|
East
Coast Envy
by Thomas Kafka
This may seem quaint to the British members of the Bagpipe Society but as a
resident of the East Coast of the US, I envy citizens of the West Coast having
the privilege of enjoying “Drone Magic – The Festival of Bagpipes”, an
event that would garner a top award in bagpipe diversity (if there were such a
thing).
On December 11, 2004, the evening was presented by Ferenc
and Mary W Tobak of the organization, Living The Tradition in
cooperation with, and in the hall of the Croatian American Cultural Center
in San Francisco and brought together pipers playing Bulgarian gaida, French
musette, Hungarian duda, Irish uilleann pipes, Italian zampogna, Scottish
highland pipes and smallpipes, Spanish gaita, and Swedish säckpipa. And all
these pipers live in Northern California! The area also houses several pipe
makers: Bulgarian Vassil Bebelekov and Hungarian Ferenc Tobak, as well as
Americans Alex Bernstein making Spanish gaitas and Alan Keith making English
bagpipes and other instruments.
The evening was an affair for bagpipe lovers who form a small but enthusiastic
community here. It was a true family affair too, as three of the pipers came
with other family members who joined
in the music making. The event was a benefit to support bagpipe music and
research for Living The Tradition and was produced on a shoe string -
all the musicians volunteered their time and gave their spirited music to the
small audience freely. The event
also celebrated the release of the CD “Drone Magic’ which features pipers
who have performed at the previous three such winter festivals.
The program started with a re-enactment of the Urálás, a traditional New Year
celebration in the villages of
Moldavia in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Romania. A
group of musicians (for the concert, the whole Tobak family) goes door-to-door
through the village, and at each house offers a blessing to the household
(recited by Ferenc Jr), accompanied by a piper (Ferenc Sr), drummer (Zoli),
friction drum (Mary), and a large shepherd's horn (Mária). The audience
contributed to the "joyful noise making” whenever required.
The more conventional part of the program started with a slow processional set
played by Scottish highland piper Lynne Miller who, for his second set, played
Scottish and Irish melodies, as well as Beethoven's Ninth.
Todd Denman then introduced his Uillean pipes to the audience before playing a
slow air
followed by spirited sets of jigs and reels. In his second appearance of the
evening he played a piece of descriptive music entitled Fox Chase, painting as
true a picture of such an event as music can.
Georgi Kabaivanov is a young Bulgarian piper living in the
US since 1996. He demonstrated traditional gaida piping style when playing Triti
Puti, a dance well known throughout the US folkdancing community (but to my
disappointment, nobody got up to dance). He played a generic Ruchenitsa in the
second half of the program.
Alex Bernstein headed a gaita duo with Tesser Call (pipes in C) playing two sets
of Spanish melodies (March-Polka-Ribeirana, and Christmas carols). Noticeable
was the small size of the gaita bags that require constant blowing.
Mark Walstrom showed not only his skill as Swedish säckpipa player, but also as
a singer and a nyckelharpa fiddle master (his fancy instrument had four melody
strings and around eleven sympathetic strings). In his second appearance he sang
with his shy little daughter acting the part
of Santa Lucia in a presentation of a traditional Swedish pre-Christmas
celebration.
Alan Keith gave up being a Silicon Valley engineer to become a full-time
musician and instrument maker. He played "vingt-pouce" Grand
Bourbonnais pipes in his first set (Noel de Limoge, Bourree d'Aurore Sand), and
a smaller Musette Bechonet in his second set (Ton Rouban Bleu in 2/4, La
Planette bourree in 3/4).
Also taking the stage was the 'Distant Oaks' trio
consisting of Jared White on Scottish smallpipes, his mother Deborah on citole
and vocals, and his brother Shayne on harp (doing step dancing as well). They
played two sets of music from the British Isles.
A real treat for the audience was the opportunity to see and hear 74-year-old
Italian folk piper Pietro Torrano (living in the California 'Wine Country')
playing his newly refurbished zampogna. This instrument was unplayable for many
years, until Ferenc Tobak repaired it just a few weeks
earlier. Pietro offered a traditional Christmas Pastorale, as well as a lively
Tarantella in the second half, both to a big applause.
An unexpected guest contributing to the merriment was singer Ilona Nyisztor
performing songs of the Hungarian speaking minority in Moldavia (Eastern
Romania), whether a capella, or accompanied by Ferenc Tobak and his sip
(Moldavian Hungarian bagpipe).
The Tobak family played two sets in the second half of the evening. First was
music from the Transdanubia region of Hungary - Ferenc Sr. on duda, Ferenc Jr.
on tekerő (hurdy gurdy), daughter Mária on tamburica, and mother Mary on
vocals. The closing number of the
evening was Christmas songs, first a solo from Moldavia sung by Ilona Nyisztor,
followed by an interesting arrangement from the Transdanubia region with the
duda bagpipes (Ferenc Sr) and 'pipe organ' approximated by a portable electronic
keyboard played by Mária, accompanying the vocals by Ilona and Mary.
|
