william vetzal

 
 

    With the impact of the “Roots” television series many people of Ukrainian background in North America began to search for their ethnic roots. William Vetzal was one of these people. A second generation Ukrainain-Canadian now living in Whitby, Bill, as he is called was a tool and die maker by trade and worked for General Motors as a Precision Inspector. Bill with his wife Margaret began to investigate their family roots and origins. On his fathers side, he discovered that on the Vetzal side his grandfather Ivannes Wecal was from Zelena. just south of Sklat. On his mothers side his grandfather Karol Baran was from from Horodnytcia just a little further south , both small villages in the Ternopil region of Western Ukraine. Both families came to Canada in the early 1900’s. His research has turned up four generations of ancestors going back to the 1750’s his list has over 2,000 individuals. As his grandparents would say “these are all our brothers and sisters”.. His interest stimulated him to learn the language and the literature, and it was here that he discovered the beauty of Shevchenko’s poetry published in the Kobzar. Bill was intrigued by the powerful historic role of the minstrel-like kobzar in Ukrainian culture and decided to make an example to hang up on the wall of his home, along with the many other amazing artistic creations he had made during his life.


     Motivated by an upcoming crafts exhibition at General Motors in 1981, Bill began to research bandura construction and ultimately met up with prominent craftsmen who made banduras for the renown Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Detroit, Michigan. Bandura makers Alex (born 1913) and Peter Honcharenko had also worked for the auto industry as tool and die makers and soon a warm bond of friendship was forged. Under Alex’s tutoring Bill undertook the formidable task of making a bandura.


     Bill spent a considerable amount of time with Alex, who because of a heart condition was no longer able to make banduras. Together with his brother Peter, they had in the 1940’s been pioneers in the development of the modern concert bandura. Bill was able to observe 40 years of instrument making skills, learning many of the secrets in making an exceptional instrument. After building his first three instruments, he returned to show Alex his work. He was thrilled to see that Bill had retained the quality he had in his workmanship and told him “ I can now retire again and I will recommend you to whoever needs a Bandura”.


 
    Today Bill is the only  maker of concert quality Kharkiv style banduras in the world. Despite this monopoly, Bill is still happy to share his expertise with anyone who cares to cross his path.


     Continued research, development, and access to some of the latest articles on instrument construction have helped Bill produce a hardier and even better sounding instrument. The superiority of these instruments is attested to by the fact that the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Detroit ordered instruments from Bill.


     After the historic tour of Ukraine in 1991 by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, great interest in Bill’s designs was shown by prominent bandurists in Ukraine, Since then he has received numerous requests for information and orders from Ukraine.


     From his unique perspective, Bill has been able to solve many of the problems which bandura makers in Ukraine have still to overcome. Much of his experimental work has been in the development of new mechanisms and special sound board bracing. Unfortunately all his experimentation and research has not been renumerated in any way.


    Between a hundred to a hundred and fifty hours goes into preparing and finishing a bandura of concert quality. The concert Karkiv bandura must have every string strung in an extremely precise manner, A specially developed mechanism is placed on the bridge for precise retuning. Fine instruments leave no margin for error.


     Bill has spent a considerable time in developing inexpensive children’s size instruments and also copies of historic instruments


     Bill’s workshop is amazing. In order to make the bandura as inexpensive as possible, he has been able to apply his knowledge of tooling in designing and building equipment to duplicate the many parts for the bandura. He has designed a carving machine to carve out the backs of the bandura from solid wood, using a model to help guide the cutter, thus duplicating the same shape every time. He has also made a machine to make precision-wound strings for each of his instruments. Bill has made precision dies to help punch out the metal parts on his press for manufacture of mechanisms for this concert bandura. With his son Steve, he has devised computer formulas to predict the optimum tension, string diameter including the various differences in core and windings, which would produce the most pleasing sound. He has also made templates to manufacture hard-cases for his instruments.


    Today Bill has made over 310 instruments, 84 concert Kharkiv banduras, 79 Children's and 147 Student’s instruments over the last 25 years. He has exhibited his work at over 60 festivals and pavilions, some of which have been on a yearly basis over the years. His clients include bandurists Victor Mishalow, Julian Kytasty, Yarko Antonevych, Osap Stakhiv, Roman Ritachka, Professor Volodymyr Yesypok, Volodymyr Voyt and some of the more prominent bandurists in North and South America, Australia and Ukraine.

                                                                                                                                                

         Bill has also been the subject of a documentary film, numerous television interviews, articles in the Canadian press and had an instrument in the Ontario Government's “Made for Music“ exhibit that toured Canada for two years, the exhibit was then photographed and was displayed in France during the Worlds Fair in the Canadian Pavilion.


     Apart from bandura manufacturing where he has made a major impact on the art form, Bill has also made other Ukrainian folk instruments including such instruments as the fretted kobzar. kozobas, tsymbaly, lria, Ukrainian bagpipes,and Cossack horns.


     He has restored numerous historic Ukrainian folk instruments to their original specifications and repaired a countless number of damaged banduras.


   
A year before he retired from General Motors in 2005 he developed a new concert Kharkiv bandura, This instrument has a back cast out of fiberglass. The sound board continues to be made from spruce using a strutting similar to that developed by Ivan Skliar, The instrument has full chromatic tuning, and the set up of the strings allows the left hand to play chromatic strings. the set up of the mechanism is light and reliable.


      Realizing that fiberglass instruments being built in the United States and Canada are very successful, every thing pointed to bring this technology to bandura making. It took 1 year of building the mould and experimenting with the resins and cloth. In the second year after retiring from General motors Bill had more time to devote to the project. Building one instrument at a time, evaluating the changes that were made to the previous instrument and incorporating it into the next one. A total of 12 instruments were cast from the first mould. It was a long and drawn out process, but the instrument was greatly improved. One of the big problems was the amount of string tension on the instrument, this forced the addition of back ribbing, adding to the total weight of the instrument, which increased to 11.5 lb. The goal is to reduce it to 10 lb. with the use of other products for the second build which will include a new mould.


           In 2007 Bill celebrated 25 years of building Bandura’s by traveling across Ukraine, visiting his ancestral villages and meeting many new friends in Kharkiv, Kiev, Ternopil and Lviv. He plans to start casting a second round of instruments in 2008.

 

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