However, Fujara flute was also played in a rural environment. Usually, Fujara flute has been played “in the evenings”, resp. “at the evening parties”. Just then youths accompanied each other and often one of them has played under the window of his girlfriend. Often, the lover revealed himself to his dear by a specific cipher.

Martin Sanitar (famous Slovak fujarists) also states, that the Fujara flute used to be played by recruitment.
In one fujara song from I. Weiss it is singed:
” I would not , I would not, join the army, would my father, begged the lords. But my father didn’t want to beg the lords, so I must go and carry a sword. “

But also in the village the Fujara flute has been played in seclusion (all alone) in the evening time, when the interpreter played just for himself, respectively only for a close ring of listeners.

Generally, in the rural fujara play (mostly Fujara flute has been played in stiller seclusions) were more of melody variations and flute’s fingering techniques used.

Fujara flute is an instrument of Slovak shepherds. Formerly, the Fujara flute was mostly played by the shepherding.

Martin Sanitar (famous Slovak Fujara flute maker and player) said:

“when I was 10-12 years old, I did shepherding. I did not milk, this my father did. But I had to tend the sheep. We paid a lease to local community for an area where cows could not go, and there we went with sheep. I was going one way and Jozo Vyboch (his friend and shepperd) the other side of the hill. And Jozo has already played at that time and he played Fujara flute rather beautifully.”

Walachian style of Fujara flute play

If we imagine the life in a shed in the past, we will find out that in the summer there was no time for playing. In the morning shepherds had to wake up to milk the sheep, sour the milk, prepare the cheese and zincica (special drink made by Slovakian shepherd’s) and by the time the cheese was smoked, the noon was there and everything had to be repeated.
Therefore, the best was to play by shepherding. Allegedly, the Fujara flute sounded most beautifully when it had been played behind the sheep, just step by step. The Fujara flute’s soft voice and its slow melody calmed the sheep and they could better and peacefully nibble. Today, the experts for ecological (alternative) farming would say that a “welfare effect” was achieved, which means that an additional comfort for animals was reached manifested in their vitality and better utility.

K. A. Medvecky in his famous monograph states that the shepherd by playing his Fujara flute tended the herd, the sheep were more gentle, more quiet, and better sticked together. This was later confirmed also by the older Fujarists stating that the shepherds played the Fujara flute heading their herd. Juraj Kubinec (famous fujarists) added to this “Fujara flute is with the sheep very useful, when Fujara is played, the sheep stretch to the side and go in line, one after another”. Today I personally know, that this is very important while the grass is nibbled evenly and the pasture is thus better utilized.

The melodies played by shepherding were mostly slow and dragy, without trills and decorations, utilising simple blowing only, over-blowing to overtones and vibrato. Some suggest, that walachians hands were worked out and hard and therefore their fingers were less flexible.

A rural style of Fujara flute play

However, Fujara flute was also played in a rural environment. Usually, Fujara flute has been played “in the evenings”, resp. “at the evening parties”. Just then youths accompanied each other and often one of them has played under the window of his girlfriend. Often, the lover revealed himself to his dear by a specific cipher.

Martin Sanitar (famous Slovak fujarists) also states, that the Fujara flute used to be played by recruitment.
In one fujara song from I. Weiss it is singed:
” I would not , I would not, join the army, would my father, begged the lords. But my father didn’t want to beg the lords, so I must go and carry a sword. “

There are many amazing and unique flutes in the world but no one is similar to Fujara (Slovak overtone flute). Fujara is remarkable not only with its grand dimensions (1.7 meter / 67 inches long) and design but also is endowed with a voice like no other woodwind instrument on Earth.

Fujara unique soft voice is resonating in the same register and similar frequencies as singing human voice and has strong meditative and calming effects on the listener as well as the player. Fujara flute’s unique and natural playing techique is predestinating the intrument to be used not only by professional musicians but also by much wider choice of amateur music lovers and starting musicians. In this connection we can say that Fujara is the same for flute’s world as the world known didgeridoo for the world of trumpets – ancient ancestor.

Fujara has 3 holes (vents), but the height of the tone is decided mainly by the strength of in-blown air. This makes the playing technique very natural and easy to learn for anybody. Fujara flute’s beautiful voice sounding in perfect accordance with the player’s breath give a very satisfactory feeling even for the very beginner and make the learning process fun, interesting and thus easy.

