Michael Marahrens from Bremen builds flutes by hand – including the stately didgeridoos. And he can also play it like his other built flutes.
Bremen – There are many didgeridoos in Michael Marahrens’ workshop in Bremen Neustadt. He grabbed the biggest one. He estimates it to be between 2.40 and 2.50 meters and blows into the instrument. The tone is incredibly rich and penetrating.
Marahrens offers extremely different didgeridoos, his specialty: the very deep ones. The man from Bremen is versatile. He builds didgeridoos, several types of South American flutes and one type of Japanese flute. And he also teaches the instruments.
Full and full-bodied in sound
Another didgeridoo, an octave higher, but still full and full-bodied in sound: the instrument maker lets his voice play. The circling, meditative sound is joined here and there by powerful, pulsating sounds. “A lot of air is not the criterion,” says 62-year-old. “You need a functioning diaphragm.” It is important to be able to control the muscles around the lungs well. He shows a high-playing didgeridoo. That sounds not only high, but also very loud. He creates tones that are reminiscent of galloping.
“Playing the didgeridoo is healthy. It helps against asthma and sleep apnea, ”says the flute maker. “It is simply a vitalizing instrument.” In addition, making music is always a journey inward. “You can put all your tension and emotional junk in,” he says.
At the beginning of the 90s, a woman came into his workshop with a plastic didgeridoo. “She thought the sound was good, but not the plastic,” says the instrument maker. “We then built a didgeridoo out of bamboo. Then I knew how it worked. “
Work on a bamboo tube that will become a segment of a didgeridoo. Here a knot is rasped away inside.
© Kowalewski
–
In the beginning there were South American flutes for the instrument maker. “I started making flutes when I was 18 or 19,” he says. One day, South Americans stood at his door and ordered a zampoña, a South American flute. This is how I came into contact with Chileans and with a music group called “Cayuman”. First Marahrens was at the mixer, then he became the second Quena player. The Quena is also a South American flute. The Bremen resident was on the road a lot with the group, including performing at the Schlachthof event center in Bremen. The now 62-year-old later played in other groups – until he met his wife. In order to be able to be at home, he gave up making music and concentrated on making instruments. In 1989 he opened his first workshop.
Marahrens also builds Japanese-type flutes
When the instrument maker plays South American flutes, it often sounds happy. The melodies appear lively and lively. The fact that he now also builds shakuhachis, flutes of a Japanese type, and teaches them to play, is also related to an interesting incident. “I performed with a group at Villa Ichon,” he reports. There someone came to him to give him his shakuhachi. “He said, I think she is better off with you,” said Marahrens.
A piece of tradition comes alive: Michael Marahrens plays the Shakuhachi, a Japanese flute. His teacher wrote down traditional pieces for him.
© Kowalewski
–
It took six months before he got the flute. From then on he built shakuhachis and devoted himself to the game. The Bremen student took five years lessons from master IIkkai Hanada and his daughter Navina Hanada. He taught the oldest school of shakuhachi, the Myôjin school, says the flute teacher.
When building the instruments, he follows the guidelines from this first school. He plays the flute according to the pieces from the school, passed on by the master, notated in Japanese characters, he says.
Sounds unfold slowly
An interesting sound is created when tasting it with the shakuhachi. The sounds unfold slowly and clearly articulated, more like a meditation. The instrument is never played with bumps, but with pure pressure from the diaphragm, he explains.
Marahrens builds his instruments by hand, which is rare these days. Only a drill and a tuner are electrical with him. He shows how he removes a knot inside a bamboo tube with a rasp on a metal rod. He can create a one-piece didgeridoo in five to seven hours. A more complicated didgeridoo, sometimes composed of ten parts, takes 30 to 45 hours.
Contact:
Michael Marahrens, Hohentorsheerstraße 160, www.floeten-bau.de
–
