Tárogató: Hungary musical instrument

The tárogató refers to two different wood wind musical instruments generally used in both Hungarian and Romanian folk music. The modern version of the tárogató was meant to be a recreation of the original version, but two musical instruments are thought to have small thing in common.

source of picture: hungaria.org

The mention of this musical instrument in the Hungarian writings has been traced back to the 15^th century. It is not clear if the instrument was first brought into Europe by the Magyars when they first relocated from the east in the 9^th century. However, it is certain that musical instruments of this kind, descended from the Middle Eastern zurna, were introduced into the Eastern Europe by the Turks in the Middle Ages, as witnessed by the term töröksip, "Turkish pipe" that was used as a synonym for tárogató. It is possible that musical instrument from both tradition were brought into one entity. The musical instrument has a Turkish origin and showed up in Hungary during the Turkish wars. Up to about 18^th century, the musical instrument was a kind of shawm that has double reed, conical bore and no keys.

Being a very loud and raucous musical instrument, the tarogato was used as a signaling instrument in the battle. Meanwhile, the instrument can also give off a very subtle, deep, mellow sound when performed at a relaxed and steady pace.

The musical instrument was suppressed in the 18^th century by the habsurg mornachy because the instrument was an iconic musical instrument of Rákóczi's War for Independence (1703–1711). Eventually, the musical instrument was abandoned being seen as too loud for a concert hall.

Vencel Jozsef Schunda, a Budapest musical instrument producer, invented the modern version of the musical instrument in the 1890s. the instrument uses single reed, like the clarinet or the saxophone, and the instrument has a conical bore, analogous to the saxophone. The musical instrument is produced of wood, often black granadilla wood just like the clarinet. The most common size of this version of the musical instrument, the soprano tarogato in Bb, is about 74 cm in length and has a mournful sound analogous to a cross between English horn and a soprano saxophone. Other sizes of the instrument exist.

This musical instrument was a symbol of Hungarian aristocracy and the favorite wood wind musical instrument of Governor Miklos Horthy.

Production of this musical instrument in Hungary stopped after the World War II, but the tarogato continued to be produced in Romania and other countries. In the 1990s many Hungarian producers of the instrument started the production again.

, Luţă Ioviţă, who performed the musical instrument in the army during the World War I, brought the instrument to Banat, Romania in the 1920s, where the instrument became very popular under the name ‘tarogot’.

Dumitru Fărcaş, who was born in Maramure, and known to be the most famous player of this musical instrument made the instrument popular all over the world.

Peter Brötzmann, a german saxophonist also extensively used the musical instrument in free jazz and improvisation.