Reviews

Article received on 10th March 2009 Due to the diversity of the studies received, Article accepted on 21st May 2009 the collection Musical Folklore as a Vehicle? (the UDC 78.072:781.7 question-mark at the end of the title refers to a certain dilemma concerning the veracity of the Ira Prodanov Krajišnik18 statement), is divided into two parts. The part University of named Identities consists of the texts focused Academy of Arts – Department of Music on folklore research in the context of construct- ing the global and afterwards, the individual national or personal creative identities, or the MUSICAL FOLKLORE AS A VEHICLE? identities of a specifi c musical genre. Serbian Musicological Society The problem range of the study Folk Music International Musicological Society as a Vehicle for Accomplishing a Global Cultural Department of Musicology and Department Identity by Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, offers of Ethnomusicology an adequate frame for recognizing the funda- Faculty of Music, , 2008 mental guidelines of the whole publications. ISBN 978-86-6051-005-3 Perceived as ‘the relationship between the re- gional and the international’, as a ‘medium for communicating’, the musical folklore, claims Cooperation with international institutions the author, is an area where the authenticity of has always been a sign that scholarship (be- a specifi c regional musical experience and the sides culture) in is a sphere recognized global cultural context meet. This encounter as high quality, regardless of the political sta- does not mean (as is often assumed) the loss tus of our country in the world. Thus the vol- of the specifi c qualities of the individual ex- ume Musical Folklore as a Vehicle?, printed as a periences concerned, but always represents a part of the cooperative project of the Serbian certain coexistence of the materials with differ- Musicological Society and International Musi- ent characteristics. An analysis of the function cological Society, confi rms the important place of musical folklore in the development of cul- of our musicological and ethnomusicological tural identity, in the past and today, indicates research in an international context, while signifi cant differences. While in Romanticism the involvement of the foreign partner in or- this function was aimed at national cultural ganizing the meeting with the same title and emancipation, in the 20th century it becomes his fi nancial backing in the realization of this polysemic: the area of its impact, besides po- publication, are proofs of the responsible ap- litical (when folklore serves the propaganda of proach of both sides concerning the fi rst proj- a dominant ideology), can show characteristics ect made on this level in our country. of a purely aesthetical, artistic behaviour. This Papers printed in the volume Musical Folk- second case is very typical of the post-modern- lore as a Vehicle?, demonstrate the great diver- ist times, when the ‘aesthetic of fragmentation’, sity of approach (especially for us) towards makes the presence of musical folklore possible the ‘domestic research terrain’, confi rming in many various forms. Therefore, it brings for- the statement from the editorial by professor ward the intertextuality of such materials, but Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, PhD, that folk- also the fact that the phenomenon of the na- lore ‘has always been a stimulating, inspira- tional, in the context of the presence of musical tional and challenging source of theoretical folklore, is today replaced by the phenomenon 29 thoughts on music.’ of the transnational. Two studies within this collection deal with the question of the development of Yu- 81 Author contact information: [email protected]. goslavian identity in the fi eld of music. In her 29 Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, ‘Introduction’, in: study Inventing Yugoslav Identity in Art Music, Musical folklore as a vehicle?, Belgrade, 2008, 8. based on culturological research of the Yugo-

