In which Eastern European city is the hour of the day announced by a
trumpeter who stops abruptly in mid-song? And why?

Hi Sundancequeen! 

In which Eastern European city is the hour of the day announced by a
trumpeter who stops abruptly in mid-song? And why?


In Cracow, Poland an unfinished trumpet call is played each day, on
the hour every hour. ?The plaintive tune breaks off mid-bar,
commemorating the original 13th century trumpeter, who, while giving
the alarm before a Tartar invasion, was hit in the throat with an
arrow.?
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakow



?Every hour on the hour, every day of the year, a trumpet sounds from
the taller steeple of St. Mary's. From this same tower seven centuries
ago, according to legend, another trumpeter raised the alarm as Mongol
hordes stormed the city, his clarion cut short by an arrow in the
neck. Echoing that event, a watchman now recreates that call every
hour, day and night, always plaintive wavering and just slightly off
key, always halting short of the last note. (The bugle call, known as
the "Hejnal Mariacki," is also played every day at noon on Polish
radio).?
 
Inland Empire Business Journal
http://www.busjournal.com/content/archives/oct98/exec_timeout.html



The Trumpeter of Krakow

?The hejnal of Cracow, which is played from the northern tower of St.
Mary's basilica, the city's ancient Gothic church, is amongst the most
picturesque of Cracow's customs. It has continued almost without
interruption for some seven hundred years.?

?The hejnal is played each day, on the hour every hour, (regardless of
time or season), from the north, south, east and west windows of the
tower (to the four corners of the globe). The tradition is looked upon
with affection by Cracovians and Poles alike, and since 1927, a
recording of the melody has been played daily on Polish national
radio.?

?If you listen closely you will notice that the tune seems to stop
suddenly in midnote. This is in keeping with the legend, when a noble
watchman was struck down as he sounded the alarm.?

Cracow-life.com
http://www.cracow-life.com/news/news/15-The_Trumpeter_of_Krakow



?The north-east corner of the square is dominated by St. Mary's
Church. (..) In ancient times a guard watched over the town to warn
the citizens in case of fire or the approach of an enemy. In 1241, an
army of Tartar horsemen suddenly appeared out of the forest to the
east. The guard repeatedly trumpeted the call to arms, until a Tartar
arrow lodged in his throat in the middle of a note. To commemorate the
brave guard, every hour a trumpet call - Hejnal (HAY-NAL) is sounded
from the tower, the hubbub of noise dies down in the square as
everyone listens.?

B. C. Biega
http://www.biega.com/cracowtour1.html


Search criteria:
City in Europe trumpet plays every hour
Cracow trumpet plays every hour
Cracow trumpet every hour


I hope you find this helpful!  


Best regards,
Bobbie7

Here is one of the most repected trumpet historians on this topic:

"While nearly every large town and city in Europe before the
Industrial Revolution had its trumpet blowing, Stadtpfeifer watchmen,
this long and important tradition was allowed to atrophy in all but
one place. The Polish capital of Krakow is a unique exception. It is a
tribute to the intelligent preservationists in Poland today that the
remarkably preserved medieval city of Krakow still maintains the
office of the fire watchmen trumpeters.

Krakow still knows the charm and security that towns like London,
Nuremberg and Leipzig once did many years ago. Almost unbelievably,
the Krakow fire department maintains six tower watchmen trumpeters
who, in pairs, share the endless cycle of twelve-hour morning to noon
and twelve-hour noon to midnight watches from the highest point in the
city. This is at the top of the taller, octagonal north tower of the
thirteenth-century church of St Mary the Virgin, whose Veit Stoss
altar piece is one of the world's rarest treasures. From high up above
the equally medieval market square the six fire-brigade trumpeters
take turns playing a natural trumpet tune called the 'Hejnal' 
(pronounced 'hey-now'), which is heard each hour, four times on the
hour, twenty-four hours per day, 365 days a year. With the exception
of the era during the Napoleonic wars, this is a nearly unbroken
tradition since 1241. That was the year when a Krakow trumpeter
supposedly had an enemy arrow shot through his neck while in the
process of sounding an alarm from his post on top of the city wall to
warn the town of approaching Tatar invaders. To commemorate this act,
all subsequent Krakow alarm-trumpeters are reputed to have abruptly
broken off the melody-signal, which the hapless trumpeter is said to
have been playing at the time. The sudden break in the melody still
heard today vividly reminds us of the deadly, however legendary,
marksmanship of the Tatar archer and the implications  of an invading
army.

"The 'Hejnal' has most certainly been played this way since the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Playing each hour to each of the
four corners of the world, but today on modern Czech B flat trumpets,
the firewatch trumpeters can be heard all over Krakow within the old
city walls. Outside the walls, the Krakow trumpeters are heard live
all over Poland once each day at noon, again playing the 'Hejnal' four
times to the four compass points of the globe, simultaneously
broadcast on all programmes of the State radio and television. The
effect of this tradition is quite unlike anything now known in the
West. It might well be a salutary one if revived, particularly once it
is realized that the office of the trumpeter-tower watch is in part
ecclesiastical and that the trumpeters are reminding us not only of
our safety but of our responsibilities to God and to one another."

Don L Smithers, The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet before 1721, 
Dent, London, 1973, pp 130-131. 

Regards

Nevilley

There's also a children's book on this subject. It's *quite* good but
not a classic - I got it for the trumpet interest, not the sheer
quality of the writing. This is "The Trumpeter of Krakow" by Eric
Philbrook Kelly and Janina Domanska. Here's an Amazon page for it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0689715714/qid=1087629049/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0221664-7024610?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

hth

Nevilley