Złóbcoki

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(* 1935) from the instrument maker and musician Marian Styrczula-Maśniak Kościelisko produced złóbcoki in a modernized form

Złóbcoki , also gęśliki (podhalańskie) or oktawki , is a small, narrow fiddle whose shape resembles a dance master's violin and which is occasionally played in folk music in the southern Polish region of Podhale .

Origin and Distribution

Dance master violin by Gregorius Carpp, Königsberg , 1693.

The European String loud have their roots in a pear-shaped type that extending from the 10th century Byzantine Empire as lira spread to the west, and another guy with a long oval body, the probably the Arabs on the Iberian Peninsula introduced and under the name rebec (from Arabic rabāb ) became known. Another type of lute with a spade-shaped body and a round sound hole in the middle, which can be seen for the first time in an illustration from the first half of the 9th century and has similarities with Central Asian instruments, disappeared in the 12th century. The pear-shaped lute, which was placed horizontally against the neck or upper body when playing, spread more widely in the Middle Ages than the "oriental lute", which was often positioned vertically on the knees.

Characteristic of the lutes called rebec , which appeared with different body shapes, was the unit of body and neck, which were carved out of a piece of wood, while other lute instruments from the Middle Ages to today have a separate neck attached to the body. A rebec type with a long oval body rounded on the bottom had a top made of parchment in the lower area and wood in the upper area, as well as two, rarely three strings that led to a pegbox protruding towards the rear. In the second rebec type with a wider, pear-shaped body, the entire top was made of wood. A fiddle ( vièle in French ) popular with musicians, with an oval body and side sound holes, is depicted in the De Lisle Psalter from the beginning of the 14th century. Such fiddles, usually with three or four strings, were widespread in Western Europe in numerous variants at the end of the 14th century and were still in use in the 16th century, when the violin already existed in its largely retained form. The dance master violin (French pochette ), in use from the middle of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century , whose body is reminiscent of the złóbcoki and which in turn is related to the narrow rebec type, should be able to be carried in a skirt pocket. Because of the narrower body, its tone is quieter than that of a classical violin.

Museale złóbcoki from 1863.

In numerous string instruments used in Eastern European folk music, which until the 20th century were traditionally made with simple means by the musician himself or his close environment, old craft and playing traditions have been preserved. In the second half of the 17th century, fiddles began to take over the role of the leading melodic instruments from the bagpipes in Polish folk music . Fiddles are generally accompanied by a rhythm instrument (drum), a drone instrument (bagpipe) or an instrument that produces drums and rhythm (string bass).

In Slavic languages , the word husle and related word formations (including Polish gęśle ) have stood for “strings” and generally for “stringed instrument” since the 10th century . These include boxes zither and, in large numbers, stringed sounds .

Related to the złóbcoki of the Polish Tatra region in neighboring Slovakia are the four-string korytkové husle ("trough violin") or dlabané husle ("grooved violin"), which was carved from a half-trunk in the shape of a trough and whose long sides are straight. The Slovakian gutter violin žliabkové husle ("gutter violin", also zlobcoky, žlobcoky or žlobky ) is almost identical in construction and, unlike the trough violin, is minimally tapered on the long sides. The somewhat larger Slovak trough bass violin basička ("little bass") or korytková basa ("trough bass") also has an approximately oval body . In contrast to the Polish fiddles, the Slovak instruments belonging to the culture of mountain farmers and shepherds are now practically only available as museum copies.

More Polish fiddles are the late 19th century largely disappeared suka , experienced a revival since the 1990s with a violin-like body, a wide neck and four strings, and in the region Wielkopolska occurring Mazanki with three strings. Its body corresponds in outline to a somewhat reduced violin. The skrypze złobione ("hollowed out violin") was a simple regional imitation of the violin that is believed to have disappeared. If obsolete types of fiddle are recreated today, they are related to a growing interest in national Polish folk music and a renewal of it since the 1990s.

Design

The złóbcoki is 50 to 60 centimeters long and has a narrow body, rounded at the lower end, which is spindle-shaped or tapers slightly towards the neck. Other variants can be oval with a body shape similar to the Russian gudok or more pear-shaped. The spindle-shaped type is reminiscent of the three-stringed fiddle surdynka that occurs in the central region of Mazovia , the pear-shaped one to corresponding medieval lutes.

The name złóbcoki is derived from the verb żłobić , "to carve" (alternatively from łób , "cradle"). The entire instrument is carved out of one piece of wood (usually sycamore maple ). A cover with two f sound holes is glued onto the body . The three or four strings, tuned at a fifth distance after the violin (with four strings g – d 1 –a 1 –e 2 ), run from a tailpiece attached at the lower end over a bridge to a pegbox with pegs at the side and attached scroll, the corresponds to that of a violin.

Style of play

Taniec nad ogniem , "Dance around the fire". The musicians play złóbcoki and bagpipes. Woodcut by Władysław Skoczylas (1883–1934).

Five musical landscapes are distinguished for Polish folk music. The złóbcoki belongs to the southern Polish region of Lesser Poland , for which melodies with a mostly falling melody, which are performed in a fast, fixed 2/4 time, are characteristic. These include the songs of the Gorals , in which a high- pitched male singing voice is accompanied by a first violin ( prym ), two second violins ( secondary ) and a bass violin ( bas, basy ). In addition to the bagpipe types dudy, gajdy and koza, which are used depending on the region, straight wooden trumpets ( trombita ) and overtone flutes ( fulyrka, piscołka , corresponding to the Slovak koncovka ) are played for a long time. The złóbcoki is limited to the actual Tatras . It is used as a soloist in folk music ensembles ( muzyki ), together with a bass violin made from a piece of wood, like the złóbcoki , or with a bagpipe. The three-string bass violin is roughly the size of a cello . In the old tradition of playing, as it was centuries ago, the melodies are mainly played in the first position on the top string, which is why the range of the złóbcoki melodies is small.

