Air

for fujara in G and electronics

©2006
 Air is a composition for physical and virtual fujaras. The composition musically excavates an ancient instrument and contextualizes
it in the era of cutting edge technology. The fujara is an indigenous Slovakian folk bass pipe instrument originating
from the Great Moravian Empire in the 10th century (Macak 1995). In the later centuries, the shepherds improved the
fujara and used it to express solitude and the pastoralism in their quotidian life in the
mountains. Solo folk songs performed on the fujara were often sustained and melancholic in
nature. Over the centuries, groups of three to seven players performing music of a variety of
moods and tempi were established. To these days, the fujara thrives in the Southwestern
region of Detva and elsewhere. The instrument is widely used in folk music.
The fujara is a wooden pipe made of semi-hard wood from indigenous trees with the
length between 165—190 cm and diameter of 3—5 cm. The traditional fujara has three
holes, although fujaras with more holes, as many as 9, maybe found in some Slovakian
regions. The fujara belongs to the family of fipple flute instruments along with the recorder,
the Native American flute, and Irish tin whistle. The fujara is, however, much longer than
any of the fipple flutes and produces lower and more delicate sounds. The instrument is
performed while held in a vertical position. The performer blows air to the instrument

Physical dimensions of a
fujara. 1. length of resonator,
2. inner diameter of the
instrument 3. total length 4.
tone-hole diameter 5.
distance between the tone-
holes 6. distance between the
bottom end of the fujara and
the first tone-hole. Adapted
from (Filo 2004).
through a shorter side pipe, which is attached in parallel to the main pipe. The shorter
pipe is a practical addition to the instrument, which enables the
player to reach the tone-holes.
The Fujara’s tone is produced by blowing into the small mouthpiece, attached to
the shorter tube. The tone consists of overtones based on harmonic series. Overblowing technique produces
individual harmonics. For example, higher air pressure will result in producing a higher harmonic. As with the
other open ended tubes in which the fundamental frequency does not sound, the first resonating tone on the
fujara is the first harmonic (the octave). Individual tones of the series are produced when the toneholes remain in

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 the same position (covered, open, or combined) at all times, and the air
pressure is continuously increased. The tones thus result from overblowing.
Spacing among the three toneholes ensures that covering and opening them
in sequence will produce the initial major tetrachord. A simultaneous
Fingering and possible tones on G fujara. Adapted from (Filo 2004)
variation of air-pressure and fingering facilitates upward and downward
stepwise motion. While constantly increasing the air pressure and changing the fingering properly, the performer can play an ascending
major scale in the first octave and the mixolydian scale (major scale with the seventh lowered scale degree) in the second octave on the
traditional fujara. The newer tuning method developed by Tomas Kovac suggests the correction of the second octave to the major scale.
Virtual fujara was designed by means of digital waveguide synthesis technique (Smith 2006), which is most efficient for digital
simulation of flute-like instruments. Both main resonator and the shorter side pipe were simulated as one-dimensional waveguides. Visco-
thermal losses were modeled as low-pass filters. Tone holes were modeled as proposed in (Scavone and Smith 1997). Stefania Serafin
designed the model and implemented it in MAX/MSP environment for real-time operation as an external object fujara~. Waveguide length
enables control of the fundamental frequency. Other control parameters are jet delay, noise, and air pressure. Fast injections of air simulate
the characteristic resonance of fujara’s overblowing technique. The model and composition Air are described in (Kojs and Serafin, 2006).

MAX/MSP implementation of fujara. Model’s inlets

represent controllable parameters (lef to right):
Block diagram of the fujara physical model. frequency, jet delay, noise, and pressure.

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 The virtual fujara extends the
frequency range, amplitude envelope
contour and duration, and timbre of the
physical instrument. The model further
facilitates circular breathing, an effect
that is impossible to achieve by the
physical fujara. Pitch material of Air is
derived from Slovak folk music.
Formally, the composition follows the
trajectory from the idiomatic sound of
the physical fujara to the sounds
produced by extended performance
techniques, and, finally, to the sonorities
of the physical model.
The physical fujara functions as a
controller for six fujara physical models
in real-time. A microphone positioned
close to the opening of the instrument
transmits the audio signal to Max/MSP,
where it is pitch and amplitude tracked
by the fiddle∼ object (Puckette and Apel
1998). The object works efficiently as the
tracked tones show stable fundamental

Overall view of the Air’s MAX/MSP patch.

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frequencies and amplitudes. The frequencies of the six models are multiples of the physical instrument’s tracked frequency. Their strength
and presence is continuously shifted thus creating a pulsating frequency spectrum. In addition to the real-time sounds of physical and
physically modeled fujara, textures of Air present pre-processed sonorities of the physical instrument. Circular breathing effect is
implemented to the fujara model signal by means of low frequency FM. Louder physical signal will result in acceleration of breathing
pattern and vice versa.

D ura tio n: 7’40”

Technic al Re q uir eme nts: 1 microphone, 1 Apple computer running MAX/MSP 4.5 or higher, and 2-4 channel audio system

Ref ere nce s:

Filo, M. (2004). Fujary, Pistalky. (Fujaras and whistles). Bratislava.: Ustredie Ludovej Umeleckej, Vyroby.

J. Kojs and S. Serafin. “The Fujara: A Physical Model of the Bass Pipe Instrument in an Interactive Composition.” Proc. ICMC 2006, New
Orleans , LA

Macak, I. (1995). Dedicstvo Hudobnych Nastrojov (The Heritage od Musical Instruments). Bratislava.: Slovenske Narodne Muzeum a
Hudobne Muzeum.

Puckette, M. and T. Apel (1998). Real-time audio analysis tools for pd and msp. In Proc. International Computer Music Conference.

Scavone, G. and J. O. Smith. (1997). Digital waveguide modeling of woodwind tone- holes. In Proc. International Computer Music
Conference.

Smith, J. O. (2006). Physical Audio Signal Processing. Available online at http://ccrma.stanford.edu/ jos/pasp/.

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Air for fujara and electronics
Fujara score

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