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January-March 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 1. _____________________________________________________________________________________ and call it “koto”. Its variations appear elsewhere as well, the “kaja-gum” in Korea, the “ku-csin” in China and the “valiha” in Madagascar. The Indians call it “vina” and received it through Scythian intermediaries. The Old Testament knows about the zither as “kinnor” and “negina”. Egypt named it “kánun” and this is how it is known in North Africa. Our zither is identical with the Finnish “kanetele” and the Ukrainian “bandura”. Pythagoras used is an instrument to measure the distance between notes and the Pellazg also called it zither. This is proven by Csaba Varga. The Greeks also used its monochord. The West borrowed it from us, Praetorius in 1619 mentions the “scheitholz” as a popular musical instrument. It is the basis of the French épinette, the Norwegian Langley, the Danish humle, the Swedish hummel, the German Scheitholt. In 1862 Max Amberger built the modern concert zither. Otto Hermann studied the zither at the end of the last century. It is the favourite musical instrument of the Carpathian-basin Hungarians, except the Moldavian Csángós. Because of unknown reasons it has not remained among them. According to old Székelys of Csík, during World War I, soldiers from the Plains of Hungary made it popular in Székelyföld. In the Carpathian-basin the better known zithers are: the lobe zither, loft zither, horse-headed zither, gutty zither, two cased zither, inner-headed zither, harp zither, four cased zither, and diatonic zither. In the Lowlands they also call it tambourine. The value of each one is raised with the fact that they are beautifully carved. The tuning up of the two rowed zither is seen by the history as Hungarian method. The layout of the tune string, bass string and the elbow string depends mostly on the knowledge of the zither maker. Once upon a time every village of Hétfalu had skilful zither makers. In our schooldays we used to hitch differently strained rubber, with which we imitated the zither. The instrument has a rectangle shape; its length is half meter long. On one of the linear sides of it, we find the stopper, the graduated cylinder. The two rowed frets are placed on the stopper at different distances. On the external row there are the seven shaft notes, at the width of two and a half octave, and on the internal row we find the chromatic notes. This coincides with the role of the black and white keys on the piano. Next to the stopper on the right side is the flanker where they play it. The Hungarian zither has mostly mixolid scale, it is a quintet instrument. Without transposing it is in harmony with the C-major, D Dorian, E-frig, g mixolid type of melody. Kálmány Lajos (1852-1919) ethnographer and Kiss Lajos folk song researcher dealt with the zither, too. The Hungarian dance of the Csángós in Barcaság, the “csűrdöngölő”, the “csárdás” called slow Hungarian, became universal in the last century. Among the musicians there were the zitherists, too. Before Christmas the men chose their representatives in the dance house or in the spinner house, they performed the inauguration of the boys and girls, they rented a dance house, hired the musicians, and with the learning of the songs they were getting ready for the series of holiday greetings and dancing. In the time of the conglomeration between Christmas and New Year’s, men gathered and ate at the shared accommodation. The leader was the front man, its replacement was the second man, and the writings were made by the notary. The greetings and felicitations which travelled from door to door, were spread by the spokesmen, the songs were led by the cantor. The Bíró, Kántor and Kulcsár survived as surnames. The calling and taking of the girls to dance was the girl divisor’s job, and if the girls were late than they were carried in by horse in a cart or wheelbarrow. The toll was the “janitor”, the water carrier also took care of watering the floor, the sorting of the dances was the job of the dance master, the filterer. The judge imposed punishments for the violations, and this was the job of the punisher, clapper or clapper _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2010 116
January-March 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 1. _____________________________________________________________________________________ master. Before Christmas took place the inauguration of the boys, when the 16-18 year old ones became men with full rights. After the listing, the formal investigation and proclamation they were cheered and lifted three times. This was followed sometimes by the “broom dance”, elsewhere by an inauguration ball. At dawn on the first day of Christmas, everyone solemnly spanned their pairs into the dance house, than after church they danced until evening, this was followed by the István (Stephen)-day dawning, after that the second day dance. The newly weds were greeted with tales. On the third day the János’ (Johns) were greeted the same way. On the fourth day of Christmas, the girls were birched besides greeted; this is the time when the children’s dance was held. Once upon a time in all Barcaság’s villages people danced “Borica”, a dance that due to Austrian prohibition, then Romanian, survived only in “Háromfalu”. The Old Year dance was followed by New Year dawning and mask walk. At the end of the New Year’s last dance, the girls were spinned out of the hall, and spending the ceremonial rests for the resignation of the first man. The reed pipe was our childhood’s common flute. It is made in spring from the willow’s young branch, when its peel comes off easily. The peel is softened by tapping, pulled off while repeating verse rhymes: “Come, come little horse, Vulture legged little horse, In winter and in summer, In every year…” At the end of the willow cut a small hole is cut, then in front of this hole a small cotter like part is incorporated. On the other end it is pushed back the cut out part; this is why it gives a distinct tune. On the shore of the river Dirba we can find many willows and playing children as well. Part of our medieval instruments got into Western Europe due to the crusades. In Barcaság the “tárogató” (Turkish pipe, Engl.) was well-known´, which is our Eastern heritage. After Athais we can find the oldest copy of it in the Sumerian town of Ur. The one the Uighur people from Central Asia have is identical with the Hungarian Turkish pipe. It was also used in the army because of its sharp and extraordinary volume. It became the symbol of the Rákóczi War of Independence; after its suppression, the Austrians banned it. This was the time when it was left out of Barcaság. By the 19 th century it had been updated and renovated by Schunda József. The shepherd’s pipe is an Eastern heritage, it is not known in the West, but it remained a popular instrument for the Moldavian Csángós. The tile pipe is a roundish pipe made out of 4-6 holed tile; it is an ancient Hungarian musical instrument, its 9-10 th century artefacts in Hungary are well-known. It was maintained in the Sumerian civilization as well. By pouring water into it, it makes a bubbly, chattery sound. According to Torma Zsófia and Badinyi Joós Ferenc the Hungarians who left the Carpathian Basin 12,000 years ago were already using it. Its commercialized version can still be found at our fairs. During my childhood the weekly fairs were held at “Vásár” (Fair, Engl.) street in Csernátfalu, but these slowly ceased. This was the time when I bought for the last time tile pipe from my home village. You can still find it in Székelyföld, Korond has a variety of them. The flute is an ancient musical instrument of the shepherds; the Eastern imitation of the Hungarian flute is still used at the edges of the Gobi Desert. The fluters were trained in a shaman center in the Bálvány Mounts (the twin of the Transylvanian Bálványos and Bolnok shaman centers) near Ordos. The legend of the river Tatrang in Barcaság says that the beautiful Bacsó Anna could not really enjoy her beauty because she was cursed. She married her husband against his father’s wishes, a shepherd who herded his sheeps on the green grasses of Csukás. For her disobedience the fairy cursed her that she could only see her beloved husband when he comes down from the alps. She is not allowed to go up to _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2010 117
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