The fujara () is a large

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

of the tabor pipe class. It originated in central

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

as a sophisticated folk shepherd's

overtone An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...

fipple flute of unique design in the

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

range. Ranging from 160 to 200 cm long (5'3" – 6'6")"The Fujara and its Music": Description, Slideshow, Video

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

, 2005, 2008. (Accessed 2012-08-12) and tuned in A, G, or F. It has three tone holes (also called ''finger holes'') located on the lower part of the main body. The sound is produced by a fipple at the upper end of the main body of the fujara. The air is led to the fipple through a smaller parallel pipe, called ''vzduchovod'' in Slovak (meaning "air channel"), mounted on the main body of the instrument. While it is possible to play the

fundamental frequency The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the ''fundamental'', is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. I ...

on fujaras, the normal playing technique is based on overblowing the instrument. Because of the high aspect ratio of the sound chamber (great length versus small internal diameter), the player can use

s to play a

diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...

using only the three tone holes. The fujara is typically played while standing, with the instrument held vertically and usually braced against the right thigh.

Technique and role

The atypical design produces a deep, meditative

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

Ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration * Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve o ...

are traditionally added to the base melodies, which usually occur in the

Mixolydian mode Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic sc ...

. Two common types of ornaments are ''prefuk'', the rapid overblowing of a single note (from Slovak 'to overblow'), and ''rozfuk'', a descending cascade of overtones (from Slovak 'to scatter by blowing'). Traditionally, the fujara was played by shepherds for recreation. Today, the fujara has moved from the shepherds' fields to the stage of folk festivals in the Slovak towns of

Východná Východná ( hu, Vichodna) is a village and municipality in Liptovský Mikuláš District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1269, at the foot of Kriváň, Slovakia's symb ...

and

Detva Detva ( hu, Gyetva) is a town in central Slovakia with a population of 14,686. It is situated beneath the mountain Poľana. Etymology The name means 'youth' in Slovak and was probably motivated by the majority of young people among the first se ...

. The instrument has also left Slovakia and is played all over the world; particularly by

aficionados A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody, such as a celebrity, a sport, a sports team, a genre, a politician, a book, a movie, a ...

of native flutes in western Europe and North America. Despite this, the fujara has yet to gain popularity or much recognition outside of Slovakia. Most often the fujara is a solo instrument, but ensembles of two or three fujaras have been known, such as the Kubinec family or the Javorová Húžva trio. The fujara was added to the

list of

Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness of intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and th ...

in 2005.
UNESCO has also provided a web page showing information about the fujara, but it "has no official status": * "The Fujara and its Music" was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 by

References

External links

www.Fujara.sk
Fujjara samples
www.Fujaraflutes.com
Fujara samples

Fujara and other traditional Slovak instruments
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y5fonktBzQ
Demonstration of fujara and koncovka {{Authority control Internal fipple flutes Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Overtone flutes Slovak musical instruments

Technique and role

See also

References

Further reading

External links