My shepherd’s flute making workshop dates back more than 30 years, to a time when it was not easy to get such an instrument. I started to work with master craftsmen in the valley of Görgény, in order to achieve the 440 tuning and to improve the quality of the whistle and the sound. The instruments I made for myself and for my own pleasure at the beginning appealed to others, so it became an ongoing workshop. To this day I work with the local masters, they provide the raw material and I develop the models with them.
The tools are also unique, as we don’t use heavy woodworking machines like lathes. For many people it is unthinkable that such an instrument can be made, but this is a practice that has been preserved for many centuries in the valley of Görgény. As far as I know, it is the only one… More recently, I have included small electronic tools and a drilling machine. But this does not change the nature of the technique.
The flutes are white or light yellow in colour, because of the material, which I do not dye. It can be elderberry, dogwood, ash, acacia, and sometimes hazelnuts make great tilinka. I treat the newer series with instrumental varnish (shellac), which really improves the sound quality. Also a characteristic feature is that there is no pattern on the flutes.
My models:
Sheperd’s flutes, in ascending order: D, C, A, G, F small flutes, and the octave lower D, and C.
Kavals: E, D are small kavals, more for children, and C, H, A, G, the last one not everyone can hold because it is over 80 cm long.
In addition, tilinkas
The instrument makers who sell flutes make instruments in many different ways. Looking at the tools, I see two groups, manual and mechanical. The ancient manual method no longer exists, as it is market-oriented, and some processes are definitely mechanised. On the other hand, those who start from this use a completely different set of tools and wood than the fully mechanised versions. Drills, planers and sanders can be involved, but the complete elimination of the lathe implies the use of ancient manual techniques, with minimal motorisation by the craftsman, in order to make the work more efficient.
To many, it is inconceivable how such an instrument can be produced without top-of-the-range equipment, but there are many centuries of practice that have been preserved in the valley of Görgény. To my knowledge, this is the only one… The raw material used should always be wood whose interior can be drilled with a gypsy drill, so that the centre is soft. The lack of a lathe is made up for by the curving knife, which is good for removing excess material from the outer layer. After drying, special knives are used to drill holes to suit the model, and these are very useful.
The use of a lathe, on the other hand, requires complete mechanisation. It bypasses the subtle awkwardness of hand making, and opens up the possibility of a much more precise and very hard, solid-bodied instrument wood. The quality of the instruments is not necessarily better, but the efficiency of the work is. At the same time, the machines also keep production costs very low.
The shepherd’s flute has been a favourite instrument of shepherds living in the Carpathian Basin for centuries. Today it is used less and less. This instrument has been created by the shepherds themselves, and its use is not uniform. Its closest relatives, the kaval and the tilinka, are similar in use and together they have created a unified wind instrument culture in our landscapes.
Its range is based on the major scale, with low third and seventh as opposed to the major third and major seventh interval in the major scale, a natural characteristic of the instrument, which some playing styles eliminate and others use. In the past, it was not tuned precisely, so it was not always usable with fixed instruments. The two and a half octaves of the instrument can be achieved with different blowing strengths, the second octave being blown harder and the top fifth even harder.
The average length is between 28 and 45cm, most models are about the same, but there are exceptions. Many flutists in Gyimes like large-bodied flutes for their nice warm sound, so the large D flute is prized, as is the deeper C. This can reach a length of 60 cm, on which it is not so easy to cover the holes. This length is also reached by the semi-flutes. The instrument on the logo, for example, is an old “piece” from Gyimes, reaching a length of 60 cm, which I assume must have been made at the beginning of the 20th century.
The body of the instrument is bordered on the top by the whistle. The plug-type whistle starts with an air-column guiding part, the shaft. The shaft is bounded on the inside by the plug and on the outside by the body of the instrument. The shaft blows air onto a tongue, where the sound is produced. This is followed by a six-hole middle section. The inner bore is cylindrical, except for a few inches below the bottom hole. This is thinned out from the inside to form the constriction that is called the ass of the instrument in Görgény valley terminology.
An important part of resonating the instrument is the whistle. Several types of whistles were common in our region, which I have divided into two broad groups: plugged, the more common today, and unplugged, which the literature calls rim-blowing. The gyimesians call it half-blower, which I will use from now on as a ‘technical term’, in honour of Ambrus Fülöp, from whom I first heard the word and who gave me valuable information on the subject. There are also a number of variations of the plugged flute whistle, distinguished by region, of which the Somogy one from hungarian territories, which is a slightly different type, and the flutes used in the Highlands, which also have a different construction of plugged whistle.
And yet… we must not forget the semi-flute. Because this whistle also gives the shepherd’s pipe a life of its own. Of course, I say this mainly for myself, because I was “late to the game”… Two things led me to take this whistle seriously, both of Carpathian Basin heritage, one was Philip Ambrus, a very intelligent, logical, reliable storyteller, who told me that his grandfather, moreover, was from Csíkszenttamás, and played the half-pipe. He explained in detail about the whistle and the sound shaping, but his name says it all. He also thought it is important to note that the body of the instrument was larger than the plug flutes we see today. Later, I received gradual confirmation that this whistle may have been more common in the old days, even in our country.
The other is that I often saw old flutes made in the valley of Görgény, large bodied and semi-flutes. At first I didn’t take them seriously, because they seemed to be a hoax for the tourist industry, but slowly it turned out that they were used, and they were quite good instruments, and old ones at that… These whistles are now less and less used, and I will explain the reasons for their decline in the chapter on instrument making.