Jaw harp traditions and culture in Slovakia
The following article was prepared by Erik Turtev, who is a virtuoso jaw harp player and the founder of the music group Varkocs. The aim of the article is to convey some of the information about the past and presence of the jaw harp in the territory of the Slovak Republic where I live. In the article, Erik will also outline the sources from which he draws inspiration for his work and music.
Author of the article
My name is Erik Turtev, I am a jaw harp player from Slovakia, from the region called Žitný ostrov (Rye island), where part of the Hungarian minority lives. I have been playing the jaw harp since 2011, and in the same year I made, among other instruments, a jaw harp of bamboo and another one of elder wood.
Since 2015, I have been playing in music bands, where I represent the jaw harp. In 2018 I founded my own band focused on jaw harp called Varkocs. It is a group that performs traditional jaw harp songs of various ethnic groups living in Slovakia. In addition to Slovaks, other ethnic groups also live in Slovakia, e.g. Hungarians, Roma, Ruthenians and others. Thanks to this, the jaw harp tradition in Slovakia is very varied and rich. We currently sing traditional songs in 4 languages in our unique hooligan folk or folk-punk style. My intention is to bring the jaw harp tradition of this beautiful country with a deep history and the traditional jaw harp music typical for our ancestors and individual ethnicities closer to the contemporary people.
Archaeological findings in Slovakia
The two most famous finds of jaw harps in Slovakia come from the vicinity of the ruins of Hodejov Castle in the Gemer region. One was discovered in 1962 by archaeologist Géza Balassa, and the other was discovered in 2013 during archaeological research in Širkovce. In the summer of 2022, two instruments from archaeological finds dating back to the 15th century were added to my collection. The instruments were found in the Little Carpathians. In 2023, the Hungarian jaw harp smith Botond Bács created a reconstruction of these two medieval instruments.
Note: I heard that a very old lyre-shaped jaw harp was found at Bratislava Castle. Unfortunately, I could not find any written or visual sources for this find.
Slovak traditions
From the collections of Slovak folk art we know that in the 19th and 20th centuries the instrument was mainly made by gypsy blacksmiths. Juraj Kubinec (Utekáč) and R. Cibula (Zvolenská Slatina) were also mentioned as producers of jaw harps. The text of the Slovak folk song from Liptov region also features the motif of Romas living in the valley, who sat on stones and made jaw harps. Folk musician Matej Pitoňák (Ždiar) noted in the 1960s that young men were playing the jaw harps under the girls' windows. This custom was also common in neighboring regions of Bohemia and Moravia.
There are two pieces of Slovak jaw harp music recorded in 1980 by the folk musician František Mucha (Terchová):
Ide jarček po dolince (a brook is flowing through the valley)
Obúvajte chlapci krpce (Put on your sandals, boys)
We processed both songs with my band Varkocs, and at the end of the video clips you can listen to a part of the original archival version of the said songs. It is important to point out that there is no mention of jaw harps in the lyrics of these two songs, because the jaw harp here is used as an accompanying instrument between the individual recited verses.
Matej Pitoňák plays the jaw harp (1965)
Contemporary poetry is also an interesting source of information about jaw harps in folk culture. In his poem "Detvan", the well-known Slovak poet Andrej Sládkovič mentions courtship by means of a jaw harp:
Pod stenou sedí Elenka mladá (Young Elenka is sitting under the wall)
do tmavej noci sa díva (gazing into the dark night)
drumblence k zúbkom bielym prikladá (jaw harps putting on her white teeth)
v nich sa duša jej ozýva (her soul echoes in them)
Hungarians from Slovakia
Uncle Nándi
Hungarians settled in the southern regions of today's Slovakia from the end of the 9th century. Hungarian jaw harp music had a rather ritualistic character, but was later used as a field military instrument and then as a children's instrument. As a ritual instrument, the jaw harp was used by shamans, healers and herbalists. Magical lyrics and rhymes were whispered into the instrument. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the jaw harp became a forbidden instrument in Hungarian-speaking areas. It was written in the law that the sound of the instrument was corrupted, had adverse effects and girls cannot resist the seductive music - we learn from folk music expert József Birinyi.
In 2018, I collected a song played on the jaw harp called "Onnan felől" from the then 83-year-old Uncle Nándi (Blažov, Slovakia). Here is part of the text:
Onnan felől Somorjáról jönnek a cigányok (Gypsies are coming from Šamorín)
Hárman ülnek egy kis lovon s dorombot csinálnak (Three of them are sitting on a small horse and making a jaw harp)
We covered this song with my band Varkocs as the first ever debut song and you can also find it on YouTube. You can also find a recording of the original version sung by Uncle Nándi on Erik Turtev's YouTube channel.
Ruthenians from Slovakia
The Ruthenians are a special Slavic ethnic group and in Slovakia today they live in the northeastern part of the country. Large groups of Ruthenians also live in neighboring areas of Poland and Ukraine.
The song "A Ja drymbu Kupuvala" (I bought a jaw harp) performed in 1935 by Hafija Jerema comes from Transcarpathia, which was part of the Czechoslovak Republic at that time. Jaw harp is not only mentioned in the lyrics of the song, but Ms. Hafija, as a gifted jaw harp player, also bequeathed her beautiful jaw harp music to the future generations in a wonderful melodious composition. In my view, this is the most beautiful and technical jaw harp play ever recorded. With my band Varkocs, we processed this almost 90-year-old archive recording and inserted a part of the original version into the middle part of our song "A ja drymbu kupuvala".