Slovak Folk Music

Slovak folk music is the traditional music of Slovakia's mountain villages: fiddle-led string bands in the central regions, bagpipe and fujara overtone-flute traditions, and a vast repertoire of lyric, wedding, harvest and outlaw songs sung in regional dialects. The fujara, the giant shepherd's flute of Podpoľanie, and the string music of Terchová are both recognised by UNESCO. Village styles differ sharply — the slow, ornamented singing of Horehronie, the Romani-influenced bands of the east, the wine songs of the south — and the state ensembles *Lúčnica* (founded 1948) and *SĽUK* turned this local material into staged national folklore.