The Fujara

The fujara is an instrument that only makes sense once you have seen one: a wooden pipe up to about a hundred and seventy centimetres long, played upright with a short blowing tube running to the mouth, made and played by shepherds in the central Slovak highlands around Detva. It has only three finger holes, and the melody is produced mainly by overblowing to reach the natural overtone series, which gives it a deep, breathy, slightly unearthly sound with a characteristic sighing attack. UNESCO recognises it as intangible cultural heritage, and the tradition survives through a small number of makers who carve and decorate the elderwood tubes with etched folk patterns, and through the folklore festivals of the region, above all the great gathering at Detva each summer, where fujara players perform alongside dancers and singers from across the country.

Highlights

• A fujara played live - the deep overtone sound, best heard at a festival.
• The Detva folklore festival - the region's great summer gathering.
• Instrument makers - the carving and etched decoration of the elderwood tubes.
• The Podpoľanie landscape - the highland pastures the instrument came out of.

When to go

Summer is the season, and the Detva festival in July is the single best opportunity to hear fujara playing in its own context alongside other Slovak folk traditions. Outside festival time, hearing one means seeking out a maker or a museum, which needs arranging in advance.

Good to know

This is a living tradition rather than a place, so there is no site to visit: outside the summer festivals you need to arrange a visit to a maker or catch a museum demonstration, and that takes planning and usually some Slovak. Instruments sold to visitors vary enormously, from serious handmade pieces to decorative tubes that barely play. The Detva region is rural and needs a car.

Nearby

Banská Bystrica and Banská Štiavnica are within reach; the Poľana highlands rise above Detva.