Райна Кацарова: слънчевата дама на българската етномузикология и етнохореология

Author(s): Lozanka Peicheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

Raina Katsarova’s work is of an intrinsic value to the establishing and the development of Bulgarian ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. She was a renowned Bulgarian researcher in the 1920s, but also through the 1980s, an authoritative champion of collecting and preserving traditional lore in the form of tens of thousands of Bulgarian folk songs. This study systematises biographical data of Raina Katsarova’s life, integrating various voices in one story and offering a general rethinking of her personality and activities. The events and the facts interpreted in this statement have been selected from various in terms of their size, genre and content source material: a variety of published sources (Raina Katsarova’s publications; other publications related to her life, personality and career; interviews with her; Raina Katsarova’s memories), archive material (fieldwork notebooks, diaries, photos, letters, etc.), talks with her nearest and dearest. Biographical resear​ch method was applied as a rewarding scientific strategy and a tool of representing the fluid dynamics of life, of providing an insight into her figure and work and of the unique historical significance of Raina Katsarova to the domains of ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. The systematic arranging of the selected facts and materials is grouped in the following thematic lines: 1). A timeline of her life in a chronological narrative of facts and events, stages and processes; 2) A brief overview of her major studies and achievements; 3). The essence of her fieldwork; 4) Her contribution to the creation of an ethnomusicological environment at the National Ethnographic Museum and BAS.

Райна Кацарова и най-ранните теренни звукозаписи на традиционна музика от България

Author(s): Ventsislav Dimov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This study presents the earliest resources of the folk music archive of the Institute of Art Studies, BAS: fieldwork recordings of traditional music made in the period 1938–1950. The text is part of a project, Raina Katsarova and the beginnings​ of recording activities in Bulgarian ethnomusicology. The study is based on the folk music recordings made by Raina Katsarova in 1938–1950, and by her collaborators Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (1948–1950), using a Presto recorder and instantaneous discs. The study presents the earliest recordings (231 metal core acetates: 142 12-inch and 89 8-inch), digitised by Alex Nushev) containing songs, instrumental music and rarely, verbal folklore. There are 1,570 items or about 31 hours of recorded music in store for describing, identifying and studying (by the author and Dr Galina Denkova) The interpretation, apart from the recorded sound, includes handwritten fieldwork notebooks or other fieldwork material from the verbal folk music archive and the personal archive of Raina Katsarova (kept at the archive of the Institute of Art Studies), papers by Raina Katsarova delivered during her trips to several Bulgarian regions and places in 1941– 1944 (kept at the archive of The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, BAS), pictures from academic and personal archives, publications in periodicals. It is the first attempt to make such a comprehensive and full presentation with a detailed chronological description of the earliest fieldwork recordings in Bulgaria. The second part of the study seeks to make analytical readings of the recording database. Two views of the early recordings are offered: exploration of the areas of the recorded voices and music (places and regions, where the recordings have been made and where the informants and repertories belong) and of the tradition bearers on the grooves (analysed by age, sex, education, settled way of life, ethnic group, profession, etc., mostly by the classifying columns and ‘marginal notes’ in the fieldwork notebooks). The conclusion underscores that by using recorders in the 1930s and the 1940s Bulgarian science joined the mainstream of the West-European ethnomusicology. Raina Katsarova was the founder of fieldwork sound recording presenting songs, instrumental music, manufacturing of instruments, ring dances and games through their cultural functioning, their role in the life of the community and men. She set the beginning of the anthropological and culturological turn in Bulgarian folk music studies. Raina Katsarova’s legacy and that of her collaborators on fieldwork recording, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin still holds unexhausted potential for informational content, creativity and future insights. That is why it is worth completing the process of their digitisation and cataloguing, publishing more extensive information about them and about the initial stages of their exploration.

