aCentral Folque organizes four online masterclasses for hurdy-gurdy players in preparation for the 20th Zona da Zanfona. Festival Internacional. These workshops will be given by international musicians on specific topics about the zanfona: Scott Marshall : How I buzz! from basic to advance techniques for the coup the poignet; Claire Dugué : Set up & maintenance for everybody to understand how a HG is made and how to take the best out of your instrument ; R.T.Taylor : From bal to jam for for beginners and people hungry for a vast repertoire;; Robert Mandel : The hurdy-gurdy in Central European for the context of music for the hurdy-gurdy in Hungary, Poland and Austria.
Twice a a month every fortnight in April and May we will meet for direct learning in an intensive two hour session with each teacher for a brief introduction to context and history; explanation of style; proposal of exercises and tunes; questions and live talk.
At the end of each workshop, extra material will be given for further study. Language will be English with regional accents.
The sessions will take place once a month on Sundays from 6 pm to 8 pm (Central European Summer Time or UTC +2).
Details:
- Type: online
- Duration: 2 hours each session
- Times: 6 pm to 8 pm (CEST)
- Dates: a second Sunday from 14th of April to 26th of May
- Software required: zoom app
- Fee per masterclass: 25€
- Discount fee all four masterclasses: 80€
- Registration fee is not reimbursable. But someone else can take your place. You need to make the payment at latest, three days before the workshop (ideally at least a week before in order to receive the material for preparation). Bank transfer. No Paypal or platforms alike
- Registration: fill in the form at the bottom of this page; you will receive an email confirmation (not immediate, not automatic) with instructions to follow for payment
- Enquiries: matricula@folque.com
Click on each link for more information:
- Scott Marshall : How I buzz! Sunday 14 April
- Claire Dugué : Set up & maintenance. Sunday 28 April
- R.T.Taylor : From bal to jam. Sunday 12 May
- Robert Mandel : The hurdy-gurdy in Central European. Sunday 26 May
How I buzz!: different approaches to trompette with Scott Marshall from Britain.
Sunday 14th of April. Online
First of the online masterclasses for the Zona da Zanfona Digital series with one of the most active players in the virtual hurdy-gurdy world. A workshop for all levels who want to understand his unique technique and improve their habilities for the coup the poignet among other topics this masterclass will cover. Preparatory and extra material will be given to study in the coming months and years!
About the session
In our time together we will explore some different ways I have discovered to approach the right hand rhythm on the Hurdy-Gurdy. We will look at wheel speed, classic traditional and my own half speed version, synchronising the hands and bringing in rhythmic ornaments to the left hand. There will be tips to improve your own playing and we will look at different time signatures, for instance 6/4, 4/4, 10/8 and 6/8. The excercises will be based around some of my own tunes which you can learn to play in their entirety, or fragments for the simplicity of learning the new techniques. All abilities of player are welcome and I will explain both styles of trompette, classic and my own. Sheet music and videos will be provided.
Scott Marshall has been playing hurdy-gurdy for almost 20 years, he has developed an idiosyncratic style and sound that is instantly recognisable. Obsessed with the instrument and has produced a series of multi layered albums using just the hurdy gurdy. Scott is an English musician who has been playing hurdy gurdy since 2005. He recently completed his solo trilogy of multi layered Gurdymania albums, using multiple hurdy-gurdies and effects units. Scott is fascinated by the instrument and has studied with some of the world’s best players.
Website : www.gurdymania.com
Set up & maintenance: a talk on designing, making and the maintenance of hurdy-gurdies with Claire Dugué from France
Sunday 28 April. Online
Second of the online masterclasses for the Zona da Zanfona Digital series with one of the most active interesting makers today, being at the cutthing edge of luthery in the last 20 years. Living in the UK, where she has the workshop, moved from France years ago. An oportunity for all players to get to know her atelier, her secrets and explanation about design, sound character, resonating aspects and tips for a correct réglage. Extra material, links and videos will be given to all participants.
