In Hungary the instrument proved especially adaptive to the folk tradition, which has gone through few changes over the past thousand years in terms of structure, scale, and tempo. Since the instrument had by this time shrank to the size we know today, the original models difficulty with faster tempo’s was not an issue here. Traditions in Hungary have roots in China and the Danube, where through acculturation the traditions of these peoples had influence on each other. Kodaly and Bartok, two experts on Hungarian folk tradition, “revealed two distinct types of folk tunes: the "ancient strata" or old style and the "new style" which evolved from this during the last two centuries.
The main characteristics of the "ancient strata" are:
(a) The pentatonic scale: only five tones are used instead of the seven known in western music. The second and sixth tones ("a" and "e") are missing, though they may appear in the form of unaccented, passing notes in ornamentation.
(b) The melody is repeated a fifth lower later in the song. This is called the "fifth construction" and it usually occurs in a "descending structure."
(c) The rhythm is ‘parlando" (recitativo) or "rubato" (free) to suit the singers’ mood and the occasion. Quicker ("giusto") tempo is used with dance melodies and group singing. The slower rhythms accept all forms of ornamentation, as well as decorative, individual variations.
d) The song-structure usually consists of four lines of equal length, the second of which may carry the repeated melody five tones lower.”(http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/timeless/chapter03.htm) Again, the instrument was often an accompaniment to vocal music in this region.
In the Ukraine, the hurdy-gurdy became the trademark instrument of a group of people known as “Lirnyky”, blind or otherwise handicapped minstrels who though existing throughout Europe as well achieved great popularity among Ukrainian peasantry. This name is derived from the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy, the lira. In many regions of the Ukraine during the mid 19th to early 20th century, Lirnyky formed the majority of minstrels. Young children whose blindness prevented them from participating in normal ways of life were often apprenticed to a master minstrel. Here the child lived for around six years, learning the hurdy-gurdy, how to cope with blindness, and even “a secret language (lebiiska mova) that minstrels used to communicate among themselves.”(http://www.artukraine.com/postcards/kobzpost1.htm) Depending on the income of the family, the apprenticeship was paid for in monthly payments, or provided in the form of begging, which the child would do and turn over the funds he gathered in payment. Once the apprenticeship was over, the Lirnyk would return home, usually hiring a boy or girl as a guide, and begin his life as a traveling minstrel. These minstrels also played many religious tunes and epics of the region, making them walking cultural libraries of the areas myth’s, religious practices, and traditions.
Today, the songs of these blind minstrels are still played, though the presence of true Lirnyky no longer exists. This is partly due to modernization and partly due to a sad and final period of the Linyk, when they were persecuted by Joseph Stalin. Stalin’s fervent efforts to modernize Russia through violent social control clashed with the traditional nature of these street musicians and there assistance in the maintaining and spreading of Ukrainian world views and tradition. This culminated when nearly 300 Lirnyky were summoned or rounded up for an ethnographic conference, where these minstrels were then all executed. Though unpopular to Russian authority before, this event seems to have effectively eradicated the practice of blind minstrels, though much of the music and the instrument itself remain and in popularity to this day.
The Russian Lira, as was used by the Lirnyky.
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