>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
[ Silence ]
>> Peggy Bulger: Welcome and please find your seats.
We've got a really full program and I'm sure most of you have been
at some of the program this morning.   I'm Peggy Bulger, I'm Director

of the American Folklife Center here at the Library.
And, on behalf of the entire Center staff I want to welcome you
to the Library of Congress and this special presentation
in the Folklife Center's Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series.
In addition to the members of the public who have joined us today,
I know many of you want to recognize and welcome the members
of the American Musical Instrument Society.
Please give them a hand.   [ Applause ]

Those of you in the society may not know it,
but a lot of the general public is joining us for this program.
For the next few days, I know
that this international scholarly body is holding their 39th annual
meeting here at the library.
And the Folklife Center is very proud to join our colleagues
at the Music Division in cosponsoring this event.
The Botkin Series provides us, here at the Library, with a platform
for professional folklorists and ethnographers
and ethnomusicologists working both in the academy and the public sector
to present their findings from ongoing research.
And, this series allows us to interact
with cutting edge scholarship and musicians and performers.
And, this entire program will be videotaped for our collections,
for the permanent collections.
So, this would be a good time, if you do have a cell phone or a pager,
it'd be good if you turned it off now.
And, in this way it allows us
to actually gather together the very best of music, dance,
and scholarship for the generations to come
who will be using the Library of Congress
and the American Folklife Center's archive.
Today, in recognition
of the American Musical Instrument Society's presence,
we're featuring a lecture demonstration on one
of the world's most remarkable instruments, the fujara.
And, I have the honor of introducing to you Bob Rychlik
who is a leading advocate, maker, teacher,
and performer of what they call the queen of the flutes.
Oh, and I wanted to say that we do have the ambassador here.
And, I want to recognize him.   Sir.


[ Applause ]   That's just, that's just wonderful.

I'm sure that this program will bring you, bring you back.
I know that Nancy Gross of our staff actually met Bob at the embassy
when we had the embassy week, just was so enthralled by this music,
we had to bring Bob here to demonstrate this music.
Bob Rychlik was born in Czechoslovakia
and he's a multi instrumentalist.   His love of American guitar

and banjo styles was already deeply rooted before he moved
to America in 1984.
In 1999, a friend's gift of a fujara reawakened his interest in Czech
and Slovak traditional culture.   And it led to an in depth research

and experimentation with this instrument.
He has also organized the first American fujara workshop in 2006
and later fujara workshops in Slovakia and the Czech Republic
where he taught his new playing methods.
Bob became the first foreign member of the exclusive fujarasi,
fujarasi guild in Slovakia and recorded his first CD "Ideas
With Fujara" and was featured on Czech TV and also
on Czech and Slovak radio.   His love for American acoustic blues

and Slovak overtone flutes intersected
when he discovered he could play the blues on the instruments.
And he became a member of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation.
He's working on an English language method book for the fujara
and composes works for the fujara, guitar, and keyboard.
So, please join me in welcoming Bob Rychlik.

[ Applause ]
>> Bob Rychlik: Good evening everybody.
First I would like to thank the Library of Congress
for this tremendous opportunity to be part
of the Botkin Lecture Series.
And, I would like to welcome all members
of American Music Instrument Society, His Excellency,
a father of the Slovak Republic, Peter Burian, and all my friends,
all my fans, my family,
and everybody else who came to this event.

My name is Bob Rychlik as you heard already.
And, I will introduce to you a little known class of instruments
from Slovakia which belong in the class of overtone flutes.
And especially the largest one of them, queen of flutes, fujara.
I will briefly talk about history of fujara, about its roots.
Then, I will play selected examples of music of fujara,
kncovka and six hole flutes.
Then, I would like to move to the current use of fujara.
And, at the end I would like to introduce to you a new kind
of overtone flute of my design.
Then, there will be some time left for questions and answers.
You will do the question part and I will do the answer part hopefully.
[ Laughter ]
Maybe the other way around because there are so many experts here
who might know much more about the matter than I do.
But, end of talking, it's time to call the fujara to the mike
and ask her to introduce herself and speak for herself.
[ Silence ]   My friends, this is fujara.

[ Silence ]   [ Music ]

[ Singing in Slovak ]   [ Music ]

[ Applause ]   Let's look into the history.

It's hard to believe but fujara actually goes back to develop
in the 13th century, to this little tiny overtone flute from middle ages
which was called and played, was called the pipe,
and was played together with drum,
sometimes with the string drum called the tabor, pipe and tabor.
Other way round, like this.
I will play you short example of this instrument.
It was played both parts by one player which is a big advantage.
Not two musicians.   just one musician.

