

In doing so, I decided to utilise  descriptive analyses  of  samples of  existing music representing different artistic approach  to the instrument; interviews with selected players and makers and my own personal experience with technical aspects of the hurdy-gurdy. 

Knowing the instrument without hearing its traditional oeuvre and playing it for the first time without knowing  ‘what to play’  is probably one of the most important moments in one’s own discovery of a new world of sounds.  

While  the  chronological brief included in this work addresses  a  wide historical scope, the main objective is to present the hurdy-gurdy as an able and adequate instrument for music students today, amateur and professional performers and enthusiasts alike, as well as for musicologists. 

The chapters discussing technical solutions allowing the hurdy-gurdy to be adequately incorporated into contemporary styles of music and its idioms require an  intermediate level of understanding of musical terminology and physical aspects of sound-production, conductivity of the sound waves and a basic level of knowledge on instrument maintenance and handling. A certain level of knowledge on electrification, amplification, recording and MIDI equipment is  advised yet not critical  for an understanding of this dissertation. 

The existing knowledge  about  the instrument suffers  from inadequacies in its scope  –  historical treaties are lacking musical application for contemporary player and many modern-day enthusiasts of the instrument are often limited in perceiving their instrument as a passable tool for contemporary improvisation and musical experiments.  I therefore believe that this dissertation will encapsulate the majority of the aspects of the instrument and shed a wider light on its presence in musical culture. "

Khustar - delight from Xinjiang

"Khushtar is part of the ancient Uyghur musical tradition. It was handmade in the tradition of Uyghur Master Instrument makers in Kashgar, Xinjiang - western border of China and Turkestan.
Khushtar is made from the wood of a mulberry tree. It has 11 strings; four are for playing, as with a normal violin, and the others are sympathetic strings that resonate along with the bowed strings (similar to a viola d'amore). 

The Khushtar is named for the carved bird that is placed on top of the handle. Khush means bird, and tar means strings. The sound of a Khushtar is very clear and resonate, reminiscent of a birdsong. The Khushtar evolved, in ancient Kashgar, from the venerable Ghijek instrument."

...When it arrived from China, it was fitted in a sturdy wooden box filled with wood shaves. One of the sympatetic pegs was broken but soon I learned that replacing them all with small violin ones, serve the purpose much better.

Tuning was somewhat tricky. Supposedly GDAE, the instrument felt very unnatural and heavy in the higher register, while the lower two strings G and D were soft and easy to play. My epiphany occurred when by accident  one of loose higher pegs jumped to D. Tuning GDG'D' works beautifully, and I will never touch the pegs to re-tune them... It very earthy, growling and dark when double stopping the 5th only to progress upwards on the lower drone string. The highest notes gives a variety of sonic reflections - from nasal high pitched ones to open, bright and freeing - all depends on the bowing, amount of rosin, the temperature and off course the mood of the instrument's soul ;) 

It was almost 6 years ago. Little bird at the top of the headpiece lost his (her?) beak and all the strings has been fitted with micro tuners from small violin...

Most of the learning was done rather impromptu during 2003 - 2007 when playing in a band called "Umanee" (http://www.pmnmusic.com/umanee/index.html). The repertoire was a mystical beverage made of Triglav's (Polish pagan god), Thor's (Scandinavian) and miscellaneous minor deities infusions including the pantheon of regressive rock-folk and rugged association with world music... Thanks to Michael O'Connor, Bill Thomson, Keryn Lientshnig, Rob Law, Dushan Mitrovic and Shakira Searle - I experienced very dynamic learning environment where my lack of proper bowing technique was not unwanted - it simply become "the sound" of the instrument which penetrated many of our textures and sonic landscapes...

(Umanee with Emah Fox, Montsalvat 2006)

 And here our album LP version (from "Fravashi") with the guest vocals of Shakira Searle:


"Dzikie Pola" (Wild Steppe) with band Umanee - from "Fravashi" (2007) by PMN Music Creations

Few years passed before I joined "Soteria Bell" and took on the Khushtar again. This time is more Hellenic, Balkan and even Uyghur - where it finally belong :)

"Khushtar
Source: Global Times [17:29 July 14 2009]

Now a prominent instrument in the professional troupes, the khushtar viol was developed in the 1960s. It modeled its shape on instruments depicted in Xinjiang's early Buddhist cave murals. It is tuned and bowed like the professional ghijak, but its tone is lower and softer, since the whole instrument is made of wood. It is also found in soprano and tenor versions."

The maker of the instrument told me about the "Iconic" place of the Khushtar in the Uyghur national consciousness - it carries the connotations to the decades long fight with the Chinese government to gain an independence for the Uyghurs. Frankly, the instrument is now becoming the part of  traditional Chinese ensembles...

"The Uyghur (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر‎, ULY: Uyghur; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: Wéiwú'ěr; [ʔʊjˈʁʊː]) are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.

The largest community of Uyghurs outside Xinjiang in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in major cities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey. Outside of China, large province." (from Wikipedia)