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Rudy
Welcome
Friends. Since we’ve always worked together, Hilde and I,
we will reflect on the past and history of the Schuhplattlers
a little bit, not too long, so here we go.
Hilde
We decided
to talk half in German and half in English, English for the
people who don’t understand German, German for the ones who
would like to keep their heritage language.
Rudy
Oh, it
all started in 1969, Hilde and I, we were singing for the
Phoenix choir, and there was a United Nations Day at the Jubilee
Auditorium, there was a bunch of different ethnic groups,
and there was also three couples schuhplattling
at that time, and Hilde and I thought this was fun, it looks
good. Horst Schmid
was the leader, so after they danced, I went over there and
said Horst, do you need anybody else, or can we join the group?
And Horst said sure, come down to my Hofbräuhaus
on Wednesday nights, and we’ll practice there, and then we’ll
see! So we went down on Wednesday night, the next Wednesday,
I think, and every Wednesday night we practised behind the
kitchen, and then, after we practised, we had to go out and
do a little performance for the customers. We did this and
it worked out pretty good, actually the second night I was
practicing I was already on the dance floor. That’s Horst,
he pushed me like crazy. For that we would always receive
a free meal and beer, and that was really great. So Horst,
after a few months or half a year or so, got involved in politics.
So I said to Horst, I’ll take over the group and be the leader
of the group, and he said that was really nice, but would
you keep the name the Bavarian Schuhplattlers,
I said I guess there’s no problem, I can do that. I decide
we should actually practise some other place because I wanted
to expand the group to more people. On January 4th, 1971,
the Bavarian Schuhplattlers of Edmonton
were registered as a non-profit organization, and this was
25 years ago.
Hilde
Schon im
Hofbräuhaus hatten wir
Buschi und Sieg Przybilla
gebeten mitzumachen, was sie gerne taten, und auch im Hofbrauhaus
haben wir Renate
und Dieter Schuhmann
und Tony und Marianne Schwabenbauer
kennengelernt, und die waren ganz vom Anfang dabei. Ebenfalls
haben wir dort die Tirolerin Gretl
Lovett kennengelernt, und sie konnte nicht nur jodeln,
sie hat uns auch den Bayrisch Guck
beigebracht. Und dann haben wir dort auch Adolf
Brunnhofer, einen anderen Österreicher kennengelernt
aus Calgary, und von dem haben wir den Heidauer
gelernt.
Rudy
At the
beginning everyone wore their own leather pants, or Lederhosen.
I mean, they were so colourful that it wasn’t funny, some
were too small, too big, brown, green, whatever, but that’s
all we had, so they were no showpieces, period. Now in 1976,
we could finally afford to purchase our new first real nice
leather pants, and they were those brown ones, Sigi and many
other people remember them, they were Elk leather pants, really
tough, there is a pair hanging on the wall, thay are all shredded
up, because of one crazy schuhplattler,
George Lauf!
Some guys still wear them to practice today.
Hilde
Und natürlich
haben die Mädchen auch nur selbstgemachte Dirndl
gehabt. Sechs Jahre später konnten wir uns endlich leisten,
das erste einheitliche Dirndl
nähen zu lassen, von Erika
Böttcher, und es was das Dirndl
mit der gelben Schürze, die schwarze Farbe mit den
Mohnblumen ja an der Wand, und wir hatten drei verschiedene
Schürzen dazu, rot, grün und gold, aber ich trage heute das
Dirndl, das das allererste war,
aus dem Jahre 1971 mein Original! Damals waren die Röcke noch
so kurz, Ihr seht, ich habe ein Stück rot eingesetzt mittlerweile.
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Rudy
Over the
years we practiced in different places, because sometimes
we were too noisy, like in the Edelweiss club we practiced
upstairs, and people were eating downstairs! So we were Schuhplattling
right above. It didn’t work out too good, so we had to leave,
but anyway, we practised in the Phoenix club hall, the Edelweiss
club, the Mill Creek school, the Mill Gasthaus, and for the
last past ten years we practice here [in the German Canadian
Cultural Centre], which is really nice.
Hilde
Unsere
Musiker all diese Jahren waren im Hofbräuhaus
noch Olaf Sveen,
und dann im Phoenix Club Erwin
Witzke und Rainer
Piehl. Rainer und Erwin waren Mitglieder in der Band
Mellotones. Auf Rudys Vorschlag haben sich die Mellotones
dann bayrisch angezogen und daraus wurde Erwin’s
Alpine Band. Die Band hat uns drei Jahre lang bis 1974
begleitet, danach Otto
Augustin und unsere Erika
[Kirrmaier]
waren dann Akkordeonspieler, dann kam Susi
Hoch an der Guitarre, Christel
Leybold, Hannes
Sydel an der Guitarre, und Joe
Niederleitner, Ralph
Garneau, und Rainer
Hartl am Akkordeon.
Als die Familie Sydel 1979 dazu kam, war das eine ganz grosse
Bereicherung für die Schuhplattlergruppe. Stubenmusik, Jodelgesang,
und echt bayrischer Input. Und so war es ein ganz grosser
Verlust, als Elisabeth
Sydel 1990 starb, und die restliche Familie wegzog.
Wir wollen jetzt einen Moment an Elizabeth denken. [Pause]
Rudy
Back in
1975, with the assistance of a government grant, we brought
over from Munich Ehrenvorplattler Rudl
Dullinger and his wife Centa.
They lived with us for four weeks, and taught us new schuhplattlers
and some folk dances. We learned from them the Neubayrischer,
Mühlradl, Schnackelwalzer,
Siebenschritt, Sternpolka,
and so on, and they were real nice people, and we have good
memories of them.
Hilde
Und das
Schellenspiel kauften
wir bei einen Deutschland besuch 1982 in Traunstein und Erika
hat am Anfang die Noten dazu geschrieben, unsere Erika
Kirrmaier.
Rudy
I’m sure
many of you remember our travelling days, in 1974 was our
busiest year, we went twice to the World’s Fair in Spokane,
once we had to represent the Germans from Germany because
they didn’t show up! And then we went to Fort Smith in the
North-West Territories, Newfoundland, and Sigi
Przybilla went all the way to Japan. In 1975, Gustl
Paulitsch and I went to Korea, and in 1976 Rudi and Eric
Seneka went to the Montreal Olympics. I remember
1977 Quebec and Kitchener in 1979. That was a good one, in
one week we had 33 performances, performing in up to five
different halls a night, that means dancing, packing up your
equipment, into the van, next hall, and all over Kitchener,
so you can imagine after midnight or one o’clock yo could
hardly find your way home because you were too tired.
During my 17 years as a leader of the Bavarian
Schuhplattlers, we had done 270 public performances,
and we kept track of each one of them, that’s how we konw!
Hilde
Über 17
Jahre lang war die Schuhplattlergruppe ein grosser, ein wichtiger,
ein sehr schöner Teil unseres Lebens. Wir danken dir, Horst
[Schmid], dass du den
Grundstein dafür gelegt hattest, und wir danken euch, allen
den Pioneerschuhplattlern, dass ihr aktiv dabei ward, um diese
Gruppe aufzubauen. Danke schön!
Rudy
I have
three things to say to the present Schuhplattlers, keep up
the spirit, keep up the good work, and keep Schuhplattling!
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