Cimbal_Classic_en

Cimbal Classic

The band Cimbal Classic first came together in 1991 on the occasion of the first year of the folk festival “Okolo Třeboně” in Třeboň (Czech Republic). At that first performance, the ensemble—formed by musicians who were schoolmates at the Brno Conservatory—played transcriptions of Renaissance and Baroque music as well as non-traditional arrangements of folk songs. Although only formed for this single occasion, the band was inspired to continue by Vlasta Redl, a rising star in the heavens of Czech folk music, with whom they performed at the Třeboň festival.

Since those early beginnings, Cimbal Classic has, thanks to its originality and musical universality, become a welcomed guest at most of the prestigious folk festivals in the Czech Republic as well as abroad. Live performances with other famous singer-songwriters and bands have led to new recordings, including collaborations with Jaroslav Lenk, Slávek Janoušek, Nezmaři, Cop, Pavlína Jíšová, Věra Martinová, Wabi Daněk, and others.

Since the mid-1990s, the band has been performing independently. It specializes in the music of Dalibor Štrunc, its songwriter and leader, which makes the band original and unique.

Cimbal Classic has performed in its home country the Czech Republic as well as abroad. Apart from live performances, they have recorded six albums and co-operated on six additional recordings. Their live recordings and programs have been broadcast on Czech Television, Czech Radio, and BBC Radio. This is all the more surprising when we take into account that all the members also perform in other musical ensembles and teach at pedagogical institutions. These other careers include engagements with Javory, Trebonští pištci, Teagrass, BROLN, and the Brno Philharmonic, and teaching appointments at the Janáček Academy of Musical Arts, the Brno Conservatory, and the Academy of Ancient Music at the Institute of Musicology at Masaryk University.

Although the information above may look poetic and official on paper, Cimbal Classic and its music stay truly modest and down-to-earth. Its folk- and classical-influenced music floats somewhere between the borders of genres. The band has no greater wish than to inspire and please its soul-mates. You yourself might well be enchanted by and absorbed in their world of friendliness and kindness. Perhaps you will meditate, as did Milan Kolář in his sleeve note for Cimbal Classic’s first CD:

I have never had any respect for anything classical, and radio and TV gave me an aversion to traditional folk music and the cimbalom. Nothing like that applies here. Cimbal Classic is a band that breaks all the rules. You will not find the stylised, artificial performance of an ensemble in folk costumes that may come to mind when you think of a cimbalom band; neither will you find the stiff postures and tailcoats that may be linked to the meaning of the word classical. My impression of the music of this ensemble is of something plainly human and personal. The cimbalom plays everything from classical music, such as the Renaissance Dances, to ragtime to Irish folk music as well as all kinds of folk music native to our country. This is a band that can play requests for its listeners all night long. This is an ensemble of wonderful musicians who never lack the joy of playing together in spite of their duties in other ensembles, orchestras, and philharmonics.

The Repertory of Cimbal Classic

The band plays all sorts of music. You will hear melodies with sources in folk music, world music, and classical music as well as freely arranged folk tunes from Eastern Europe, especially from Moravia (the eastern part of the Czech Republic).

Sample Sound Clips:

1. “On a Lark”

2. “No One Is Far”

3. “A Girl Has Come Out”

4. “Fill Your Ears . . .”

5. “A River Flows” – about an unhappy love on the banks of the Svratka, a Moravian river

6. “Under Solán Mountain” – a cruel ballad from the Valachian mountains about a virgin who was seduced and drowned

7. “Stories”

8. “A Star Called Hope”

9. “Who Knows What Is Right”

10. “Life Is a Circle” – a song based on Jack London’s novel Star Rover, with a sense of the immortality and freedom of a human soul

11. “Don’t Leave Me, My Love”

12. “Lullaby” – on the motives of Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert, who received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature

13. Christmas Renaissance Tune

14. “Sirba” – a Romanian folk song

15. “Horses, My Horses”

16. “Gypsy Dance” – a Slovak folk song

17. “It’s Dawn”

18. “I Sense a Human” – a single from the album of the same title about Balík, the “band dog” and mascot

19. “My Dear, My Heart” – a Romanian folk song

20. “Reeling” – a single from our fourth album about the uncertainty and confusion in the soul of a girl whose ideas float somewhere between dreams and reality

21. “Fata Morgana Fox” – in memoriam of Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich, two pioneers of modern musical theater in the Czech Republic and abroad

22. “My Dear Friends”

23. Valachian Carols

“On a Good Night” – a free arrangement of an old gothic tune

“Because”

“What There Was and Is No More” – this song and our most recent album are about the matters and feelings that have been, unfortunately, quietly but constantly disappearing from our lives

Dalibor Štrunc – ensemble leader

Dalibor Štrunc studied cimbalom at the Brno Conservatory. Since 2000, he has been teaching the cimbalom at that institution. He began his professional career as a solo player in the Czechoslovak State Ensemble of Dancing and Singing (Prague). He moved to Brno in 1992 to become the principal cimbalomist in the Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments (BROLN). He has been working as a freelancer since the restructuring of Czech Radio.

Štrunc leads the multi-genre ensemble Cimbal Classic. He is not only its lead performer but also its songwriter. Apart from three albums of his compositions (Čichám člověčinu [1996], Vrávorám [1999], Bylo a není [2004]), he has worked on two other notable projects: a recording of Valachian Christmas carols with the Polajka chorus (Vánoce v Rožnově [1996]) and a collection of Easter-focused songs (Jaro [1998]). In addition to his work with Cimbal Classic, he also performs with other ensembles – such as Hana and Petr Ulrych’s group Javory and BROLN – appears as a guest performer, and works as an arranger. His album Prameny (2000) was a showcase recording for his composition and performance talents; the album introduced the cimbalom as a solo instrument, explored new musical directions, and also featured musical collaborations with many well-known musicians. He has worked with many ensembles, such as Fisyo, Veronique Sanson (in Bruxelles), the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and Staats Operette Dresden. In most of his musical activities he co-operates with his wife Kateřina.