Танцовата музика в ръкописите на учителя Иржи Хартъл (1781–1849) от Стара Пака

Author(s): Zdeněk Vejvoda / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

The collection of dance music manuscripts from the late 18th and early 19th century by Jiří Hartl is unique among European sources. Jiří Hartl was a skilled musician, playing the violin, clarinet, organ and bassoon. He was also responsible for the local organ, establishing a tradition of instrumental music. This is evidenced by his collection, which contains 840 dance instrumental melodies (1810– 1820). The records are those of the first violin with instrumentation glosses, solo contributions of other instruments, and the names of most of the dances. The collection also contains verbal notes, which help to reconstruct the composition of Hartl’s band. The manuscripts contains the dances ländler, steyrisch, schotisch/egosse, marsch, ungarisch, zweitritt, contra, menuetto, deutschen, hulán, třínožka, bauer, bažant, bonapart, englese, furiant, husa, kalamajka, kögeltanz, švihák. Hartl’s legacy and life story epitomize the versatile work of small-town teachers in Bohemia in the early 19th century – an essential support for cultural growth and a successful national emancipation movement.

Филтриране на народното. Народна музика и идеология в Чехословакия през 50-те години на ХХ век

Author(s): Matěj Kratochvíl / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

In 1950s Czechoslovakia, traditional folk music was officially presented as the most important resource of national musical identity. Folk- or folk-inspired music was almost omnipresent. Although this intensity was waned in the following decades, the role of the folk music as a symbol remained strong until the end of the communist rule in 1989. While the ideology of communism used folk music as its tool, it also influenced the way this music was collected, researched and presented. The paper presents examples from two closely intertwined areas documenting these issues: folk music research and folk music revival.

Българската традиционна култура - поглед отвътре

Author(s): Georgi Gerov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2003

Книги 2015 г.

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 31/2015

Selected bibliography in the field of Bulgarian Studies published in the current year.

„A my nie chcemy uciekać stąd…” – twórczość Jacka Kaczmarskiego wobec stanu wojennego w Polsce

Author(s): Jarosław Ciszek,Tomasz Okraska / Language(s): Polish Issue: XIII/2015

The article is devoted to the life and work of Jacek Kaczmarski during martial law in Poland (1981-1983). First, attention is paid to the life of poet who was in France when decision to impose martial law in Poland was taken. Exile deprived him very important to the bards direct contact with the national audience. Then, the authors undertake the analysis of selected works which Kaczmarski wrote in the period of martial law or otherwise related to it. The main aim of the research is to consider the problem of the role of creator of culture in creating the memory of important historical events.

Научни форуми

Author(s): Nikola Kazanski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 23/2011

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2011

Tyrania oka, pokora ucha? O potrzebie sound studies

Author(s): Dariusz Brzostek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

This article presents contemporary sound studies by outlining its field of interest as well as its main problems and concepts. Brzostek contextualizes sound studies with discussions on media and collective memory, the dialectics of voice and power, as well as the reproduction of sound and cultural identity. This context also includes thematically and methodologically diverse studies on the media coverage of acoustic experience through electronic media (from ‘archaeological’ forms such as the Walkman or the Discman to such ‘futuristic’ forms as mobile phones and iPods), as well as studies on these media’s effect on the transformation of the acoustic environment. Brzostek presents works inspired by R. Murray Shafer’s acoustic ecology, which touch on sound in the public sphere, urban soundscapes marked by noise pollution, as well as the acoustic environments of lo-fi and hi-fi.

Coffitivity: dźwięk, praca kreatywna i posthegemonia

Author(s): Artur Szarecki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Sound presents a unique subject of study, functioning in culture not only as a conveyor of meaning, but also as a sensory and affective intensity. To perform a cultural analysis of acoustic phenomena, therefore, we must take into account both the semiotic/interpretive dimension of soundedness and its bodily/material dimension. Szarecki illustrates his approach with the example of the internet site Coffitivity, which supports creative thinking by reproducing the ambient noise of a cafe. Szarecki draws on the theoretical tools of sound studies and of posthegemonic political theory to show how by arranging and controlling the sound environment Coffitivity broadens the possibilities – in time and space – of performing creative work, thus turning such work into an omnipresent component of everyday life.

Dźwięki natury a sztuka dźwięku. O rozumieniu reprezentacji w fonografii

Author(s): Justyna Tuszyńska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Tuszyńska confronts two seemingly distant notions, namely representation as an aesthetic category, and one type of phonography, namely musique concrète and the technology of open-air recording that goes with it. Thus she highlights a question that has been overlooked by theorists of representation as well as by musicologists. By confronting Michał Paweł Markowski’s models of representation with Pierre Schaeffer’s theory of musique concrète, Tuscyńska points to problems in representation that do not appear when we apply this concept to other artistic forms. This problem provides an impetus to examine musique concrète from a non-musicological perspective.