So, you only had to buy one beer.   [ Laughter ]

That's why it was very popular.
It was popular like rock music is today
for about 400 years after 15th century.
And it is still being played in some parts of Europe today especially
in the Bask region and in England.
This piece is a little dance, Morris tune,
it is called "Balance the Straw."   [ Music ]

[ Applause ]   The musicologists are telling us

that around 15th century some foreign troops brought pipe
and tabor to Slovakia and left one, maybe more of them, there.
But, of course, the Slovaks started to play on it their own music.
"They would've killed me because of my girlfriend.
But I ran away from them and hid in a deep valley."
[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak]

[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak]

[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.
As you can see the first part I played on the medieval pipe
with three holes on top and one on bottom.
The second part I played already on the Slovak six hole flute which,
on which, for this piece, I kept the top three holes closed
and I only used the bottom three holes.
This is a method of playing called [trojclenny ?],
like in a "triple play,"
which emulates the original pipe I was using.
The last part I played another amazing Slovak instrument
which is called koncovka.
"Koniec" means "it's end" and so koncovka means like "end flute."
All the tones are generated by overtones.
The overtone scale which is similar, for example, to bugle
or other instruments in wind family, so, koncovka can play anything
that bugle can play, all the signals, military signals,
or other signals, like, I don't know.
[ Music ]   This is like at Preakness, you know,

like this is like the signal for that race.
But, koncovka has another advantage besides this basic overtone scale.
It has another scale.
When, you, you get that scale when you close the end,
that's why it's called koncovka "end flute."
When close to end, the tone goes down.
[ Musical scale ]   So, you got sort of a scale

that will combine all those tones together,
which is actually a scale in Lydian mode.
The Lydian mode for those who don't know is like regular scale
but the fourth step is raised half step up.
so, it's like.   [ Musical scale ]

[ Singing a scale in Slovak ]   [ Musical scale ]

[ Singing a scale in Slovak ]   [ Musical scale and tune ]

[ Applause ]
Fujara is the largest of the overtone family.
And, in case you wonder why is it so large?
You know, from the small flute, how did it became so much bigger?
Well, there's some of the theories on that.
One is that, of course, as the tools were becoming larger and larger,
you could drill larger and larger holes.
Also, the lower, the longer, the lower the voice, right?
So the lower voice is maybe more pleasant to the human ears
than the high shrill overtones.
And, but, my theory is this, you know the saying,
"My fujara is bigger than your fujara."
[ laughter ]   "No. It's getting big."

"No, no, no mine is bigger than yours," you know.
So, and, so it was growing and growing.
And, at a certain point, you need to reach the holes.
So, you know, what do you do?
if you make it bigger you couldn't reach the holes.
So, Slovak engineered the great additional tube
which is also hollow.
So, you blow into the tube, it carries the air up,
and then it enters the hollow tube
which carries the air inside the main, main chamber.
Then, you can blow here and still reach the holes.
So now, the size only is depending on your taste,
on the size of drills, and that's all, problem solved, you know.
There is a lot of songs about, about Janosik in Slovkakia.
Janosik was folk hero.   Janosik means "little John."

Folk hero like Robin Hood or even maybe Jesse James in this country,
was taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
Sometimes giving, taking from poor and rich and giving to himself.
But, but, but we don't say it.   But, of course, he was hero.

And, this song says Janosik whistled from high mountain.
And yes, he had a girlfriend in a deep valley.
[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak ]

[ Music ]   Thank you.

[ Applause ]
Also, I promised I will talk about six hole flutes, which again,
Slovak six hole flutes are a little bit different from six hole flutes
from other countries because,
the members of American Instrument Society will know about this,
there's something which is called aspect ratio
which is length divided by the bore.   And aspect ratio is larger.

So, they still have the fundamental octave but they are also able
to play in several overtone registers.
I would like to demonstrate it in two examples.
In first one I will play little piece
which mostly uses the fundamental octave and second one uses a lot
of the overtone registers.   [ Music ]

[ Singing in Slovak ]
[ Music ]   Thank you.


