Birch leaf bubbles
The birch leaf blowing is a traditional musical practice of the Shepherd .
Instrument and playing technique
The birch leaf used is not a leaf of the birch , as would suggest the name but a piece of the birch bark, from which the outer layers are peeled off until a thin "sheet" of Rindenbasts of about 0.2 mm thickness remains. Then a rectangle 3–4 by 5–6 centimeters is cut out and bent about one centimeter below the narrow side. There are also rounded variants. The player generally makes his own instrument.
To play, the folded sheet is pressed against the outside of the lips with two or three fingers, with the folded edge pointing up and away from the body. The lower lip rests just below the crease, while the upper lip rests on the upper edge of the leaf, finally resting on the mouth. If the blowing is strong enough, the leaflet begins to vibrate away from the upper lip and back because of its elasticity . There is a sound. The pitch can be varied by the position of the mouth and lips as well as the strength of the air flow. Mastering the instrument requires long and intensive practice.
The range to be achieved covers the two-stroke octave (e.g. from a 'to f' ''). The timbre is similar to that of the oboe or is even sharper.
According to the classification of musical instruments according to the Hornbostel-Sachs system , the birch leaf belongs to the free aerophones and, in the further subdivision, to the self-sounding interruption aerophones with a striking tongue .
Diffusion and development
In Germany, birch leaf blowing was historically linked to sheep farming. It was widespread in what is now Brandenburg , Saxony , Thuringia , Hesse , Franconia and Bavaria . It is also used for Austria and Romania . But it should also be known in Poland , Sweden , Hungary , Southeast Europe and the European part of Russia .
The bond with the shepherd class was no different in the Harz and its northern foreland. As elsewhere, the art of blowing has been passed on from generation to generation. The shepherd mostly blew for his own pleasure, but occasionally also in the spinning room or spontaneously at a village festival. If two shepherds met, they could also be played in two voices. Folk or dance tunes were played.
The situation changed when in 1938 the head of a Harz traditional costume group hired two shepherds blowing birch leaves for his ensemble. Now other groups wanted to follow suit and let non-shepherds learn to blow birch leaves. As a result, and with the change in the profile of the shepherd's profession, birch leaf blowing broke away from sheep farming and became a popular attraction, although the blowers often still appear in shepherd's costume. Birch leaf blowing is no longer a profession-related folk art in the strictest sense, but this old tradition is preserved in the Harz and its northern foreland via the folklore groups .
Birch leaf blowing courses were offered in Austria.
literature
- Winfried Schrammek (Ed.): About the birch leaf blowing in the Harz , Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt eV, Halle an der Saale 2010, ISBN 978-3-940744-10-4
Web links
- Birch leaf blowing when a Harz folk group performs ( on YouTube )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Magnus Klier: Folk musical instruments in the Alps , Bärenreiter-Verl. Kassel and Basel 1956, pp. 10 and 15
- ↑ Tiberiu Alexandru: Instrumentele musicale ale poporului romin , Bucuresti, Espla 1956, p. 25
- ↑ Whistling, a neglected art of folk culture in Styria, accessed on February 4, 2016