W kulturze dźwięku. Słuchanie literatury

Author(s): Andrzej Hejmej / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Hejmej reflects on two fundamental questions: the first relates to sound (including voice) and the soundscape as a phenomenon that influences contemporary literature and its functioning in today’s media-dominated society; the second question, which builds on the first, explores the prospects of contemporary literary scholarship drawing on the anthropology of sound. Hejmej traces various scholars’ recent work in sound studies to highlight aural perception – ‘listening to culture,’ which leads him to argue for a new anthropology of the audiovisual – one that would build on analyses of both visual and acoustic space. Thus he analyses the new situation of a literature that, in today’s media-dominated world, relates to acoustic and acousmatic experiences. He proposes to treat literature not merely in terms of the written word (as accepted in traditional literary scholarship) but voice and scriptorality.

Doświadczenie muzyki, doświadczenie w muzyce. Refleksje na podstawie książki Przeciw muzykologii niewrażliwej Macieja Jabłońskiego

Author(s): Iwona Sowińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Review: Maciej Jabłoński, Przeciw muzykologii niewrażliwej [Against Insensitive Musicology], Wydawnictwo Nauka i Innowacje, Poznań 2014.

The sersera of the guembri: anthropological approach to the device in the context of Gnawa diasporas in Brussels and Morocco

Author(s): Martina Hanáková,Itzana Dobbelaere,Hélène Sechehaye / Language(s): English Issue: 03 (30)/2016

In Gnawa music, the three-stringed lute called guembri plays a central role. According to Sum (2012, p. 52), “the guembri attracts the mluk (supernatural entities summoned in gnawa ceremonies) by sounding their musical identities, effectively sounding their names (...), (as well as) calling on the adept (...). Upon arrival of the spirit, the guembri, as the adept, becomes possessed.” The guembri is equipped with a detachable idiophone consisting of metal loops or rings fixed around the edges of a metal sheet, inserted into the neck. This device, called the sersera, is mostly audible during solo moments. It has been often noticed, or briefly described (Baldassarre 1999), but never analyzed in detail. However, it seems important for us to include the sersera in the analysis of the status, meaning and roles of the guembri timbre. Taking it into consideration will provide a new approach leading to better understanding of many facets of the instrument, including its cultural value. The sersera was used before and it is still made and carried by musicians, but nowadays it is barely employed either in Morocco or in Belgium. Through confrontation of the acoustical analysis and the information found in literature with the musicians’ experience, this paper tries to find the reasons of this obsolescence.

Музикантът (закир/Имам Джафер) в културата на алевиите и бекташите от Кърджалийско

Author(s): Rumyana Margaritova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

The paper concentrates itself on the figure of the Alevi-Bektashi musician (zakir, Imam Jafer) in Kardzhali region, who has at the same time religious, social, and artistic roles in society. Because of his characteristics, this figure could be categorized as an epic musician. His non-professional, but specialized activity is presented through the insiders‘ views on the specifics, educational manners, musicians’ quality assessment and their differences in performing styles. A young Bektashi musician from the region, whose biography and performing manner are marked by the complex interaction between his great talent and strong religious feelings is also portrayed in the paper. The interaction itself determines his complicated path as a musician and as a member of a community of heterodox Muslims.

Песни и граници във всекидневната култура на гагаузите от Източна Тракия в началото на ХХ век

Author(s): Galin Georgiev,Dinka Angelova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

The article is dedicated to the folklore singing of the Gagauzs in Eastern Thrace. The authors analyze primarily archival and published material from the early twentieth century war period and the following displacement of large groups of populations, which raises the question of their cultural traditions and specifics. The songs are used as a source allowing the outlining of a number of specific characteristics of the ethnic and cultural identity of the Gagauzs. Special attention is paid to bilingualism in some records and its ritual functions. The article is reminiscent of Adela Peeva’s film “ Whose is this song?”. Undoubtedly it will again show the development and the fate of the spiritual heritage from the Ottoman period bequeathed to the later national societies and countries in the Balkans, where the heritage (which was previously common) is “assigne” and began to be felt “our” and “native” or, in other cases, is strongly rejected. The aim of the article, however, is to show that this initial space was not always so common and open and that the relationships in it (respectively in the culture in general) depended on local developments, different situations and participants. At least in terms of knowledge about the various cultures and traditions on the Balkans, together with the question “Whose is this song?” goes the question “Whose song is the best?”. That is, except the origin of the songs, which in many cases is common, it is also important to understand it, to know how it is valorized and constantly acknowledged.

