Pilch, Paweł

Born and lived in the small hamlet "U Tkocza" (a hamlet that is the most "sung of" part of Wisła); Paweł showed his musical abilities from an early age, so he began to attend the rehearsals of the regional ensemble "Wisła"; In the 1960s he was a gajdosz in the "kapela" of the "Wisła ensemble"; All his life he played on the Gajdy that was made by his teacher, Jan Kawulok "uod Wojtosza" of Istebna; He also played on one made by Ferdynand Suchy of Ustroń, but that was owned by the "Kapela Wisła"; He married Henryka and they had a son, Paweł; Paweł sr. also taught playing the Gajdy at the "Ognisko muzyczne" [Music centre] in Wisła; His father was a very good singer, who also could play wind instruments; Paweł’s brother Jan played the accordion, and their sister Zuzanna was a well-known singer, storyteller and animator of cultural life in Wisła; NB¹: In standard Polish his nickname is spelt "od Tkoczy"; NB²: None of the present directors of regional ensembles and other people interested in folklore recall other gajdosze in Wisła; They are convinced that the traditional musical folklore of Wisła is based mainly on the music of brass bands; Some inhabitants of Wisła don’t even wish to perceive the Gajdy as a traditional folk instrument, and only appreciate the mentioned brass instruments and the ancient pastoral Trąba szałaska [literally "Shelter trumpet"]; The earliest record in which a Gajdy is probably mentioned, is the text of a wedding song, in which a gajdzica plays to the accompaniment of a violin; Bogumil Hoff, who recorded it in Wisła around 1888, published it in his »Lud cieszyński, jego właściwości i siedziby. Obraz etnograficzny« [The people of the Cieszyn region, their peculiarities and abodes. An ethnographic view] (Warszawa, 1888), p.55 (In the footnote to this song, Hoff adds the correction "Gajdy, gajdzice - dudy", so the word gajdzica may have been used for rhyming reasons, or refers to the use of a gajdzica [chanter] without the bag.