Zbornik SME 2008

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Macedonian Composer’s Association

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

FIRST SYMPOSIUM OF ICTM STUDY GROUP FOR MUSIC AND DANCE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE 4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia Under the auspice of the Minister of Culture of Republic of Macedonia Mrs. Elizabeta Kancheska – Milevska

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Macedonia

Skopje, 2009

International manifestation STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 4-8 September, Struga R Macedonia Edited by Velika Stoykova Serafmovska Organizer: Macedonian Composers’ Association – SOKOM President: Marko Kolovski Symposium Co-chair: Velika Stoykova Serafmovska Program Committee: Velika Stoykova Serafmovska, Elsie Ivancich Dunin (USA/Croatia), Selena Rakočević (Serbia), Lozanka Peycheva (Bulgaria) Technical organization: SOKOM Technical Services Printed: "BIGOSS“ - SKOPJE MIC - SKOPJE Supported by the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Macedonia CIP – Catalogue Indexing by Publication National and University Library St. Kliment of Ohrid, Skopje 781.7 78.01 781 FIRST symposium of ICTM study group for music and dance in southeastern Europe : 4‐8 september 2008, Struga R. Macedonia / edited by Velika Stoykova Serafimovska. ‐ Skopje : Macedonian Composers` Association ‐ SOKOM, 2009. ‐ 298 стр. : notes, illustrations; 24 sm Footnotes to the texts. – Bibliography attached to most of the works Ethnomusicology ‐ Collections b) ‐ Ethnochoreology б) Musicology – Collections b) ‐ Ethnochoreology ‐ Collections COBISS.MK‐ID 79943690

CONTENTS: PREFACE by Dieter Christensen ANA HOFMAN, Slovenia/Serbia SOUNDING TRANSITION: MUSICAL PRACTICES AS EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE IN POST‐SOCIALIST SERBIA FIKRET MERVE EKEN KÜÇÜKAKSOY, Turkey REVIVAL OF TRADITION IN A NEW COMPOSITION

5

21

AHMED TOHUMCU, Turkey THE IDENTICAL CHANGE OF TAVERNA

33

9

BRANKA KOSTIĆ‐MARKOVIĆ, Macedonia ETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL DATA ‐ STRICTO SENSU ET LARGO SENSU 41 ZEYNEP GONCA GIRGIN TOHUMCU, Turkey CHOREOGRAPHY OF KINETIC REVIVAL 53 SELENA RAKOČEVIĆ, Serbia BANATIAN DANCING THROUGH THE 20TH CENTURY 63 LIZ MELLISH AND NICK GREEN, UK PERFORMING TRADITION THROUGH TRANSITION IN ROMANIA: FOLK ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCES AT FESTIVALUL INIMILOR, TIMISOARA, ROMANIA 75 DIETER CHRISTENSEN, USA/Germany AGENTS OF CHANGE. A VILLAGE IN HERCEGOVINA, 1957‐1974 89 URSULA HEMETEK, Austria MUSICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BALKANS IN VIENNA 103 DANIJELA ILIĆ, Serbia THE ASSIMILATION OF THE FOLK ELEMENTS AND DIFERENT CULTURES AND MENTALITIES IN THE I SUITE OF THE BAILEY “OHRID LEGEND” FROM STEVAN HRISTIĆ 117 MARIJA DUMNIĆ, Serbia DANCE IN CINEMA MOVIES OF EMIR KUSTURICA 123 MOJCA KOVAČIČ, Slovenia THE MUSIC OF THE OTHERS OR THE MUSIC OF THE OURS: BALKAN MUSIC AMONG SLOVENES 137 BERNA ÖZBILEN, Turkey FIRST OTTOMAN – TURKISH POPULAR MUSIC KANTO: TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONAL TO MODERN KANTO PERIOD 145 YVONNE HUNT, USA CROSSING THE BORDER: THE CASE OF THE ZURNACI‐TAPAN ENSEMBLES OF BULGARIA AND THE DAOULIA OF THE SERRES PREFECTURE OF GREECE 153

