Horňácká cimbálová muzika Petra Galečky

The band was formed in 1993 as an accompanying formation to the Lipovjan ensemble; if the Horňácko Dulcimer Band of Martin Hrbáč has the proper status of being the longest continuously playing dulcimer band in Horňácko (since 1966), then the “Galečkas“ are the most consistent memberwise: eight out of nine musicians are part of the founding ensemble. The bandmaster Petr Galečka (*1974) is an excellent violinist and a very good singer with a civil “musical” voice, a distinctive leader of the band not only because of his bandmaster’s position; he is one of the most noticeable pupils of the legendary bandmaster Jaromír Miškeřík; he has well recognizable way of bow shear which he uses to keep the “terc”(Petr Hlahůlek), there are two “obligáts” (Aleš Mička, Jožka Staša), two viola “contras” (Zdeněk Maňák, Jožka Karásek) who complement the clarinet (Milan Červenka) and cimbalom (Víťa Trachtulec), the contrabass from the background (Jura Ovečka). Although there are several music teachers, an engineer and a doctor in the band, they definitely don’t sound academically; on the contrary, the musicians play spontaneously and convincingly.
After two recordings with Lipovjan the band became independent in 1996 and later debuted with the album Moja žena smutno plače (VN, 1997) which captured popular tunes of regular repertoire. So far the top of their album production has come at the turn of the millennium – the project was called Ó, lásko fortelná (Tonstudio Rajchman, 2000) which represented less known and played songs based on the notes of the song collector from Velička, Martin Zeman (1854-1919). The album also reflects the starting cooperation of the band with the Sboreček žen z Lipova (the first joint project, the album Skrytá vánoční pravda, was released in 2010); another lasting cooperation, this time with the Mužský sbor z Lipova, was reflected on the album Nám sa porád cosi zdá (Tonstudio Rajchman, 2003) – in the fall of 2011 they will work on recording of new joint album. The DB of Petr Galečka has celebrated ten years of the band’s existence by releasing a double album with the significant title Deset roků jak o život (VN, 2003).

-Helena Bretfeldová-