Traditional Playing on the Svrljig Bagpipes, Duduk and Ocarina from Eastern Serbia

Bagpipes are not the first instrument that come to mind when you think of Serbian music. And it's a dwindling tradition preserved in this recording on Svetlana Spajić's World Music Association of Serbia (WMAS) label. The notes say there were over 70 players in the region in the 1950s, but today Stanković is one of very few. He plays the Svrljig gaida, named after the unpronounceable-looking town of Svrljig, to the east of Niš. There were bagpipe players and makers in his family for many generations, so he's a performer whose musical roots go deep into the 19th century. It's therefore surprising to learn that he's frequently playing (trumpet and Bulgarian bagpipes) with Goran Bregović and has featured on 17 of his albums!

The Svrljig gaida has a double pipe with two reeds, giving it a nasal, reedy sound with just one drone. The tunes are mostly confined to a small range of notes with repeated patterns and rhythmic glottlestop notes. The faster tunes are dances for merrymaking long ago in the pastoral areas. There are also three tracks on ocarina and duduk (a sort of shepherds' pipe and nothing like the Armenian instrument).