tárogató madness

[kymarto]

Wow, I just picked up what seems to be an original Schuna tárogató on eBay international. I hesitated to bid, because it is very difficult to find any information about Schundas, as opposed to Stowassers, which are all over the place. I did find some pictures of a Schunda at the Horiman collection page in the UK. The maker's marks match, and while the keywork is somewhat different there are telltale similarites in design of the tenon rings. key attachments, and the fact that both low B and C# key arms arch over the D# keycup, instead of the more common design of having the C# arm arc around the key. I will let you all know more when the instrument arrives. Schunda or not, it appears to be a very high quality instrument, and is in incredibly good shape. In the meantime, if anyone has any links to information on Schunda tarogatok, or knows any experts who might be able to help me ID the instrument, please let me know.

Toby

 

[jbtsax]

There may be a 12th step group out there for that.

 

[Anton Stadler]

Hello kymarto,

Schunda tárogatós are very rare and are hard to come by. Stowassers are more plentiful but are very expensive. There are three makers in Hungary producing new instruments - Stowasser J. tárogató; Toth & Tarsa; amd Gregus Pal. I have had the pleasure of playing those by Gregus and Toth, and both are excellent. I prefer the Toth instruments and he produces a number of different models plus you can have extras added. The new Stowasser company has been started by Dr. Janos Barcza. The instruments look really good but I haven't tried them.

Anton

 

[kymarto]

Thanks for your reply. More on the Schunda when it arrives. Hard to believe my luck on that, especially since I managed to purchase it quite cheaply. I really thought about it several times, since I was focused on the Stowasser, but in the end I could not let it go by.

I have not had the pleasure of trying any of the new Hungarian instruments, nor those by Steven Fox, but it is nice to know that good quality instruments are once again being made, apart from those cheap Romanian ones.