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Home , Bock (bagpipe), Duda, Egerland

AUSTRIA ’s taste for the Bohemian bock REVIVAL IN CENTRAL

S a birthday surprise for his mother, Maria Theresia, Archduchess of AAustria and Queen of and , Empress of the Holy Roman Em- pire and wife of the Francis I (who reigned 1745–65), the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II recruited 300 bagpipers to play in front of Schönb- runn Castle in Vienna, having first arranged themselves in the form of a giant monogram: the letter ‘T’ for ‘Theresia’. “It’s significant that in the 1760s you were able to find 300 pipers in the area of Vienna,” said Michael Vereno, a player of the Austrian bock. “It’s something that was not possible 100 years later.” At the beginning of the 20th century, al- though there is evidence that hurdy gurdies survived, seem to have no longer been played in Austria. But when Michael Vereno was growing up in Salzburg, he did hear bagpipes. “I remember someone playing the pipes — I don’t know if he was Scottish or not, just that I adored this instrument. Bagpipes fascinated me.” He began pestering his mother, Helga, with his desire to play bagpipes. “She teaches English and French at a tour- ism school in Salzburg and a pupil of hers, a student from Pakistan, told us he could get us very cheap bagpipes,” he said. “He brought us a set of Pakistani pipes for about 700 Austrian Photo: Mike Paterson schillings, around 50 Euros, and they didn’t MICHAEL VERENO… “My grandmother is work. “But it interested me so much that I wanted from Bohemia, my father’s family is from to bring this instrument to sound.” Then Austrian television began promoting a Hungary so basically you can say I am the show called Glückskind (‘Lucky Child’), invit- average product of the Habsburg Empire. ing children between seven and 12 years of age to submit a wish and the show would ensure And many Austrians, I would say, have a selected wishes came true. “I didn’t believe in this stuff,” said Michael Vereno, “but my grandmother from Bohemia and a grandfather mother wrote to them about her little boy who from Hungary, or the other way round...” PIPING TODAY • 32 AUSTRIA

