English
Moravké Kopanice – region lying in the borderland between Moravia and Slovakia in the hill – side of Bíle Karpaty. Life has always been hard for people living here. The soil had to be torn off wild forests, modest little fields in the hill side could be ordinarily farmed just by hard work or digging – thereout the title Kopanice. Here belong municipalities Starý Hrozenkov, Vápenice, Lopeník, Vyškovec and Žítová.
The same costume an dialect has been preserved in them. It was propably caused by the belong to the same chapelry. People always met in the church on Sunday although they had to go on feet there, some of them as far as ten kilometers. They were apted. They went on foot to the fairs to Bojkovice because it was closest or to Uherský Brod, but also to Slovakia in Trenčín or Nové Mesto. Kopanice is the region where was very strong bagpipers tradition. Propably the last known bagpiper from Kopanice who extanted origins about was Jan Holásek nicknamed Minárik. He died in 1903 – see the picture ( L. Niederle: Moravia Slovakia, part I., fascicle II. 1922 )
As a family trio were we reassume on the tradition of bagpipers music in Kopanice. We brought ourselves to public´s notice in 1991 when the magazine Malovaný Kraj wrote article about us after our performance on Kopaničářské festivities in Starý Hrozenkov. We were five in that time ( parents and three children ). Then we had another festival shows for example in Buchlovice, Bratislava at Bagpipers festival in Nová Lehota. In this group we appeared fro the last time in International Folklore Festival in Strážnice in 1997.
Current band members:
– Bohumil Gabrhel ( bagpipes, vocals )
– Jiří Gabrhel ( bagpipes, whistles, vocals )
– Lýdie Gabrhelová ( vocals )
Yearly we perform in many festivals and cultural actions in Czech Republic and also abroad ( Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, France…). We try to keep the tradition also in our region where we yearly arrange bagpipers meeting within the framework of the Kopaničářské festivities. Our music achieved a number of awards and titles during its activity: Honourable Mention for the Authentic Interpretation of festival in Zywiec, International Folklore Festival Laureate in Strážnice, trophies from young bagpipers festival competition Gajdovačka at Oravská Polhora in Slovakia and others. The music repertoire is wholly composed by songs from Moravské Kopanice.
The music demonstration of our work
