Fred Pribac
Fred Pribac (1959- ) collected, arranged, transcribed & recorded some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
Fred Pribac was interviewed by:
- Rob Willis in September 2005, [1],
- Rob Willis in September 2005, [2], "Fred Pribac is a well-known musician/singer in the Australian 'folk scene'. He has an interest in the collection and performance of various genres of music including traditional Australian, old time American and the Indigenous, Cape Barren music of Tasmania. Forming many musical groups in Tasmania where he voluntarily shares his knowledge, passing tunes onto others. He plays Australian, American and other tunes on mandolin and banjo."
Fred Pribac born 1959 in Slovenia, talks about his family background; migrating with his parents to Australia in 1960; his parents working life in Australia; his early life in Melbourne; language problems; folklife in Slovenia; Slovenian traditions in Australia; Slovenian nursery rhymes; family life in Australia; his education; becoming a scientist; working in various jobs in the environmental field; his early musical influences; starting to play whistle and joining bush bands; folk music sessions in Canberra; learning to play flute and the mandolin; developing an interest in Appalachian music; learning to play 5 string banjo; moving to Western Australia; Australian banjo styles; researching Australian traditional tunes; banjo playing in the Australian tradition; playing the mandolin in the Australian tradition; researching traditional music in Tasmania; contacting Aboriginal performers; Tasmanian traditional music starting to become recognised; future directions for traditional music.
- Discussion about the 5 string banjo. Demonstrations of: the claw hammer style of playing the banjo
- the traditional style of playing the banjo. Discusses Arthur Luck's playing. Tune: Ollie Watt's schottische. Demonstrations of: the two finger style
- the Australian claw hammer style. Tasmanian set tune. Talk on claw hammer style - Pete Seeger's strum style. Jig tune (unidentified) demonstration claw hammer style. Slovenian Folk tune (unidentified)
- Mafrina (folk tune). Discussion on Slovenian folk music and music as a cultural tool. Plays Stroh-viol fiddle: Black cat piddled in the white cat's eye. Discussion on fiddle technique.
See: Fred Pribac & Stuart Graham, "Tasmanian Dance Tunes", Cygnet Folk Festival, 2000 & 2009.