[ Applause ]
And, of course, there's also double flute.
And again, a differentiating from double flutes
of other countries is one also has a much larger range
in the overtone register.   So, you can, on this drone part,

other flutes from other countries only play one tone.
But this one, because it is, it also can play several tones.
[ Music ]
So, I will play something for you which will demonstrate it.
[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

[ Silence ]
I'd like to tell you that fujara is really not giving a,
been given the recognition which it should have.
Because, this instrument is capable of more than two octaves
of the tonic scale and almost chromatic, fully chromatics
of one tone, which for the experts this is a G fujara
so for a G fujara this tone if it is not there is C sharp.
All other tones you can play.
And, it can be played besides its basic key
which would be fundamental key of the fujara
which is determined by its length.
It could be played in several other keys,
major and minor, which I do very often.
I found one rare example of a Slovak folk song
which also uses one different key.
And most of them are in the basic key which is the easiest to play.
But, this one starts in the key of G and then goes into C. And,
it's a sad song about those who were caught, those highway men, you know.
And it says, "Whose are those sheep walking up there, uphill?
Oh these, they belong to John the one they're going to hang."
And, as they were taking him across the barren field,
his girlfriend calls after him, "Come back, my love."
"How can I come back when I'm all tied up?
The executioners are waiting for Me under the gallows."
You know, reality.   [ Silence ]

[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak ]

[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

The sound is, "do, do, do, do," the sounds at the beginning.
There are several reasons for it besides,
calling the attention, right?
One of the reasons is that when you sit at piano you can see the keys
and you can start to play, you know, you know, original,
you want to start, on guitar you have string, you have frets.
On fujara, you control the tones by your breath.
So, you first have to orient yourself on the scale.
So, you come to a place, "Oh, here I am so, here I'll start," you know.
Also, there's a reason, you sort of test, test the instrument.
How much breath does it take?
Maybe even heat up a little bit the air column.
And this so called "rozfuk" or "scatter," (I'm translating now
into English) has been used on fujara and also on koncovka,
but sometimes seven on the six hole, six hole flute.
I will play a little piece which is very happy melody
and very sad lyrics which is usually the case in Slovak songs.
It's says, "I have, I've been grazing my sheep on green mountains
but they all died because they drank water which was too cold."
[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak ]

[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

As, as you could hear, the Slovak songs, the fujara repertoire,
at least, is about a very hard life, about the facts of life.
And, you know, life is hard so songs are sad.
Melancholic, somebody even can say depressing but they're also,
also somehow magically relaxing.
But, there's also one exception to that.
I found one folk song which is rather dynamic.
You could even call this traditional style syncopic.
And, again, the, even when the melody's sort of cheerful.
The lyrics are about forced military service.
People who didn't have money, they had to go,
it was about six years or more.
And there was people who could pay, they just paid it off, right?
So, it says, "One day they were taking me from the headquarters,
or marching me from the headquarters.
The guards were pouring me some wine.
And I say, 'Don't pour me, don't pour me, pour yourself.
You already served me a drink of my bitter tears.'"
[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak ]

[ Music ]   [ Singing in Slovak ]

[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.
The second part, which I did to this song, was something else.
But I wanted to show you, demonstrate,
another effect which called "prefuk."
It's actually overblow, when you blow the tone all the way
up to the harmonics.
And, you can actually hear several tones together at this point, right?
And the prefuk I've used before.
But, in this one song it is being used in a different way,
rhythmically, you know, you know.
After, after each note a section is like overblown.
So it's, I thought it was interesting for you to hear.
[ Silence ]   Let's go back to koncovka.

Koncovka has cousins in some other countries.
While the fujara is only Slovak, you know, heritage.
It doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.
Koncovka does, in several other countries,
but they look a little bit different.
There is, there is a cousin in the Scandinavian countries
which is called salgflojt made from willow tree.
Salgflotjt means actually, actually willow tree --
willow, willow flute, sorry.
And, it also has a fipple hole like this one.
But there's also open end flute overtone flute in Russia
which is windblown, which is called kalyuka,
and there's also similar open end blown flute
in Romania called tilinca.
I'd like to play for you one last example of the koncovka, use --
what is time, okay, time is running out.
In traditional music, this one is from northern part of Slovakia.
It is little combination of three songs from Slovakia.
[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.
What I have played so far are examples or echoes
of life a long time ago, like a hundred years or more,
and both music and literature as reflected at that time.
But, you know, what about today in current, in current age?
There are actually two different approaches, or solutions,
as to how to play this instrument.
One is to preserve and emulate or copy the old songs and recordings
and interpret them in a very similar way to the original.
This is very, this is very commendable to do.
But, you know, can fujara be played current way?
There's a big discussion going on about it,
if it should be, or should not.
And, people are doing it anyway, right?
Unfortunately, the second group
which is playing the fujara the current way is,
I don't know how to say that.
It's a noisy group of amateurs who either buy the fujara
from Slovakia or, in most cases, make an approximation
of fujara from PVC tubes.
There's nothing wrong with that if they would play it right.
But, they just learn a couple of affects and a couple of tones
and then they videotape themselves and go on YouTube and say,
"This is how fujara is being played."
And then, everybody who wants to find out something
out about fujara goes to internet and finds this kind and say,
"Oh what is this, I don't play this instrument."
So, this is not really helpful.
I am promoting fujara as a melodic instrument.
And I want, would like it to be recognized
as a true musical instrument for its capabilities to play in more
than two octaves the tonic scale, almost chromatic,
in many keys of major and minor tuning.
What to play on fujara?   Well, you cannot play -- everything