Fascinating range of 3 octaves in major, 11 overtone levels and ease of play make Fujara outstanding meditation intrument for everybody to start with, stick with and live with! Every fujara overtone flute is naturaly tuned to itself while the Fujara flute’s scale is mostly created by overblowing the the flute reaching various overtones.
Put simply, Fujara won’t let you play bad, is easy to start with and can very easy become a love for lifetime 🙂

Fujara melodies are embelished by shriller tones when playing “scatter” on the beginning of the song ( audio samples ) and whoosh by overblowing the instrument.

– simmilar and different –

Fipple flute is end-blown flute that can be found in traditional folk music of many cultures all over the world. In fipple flute the top end is stopped with a block (fipple) except for a small, flat opening for blowing, and there is a notch (duct) in the top side of the pipe near the blowing end. Good and well known examples of fipple flute are e.g. Recorder, NAF (Norht American Flute) and Irish tin whistle.

The Fujara is a kind of very long fipple flute. Although the voice creation is the same as in above mensioned fipple flutes, Fujara flute design is though quite different from traditional end blown fipple flute:

• Fujara flute stands out with its grand dimensions (appr. 1.7m / 67″ long) and due to its construction it is endowed with more bassier and softer sound than any other fipple flute available.
• Due to Fujara flute’s grand dimensions additional side pipe for air supply is needed – thus Fujara bass flute is no longer an end blown fipple flute…
• On contrary to recorder, NAF or Irish whistle is the Fujara an overtone flute. This makes the playing technique quite different where the most important role plays the player’s breath, not the fingerings.

Special Fujara design and master craftmanship developed and refined over centuries, allow Fujara flute to play much wider spectrum of overtones than any other fipple flute. This also determines Fujara playing techinque which is rather different from standard fipple flute playing techinque.

Standard fipple flute designs like e.g. NAF, recorder or Irish tin whistle can play in first or second overtone series only and the melody is played out mainly by fingering. On contrary, the Fujara fipple flute is capable to play in 12 overtone series and the melody is mostly played by overblowing the instrument and thus reaching various overtones.

E.g. recorder – sdandard fipple flute – has 9 holes and the height of the tone is decided mainly by fingering the vents. Fujara flute has only 3 holes (vents) but the height of the tone is decided mainly by the strength of in-blown air.
This makes the Fujara flute playing technique very natural and easy to learn for anybody.
Fujara flute’s beautiful voice sounding in perfect harmony with the player’s breath give a very satisfactory feeling even for the very beginner and make the learning process fun, interesting and thus easy. Moreover, every fujara flute is “naturaly” tuned to itself while the fujara flute’s scale is mostly created by overblowing the overtones. Put simply, Fujara won’t let you play bad even at the very beginning.

Still, Fujara is capable to play pure diatonic major scale in two octaves, on G fujara from g(G3) to g2(G5).

The most traditional Fujara decoration techniques are carving and acid pickling.

Every folk flute maker in Slovakia develops over years his own ornamentation style to carve or stain onto the outside of the instrument that identifies his instruments. All the ornaments are created solely by hand which makes every instrument a work of art – an original.

Fujara flutes are traditionaly decorated in rich plant-flower ornamentation. Traditional ornaments are carved, stained or inlaid into the instrument’s wood by various methods.

Personal plant-flower ornaments are marked into the instruments wood by various methods:

The ornament is first pre-drawn by hand onto the instrument’s wood. Then one of the below listed decoration technique is applied.

Carving

Ornaments are hand carved by sharp knife into the wood creating thus a v-shaped groove. Then the wood is stained and finished in natural varnish.

Deep Cut

Ornaments are deep cut into the instrument surface solely by hand creating an original woodcarving piece of work. Instrument is then finished in natural varnish. Otional brown stain can be aplied as well.

Acid Etching

Special acid lotion is drop after drop applied onto the pre-carved ornaments using a simple wooden stick. After some rest, as the acid staines the wood to nice light-brown color, the instrument is finished in natural varnish.

Copper Inlaying

Ornaments are created by beating of specialy bent pieces of copper wire into the instrument’s wood. Instrument is then finished in a dark pigmented varnish to achieve superior final effect.

Decoration of various folk woodwind instruments has in Slovakia very long tradition.

Woodwinds, and especially the Fujara, were the instruments of Slovak shepherds. At long meanders with their sheep, Slovak shepherds usually played their belowed woodwind instrument. Its voice calmed the sheep and they could better and peacefuly nimble. Inbetween, they carved into their instrument’s wood various ornaments figuring their sheeps, shepherd’s life closely connected with nature, plants and flowers. This over years developed into decoration styles and for Fujara, the plant-flower ornament developed into tradition. It was the nature of Slovak shepherd’s to decorate their most beloved instruments and give them thus a personal mark and look.