115 New Sound 33, I/2009 slavian sphere, by historian Andrew Wachtel, folklore is an ‘everlasting circle’, which re- Melita Milin explains how the composers in volves forever. the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1945) cre- The research titled Cultural Paradigms with- ated a ‘multinational’, or (as she points out) in the Music of Aurel Stroe (1932) by Ruxandra ‘supranational’ style. She begins her report by Arzoiu, deals with the works of the contempo- analysing the problem of creating the anthem rary Romanian composer, ‘a builder of bridg- of the newly-founded state. An awkward es between different civilizations’, whose merging of the three stanzas taken from three supranational musical language, as shown different anthems of the peoples represent- through key opuses, is dedicated to ‘enlarg- ing the most numerous part of the Kingdom’s ing communication on all levels between dif- population, clearly indicates an attempt to ferent realities – historical, geographical, cul- unite superfi cially the materials with quite tural, affective.’ different (musical) characteristics. In the en- In a very inspiring exposition A Much too suing period, this problem was transferred to Weighty Inheritance, Katy Romanou deals with the level of socio-political circumstances and the complicated relation towards cultivating their consequences in the sphere of creating traditional Greek music throughout the 20th artistic music. As illustrations of this subject, century, which is, on one hand, highly ap- the author quotes works by S. S. Mokranjac, preciated, but on the other, strictly separated M. Polič, M. Logar, P. Konjović, J. Slavenski, from music which is taught and cultivated and others, concluding that the Yugoslavian according to Western standards. The study ‘ideal’ in music was present mostly between begins with comments on the importance of the two World Wars, and slowly disappear- the discovery of the fi rst written musical doc- ing afterwards. The work of Ana Hofman, The ument of ancient Greece, Seikilos Epitaph in Music of ’Working People’: Musical Folklore and 1883, and continues with research concerning the Creation of Yugoslav Identity, deals with the this subject by Bourgault-Ducoudray, posing period after the Second World War, when, by key questions concerning the approach to this cultivating folklore through the concept of art, with reference to the relation of modal amateurism as well as through the scholarly structures of Greek folk melodies and old meetings, the state attempted to proclaim this Byzantine modes, as well as the integral unity musical sphere as the most adequate cultural of ancient Greece, Byzantine and folk music. statement of the ‘working people’, and the Diffi culties in acknowledging the value of this ‘new folk culture’ – which was, essentially, inheritance, among other things, arise from ‘antiindividualistic’, and treated the folklore the fact that its notation is different than from of different peoples as a ‘multitude of one’ the Western, but because of the alleged dis- – as a symbolic confi rmation of the socialistic crimination of folk music by religious music, development of the society. folk music is often transcribed into contem- In the work titled Folklore, New Music and porary notation, which makes it ‘accessible’ National Identity, author Marija Kostakeva at- to the Western tradition. As the study points tempts to answer citing practical examples, out, the ways in which traditional music is the questions already answered in theory in cultivated and distributed in Greece today the study by M. Veselinović-Hofman. For this testify that this seems to be lastingly, a very purpose, the author quotes certain works by delicate question of Greece musical culture. Berio and Ligeti in the context of using folk Several works in the collection deal with elements, and afterwards analysing similar musical pop culture. Two of them refer to methods in contemporary Bulgarian music the creation of songs for the Eurovision song through the works of K. Iliev, V. Kazandžiev, contest. The fi rst one, Folklore as a Vehicle for G. Minčev, and others. The author concludes (Re)Construction of ’unifi ed space’ or How to Turn that, although ‘national identities are going a Fawn into a Wolf and Then Into a Dove and Not to disperse in our global age’, the interest in To End Up With Some Kind of Mythological Crea-