that you can actually play is not suitable to the instrument.
Like, you can't play everything on the sitar.
You know, every instrument has its character.
So, I will show you what I think is appropriate for fujara,
or which I like the sound of it on fujara.
Let's go to the Baroque period.
I will play you little medley of three pieces.
I'm sure you will recognize the last one.
[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.   [ Applause ]

It's hard to believe, but even some classical music could be played
on fujara.
I really like, I like very much, the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.
I especially his opera Rusalka.
I'm going to play a little piece from that
for you, "Moon Under White Sky."   [ Music ]

[ Applause ]
When I brought my first fujara from Slovakia
and was playing all the traditional songs, my wife told me,
"Oh those are so sad, so you know, melancholic.
Why don't you play something cheerful on fujara?"
And I said, "Well, there's not really too many cheerful songs
in Slovak music."
And I was, like thinking, what else could be played?
And that possibility, I think, started my quest of what to play
on fujara, you know, thanks to her, you know.
well, I couldn't find anything suitable.
So, I had to make up my, my own, my own music.
I will play you two short examples
from my first CD called "Ideas With Fujara."
And the first is called "Mount Airy Sunrise" because it came to me
when I was getting up in my house in Mount Airy
and the sun was rising, and I'd be too.

[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.   [ Applause ]

The second song is very short.
It's called "The Merry-go-Round" because it goes round and round
like a carousel for children.   [ Music ]

[ Applause ]   [ Silence ]

Thank you.
All right, I hope I have a chance to introduce to you this new kind
of overtone flute which I asked my friend Dusan Holik
in Slovakia to make for me.
First I wanted to have it made longer.
But, of course, some problems, so, I asked him to make me a number
of extensions for the koncovka not for the fujara.
But also, I asked him to make me one hole right here
so it's no longer without any hole.
This hole can raise the pitch at several octave levels one full step
which usually expands the range of this instrument, the koncovka.
Now, finally, I can play on it many, many other songs,
and melodies, almost, almost anything.
So, I'd like to very shortly show you -- maybe not enough time for it?
I guess not.
I wanted to show you I can play very easily children's song
with this, just this one hole.   But, maybe yes?

Yeah? Right, would you like to hear some children's songs?
Just for you two, okay?   [ Silence ]

How many, how many can you recognize?
[ Silence ]   [ Music ]

Okay I have to, I have to raise this, sorry.
[ Silence ]   Okay that's going to be fine.

[ "Mary Had a Little Lamb," another tune, ]
[ begins "Mary Had a Little Lamb" again]
Yeah, I already played that right, okay.
How about this?   [ "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" ]

[ Applause ]
And you could, you could play also other stuff on it.
For example, a very short example, even if the next song,
"Amazing Grace," everybody knows that one.
You can only play this with this one side hole.
But still I would like to show you what a difference it makes
if you also make the vocalization at the end.
Okay, I will play a couple measures with just the side hole
and then I'll go add the end.   Okay?


[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

I have a lot of stuff to play for you on this new instrument.
But, let me finish with a short medley
of three traditional songs, American songs.
The first one all three are from a different background.
For instance, "Oh, Shenandoah," very well known song, old song,
second is a Gospel song, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" into which I'm going
to probably add some blues, blues, blues notes.
And the last is a Bluegrass piece "Old Joe Clark," which I used
to play on banjo but, you know, let's play on this.
[ Music ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you.
I have to go because time is, time is running out.
But I have to tell you that I just read something,
on the internet, of course.
And, it said, "Everything in the universe is made
of tiny vibrating strands of energy called strings.
Each is vibrating at its own fundamental frequency representing
the mass, charge, and spin of known elementary particles
and has its own overtones.
In early universe, the sound waves osculated in the hot plasma.
The density of the region was osculating.
Overtones had fractions
of fundamental wavelength causing smaller region of space
to reach maximum displacement."
This is how the whole universe was made?
From elementary particles through the whole universe.
I think that we can safely say
that the whole universe is just one big fujara.
[ Laughter ]   [ Applause ]

Thank you very much for your attention.


[ Laughter ]
[ Music: "The Star Spangled Banner" ]
[ Applause ]
>> Nancy Groce: Bob Rychlik, thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.