The Tschirgant duo was founded at the same time with their first appearance in 1983 by trained carpenters Markus Kopp and a bank employee Christian Kopp, who were close relatives and played together until June 1991. Kuen joined Markus as a guitarist seven years ago.
Specially flown in from Austria for the occasion, the duo of Christian
Kuen on guitar and Markus Kopp on accordion indeed provided the
essential feeling of originality to the fest, writes Umer Nangiana
Full-throttle and genuinely Tyrolean, they delivered as they promised. Switching between low pitch chest register and high pitch head register, they truly enthralled the audience with ‘yodeling’, the traditional form of Austro-Bavarian form of singing.
With an electric guitar and an accordion in the frame, it was a picture-perfect performance every time the musical duo took the centre stage. From the first note to the last, they maintained the high scale of entertainment.
The high-energy soulful music from the two-man band of ‘Tschirgant Duo’ from Austria went perfectly in sync with the Oktoberfest environment at Champions, Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha. It multiplied the pleasure of watching some thrilling games of soccer in a highly charged atmosphere, complimented with authentic German culinary delights.
Specially flown in from Austria for the occasion, the duo of Christian Kuen on guitar and Markus Kopp on accordion indeed provided the essential feeling of originality to the fest. The conventional two-man band with classical midi file sound have a motto of being “warm, witty, cynical, typical, Tyrolean and full throttle”.
The Tschirgant Duo have thrilled audiences at an international level with very successful performances in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
In Doha, it was their first ever performance and they said they enjoyed it. ”They accepted the kind of music we are playing. But I think it would not have worked if we had played only traditional songs. Therefore we also played popular songs,” Kuen told Community about their experience of playing at Champions.
He said it was a different experience as most people did not understand the language except for German speaking guests but the audience thoroughly enjoyed the music once they understood the rhythm. “As they say music has no language, when they liked the rhythm, they liked the music,” said Kuen.
The Tschirgant duo was founded at the same time with their first appearance in 1983 by trained carpenters Markus Kopp and a bank employee Christian Kopp, who were close relatives and played together until June 1991. Kuen joined Markus as a guitarist seven years ago.
Since then, the two Tyroleans make music for parties, dance halls, après ski parties, hut evenings, weddings, Oktoberfests, birthday parties, early and sundowners, garden parties, village and tent parties, anniversaries, Tyrolean and Bavarian evenings and “wherever a strong sound with party and mood music is desired.”
Whether unplugged or with the latest technical support, the two versatile musicians play live on 14 different instruments tunes from folk music and alpine rock, folk pop, après Ski and Hut hits, international and German Schlager, Austropop, pop hits, rock and country music, medley moods and various ballroom dances.
In Doha, they performed the traditional Austro-Bavarian music with some international tunes.
“Usually, we do our traditional music. But we also do international songs like a little bit of rock and pop. At a later time, we changed our direction a little bit. But first we always start with traditional music,” said Kuen.
“The traditional instrument that we have is the accordion, Marcus is playing it, and I am playing a guitar. For rock and pop songs we have a keyboard and an electric guitar. We play our own instruments with a little bit of background music because we are only two people. We do not have a drummer or a bass player,” the guitarist added.
Both of them write songs for their compositions, however, they said the numbers they played in Doha were mostly international songs written by someone else. These are the songs that people know with relevance to Oktoberfest.
Besides their traditional songs, the duo also performed rock and pop songs by Bryan Adams and other international stars. Their traditional list included yodeling.
It is a centuries-old technique where the singers suddenly alter the vocal registers in a matter of seconds and the sounds produced are mostly played on vowels. It can be best experienced with places with echo. The long hall of Champions served the purpose well.
With the duo placed in the centre, the yodeling sounds would reach audience on either side of them equally and at the ideal pace.
“We have very old traditional songs and even they are still producing new traditional songs. Not even the songs are different but style, with accordion and guitar. The most popular producer is Slavko Avsenik from Slovenia. He created this sort of music. He made it a style. This is mostly the kind of traditional music that we are playing,” said Kuen.
Coming from Tyrol in Austria, the duo said the traditional music was being played everywhere in the Alps, Germany, Switzerland, Austria. It is very regional. “But more specifically, this type of music actually comes from Slovenia but Avsenik also became popular in Austria and other German speaking regions,” added Kuen.
He said the Tschirgant has played in many countries before Doha, however, they mostly stay close to their home audiences and perform in the region around Austria. We also play at a lot of weddings, restaurants, big halls with 2000 people.
In Doha, they thoroughly enjoyed connecting with both the audience and the environment. For bringing them to Doha, Kuen thanked the Restaurants Manager, Marriot Marquis Doha, Daniel Burstein.
“The idea of Oktoberfest first came up during the St Patrick Day celebrations here. I joined in January and around St. Patrick and I thought we should do something for the Oktoberfest. Since I used to work with these guys in Abu Dhabi, I decided I have my band, the rest only needs to be done in terms of decoration,” Burstein told Community.
The restaurant and bar was decorated on the theme of Oktoberfest with even grass on the ground.
The Oktoberfest is a 16-day festival running from late September to the first weekend in October with more than 6 million people from around the world attending the event every year in Germany.
Burstein said the planning for the event started April onwards this year and his team has been working all along on it to put up an authentic show. “If you go back to where the original Oktoberfest is celebrated in Munich, it is a grass field and we kept it as a surprise, saying we are going to put grass on the ground to give it a more authentic look and make it look like the original as performed in Munich,” said the manager.
He said the response from the visitors was very good. “It is something new. It was for the first time that we did it here at Champions. The feedback has been great both in terms of music and our special menu. It has come along well,” Burstein added.
The fest was over on Sunday; however, the new German menu launched specially for the occasion would stay for a few more days. They will also select a few dishes from the menu for their permanent menu based on the feedback from the visitors.