BELMA KURTISOGLU, Turkey A GUSLAR IN ISTANBUL TO KEEP THE TRADITIONS ALIVE 159 MLADEN MARKOVIĆ, Serbia ETHNOORGANOLOGY – FRIEND OR FOE? 165 DANIELA IVANOVA, Bulgaria HORO SE VIE, IZVIVA” (Observation on “Horo Se Vie, Izviva” festivalcompeting in dancing and on the activities of the new‐born clubs for traditional dances in Bulgaria) 173 ALEXANDRA BALANDINA, Greece THE YOUTH OPEN FESTIVAL IN KUMANOVO, MACEDONIA: A PROPOSAL FOR INTER‐ETHNIC PIECE COOPERATION 183 LOZANKA PEYCHEVA, Bulgaria STUDIO ETHNO: A RADIO SHOW FROM BULGARIA ABOUT THE GLOBAL PULSATIONS OF THE LOCAL MUSIC 197 VENTSISLAV DIMOV, Bulgaria ROMA MUSICIANS IN THE MEDIA MUSIC FROM BULGARIA AFTER 1989 205 ELSIE IVANCICH DUNIN, USA/Croatiа THE “CLONING” OF ČOČEK IN MACEDONIA: AN EXAMPLE IN THE ROLE OF MEDIA AFECTING GLOBALIZATION AS WELL AS LOCALIZATION OF BELLY DANCING 213 IVANKA VLAEVA, Bulgaria MUSIC IN NORTHEASTERN BULGARIA IN 1950S AND 1960s 227 ENO KOÇO, UK/Albania THE PRESERVATION OF AN ANCIENT TRADITION IN THE ARBËRESH ECCLESIASTICAL AND SECULAR MUSICAL PRACTICE 241 RODNA VELICHKOVSKA, Macedonia THE INTEGRATIVE FUNCTION OF THE RITE SINGING IN MACEDONIA 253 OLIVERA VASIĆ, Serbia INVENTING TRADITION: ON THE EXAMPLE OF PADALICE FROM NORTHEASTERN SERBIA 263 MEHMET ÖCAL ÖZBILGIN, Turkey GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP AND THE IMPACT ON TRADITIONAL DANCE AND MUSIC PERFORMANCE IN BERGAMA, TURKEY 271 FERRUH OZDINCER, Turkey HORA AND KARSILAMA DANCES IN EDIRNE REGION 285

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

PREFACE This volume, in its major part, documents and celebrates the First Meeting of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance of Southeast Europe that was held at Struga, Republic of Macedonia, 4-8 September, 2008; and there is reason to celebrate, indeed. In contrast to most other scholarly associations, within and outside the ICTM, this group formed not just in response to some specialized intellectual interests or to meet professional-organizational needs - such as the representation of a discipline in academia, or to serve as a job market, as is the case with the Society for Ethnomusicology in North America. This Study Group emerged upon the initiative and through the good services of a few individuals who sought to overcome the consequences of political disruptions and destructive wars: rising nationalism and scholarlyintellectual isolation. In doing so, the Study Group returned to the goals and ways that the International Folk Music Council had embraced sixty years earlier.

Since its inception in 1947, the IFMC, renamed ICTM in 1981, has depended on the selfless commitment of individuals. Immediately after the Second World War it was Maud Karpeles in London, a folk dance and folk music enthusiast closely associated with Cecil Sharp and 62 years of age at the time, who had received encouragement - but nothing else - from UNESCO in Paris, had called for a constituting meeting that reportedly was attended by representatives of 28 countries, and brought about the formal creation of the IFMC (Stockmann 1988: 1).

The general aims of the new organization were stated as follows: "(1) to assist in the preservation, dissemination, and practice of folk music of all countries; (2) to further the comparative study of folk

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Preface music; and (3) to promote understanding and friendship between nations through the common interest of folk music"(Karpeles 1969: 16).

While all three areas - with conceptual adjustments - have remained central to the work of the Council, it is in the third - the promotion of understanding and friendship among nations - where it has made arguably its most significant contributions that set it apart from other scholarly organizations. In its early years, the IFMC operated prevailingly in the European arena where its services were indeed most needed. Bridging the divides between ideological/political and economic territories - those marked by the "Iron Curtain" - was an absorbing concern, and the work of Study Groups, hosted at times by "the East", sometimes by "the West", and often possible only under the umbrella of UNESCO, did much to open the wide world for global scholarly work in music and dance research.

