The Istarski mih or Istrian mih is a

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

native to the regions of

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

and

Kvarner The Kvarner Gulf (, or ; ; or ) sometimes also Kvarner Bay, is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian Littoral mainland. The bay is a part of Croatia's internal waters. The largest i ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It consists of a bag made most often from

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

skin and a double-chanter with two single reeds. This type of bagpipe is distinct in that it has no drones, but a double-chanter with finger-holes on both bores, allowing both a melody and changing harmony to be played. In this respect the ''mih'' more resembles the bagpipes of the

Southwest Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenia ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

than other European bagpipes. The instrument is not dodecaphonically tempered, it is a solistic instrument and it corresponds to the so-called

Istrian scale "Istrian scale" refers both to a "unique"Thammy Evans, Rudolf Abraham (2013). ''Istria: Croatian Peninsula, Rijeka, Slovenian Adriatic'', p.17. . musical scale and to the folk music genres from Istria and Kvarner which use that scale.

. Due to its specific tone-hole placement, its sound is distinct and unusual even when compared to other instruments of the same "mih" family. Unlike other Croatian bagpipe-like instruments that were forgotten and replaced with the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

in the 20th century, the art of playing istarski mih has not faced such rapid cultural decay.

Ivan Matetić Ronjgov Ivan Matetić Ronjgov (10 April 1880 – 27 June 1960) was an Istrian composer. Ivan Matetić was born in Ronjgi, a village in present-day Croatia, from which he took his nickname "Ronjgov". He discovered the pattern of the music of the Istr ...

, a native Istrian composer, is credited with having revived the art of playing the ''istarski mih'' and the shawm-like instrument '' sopile'' in the 20th century. Nowadays, these instruments can be frequently seen and heard on many traditional music manifestations across Istria, with many young and perspective players performing and learning to play. Till the end of the second world war, the instrument was present also in the northern part of

Ćićarija Ćićarija (; ; ; ) is a mountainous plateau in the northern and northeastern part of the Istria peninsula, long and wide. It mostly lies in Croatia, while its northern part lies in southwestern Slovenia (the traditional region of Inner Carniol ...

region, in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

, but the tradition there hasn't been revived since. There are also some players and makers outside Istria, like Stjepan Večković, that contribute to the continuation of the instrument's tradition into the 21st century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Istarski Mih Bagpipes Croatian musical instruments Istria

See also

References