wanted to learn to play bagpipes and would German bagpipes, which were more like the a short-lived republic. In 1934, its right wing have to go to Scotland in order to learn… and Flemish bagpipes, which were also played in government adopted a Fascist constitution and, it worked.” Austria. in March 1938, German troops occupied the A 10 year-old Michael Vereno, his mother “During the Baroque, bagpipes in France country. Only in 1955 did Austria regain full and a television team were soon on an aircraft became very highly refined… look at the Ba- independence from the post-war Allied occupy- bound for Scotland. “They took us to Tain in roque musette, for example, that became a sort ing powers (Britain, France, the United States Dornoch where I met Duncan MacGillivray of model for the Northumbrian smallpipes. In and the Soviet Union) and, in 1995, it became who, I later learned, was a very famous piper Austria and the German-speaking countries, a member of the European Union. and had played with the Battlefield Band,” he this sort of refinement never happened; the Bohemia, its name originating from the said. “I learned the bagpipes I had were useless bagpipe remained a very rural instrument but culturally assimilated Celtic Boii tribe, now and we got an instrument from Logan Pipes the nobility liked the sound.” accounts for what is essentially the western two in Inverness. Percy Scholes’ The Oxford Companion to Mu- thirds of the , and is home to 60 “We got to Scotland for two weeks each sic includes the observations of Georg Philipp per cent of the republic’s 10.3 million people. summer for several years and I learned a little Telemann (1681-1767), a leading composer of is to the west, Austria to the south, bit of technique from Duncan and then from the German Baroque, about the popularity of Poland to the northeast and Moravian region Bobby MacRae. the Polish bagpipe in Prussia: “I have heard as of the Czech Republic to the east. “Then one day, I accidentally sat on my pipes many as thirty-six bagpipes and eight After Habsburg rule, Bohemia was incorpo- and broke the blowstick.” together,” Telemann wrote. “It is unbelievable rated into . Its German-speaking A friend in Vienna told the Verenos about a what extraordinary musical fancies the bagpipe Sudeten borderlands were annexed by Nazi bagpipe maker, Stefan Widhalm, in Vienna and and players introduced when they were Germany in 1938 and then Bohemia was they went there to get the blowstick repaired playing whilst the dancers rested: any composer wholly occupied as a part of the “the German or replaced. “But he was not making Scottish who might care to note them down would in a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”. At the bagpipes,” said Michael Vereno. “He was mak- week have enough ideas to keep him supplied end of the Second World War, its German ing Renaissance bagpipes from the German for the rest of his life… All this proved later of speakers were expelled and it became a Soviet Renaissance and that was when I discovered service to me in many serious compositions.” satellite state. Since 1993, with the dissolution there were more than just Scottish bagpipes. Said Michael Vereno: “It was through of Czechoslovakia, has it been a part of the “People have thought I was driven into Germany and , that this new bagpipe, Czech Republic. bagpiping by my mother. It was the other way which is easier to handle and easier to tune, While Austria’s official language is German, around. I was pulling her into all this music came to Austria and, during the 19th century, a number of regional dialects are spoken, and and she supported me, not least with money the adopted it. Until then, the Czechs Slovene and Croatian are recognized locally. for the instruments. were playing high-pitched mouth-blown bag- Austria’s population is a little under 8.5 mil- “She bought me a set of Renaissance bag- pipes. The old people in Bohemia called this lion. pipes and I began to learn. Then, in 1997, I got new instrument ‘n mecké dudy’ which means “Until nationalism arose 150 years ago, my first set of Bohemian pipes, which I learned ‘German bagpipes’ because it came from Ger- nobody would have thought that speaking were also the Austrian pipes.” man-speaking people. German was a reason not to feel oneself Bohe- Michael Vereno met and began taking les- “After the instrument got forgotten in the mian,” said Michael Vereno. “This feeling lasted sons with Rudi Lughofer, who had launched German-speaking countries, it was brought until the end of the Habsburg Empire. Then, the revival of the Bohemian bagpipes in Austria again out of Bohemia and became our ‘Bo- when took power in Germany and nearly 30 years previously. hemian’ bagpipes. But, originally, they had German nationalism was extreme in Germany “Rudi Lughofer always felt very close to the passed by way of the German-speaking people and Austria, the people in Egerland in western Czechs,” said Michael Vereno. “But he says he into Bohemia.” Bohemia wanted to be a part of the German loves and hates them — a feeling that many In Austria, these pipes certainly had their Third Reich, and that’s why the Czechs expelled Austrians have about the Czechs and that day. “So we have music like Leopold Mozart’s them after the Second World War. Czechs have about the Austrians.” Bauernhochzeit (‘Peasant Wedding’) — a piece “The Czechs expelled anyone, in fact, who Bellows-blown bagpipes originally entered for orchestra, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and was unwilling to declare himself or herself Austria from Poland, by way of the Slavic mi- dulcimer, a combination of rural and classical Czech or Slovak, and Hungarians were expelled nority culture of the in eastern Germany, music,” said Michael Vereno. too. And this German-speaking Bohemian and came into use during the Baroque era. Until 1918, the interplay between the culture, which was playing bagpipes on a daily “During the Baroque in France, bagpipes cultures involved in these shifting bagpipe basis, died out. were welcomed at the Court of Versailles, and traditions was relatively unrestricted. They “The regions near the Czech border to the the German princes felt they needed something all were a part of the Habsburg Empire, a German-speaking countries were re-settled with equivalent. They got themselves Polish pipers,” dynastic hegemony that had lasted more than Czechs from eastern Czechoslovakia who didn’t said Michael Vereno. “Suddenly the Polish 600 years. belong there or feel at home there. Then, when bagpipes were very stylish and, during the 17th At the end of the First World War, however, they did feel at home, the Communists came century, they replaced the earlier mouth-blown the Empire was dissolved and Austria became and took everything from them, and it took a