Kateřina Štruncová – violin, vocals

1980–1986 The Brno Conservatory

1985–1989 The National Theater in Brno

1985–1989 Divadlo Husa na provázku / Goose on a String Theater (external cooperation)

1989–2001 Brno Philharmonic

1993–present BROLN (Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments)

1994–present Javory

Kateřina Malíková – viola, mandolin,vocals

1994–2000 Conservatory of P.J. Vejvanovský, Kroměříž

2000–2004 JAMU (Janáček Academy of Musical Arts, Brno)

1999–2001 Moravian Philharmonic, Olomouc

2002–2003 Hogskolen i Stavanger, Norway; Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Norway

2002–present BROLN (Brno Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments)

Rastislav Kozoň – oboe and historical woodwind instruments

1986–1992 Žilina Conservatory

1991–1997 Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno (Musicology and Aesthetics)

1997–2004 Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno (Postgraduate studies in Musicology)

1997–present Academy of Ancient Music at the Institute of Musicology at Masaryk University in Brno

2004–present Institute of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno

Ongoing cooperation with Czech and Slovakian musical ensembles that focus on authentic interpretation of ancient music, including Cappella Accademica, Capela Regia, Musica Aeterna, Musica Florea, Musica Poetica, Solamente naturali, Nocturno Praha, and others.

Jakub Šimáně – double bass, bass guitar

1993–1999 Brno Conservatory

1998–2003 The National Theater in Brno

2000–present Mošny

2004–present Brno Municipal Theatre

Discography of Cimbal Classic

Čichám člověčinu / I Sense a Human – 1996

Vánoce v Rožnově / Christmas in Rožnov – 1996

Jaro / Spring – 1998

Vrávorám / Reeling – 1999

Prameny / Sources – 2000

Bylo a není / What There Was and Is No More – 2004

The cimbalom has an Asian origin

The cimbalom has an Asian origin. This trapezium instrument had different names in different countries like santur, qanun, yanchin, e.t.c. It came to Europa during the great migrations and it became a very popular instrument in the 14th, 15th and 16th century in lots of countries. Every country named the instrument differently: in Germain region “Hackbrett”, in english region “ hammered dulcimer”, in french region “tympanon”, in italian and spanish region “salterio” and in the hungarian language “cimbalom”. In Hungary the instrument was already used pucked and hammered. In the 18th and 19th century the gipsies musicians took over the cimbalom and created by their many mouvmants a typical “town music”. From this moment wrongly named “typical hungarian folksmusic” and the idea was born that the cimbalom is a gipsy instrument. The realy typical hungarian folksmusic was played in the isolated villages, where the cimbalom was used also. After the war of independence (1848) the cimbalom was occupied as one of the nationals symbols. So Ferenc Erkel - who was the founder of the hungarian opera - used the cimbalom the first time in the hungarian classical music. This opera “Bбnk bбn” had his premier in 1861. In relation of his enormously success Jуzsef V.Schunda instrumentsmaker reformed the cimbalom. He chanched the instrument from 2 and half octave till 4 and half with pedals like by the piano. Such a large instrument needed legs. This new “hungarian” cimbalom was showed in 1874. Gйza Allaga was the founder of the literature of this instrument. He founded the first school for it, too. From 1890 he was the cimbalom teacher at the National Musicschool in Budapest. More and more componist wrote music for the hungarian cimbalom. From 1897 it was possibile to study this instrument at the Academy of the Music in Budapest. The teacher was Lбszlу Kun, who was a student of Allaga. At the turn of the century the cimbalom was teached in every town all over Hungary. In the begining of the XX th century Debussy and Stravinsky composed also for this hungarian instrument. At this time were the most famous teachers Dezsх Erdйlyi, who was the teacer after Allaga at the National Musicschool, and Janka Fodor, who was the teacher after Kun at the Academy of the Music. In the 20th on historical reasons the hungarian cimbalom was practically disappeared , only in Budapest stood the tradition of this instrument. A few, but very important composers wrote music for the cimbalom like Zoltбn Kodбly and Bйla Bartуk. The most famous artist at this time was Aladбr Rбcz and later Ida Tarjбni Tуth.
After Schunda Jуzsef Bochak instrumentsmaker reformed the cimbalom which type is used till now.
In the 60th the cimbalom music was reborn. More and more people were interested in the study of this instrument. Therefore lot of hungarian composer, later forigner composers wrote solo and accompanying compositions. Now there is the possibility to study in a lot of musi schools, music trraining colleges and the Ferenc Liszt Conservtory of Music in Budapest. The most famous instrumentsmaker are Gбbor Frey and Istvбn Jancsу. The hungarian cimbalom are used in the neighbouring countries, too like in Slovakia, in Czech Republic, in Moldavia, in Rumania.
And how was in abroad?!.... I thought it was important to bring all the different kind of cimbaloms together, so in 1991 the first Cimbalom World Congress was held in Hungary. The participants of Congress thought also it’s very important to work together, for this aim the Cimbalom World Association (CWA) was founded. The CWA organize congresses every 2 years in a different country. Between the congresses the CWA function as a music centre.

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