During its annual International Festival of Luthiers and Maîtres Sonneurs, the tiny French village of Saint Chartier is host to probably the greatest concentration of bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy players on earth.
The festival began as a specialist affair for instrument makers (Luthiers) and players of instruments with drones (Maîtres Sonneurs), but has grown to encompass a much wider range of musical interests and tastes. Now two festivals co-exist side-by-side, although...
more »During its annual International Festival of Luthiers and Maîtres Sonneurs, the tiny French village of Saint Chartier is host to probably the greatest concentration of bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy players on earth.
The festival began as a specialist affair for instrument makers (Luthiers) and players of instruments with drones (Maîtres Sonneurs), but has grown to encompass a much wider range of musical interests and tastes. Now two festivals co-exist side-by-side, although not always in perfect harmony.
The official one comprises one hundred and thirty Luthiers displaying their wares in the park of the rather modest, uninhabited Saint Chartier chateau, and a programme of concerts and dances in a huge marquee and on two open-air dance-floors.
An unofficial 'fringe' packs the village streets (there are two) with barefoot drummers, tattooed street-vendors and assorted buskers. At night, in the camping field set aside for visitors with no tickets, free-living types ride motorcycles over tents and howl at the moon.
But the real heart of Saint Chartier are the traditional music enthusiasts who come from all over Western Europe, weighed down with instruments of every shape and size, looking for any opportunity to make music or dance with like-minded folk.
The energy is astonishing. All day long impromptu performances take place across the chateau grounds. Accordions, bombards, pipes, drums, hurdy-gurdies, guitars and fiddles are played solo or in consort. Within a few paces one can hear a sedate country dance played on diatonic accordion and recorder, a trio of newly-acquainted pipe players searching for a common repertoire, or a well-rehearsed quartet playing dance tunes à la Hot Club of France.
The shared musical traditions that bring together different ages and nationalities offer a common language which allows complete strangers to sit down and play together. If life could imitate this artistic camaraderie, the world would be a better place.
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