116 Reviews ture? by Vesna Mikić, by its humorous title, of Sindidun and Tir na n’Og, who cultivate art already indicates a discussion of recent strate- inspired by Irish music and culture, despite gies for creating songs for the famous Europe- never, or almost never being directly connect- an pop song contest, as well as why and how ed to them, the phenomenon of ‘Ireland in the folklore turned out to be a ‘formula’ for Serbia’ was examined by Gordana Blagojević, the successful rating of the participants. A re- in a paper titled Folklore Music in a Global Vil- search about a similar theme, Musical Folklore lage: ’Irish Serbs’ in Belgrade Today. in Popular Music as the ’Guarantor’ of its Identi- Besides providing adequate research space ty, was presented by Dimitrije O. Golemović. in analysing the problem of folklore as a trans- Analysing the song Oro by Željko Joksimović mitter of information referring to one and/or from the Eurovision song contest in 2008, this several cultures, the fi rst part of the collection ethnomusicologist has, by implementing the shows an openness towards researching the analytical apparatus of his trade, skilfully ’ex- phenomena in the sphere of contemporary pop posed’ the difference between the authentic and , which, a decade or two ago, folklore and ‘folklore’ of the mentioned num- was unthinkable here. Therefore, these texts ber. The phenomenon of ‘neofolk culture’, prove the existence of a necessary amount of maybe even a kind of Austrian ‘turbo folk’, awareness of the ‘world outside artistic music’, is presented in a work by Tilman Seebass, The about this ‘other world’ in which we, as schol- Folklore Ingredient and its Purpose in the Music ars almost do not participate, while at the same of the Franui/a Tyrolian Music Group/, which time confi rming that the other areas of Europe convinced us that the treatment of folk, not in these genres, have in one way or another, only in our country but abroad as well, can become ‘victims to the virus’ of neo-folk cul- have a pejorative tone, that is, that folklore ture. In this context it is, however, strange that can be taken3 ‘less seriously’, by an addition no participants (especially those from Serbia) of something ‘comical, ironical or satirical’.10 mentioned the fact that the phenomenon of the The band in question does not, therefore, be- ‘transition’ of pop music into the domain of long to the categories of pop, jazz, rock etc, folklore is also followed by a reverse phenom- but uses the elements from all these genres enon – the ‘transition’ of turbofolk music and within its local musical tradition, singing in newly-composed folk music into pop!114 their own dialect. The authors conclude that The other part of the collection, named The ‘to reach both the regional and global audi- Historical / The Functional / The Representation- ence’ within such a concept, ‘folk tradition al, comprises the studies which deal with: 1. can only be presented in an alienated form.’ the attitude towards folklore in the past and Pop culture is also the subject of the work by today; 2. the composers’ approach to folklore Julijana Žabeva-Papazova, who, in the text paradigm; 3. the treatment of folklore in the titled The Infl uence of Маcedonian Folk Music mass media. on the Development of Macedonian Alternative In the work Bohemia in the 1870s: Two Views Music After 1991, presents the most important of Folkloristic Music, Michaela Freemanová Macedonian bands, Mizar, Kismet, Anastasia, presents the ‘battle’ between two ‘trends’ in Baklava, Foltin and Lola V Stain, who, in their Bohemia at the end of the 19th century: one, songs, use the elements of Macedonian folk which promoted the development of Czech/ tradition from the 19th century called čalgija, Bohemian music according to the foreign Macedonian folk songs from different periods ‘model’ of Wagner or Liszt, and the other, and the Byzantine spiritual tradition. Deal- which ‘defended’ the national elements and ing with a genuinely interesting appearance cultivated the ‘domestic’ tradition. This study of Belgrade bands Orthodox Celts, Irish Stew is illustrated with a number of quotations tak-

103 A similar example in our country was fi rst pre- 411 One only needs to hear the new Ceca Ražnatović sented by the band Rokeri s’ Moravu! and Lepa Brena songs in order to understand this!

