Gajdica

This instrument can be found in but one region of Slovakia, its origins being widely disputed. The first musican to play and build gajdicas was Andrej Mizerak (1897-1977) from Lúčky-Potoky, Eatern Slovakia. A number of publications on the instrument, including research papers and books, have been in circulation. A CD of Mizerak's archival recordings, entitled Andej Mizerak a jeho gajdica, is available (with the circulation of 500 copies, available from www.hornatorysa.com). 

The instrument is about 50 cm long and it consists of a wooden sounding pipe and a strengthening bowl. The sounding pipe has seven finger holes in it, with one of them situated on the bottom, and it is made of elderberry wood (Sambucus nigra) or Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus). The bowls are made of cow's or ox's horns. The reeds are traditionally made of cane or a thin elderberry twig (A. Mizerak), but currently there is a tendency for them to be made of plastic tubes (M. Smetanka). Slovak researchers tend to consider the gajdica to be an original (endemic) Eastern Slovakian instrument. Howerver, chances are it is a relic of the Vlach settlement. The name itself resembles the Bulgarian for bagpipe (gajdy) and the Polish word gajdzice which is used in the Silesian and Żywiec Beskid to refer to the part of a bagpipe which resembles the instrument in question. Furthermore, its scale is close to the Lydian mode and the Balkan connotation becomes even more apparent if we analyse Mizerak's glissando-fuelled style. The use of ox's horns is also meaningful. These animals, whose function was similar to that of today's tractors, were brought to this part of Europe by the southern and eastern settlers. This, too, hints at the Balkan roots of the instrument.

If we were to look for the closest relative of gajdica, the instrument of choice would most probably be the Lithuanian byrynia, which itself is a modification of the Belorussian and Russian żelejki. In Poland, a similar instrument was built in the Kurpie region and it was called dutka bzowa. The double gajdica is a twentieth-century invention by Alexander Gernat Senior, a constructor of musical instruments and musician. It is regarded as a creative continuation of the tradition passed down by Andrej Mizerak's legendary teacher, Seman.