A Jew’s harp wizard
Mikhailo Nechay (1930–2011) was a mol’far, traditional healer, a “white wizard” – some would say a shaman.
By Ånon Egeland
Translated by Lucy Moffatt
The Carpathians consist of several parallel mountain chains, with peaks towering up to 2655 metres above sea level, and extend in a 1700 km arc that passes through Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania.
The region is home to 30 different ethnic groups, many of which have shared cultural practices – including what is officially known as “transhumance” or, more colloquially, the seasonal herding of livestock to more suitable grazing grounds.
Certain instruments that are very familiar to us from Norway are intimately linked to this culture – first and foremost the wooden trumpet (which can, in this case be close to three metres in length) and the overtone flute.
In the Ukrainian part of the Carpathians, in the areas bordering on Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, live the Hutsul people. In Ukraine, their language is classified as a Ukrainian dialect, although others argue that it is a distinct language – a patchwork of loan words from Polish, Hungarian, Armenian, Russian, Rumanian and other languages, which reflects shifting political borders and the ethnic diversity characteristic of this part of Europe.
The Hutsuls have a strong identity nonetheless, which is expressed, among others, through their traditional music. The instrumentation is typically Carpathian: in addition to the wooden trumpet (trembita) and overtone flute (telynko, skosivka) mentioned above, fiddle, hammer dulcimer (tsymbaly) and bass drum with cymbal and flute (sopilka) are also much in evidence. As is the Jew’s harp, which seems to be doing especially well in the Hutsul culture in particular.
The local name for the instrument is drymba, a word that is related to drimba in Rumanian, doromb in Hungarian, trompa in Spanish and trump in English. It is the same word that we also find in “trumpet.’ In other words it is yet another example of the Jew’s harp being named after other instruments, whether harp (munnharpe, Jew’s harp), fiddle (mungiga) or drum (Maultrommel). Hutsul Jew’s harps are home-made and are reminiscent the Austrian model with a D-shaped frame and relatively short arms.
You can find several recordings of Jew’s harp players from this region on YouTube. One of the standout performers is Mikhailo Nechay. On the recordings, he uses high-pitched harps – in C, C sharp and D – and spices up his playing with a liberal application of vibrato. Without wishing for a second to insinuate that there is any hidden connection between the
Carpathians and mountain regions of southern Norway, these high pitches make me think of older players from Valdres like Embrik Beitohaugen and Olav Hauge, while the vibrato is reminiscent Olav O. Aukrust of Lom.
Mikhailo Nechay (1930–2011) was a mol’far, traditional healer, a “white wizard” – some would say a shaman. He had inherited knowledge of healing herbs, had second sight and claimed to be able to control the weather. His recording from 2011 was made in April, just three months before he was brutally murdered in his home.
Here are some videos of Mikhailo Nechay:
Here are some links for anyone who’s keen to read and listen to more about the Hutsul culture:
If you want to know more about what a mol’far is, I would suggest these videos:
