In order for us to approach traditional music making and to return to the values that we have inherited through these musical instruments, we must first clarify some concepts that the science of ethnomusicology uses.
stylistic elements
When playing a traditional tune, we must keep in mind to use thethat were inherited from the musicians that were born and raised in the communities that gave birth to these tunes. Given the fact that traditions were oftentimes well preserved due to geographical or psychosocial factors, these stylistic elements can differ wildly from one ethnological zone to another; as such, traditional music can be divided into dialects, subdialects and, in some more extreme examples of communities completely isolated from the rest of the world, we can observe the existence of a musical language that barely resembles the ones of the surrounding areas. The uniformity that we can see in the way of playing of modern musicians is a byproduct of the influence the communist regime of Romania has had on folklore, with the added contribution of artless populism and bad taste. This website’s purpose is to help those who are looking to approach traditional music making the proper way.
Old field recordings
There are multiple reliable sources of authentic traditional music that are worth studying. One of these sources are old field recordings made by reputable specialists in this area of expertise: they can show us the authentic usage of stylistic elements. The newer ones are less reliable, given the fact that the playing style of modern musicians has already been altered.
Living style of old people
Another source worth looking into is the playing style of old people that haven’t moved from the countryside and whose style resembles the one from the old recordings. Its worth trying to get in touch with these old players, in order to learn their playing style first hand.
On this way i have collections from my and other musicians, our virtual frends help us to discover this heritage
Spacial thanks for translating to
Alex Manea
Authenticity on the shepherd’s flute
Now that we are roughly oriented to the sound range of the shepherd’s flute, let’s try in this chapter to get to know the basic systems that lead to authenticity, in order to be able to perform it most authentically at any level of knowledge and possibly to teach it further to children. The latter is a big responsibility, as children are easily infected by styles, so to speak, they suck them out of the air, so we have to be very careful because we contaminate them… In this chapter we will discuss the elements of style in a way that anyone can learn independently.
Folk music is not a rigid world, so the way we play cannot necessarily be rigidified into sheet music or a single sounding material to learn from. Our elders never play two tunes the same way if they play them several times. This phenomenon is well known to listeners of dance music, through listening to the famous string bands. They don’t sing the same lyrics, they don’t accent them in the same way, in other words, folk music should be live and spontaneous. To learn this method, I have introduced a spiral teaching system for folk music, which is not new to alternative educators. As I apply it in this case, it is nothing other than the embracing of an ancient spontaneous conscious form of learning. Well, let’s see what it’s all about…
So, in the course of learning, what is essential to pay attention to in order to play our game authentically, I would summarise from the articles I have written as follows:
Pay attention to the landscape units and their characteristic stylistics, to which I have drawn attention in the article on their style and in the discussion of the data providers. Let us not neglect the voicings, in order to enable the expert listener to distinguish clearly the character of the landscape in which the melody is being played. The characteristics of each landscape are a combination of these stylistic features.
Pay attention to the distinctive sounds of the data contributors. Each data transmitter carries the characteristics of its landscape unit, but also carries exceptions to them. If we can adopt these in a healthy way, our music will reflect not only the landscape unit but also the performer.
If you were brought up on classical music, it is already important to get to know the styles that are not used in folk music, and instead to master the ones that are used here. I’ve described some of them in my article on Stylistic Elements, but I’ll warn everyone once again: remember the vibrato, there is no belly-pressed vibrato, instead there are the others. Neutral third is also an inherent phenomenon, so don’t be frightened by it. Also inherent is the fact that there is a sliding of the notes, in folk music the intoned voice from below is a very common stylistic device, whatever the instrument. Let’s try to avoid the sound of the classical flute to incorporate this.
Let’s also notice the characteristic features that are not all shepherd’s flute style features. I have not discussed these in the style of the instrument, as they are entirely musical, folk or other phenomena. Only the most important ones: rhythm, tone intonation, tone initiation, tone muting, tone image.
Let’s pay attention to the rhythms characteristic of folk music. This is a very difficult task, since each rhythm has its own expressive power, each region has its own characteristic pulsations. This can be observed on intact bands, especially Transylvanian string bands, Moldavian data bands, but when played for dance, it is also in the flute. Kobza accompaniment in Moldavian dance halls, or gardony accompaniment in Gyímes dance halls, all require the flutists to adapt their playing to this. Similarly, require the accompanying musicians to specify this. I’m not just referring to odd ones here, but the rhythmic timing of simple even pulsations is also different from the rhythmic sense of musicians who have grown up on classical or pop styles. The timing of even rhythms is almost identical to the rhythmic sense of what is called swinging in jazz.
And this is far from complete…
Spacial thanks for translating to
Metz Gyurka Iringo