Duda (bagpipe) music of the Danube river region of Hungary accompanies a cycle of dances. Ferenc Tobak says that bagpipe playing predates 900 AD. "Hungarian bagpipe music is an integral part of our culture, with many myths and folktales surrounding it." When he was in his twenties he met a piper whom had learned to play from his family and shepherds. Ferenc began to play and make bagpipes. He studied with Gergely Mesterke, Mihaly Dima, and Antal Palocka, the last three Hungarian pipers in Moldavia, Romania and researched the instrument. Ferenc's own family was musical. He accompanied his mother and grandparents folk singing. In California he has helped produce the annual Baratsag Hungarian Dance and Music Camp and is writing books on Moldavian bagpipes.
His son, Ferenc, Jr. is 12 years old. Boys are not physically able to play bagpipe until they are 15 or 16, so traditionally they are first taught the melody on flute. Ferenc, Jr. has been learning melodies since he was nine, and has already begun playing for events in the Hungarian church and community. In this apprenticeship, father and son will practice repertory together on the six-hole fipple flute.
top
