Gheorghe Zamfir born April 6, 1941) is a Romanian pan flute musician who has received 90 golden and platinum disc awards, released over 200 albums and sold over 40 million recordings.
Zamfir is known for playing an expanded version of the traditional Romanian-style pan flute (nai) of 20 pipes to 22, 25, 28 and 30 pipes to increase its range, and obtaining as many as eight overtones (additionally to the fundamental tone) from each pipe by changing the embouchure.
He is widely known as "Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute".
Gheorghe Zamfir - Einsamer Hirte - MyVideo
Career
Zamfir came to the public eye when he was "discovered" by Swiss ethnomusicologist Marcel Cellier who extensively researched Romanian folk music in the 1960s. Brought for the first time with his pan flute to western European countries in 1972 by the composer Vladimir Cosma as soloist in Cosma's original music for the movie Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire and made a big success, since then, he has been used as soloist in movie soundtracks by famous composers as Francis Lai, Ennio Morricone. and many others. Largely through television commercials where he was billed as "Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute", he introduced the folk instrument to a modern audience and revived it from obscurity. In the United States his commercials were widely seen on CNN in the 1980s.
Most recently, Zamfir has been sampled by Animal Collective in the song "Graze" on their EP Fall Be Kind which was released November 23, 2009 as a digital download following their massively successful album Merriweather Post Pavilion which was released earlier in 2009.
Soundtracks
One of his most notable contributions was to the soundtrack for the classic Australian film Picnic at Hanging Rock. His first appearance in 1972 as soloist interpreter in a movie soundtrack was in Vladimir Cosma's "Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire" with a very famous and successful melody known all over the world. His music has also been heard on the soundtracks of many Hollywood movies. He was asked by Ennio Morricone to perform the pieces "Childhood Memories" and "Cockeye's Song" for the soundtrack of Sergio Leone's 1984 gangster film Once Upon A Time In America. His music is heard throughout the 1984 film The Karate Kid, and his song "The Lonely Shepherd", penned by James Last and recorded with the James Last Orchestra, is featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill Vol. 1.
Bibliography
Zamfir has written an instructional book, Traitė Du Naï Roumain: méthode de flûte de pan, Paris: Chappell S.A., 1975, ISBN 88-8291-286-8, and an autobiography Binecuvântare şi blestem ("Blessing and Curse"), Arad: Mirador, 2000, ISBN 973-9284-56-6.
Personal life
Zamfir was born in Găeşti, Romania. Although initially interested in becoming an accordionist, at the age of 14 he began his pan flute studies. He continued his education at the Bucharest Academy of Music where he was a student of Fanica Luca at the Conservatory of Bucharest, Romania in (1968). He currently resides and teaches pan flute in Bucharest.
He has a 22 year old son who currently resides in Montreal, Canada, also a musician.
1 comment:
This blog is absolutely outstanding. I Think the sound of the flute is so relaxing that I prefer to listen with growing frequency. Actually i consider if you are stresses and you have some problems in your sexual relation, the better advise that i can give is buy viagra
and listen flute music. Becouse I heard that this sound has a restorate power.
Post a Comment