2008年6月12日 星期四

Kaulakau/ Marc Egea


The zanfona is an instrument that dates from the ninth century but fell out of favour over the 18th and 19th, and one with almost as many names as it has varieties of designs (including hurdy-gurdy, vielle à roues).

The ancient relative of both the violin and the bagpipe, it was played in Spain's Galicia until the 19th century and in parts of France and Hungary until the 20th. The French and Spanish variety, with its odd-sounding buzzing bridge, has a distinct sound that is both ancient and somehow futuristic. As technology developed, other instruments were thought to have more versatility, relegating the hurdy gurdy to an image of poor peasantry.

But this once-maligned instrument has made a recent comeback. In the hands of the Catalan ex-philosophy student Marc Egea it proves to be an instrument of many qualitites.

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