RPA / Duchnowski - Devil`s Fiddle

Devil`s Fiddle - L`opera del villaggio

music - Cezary Duchnowski, Maciej Filipczuk

libretto - Michał Brzozowy, Maciej Filipczuk

Perf. Maniucha Bikont, Mikiołaj Pałosz, Cezaru Duchnowski, Radical Polish Ansambl 

DIABELSKIE SKRZYPCE [DEVIL`S FIDDLE] is a staged concert devoted to the figure of a local village musician. Those who claim that the greatest fiddlers of the past have simply played to dancing, are very much mistaken. Rather, they acted as a kind of guides to complexities of a specific rite or ceremony, they were mediators between the real and the spiritual world, very often exposing themselves to adverse impacts of demonic reality. It is not without reason that rural records very often feature stories about fiddlers having supernatural powers. Still alive today are stories about musicians raising their own incubi, owning some magical items, about their supernatural ability to damage strings of a fiddler playing in another band or forcing the violin to play alone.

This continually vivid transgressive power of traditional fiddle and traditional music making is consistently advocated by Radical Polish Ansambl who made their début at the CODES festival in 2018. This time, these passionate promoters of Radical Polish Culture have invited an outstanding Polish composer of electro-acoustic music, Cezary Duchnowski, an illustrious avant-garde cellist Mikołaj Pałosz, and a versatile singer Maniucha Bikont.

They chose some authentic mazurka melodies and a unique instrument, the devil’s fiddle of Lejaren Hiller. This American pioneer of computer music, while staying in Poland in the 1970s, came across a traditional instrument widely used rural ceremonies in the Kaszuby and Kurpie regions, and developed it to the level of an exquisite virtuoso instrument. The reconstruction of Lejaren Hiller’s devil’s fiddle in combination with inscrutable musical capabilities of Cezary Duchnowski will take the CODES’ audience back to the mythical times of fiddlers-witch doctors.