About the session
The masteclass will cover 2 hours of talk with time for Q&A plus pdfs and videos with further information. The session will be hosted from Claire’s workshop in Kent (England) where we will know her building areas, tools and finishing room. Fundamental aspects for the hurdy-gurdy making will be about how the construction plays a role in the sound and cover through the designing process, materials, choice of woods, building, thicknessing of the soundboard, bracing and sound post, varnishing, fine set up, colour and sound projection, gadgets and aesthetics,… for different approaches and possibilities of instrument making and desired results.
A second part of the session will be general and specific tips for setting up and maintenance of the instrument such as recommended and essential tools to have, the importance of rosin and cotton, tunning the keyboard, changing strings or making and understanding a chien.
Claire’s website: https://www.claire-dugue.com
Hurdy Gurdy, from Bal to Jam: using simple tech tools and techniques to help you play your best at Bal Folk and Jam sessions with R.T.Taylor from California.
Sunday 12 May. Online
Third of the online masterclasses for the Zona da Zanfona Digital series in 2024 with one of the players who has taught to most of the USA’s East Coast students and one of the pioneers of the hurdy-gurdy in the California scene since the 1980’s. This masterclass is specially orientated to beginners and intermediate players and general musicians who want to get access to hundreds of folk tunes to play at sessions. Preparatory and extra material will be given to study in the coming months and years!
About the masterclass
R.T.’s workshop is for players at all experience levels who want to transition from playing “the notes on the page” to more dynamic and interesting ways to play tunes. We start with a basic tune skeleton, then add ornaments, variations, second voices and compatable right hand techniques. Add a little improvisation and you are ready to join in at Jam Sessions and Bal Folk events with more
advanced skills and enjoy playing more.
Hurdy Gurdy players at Jam Sessions and Bal Folk dances use a core of Bourrée, Waltz, Scottish, Polka etc. dance tunes. You will use a few easy to learn tunes so that you can focus on learning new skills in the workshop.
You will receive extensive course materials that you can download. In addition, you will learn about apps for phones, tablets and computers that help you learn tunes easier, faster and more accurately and help you create second voices, harmonies and perfect your playing techniques.
About R. T. Taylor
R.T. Taylor discovered the hurdy gurdy at 5 years of age and the rediscovered it again at 35. From then and for thirty-five years playing and teaching in Japan, North and South America and Europe. He recorded with the bands French Creek (USA) and UFO (FR), specializing in Bal Folk music from France, Hungary and Galicia.
He has given workshops in the Over The Water Festival (Seattle), Chants of Vielle (Montreal), Grand Bande in Texas, EMIM Indiana Workshop and regularly teaches lessons in Los Angeles, California and individuals world wide 24/7 via Zoom.
He studied with the best European players such as Patrick Bouffard, ‘Maxou’ Heintzen, Gilles Chabenat, Valentin Clastrier, Matthias Loibner, Cliff Stapelton, Anne-Lise Foy, Laurence Pinchemaille, Jean-Michel Péru and Bela Szerenyi Sr.. R.T. was is lecturer in Los Angeles teaching Visual Effects and Computer Graphics.
The hurdy-gurdy in Central Europe with Robert Mandel from Hungary.
Sunday 26 May. Online
Fourth and last of the online masterclasses for the Zona da Zanfona Digital series in 2024 with one of pioneers of the modern generation of players in the 70’s of the 20th century, a legend of the instrument playing the tekerö and vielle professionally since then. Preparatory and extra material will be given to study in the coming months and years!
About the masterclass
The session will be about the history of the hurdy-gurdy in the Central European countries with practice examples of the Hungarian Heyducken Tancz (4 short movements) with scores and videos given for further study to the participants.
