We have made some audio available on the Downloads page – a rough demo of the tune “In Hungary They Used to Burn Bagpipers”.
The recording is now a few months old, and is of a version of the piece for three tubas, multi-tracked by me. Those of you who have followed this project from the beginning will recall that ORE was originally a trio before it settled into its final core of Sam and me.
The reference to Hungary in the title is two-fold: firstly, as you may already have guessed, it’s in tribute to Mayhem and Sunn O))) mainstay Attila Csihar, but also to Gyõrgy Kurtág, the great Hungarian composer of small-scale yet massive music, and Bela Bartók, whose piano music I enjoy playing.
I don’t remember why I had a vision of bagpipers being burned at the stake, but “dudasók” (bagpipes) is one of the few inoffensive words I know in the Hungarian language, which doubtless had something to do with it…
The whole thing is due for a revisit; this certainly isn’t the piece’s final form. I’m looking at adapting it for two tubas and contrabass clarinet for our collaboration with Alex Sramek in February.