The only pure male dance of the Gorals is the zbójnicki (derived from zbójnik , "robber", plural zbójnicy ), with which the legendary hero Juraj Janosik, a Robin Hood of the Tatra Mountains, is conjured up. The story goes on the 17th / 18th Century back when bands of robbers from the villages of the Gorals roamed the area and pillaged. The dance is accompanied by an ensemble with the four strings mentioned. In the past, the first violinist sometimes played a złóbcoki .

The musician and poet Sabała plays złóbcoki . Drawing by Walery Eljasz Radzikowski, 1892.

The złóbcoki is particularly valued today as one of the characteristic elements of the Polish mountainous region of Podhale, although the instrument is also known across the border in the Slovak Tatra region. Like the bagpipes, it is part of the shepherd's instruments in the mountains. Because of its rather soft but shrill tone, the złóbcoki was gradually replaced by the violin in the second half of the 19th century. The last famous złóbcoki player was the musician and poet Sabała (1809-1994) , who was closely associated with the Tatra Mountains . At the beginning of the 20th century the złóbcoki was only used as a practice instrument by budding violinists. An attempt in the 1920s to take the złóbcoki back into the ensembles playing at weddings failed because the audience preferred the fuller tone of the violin. Today, the złóbcoki is occasionally played at folklore events when it comes to maintaining Sabała's musical tradition. The first musician ( prymista ) plays złóbcoki and intones with his ensemble “the old melodies of Sabała” ( staroświeckie sabałowe nuty ).

A folklore festival that takes place every year in the tourist town of Zakopane (the place of activity Sabałas) in the Podhale region serves to establish national identity and bring back the Gorals. The shepherd appears as a mythically exaggerated figure. Thanks to the participants from other regions, a cultural renewal and adaptation to modern times takes place, leading to urban Polish folk music. The other characteristic musical instrument of the Podhale region, which was previously played solo by shepherds and traveling musicians, is the bagpipe koza .

literature

  • Jan Stęszewski: Złóbcoki. In: Laurence Libin (Ed.): The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . Volume 5, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2014, p. 388

Web links

Commons : Złóbcoki  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Curt Sachs : Handbook of musical instrumentation . (2nd edition 1930) Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1967, p. 175
  2. ^ Marianne Bröcker: Rebec. II. Description. In: MGG Online , November 2016 ( Music in the past and present , 1998)
  3. ↑ Fidel. In: Anthony Baines: Lexicon of Musical Instruments . JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2005, p. 91
  4. ↑ Taschengeige, Tanzmeistergeige, Pochette . In: Anthony Baines: Lexicon of Musical Instruments . JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2005, p. 321
  5. ↑ Zbigniew J. Przerembski: Studying folk violin playing to recover early music performance practices. The Violin in Polish Collections, Institut of Music an Dance (IMiT), Warsaw
  6. ↑ Ewa Dahlig: Poland . In: Timothy Rice, James Porter, Chris Goertzen (Eds.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 8: Europe . Routledge, New York / London 2000, p. 705
  7. ↑ Irene (Iryna) Zinkiv: To the Origins and Semantics of the Term "husly". (PDF) In: Music Art and Culture. No. 19, 2014, pp. 33–42, here p. 41
  8. ^ Oskár Elschek: The folk musical instruments of Czechoslovakia. Part 2: The Slovak folk musical instruments. ( Ernst Emsheimer , Erich Stockmann (Hrsg.): Handbook of European Folk Musical Instruments. Series 1, Volume 2) Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1983, pp. 90f, 95
  9. ^ Peter Cooke: The violin - instrument of four continents. In: Robin Stowell (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to the Violin. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, p. 239
  10. ↑ January Stęszewski: Poland. II. Folk music. 4. Regional differentiation. In: MGG Online , October 2017
  11. ^ Joseph Needham : The Dances of Podhale (Poland) . In: Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society , Volume 3, No. 2, December 1937, pp. 117-119
  12. ↑ Maja Trochimczyk: Zbójnicki. Polish Music Center, University of Southern California
  13. ↑ Nuty in the plural, “notes”, means “our music” in the Tatras, the singular nuta , “note”, stands for a type of melody. Cf. Jan Stęszewski: Things, Consciousness and Designations in Ethnomusicological Studies. (Using the example of Polish folklore). In: Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung , 17th year, 1972, pp. 131–170, here p. 137
  14. ↑ Gustaw Juzala: The Traditional Music of Podhale. (PDF) In: Etnologia Polonia , Volume 35, 2014, pp. 163–179, here pp. 169–171
  15. ↑ Edward Manouelian: Invented Traditions: primitivist Narrative and Design in the Polish fin de siècle. In: Slavic Review , Volume 59, No. 2, Sommer 2000, pp. 391-405, here p. 404
  16. ↑ Timothy J. Cooley: Folk Festival as Modern Ritual in the Polish Tatra Mountains. In: The World of Music , Volume 52, No. 1/3 ( The world of music: Readings in Ethnomusicology ) 2010, pp. 270–293, here p. 271