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long time until this situation normalised.” MICHAEL VERENO… “In Austria we don’t have a continuous Meanwhile, during the Cold War, for as long tradition that we can rely on as it was possible, Rudi Lughofer would drive and we have no records of the playing techniques used by 19th to Czechoslovakia. In August 1968, just days century pipers and all we can before Russian-led Warsaw Pact troops moved do is experiment and find a new way of ornamentation, whether into Prague to re-assert Soviet power, Rudi it is traditional or not. Nearly Lughofer went back to buy a bagpipe he had everybody plays his own technique in Austria — there’s no standard.” seen in a music shop there. “He got himself a recording of the Konrády- ho Dudácká Muzika ensemble from Domažlice and, with no instructions and not knowing how to handle the instrument, began teaching himself to play,” said Michael Vereno. “About 10 years afterwards, when his first instrument broke, he bought another instru- ment in Germany but then managed to contact the maker of his old Bohemian instrument and bought a new set of pipes that had to be brought out through the Democratic Republic of Ger- many with diplomatic mail to Bavaria, where he then had to go to pick the instrument up. “Later, along with a colleague who was playing the hurdy-gurdy, he formed the Krems- münsterer Bock und Leiermusik (bagpipe and hurdy gurdy) group, which played with two , two violins, a , bock and hurdy gurdy. He became very famous because the music he made was Austrian but with a Czech touch that was not known because the border was closed and people had no access to good Czech music. “He then began teaching in upper Austria

and the number of bagpipers increased rapidly. Photo: Mike Paterson Other styles of bagpipe music also became known, using more French-like German bag- was ‘sackpfeife’, literally the same thing as ‘bag- said, originated the value he places on his own pipes for example, the sackpfeife, and now there pipe’; but this new instrument that came into heritage. are two main piping interests in Austria. use in the 1700s carried the name ‘dudy’ and “My grandmother is from Bohemia, my “One plays the Bohemian bagpipes — the became known as ‘dudelsack’ — and that’s now father’s family is from Hungary so basically bock or dudelsack — with which you are not the only usual, popularly used term for bagpipes you can say I am the average product of the able to play the full range of European-wide folk in the German-speaking countries.” Habsburg Empire. And many Austrians, I music, but only Austrian folk and Bohemian would say, have a grandmother from Bohemia music. The other interest, represented by players NOW, said Michael Vereno, who intends to and a grandfather from Hungary, or the other like Sepp Pichler and his group, uses French-like make his full time career in music, cultural way round... bagpipes — the sackpfeife — which can play links, artificially broken by the East-West divide “You can see this in the names. If you open in minor keys, and have a greater range so you of Cold War era, are being re-established and a telephone directory in Vienna, you will have can play European folk music. As well, we have traditional music in central Europe is much the many Slavic names, and if you open a phone people pursuing early music interests who play healthier for it. book in Prague, you will have many German with Renaissance or early Baroque consorts, and “You see this especially when you look at names. And it’s the same in Hungary. So you the new so-called ‘medieval’ style that you see Austria and its neighbours in the east, the can’t really tell what is Czech, what is German, too in Germany.” north and south. All of these countries were what is Hungarian; it’s more like one big culture A student at university in Salzburg, Michael united under the Habsburg Empire and the with different member tribes and regions, and Vereno is studying historical linguistics. “It be- feeling that closer relationships between these piping is, for me, a cultural identity thing. came interesting to me when I realised that the peoples are coming back, and it is strong with “So I also play Hungarian bagpipes. One German word ‘dudelsack’ comes from the Czech the Czechs now.” needs time to get used to it because it’s a very ‘dudy’,” he said. “The original term for bagpipes His own love of the Bohemian pipes, he special music the Hungarians play and there are