The history of the hurdy-gurd is now largely known. It began its long migration sometime in the very early Middle Ages and reached the French, Iberian, Flemish and German-speaking nations, as well as some British islands. Hurdy-gurdy players also travelled further east during the Crusades, but at that time it did not influence the musical life of Central Europe to the extent that it did later after the 17th-18th century.
One the possible ways -maybe the only one- to talk about the history of the instrument in Central Europe is to talk about the musical traditions of the West. In the royal courts of Central Europe, there were already many Flemish, German and French artists working in the late Middle Ages, so that, for example, the Hungarian “Matthias Graduales” were decorated exclusively by Flemish book-decorators! Shortly afterwards, in the 15th and 16th centuries, French and Flemish manuscripts were already known to the more educated German and Slavic-speaking populations, and their music was played all over Europe as early as the 16th century. The instrument itself was not known in Central Europe until the French Revolution of 1789. When the revolution was suppressed, some of the French hurdy-gurdy virtuosos from the region headed east. This brought the instrument to the central, southern and eastern parts of Europe, so that hurdy-gurdy was increasingly to be found in Austrian, Hungarian, Bavarian, Czech, Polish and even Ukrainian music. Central European hurdy-gurdy instruments in museums were of a distinctly different shape from the Western instruments of the past. The guitar shape was more often seen further east, as is evidenced, for example, by the early 18th century instrument made in Piedmont to be found in the Vienna museum. In fact, it was transmitted by Italian and Austrian musicians first to Hungary, then to Ukraine and Poland. Presumably, the Polish hurdy-gurdys could have come there directly from the West, which is why there is still a strong tradition of the instrument in Poland!
The Western instruments, formerly used by the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy, were more popular in folk music in Central and Eastern Europe, and perhaps only in Transylvania and the southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary did they survive among the middle classes. Hundreds of pieces of music can be heard in the countless fantastic music collections that have now been reworked in all their glory and recorded. The early dance movements “Ungaresca, Hayducken Tancz, Frissen und Lassan, Verbunkos” are typical of Central European music and are musically unique!
In the 20th century, unfortunately, due to wars and political craziness, these wonderful musics were silenced until the 1980s, but after the great regime change, the efforts of young people to save the past made the old folk music and late renaissance music culture flourish again.
About Robert Mandel
After earning his degree in musical instrument making he received a scholarship from the German Music Council to study musical instrument restoration under Dr. John Henry van der Meer and Dr. Freidemann Hellwig in Nürnberg in the German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum). Mandel had the chance to spend a time in the famous musical instrument collection of the Paris Conservatory of Music (today in the Cité de la Musique) to study the original 18th century vielles. In 1988 he became the chief manager of the legendary Interconcert’s “Musica Antiqua” department. In 1992 he founded his own company the Mandel Productions Limited Company.
His solo bookings include among others the NBC “Today Show” and the WQXR “Listening Room” in New York City, the WFMT “Studs Terkel Show” in Chicago, the Berkeley Festival of Early Music and Exhibition in San Francisco, the Purcell Room in London, the BBC TV “Pebble Mill at One” show in Birmingham, the “Old Jaffa Chamber Music Festival” in Tel-Aviv, the AMUZ Early Music Festival in Antwerpen, the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, the “Bregenzer Festspiele” in Austria, the NDR Talk Show in Hamburg, the “Cervantino Festival” in Mexico City, the Sydney University in Australia, the Stockholm Early Music Festival, the “Glasperlenfestival” in Tartu, Estonia, the “Théâtre de la ville de Paris” and the SKY TV “Beyond 2000” show in Sydney.
Since 2014 he is a freelance artist in Wien, Austria. He has been working as an instrument maker since 1975. He published several books and more than 40 albums on LP and CD. He has recently been decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Hungarian Republic and the Hungaroton Classic Award.
Robert’s website: https://mandelproductionsl.wixsite.com/mandel
Masterclasses organized by aCentral Folque thanks to support by:
Concello de Santiago – Deputación Provincial da Coruña
