Blog

30 year old Aksenty Beskrovny from Moscow is already one of the most important experts representing the jaw harp to the public not only as musicians but also as scientists. Aksenty adds new features of sound to the Russian jaw harp technique. And thereby he also draws attention to the mouth harp in Western Russia.

On 15 February 2017 Spiridon Shishigin visited the project shop “Sinn und Sein” (Sense and Being) in Leipzig. About 30 fans and guests from the whole region gathered to see the world-famous jaw harp virtuoso from Yakutia in concert. A concert review.

Russia is a country with a handful of jaw harp traditions: in Sakha/Yakutia, in the Altai, and in Tuva the Khomus (or Komus) is played; in Bashkortostan the Kubyz is known, and in Western Russia and in the big cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg one can hear the name Vargan. An overview.

In the mountain villages of Southwest China, 2000 meters high up in the mountains where the rice-growing terraces are smothered by dense cloud, one will find music which sounds organic and electronic at the same time. Playing the jaw harp, Kou Xian, is very common among the Yi-people in Yunnan and Sichuan.

The earliest jew's harps found in Estonia was an instrument dug out from Otepää town hill dating back to the beginning of the 13th century. There are several more findings from the 15th and 16th century. It can be suggested that at that time the mouth harp was a popular instrument among peasants. An excursion to the history of Parmupill, the estonian Jaw Harp. By Cätlin Mägi.

Dima Babayev is a young jaw harp master blacksmith from Saint Petersburg whose hand-forged instruments are among the world's best mouth harps. For more than 13 years Dima has been forging jaw harps now. In the Vargan Makers Competition 2016 he even could outpace the time-honored smiths from Yakutia. With a crowdfunding campaign he wants to improve his workshop.