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regional differences. The Hungarian chanters perfection is not always needed and, indeed, is Tomáš Spurný, a much younger player than Josef have a ‘flea hole’, just like the bagpipes from not possible with bagpipes.” Režný who grew up during the communist era Bulgaria. The music is based on pentatonic “The fingering on the Bohemian bagpipes and saw its downfall when he was about 20. He scales because the Hungarians originally came is closed; you always open just one hole, which looked back, behind the tradition Josef Režný from central Asia and in some tunes you still gives you the staccato sound. It’s a technique I sustained, to the oldest recordings of bagpipers, find these old scales that don’t use any half steps. learned a little bit from CDs of the Czechs play- which date back to 1909, made in what were When you compare the Slovaks and Croatians, ing but their style is for Czech music, which is then Austrian parts of Bohemia. north and south, they have more or less the not very different but different enough to pro- “The style he found there was one where you same music, similar bagpipes to the Hungarians. duce a different style of piping,” he said. can’t say the instrument is tuned or not because But the Hungarians are on their own with the “In Austria we don’t have a continuous tradi- tuning wasn’t that important those people then. bagpipe style. You can’t compare it to Slovak or tion that we can rely on and we have no records The music was much more energetic than it is Croatian piping. It’s my favorite, next to the of the playing techniques used by 19th century today because it helped people to cope with the Bohemian bagpipes.” pipers and all we can do is experiment and find harshness of daily life in that time, and it was As well as appreciating the pipes’ significance a new way of ornamentation, whether it is tra- especially dance music. as vehicles of heritage, Michael Vereno has ditional or not. Nearly everybody plays his own “Tomáš Spurný started to play in that way and a love of the music and of the sound of the technique in Austria — there’s no standard. he doesn’t care so much about playing in tune, instruments. “I do very much like the sound “In the Czech technique, there is a standard as about the feeling the music awakens in people of the Bohemian pipes,” he said. “And I think approach, and standard ornamentations. The who are listening to it and, yes, there are differ- that the older the instrument gets, the better Czechs have that because the last players were ences between him and Rezny about how folk the sound is. still alive when the leader of the Bohemian reviv- music ought to be played and about the whole The bellows-blown Bohemian duda, or bock, al, Josef Režný, began his work and he was able philosophy behind folk music-making: should with its sometimes elaborately-carved goat’s head to learn from them: the tradition proceeded. it be made in a way everybody can listen to it chanter mount, ornamented cow-horn drone “Josef Režný started with a very rural tradi- and say, ‘oh, that’s nice’, or should it be made and chanter bells, and a drone connection within tion but he transformed it into something that for people to say, ‘I want to dance’… which the bore is extended by passing down, can be played on stage with dancers and a big “People have become used to listening to up and down again, is an intriguing instru- ensemble —this was the way the traditional music. This is not something that was there 100 ment clearly related to other central European could be kept alive during the communist era: years ago; you did not listen to music, you used bagpipes. The drone is in three main sections: they needed something representative and big it to dance to. the first goes to the player’s right shoulder, the that could be shown as a great cultural exhibit. “It was played with high-pitched bagpipes, second, at right angle to the first, crosses the “But in Bohemia, there is too, for example , violin and it’s a very groovy sound.” l shoulder, and the third hangs down the piper’s back, where if ends in the upwards turned bell. The bag is of goat skin, with the hair outwards. Cylindical bores, single-bladed composite reeds and a relatively low bag pressure give the duda a sweet, mellow sound that blends with the Contact our staff for helpful clarinets, and singing that typically ac- and knowledgeable advice company it in ensemble. “Our folk music in Austria is not docu- www.BagpipeSpecialists.com mented before the 1700s. But the music we have from around 1700 can be played on bagpipes. Whether or not it was historically, you can’t tell. But it’s easier to play on the Bohemian-style bagpipes than on the older, more Flemish type of pipes, the sackpfeife.” When it came to the bock, Michael Vereno’s Highland piping technique was not much Balance tone reeds, chanter and drone moisture systems help. – All designed to make the life of the piper easier. “There were some things that Rudi Lughofer couldn’t really show me because he has an in- Also available online • Bagpipes • Chanters • Pipebags • Chanter reeds Bag covers • Cords/ribbons • Accessories • Smallpipes • Tutor books • CDs jured finger but he compensated for that when Pipe carriers hands free • If we don’t stock it we will get you a price he was playing. “He has a very energetic style of playing. [email protected] • Tel: 0044 (0)1854622385 I tended to be absolutely perfect concerning the tuning of bagpipes but I soon learned that www.BagpipeSpecialists.com

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