Fifre (music)

See also: Fifre

The fifre is small a Flute in Canne of Provence (arundo donax or fruit trees ebony), to six or seven holes, sometimes with a key , of Perce conical or cylindrical, generally in the Tonalité of B flat , D or E flat , and of an extent of two octaves and half in a diatonic scale.

This instrument was used with drums in the war and for the festivals. There were bodies of fifres and drums to parade in the streets. There is much in the colonial villages and in Suisse (Were worth, German-speaking Switzerland).

In France, the fifre was introduced towards the end of the 15th century by Swiss mercenaries, who were numerous to enlist in the army of Louis XII. The fifre was played in the army but in a nonofficial way. It is François I {{er}} which will create the official load of fifre of the king, whose role was to take part in the ceremonies and official festivals. It will take thereafter all its place in the armies and in particular under the Empire. The fifre will disappear from the military music in 1845 with the profit of the piccolo. Today, there still remains in France in the music of the regiments of the Foreign legion.

Parallel to this military career, the fifre knows a civil career in the traditional Musique. The musicians trained with the army continued to play, with the return in their village. The repertory of these musicians included/understood the military pieces learned during their service as well as the popular airs from their area. This co-education gave birth in Gascogne to the ripataoulères , musical formations made up of a fifre, a drum and a large case. These ripataoulères remains still nowadays in the area of Bazas, in the High Moor Of Gironde. The airs of military and popular Musique continue to be transmitted orally from generation to generation. The ripataoulères animate the festivals and ceremonies popular and family. The same formations (duet fifre, drum or trio fifre, drum, large case) were formed in the Comté of Nice, to nowadays give bands of several fifres and several drums, to which small percussions (grelots, cymbals, etc) unite. In Languedoc, it accompanies the dance by the totemic animauc (Camel of Béziers, Ane of Gignac, Poulain of Pézenas etc), makes dance in the handing-over and animates the carnivals. In France, the Festival of Fifre, was created in 1983 in Lantosque (06) on the initiative of the “Abadia of Morisca” and proceeds in a different place each year: one can quote Pézenas (34), Gemenos (13), Saint-Pierre d' Aurillac (33), Roquebillière (06), Signes (83), Saint-Tropez (83), Levens (06), Gans (33) etc…

This festival is organized on the initiative of a group which invites his/her friends and it joins together the majority of the French groups to which come to join some European neighbors.

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