Trans. Revista Transcultural de Música E-ISSN: 1697-0101 [email protected] Sociedad de Etnomusicología España Caletta, Josko Music and Musical Life on Dalmatian Islands: Processions, Carnivals, Haka-musaka, Viroza party... Musical Traditions of Bol, the Island of Brac Trans. Revista Transcultural de Música, núm. 14, 2010, pp. 1-18 Sociedad de Etnomusicología Barcelona, España Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=82220947012 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative TRANS - Revista Transcultural de Música - Transcultural Music Revie... http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/a17/music-and-musical-life-on-dalmati... Home PRESENTACIÓN EQUIPO EDITORIAL INFORMACIÓN PARA LOS AUTORES CÓMO CITAR TRANS INDEXACIÓN CONTACTO Última publicación Números publicados < Volver TRANS 14 (2010) Convocatoria para artículos: Music and Musical Life on Dalmatian Islands: Processions, Carnivals, Haka-musaka, Viroza party... Musical Traditions of Bol, Explorar TRANS: the Island of Brac Por Número > Por Artículo > Josko Caletta Por Autor > Abstract The author is following and observing the (musical) life in the small picturesque town of Bol on the Dalmatian island of BracË . The (traditional) musical life in the small urban and rural communities on the Dalmatian islands is still significantly present through a variety of traditional customs, both secular and sacral, and various vocal, instrumental and dance forms. Besides older layers of musical tradition, abandoning the old and creating, constructing and accepting the new musical idioms is the principal Share | characteristic of their music making. The text examines the small community “double” life. During the summer there is a global life when the place becomes a typical Mediterranean tourist destination. The Suscribir RSS Feed rest of the year local islanders keep their musical life, with local customs still alive. The author depicts those musical lives through ethnographic descriptions of the main local annual events. Keywords : music and tourism, Mediterranean island's music, klapa singing, glagolitic singing. Geographically and historically, the Dalmatian islands are integral part of the Mediterranean cultural area. Life, as well as the musical life on these islands has altered parallel to the changes of the cultures that dominated the Mediterranean area from the early dominations of the Greek and Roman cultures, to the dominance of the Byzantine and Ottomans, as well as various rulers, such as the Venetians (1409-1797), the French and Austrian. During the long periods of turbulent history, the Dalmatian islands were the final destination for numerous refugees from the broad inland regions, especially the Dalmatian Hinterland. The economic upheaval at the end of the 19th century forced numerous islanders to seek a better life overseas in the countries of the South and North Americas and Australia. Despite all the circumstances, the musical life in the small urban and rural communities on the Dalmatian islands is significantly present through the variety of traditional secular and sacral customs - various vocal, instrumental and dance forms. Focus of my research is the musical life of Bol, the small community situated on the island of BracË , the biggest middle Dalmatian island. I have been visiting Bol for years as a tourist, researcher, composer and director on the klapa music scene, which has become the area's new tradition. All mentioned made my position as a researcher quite a complex matter. As an ethnomusicologist, I look into the music as an integral part of a community's life, a recognizable musical feature formed and reshaped by the local society that most of the inhabitants identified with. In this case, I am not looking for one particular musical segment (musical form or genre) that will represent the islanders in the broadest sense. I am interested in the ways in which music repertoires are socially constructed and made meaningful within the particular island society. Therefore, when I address the musical scene of Bol, I will not try to diversify musical traditions according to their origin, content or age, but look into the matter of interaction, within its context - the daily life of the small community of this quite known tourist destination. Although I have been studying the musical phenomena of the islands and the coastal Croatian regions for years, I am repeatedly astonished by the "double life" the local community of Bol on the island of BracË leads. Tourism and ordinary living created specific symbiosis were space and place are evoked in rhythm and rhyme, symbolically re-constructed in sound and image. During the summer, the community functions as any other popular tourist (Mediterranean, global) destination, whereas during the winter, it lives a life of an insular community with all musical and traditional symbols of a typical (Dalmatian) setting. [[1] ] There is not doubt that tourism deeply, rather indirectly, influences locals in creating their present (musical) lives. At a first glance, we might conclude that Bol is a community that gratefully enjoys the benefits of tourist economy and, during a tourist-free period, "gathers its strength" for new and improved offers for their future visitors. On the contrary, stated facts will show that tourism (read: material benefits), but no accompanying activities, are welcomed in the community. Their public performances mostly abound in resistance and resentment towards tourism that takes away their "peace" they can enjoy during the winter period. [[2] ] On the other hand, creating their new cultural and musical images incorporates visible examples of the musical exchanges which characterize global 1 de 18 20/12/2011 18:44 TRANS - Revista Transcultural de Música - Transcultural Music Revie... http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/a17/music-and-musical-life-on-dalmati... mediascape influences that tourism brought to the island community. The function of this intricate process serves both, a sense of "home" in the sense of local and multilocal, global community belongings. [ [3] ] That is the reason why I have decided to present public musical practice, which, unlike private musical practice, tends to be more approachable, changeable, and easier to analyze. [[4] ] The clash between global and local is present in each aspect of the public musical practices the inhabitants of Bol enjoy during the whole year. My attending and taking part in public events in Bol, as an observer or a participant, will attempt adequately confirm my hypothesis of the double life this community leads. [[5] ] On the other hand, I purposely did not want to limit my participation to the "tourist" level that would give only superficial understanding of culture and the socio-economic ramifications of tourism. I am aware of possible division among researchers of music and tourism that differentiate native researchers vs. tourist researchers - "ethnomusicologists or anthropologists, who have access to 'real' culture, and thus an authoritative understanding of culture, and (ethnomusicologists) tourists who must content themselves with a superficial façade." (cf. LaBate 2009: 23) Public practices most often give a representative overview of the musical scene of a community, although conclusions should not be drawn hastily. I have learned to be careful during my past research of Bol's musical life that is one of the rare Croatian insular communities whose musical practices have been researched throughout the last century. Analyzing the works and findings of previous researchers on the music of Bol, who all had easier access to "real" culture than researchers from developed countries that prefer to explore "exotic" or "primitive" world cultures, one can see a variety of particular approaches, which does not explore complexity but particularity of music making in the community. Music-making in Bol is mentioned in three works from the first half of the 20 th century. Priest Antonin Zaninovic´ writes about Christmas carols ( kolende ) in Bol(cf. Zaninovic´ 1916). BozË idar SË irola looks for remnants of Glagolitic singing [[6] ] in Bol and nearby situated Murvica (cf. SË irola 1935), whereas Matija Murko is interested in gusle songs [[7] ] - players and the repertoire of narrative (epic) songs. [[8] ] All the authors single out segments of a musical practice - the older, archaic musical practice. Numerous musical traditions, which existed at the time (e.g. instrumental dance repertoire, lijerica, [[9] ] diatonic accordion, brass bands, tamburica [[10] ] orchestras, church choirs) were barely mentioned. A complete insight of the musical practices of the time is comprehensible to some extent. SË irola's report is the only research of the time that presents wider scope of interests and variety of sacral and secular traditional musical styles. His primary interest was Old Church (Glagolitic singing ) that he believed still existed on the island. He was disappointed to find no Old Slavic singing that the oldest inhabitants at the time of research did not remember, but the masses celebrated in Latin. At first, he only listened to church singers, but on the recommendation of teachers and parish priests, "he invites chosen singers, mostly old men and women, and notes down their specific singing". (SË irola 1933/1934: 162) He travels