117 New Sound 33, I/2009 en from two most infl uential contemporary Here the famous work by the Hungarian com- musical papers: Dalibor and Hudební listy. poser was analysed from the viewpoint of the An almost personally presented essay, paraphrasing of a melody with irredentistic con- Communication Between Language and Song notations, taken from the operetta The Bride from /Observation in a Kurdish village, October 2006 Hamburg (1921) by Zsigmond Vincze. Stachó by Dorothé Schubarth presents the cultural claims that Bartók, in his composition, used the atmosphere of a Kurdish village where she mentioned melody as politically tinted material, stayed for a short time, in October 2006 – its changing it by his interventions in such a way inhabitants, customs, and ways of communi- that (contrary to the original) it marks the cul- cation, mostly referring to the function of mu- tural integrity of central Europe. Thus he also sic within them. stressed Bartók’s supranational attitude, which The only work dealing with church music also runs through the other works of the great is the study The Symbolic Meaning of Imaginary composer and ethnomusicologist. Church Folklore in the Orthodox Choral Music of Nadežda Mosusova made her contribution Alfred Schnittke by Bogdan Đaković, who, as to the analyses of folklore in artistic music in he himself points out, analysed the works of a study The Legend of Ochrid and Zorba the the famous contemporary composer, from the Greek – the Popularity of Ethnic Ballets in Ser- viewpoint of his general approach to Christian bia and Elsewhere. Emphasizing the most im- ideology and aesthetics, from the viewpoint of portant historical dates and occasions for the formal-substantial analyses of the three most composition of the two ballets, in this com- important Schnittke works in this genre (Three parative study the author confi rmed the im- Choruses, Concerto for Mixed Choir, Twelve Psalms portance of the ballet genre connected to the of Repentance), as well as from the viewpoint of ethno world, and stressed the most important a possible understanding of Schnittke’s employ- details in the public life of these works. ment of Orthodox symbols, which reveal the Weaving a touching history of ‘the youngest author’s approach to life and the world of art. but very gifted composer, music critic, conduc- In an excellent study by Virág Büky, Two tor and melograph’, whose successful career Concerts Two Nations and Two Notions of Na- ended tragically in the Jasenovac concentra- tions, the author deals with the historical con- tion camp, in his work Erich Elisha Samlaich: the cert, organized fi rst in Vienna, and afterwards Tragic Fate of a Culture Bearer, Dušan Mihalek in Budapest in 1918, presenting the soldiers’ presented an almost unknown personality songs collected in Austria-Hungary at the from our musical life. Judging by Samlaich’s end of the First World War. This project, sup- preserved works our cultural history had, at ported by the state (among others, Bartók and that time, a mature young musicologist who, Kodály participated), but substantially and among other things, had distinguished himself signifi cantly variously treated in Austria and by writing certainly the most competent text Hungary, indicated the different understand- about Sephardic Jews in former Yugoslavia. ing of nation and folk creativity. The Austri- In a study Folklore and Modernity in Greek ans (however much they might have glorifi ed Piano Music of the Twentieth Century: the Case of their own language) in this project proved, Dimitris Dragatakis (1914-2001), Magdalini Ka- fi rst as being more open to other nations, and lopana analysed the problem of coexistence also as a side which supports the scientifi c ap- of the folkloric and the modern, presenting proach to folklore. Hungary however showed chronologically the layers of new elements the background of its political fi ght for in- in the works of this author, also emphasizing dependence, taking a completely unrealistic ‘the coexistence of tradition and modernity’ stand towards its own ‘glorious’ history. as the composer’s creative credo. A new approach to Bartók’s Concerto for Or- In a text Musical Folklore in a Greek Mass Me- chestra was presented by Laszlo Stachó, in his dia: a Case Study of the Hellenic Broadcasting Cor- text Bartok’s ’Fatherland Melody’: a Reexamination. poration, Nick Poulakis gives a critical analysis

118 Reviews of the programme of this television channel, us- ing (as he himself points out) the achievements of refl exive ethnomusicology, media anthro- pology and postcolonial studies. In this context, the author fi rst draws attention to the defi nition of media of (state) television as a space for the ‘reproduction of dominant ideology’, since it participates in ‘the creation and popularisation of offi cial cultural politics’, that is, of course, fi - nancially dependent on the state to which it be- longs. A priori distancing himself from general conclusions, the author claims that his research is just a study of a specifi c programme series, broadcasted in the summer of 2005, under the title of Musical Tradition (Mousiki Paradosi). Broadcasting such a programme on Sundays, immediately after the liturgy and another theo- logical programme, indicates a carefully pre- meditated ‘overture’ to a programme in which the Greek researcher, theologist and Byzantine music teacher Panagiotis Mylonas, through a potpourri of singing, dancing and playing of different Greek folklore groups, gives his positivistic, romantic, acultural and national- istically oriented vision of the preservation of musical tradition. From the critical approach to this series, the author draws the conclusion about the ‘chaos’ ruling in Greek mass media concerning the treatment of the phenomena of ‘folklore’, ‘tradition’, ‘identity’, ‘difference’, as well as the ambivalent attitude of these media towards globalization. The publication Musical Folklore as a Ve- hicle?, comprises an enviable interdisciplin- ary space of musicological and ethnomusico- logical thought, which proves that this subject still belongs to one of the central spheres of scholarly musical research. Writing about the essence of music, Philip Bohlman once titled his study Is All Music Religious?512 The col- lection Musical Folklore as a Vehicle?, calls for paraphrasing this question. Namely, it seems to be asking: Is all music – Folklore?

Translated by Goran Kapetanović

125 Philip V. Bohlman, ‘Is Аll Мusic Religious?’, Theological music, Introduction to Theomusicology, New York, Greenwood Press, 1991.

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