Ружа Нейкова. Етнокултурни паралели по пътя на старите българи в Балкано-Кавказкото пространство и Поволжието. София: Издателство на БАН „Проф. Марин Дринов“/ Фондация „Тангра ТанНакРа“, 2015

Author(s): Veselka Toncheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

Book Review

Rhetorical figures and rhetorical strategies in The Minotaur by Harrison Birtwistle

Author(s): Dominika Micał / Language(s): English Issue: 03 (30)/2016

Rhetorical figures and rhetorical strategies in The Minotaur by Harrison Birtwistle The Minotaur is the opera composed by Harrison Birtwistle to libretto by David Harsent. It was premiered in 2008 in Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Birtwistle’s musical language is basically modernist: atonal, centralised, based on interval or number patterns, pre-compositional operations, scales invented by the composer himself. His music is recognised as generally intellectual and connected with great avantgarde of 20th century. On the other hand, Birtwistle has never denied expression in his pieces. Titles and extra-musical inspirations are common (i.e. Melencolia 1). Birtwistle is inspired by music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and, less often, Baroque. The score of The Minotaur is full of rhetorical figures: both hypothyposis and emphasis. They are evident and immediately recognised in spite of contemporary, atonal language of the opera. Mostly, they are inspired by Baroque musical-rhetorical figures but there are examples of individual, contemporary means. Figures are local and connected with only one or few words. General atmosphere of fear and isolation can be created with ‘rhetorical strategies’, which are active much longer than figures. Birtwistle uses musical symbols as well. There are two main symbols in The Minotaur: the iambic ‘glissando gesture’ which opens the opera and appears in its key moments, and the ‘motif of fate’ – repetition connected with powers of fate and with tragic irony. The question is, why Birtwistle used so traditional and instantly recognisable means, as he is known for his highly intellectual music. Answer given in this text is that they stay in service of narration. They are audible and visible signs of telling the story.

Stan zachowania rękopisów symfonii Carla Dittersa von Dittersdorfa w Polsce – rekonesans

Author(s): Miłosz Kula / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02 (29)/2016

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739–1799) has been remembered in history of music in the 18th century as a significant contributor in developing singspiel (comic opera) genre and as a composer famous among double bass players because of two double bass concertos. But recent studies brought to the fore information about a variety of his instrumental music. Between the others, there are more than 120 symphonies. This paper is a report-attempt about present condition of extant Dittersdorf symphonies’ manuscripts, preserved in the contemporary Polish area. There are nine archives and libraries mentioned, where these manuscripts are stored. The richest collection of Dittersdorf’s symphonies is located in Pauline Monastery Archive in Jasna Góra in Częstochowa (PL-CZ), where seventeen manuscripts are stored. All of them preserved in good condition, arisen in last quarter of the 18th century. Other manuscripts we can find in: Archive of Polish Dominicans Province in Kraków (PL-Kd), Cistercian Abbey in Kraków-Mogiła (PL-MO), Benedictine Abbey in Krzeszów/Grüssau (PL-KRZ), Library of Theological Faculty of Opole University (PL-OPsm), Archdiocesan Archive in Poznań (PL-Pa Muz MM), Diocesan Library in Sandomierz (PL-SA) and Special Collections Department of Wrocław University Library (PL-WRu). There is also a piece of information about the manuscript from Pilica (PL-PIk), presumably lost in recent time, which was one of very few examples Dittersdorf’s manuscripts written in the 19th century.

„Angels and Men’ assisted by this Art, May Sing together, though they Dwell apart”-Angielskie antologie świeckiej i religijnej muzyki wokalnej z drugiej połowy XVII wieku w kolekcji Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej

Author(s): Róża Zuzanna Różańska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02 (29)/2016

The article describes the group of seventeen early English prints from the second half of the 17th century. The prints are part of the collection of the former Preußische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin kept in The Jagiellonian University and contain ayres and religious songs. Fourteen of them were published by John and Henry Playford. The first part of the paper shows the biographies of the publishers and brings the state of research on their work. The second part includes the detailed description of the seventeen of early English prints. The final part presents the content of the prints and biographies of its most important composers.