Original shepherd’s Fujara was bit shorter, reaching just to the armpit to serve as a walking stick and prop while standing too.

25-11-2005 1:20 pm, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, proclaimed 43 new Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity. Fujara – musical instrument and its music (Slovakia), traditional Indian performances of the Ramayana, the Ramlila, Japan’s Kabuki theatre, the Zambian Makishi Masquarade and the Samba of Roda (Brazil) are among the masterpieces proclaimed.

This is UNESCO’s third proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage, an international distinction destined to raise public awareness of the value of this heritage, which includes popular and traditional oral forms of expression, music and dance, rituals and mythologies, knowledge and practices concerning the universe, know-how linked to traditional crafts, as well as cultural spaces. Often vulnerable, this heritage, a repository of cultural diversity, is essential to the identity of communities and peoples.

The 43 new masterpieces were proposed to the Director-General by an 18-member jury chaired by Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan. The jury met from 20 to 24 November to examine 64 national and multinational candidatures. A total of 47 masterpieces were proclaimed in 2001 and 2003. Twenty-seven of them have already benefited from UNESCO’s support, particularly from safeguarding operations which received financial assistance from Japan.
UNESCO’s list of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity has now 90 entries…

What UNESCO says about Fujara:

Fujara – Musical Instrument and its Music

The Fujara, an extremely long flute with three finger holes played by Slovak shepherds, is regarded an integral part of the traditional culture of Central Slovakia.

The main tube of the flute has a length of 160 to 200 cm and is connected to a shorter tube of 50 to 80 cm through which the airflow is channeled to the edge of the large bass flute. The sound is characterised by a special roughness, mainly in the high calling motifs and the “mumbling” sound of the deep registers. The melancholic and rhapsodic music is structured according to the content of the songs, related to the shepherds’ daily life and their work. The repertoire of the Fujara is based on melodies determined by the technical acoustic features of the instrument. The performance starts with a mixolydic “blow-up”, which indicatesthe start of a performance. The repertoire also consists of the sound of a stream, the gurgle of a wellspring and other sounds of nature imitated by the Fujara music. The Fujara is not just a musical instrument, but also an artefact of great artistic value due to its highly elaborate, individual ornamentation.

In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Fujara became known and appreciated beyond the shepherds’ use. Through festivals, the instrument played by musicians from the Podpol’anie region gained recognition and popularity throughout Slovakia. The Fujara is played at various occasions throughout the year, but mainly from spring to autumn, by shepherds and by professional musicians at festivals, namely in the cities of Detva, Dýchodná, Hel’pa, Kokava and Rimavicou.

During recent decades the role of the Fujara has changed from an everyday context to the performance at exceptional events, such as at festivals or in a private environment. The communist era and the political developments in the 1990s have caused significant social, cultural and economic changes. Young people especially have become increasingly estranged from traditional folk art. Despite a lack of support, individual initiatives have been trying to safeguard the Fujara instrument and its music.

Article taken from: http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/37eur_uk.htm

PS: The Fujara flute presented on the UNESCO’s pages are actutally our “Overtone Rich Fujara flutes” and the maker depited below is the maker of our “Fine Melodic Fujara flutes“.

The fujara is a Slovakian folk instrument, a shepherd’s flute.
It first appeared in the 10th century, but the oldest fujaras preserved are from the second half of the 19th century only.
Modern fujara: wooden tube with a length of 165 – 190 cm and a diameter of 3-5 cm.with three holes in the lower part. The air is transported by a smaller wooden pipe of 50 – 70 cm tied to the large tube.

The tone is produced by a labium with an inserted block and a cleft (as in a recorder).
The nature of the sound: the sound is formed by harmonics (natural overtones, comparable to the alphorn).
Fujara melodies are mixolydic, melancholic, with radiantly strident sound clusters.
The fujara is commonly played as a solo instrument but also in groups of three to seven, sometimes also with a lead singer. Some contemporary written music for fujara even makes use of string orchestras.
The material used for the building of the instrument is semi-hard wood from indigenous trees. The choice of the wood, its storage (two to three years), treatment and decoration require a great deal of care. Each instrument is completely hand-made and individually finished and hence production is limited.