The official end of the “Cold War” in 1991 did not end the need for an international organization of (ethno-)musicologists and dance scholars of musical traditions that aimed at bridging the rifts and healing the wounds that political and ideological conflicts had left. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Southeastern Europe, for millennia a battleground of empires and religions, slipped into a state of political and economic disarray that deeply affected also music and dance research, and where folk music and folk dance assumed special significance in the re-emergent and often divisive nationalisms. In the early years of the New Millennium, scholars of the area came together repeatedly and across the new and the old borders, to assess the situation, to build personal networks, and to probe new opportunities (see Ceribašić et al. 2008). Panels on "The history and perspectives of national ethnomusicologies and ethnochoreologies in the Balkans", held at the 2007 World Conference of the ICTM in Vienna (see Peycheva and Rodel, eds., 2008), were important steps in this process which eventually led, among other things, to the formation of the ICTM Study Group on whose first meeting in Struga, Republic of Macedonia, this volume reports. The papers are diverse in topic and theoretical orientation, still part of the assessment process. There is also the announcement of the second meeting, to be held in Izmir, Turkey, in April, 2010, with a program now focusing on specific contemporary issues within the region that have social as well as and purely intellectual dimensions.

In our own time, when the ravages of the 2nd World War have 6

STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Preface become seemingly remote and the offices of the ICTM have moved to Washington, DC, USA, and to the even more remote Australia, the spirit of the IFMC/ICTM lives on through those Study Groups that devote themselves to the dual goal - intellectual and humane - exemplified by this volume.

The IFMC/ICTM was and is made possible only by the contributions - including the paid subscriptions - by its members, in hard currency. In many cases only "supporting memberships", an idea that emanated from the ICTM Secretariat1 in the 1980s, made the participation of scholars from soft-currency countries possible.

Equally important is the selfless initiative and sustained engagement of individual scholars of the kind that lead to the formation of this Study Group, its first meeting in the delightful setting and stimulating atmosphere of Struga, Republic of Macedonia, in September, 2008, and to the publication of this volume. We are indebted to the organizers of that meeting, and to the institutions that supported it.

Dieter Christensen

1

Initiated by Nerthus Christensen, then Executive Secretary of the ICTM, whose family was separated by the Iron Curtain and who personally experienced the very difficulties which also afflicted many prospective ICTM members.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

7

Preface References: Ceribašić, Naila, Ana Hofman, Ljerka Vidić Rasmussen 2008 Post-Yugoslavian Ethnomusicologies in Dialogue.

Yearbook for Traditional Music 40: 33.

Christensen, Dieter 1988 The International Folk Music Council and 'the Americans': On the effects of stereotypes on the institutionalization of ethnomusicology.

Yearbook for Traditional Music 20:11-18.

Karpeles, Maud 1969 The International Folk Music Council - Twenty-One Years.

Yearbook of the IFMC 1: 14-32.

Peycheva, Lozanka and Angela Rodel, eds.

2008 Vienna and the Balkans: Papers from the 39th World conference of the ICTM, Vienna 2007.

Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Stockmann, Erich 1988 The International Folk Music Council/International Council for Traditional Music - Forty Years.

Yearbook for Traditional Music 20:1-10.

8

STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

ANA HOFMAN, Slovenia/Serbia

SOUNDING TRANSITION: MUSICAL PRACTICES AS EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE IN POST-SOCIALIST SERBIA The grey phase of transition, as jump between past and future, constructed multiple images of the past, positive and negative, difficult and improving.1 Many researchers of post-socialism share the same view that the ethnography of everyday life is the best tool in exploring the controversial period of social transformation2 in post-socialist societies. As Katharine Verdery points out, this method enables a multidimensional analysis and comprehension of the political practices and numerous contradictory social phenomena.3 Research focuses on the micro level, based on the fieldwork and close and personal contacts with interlocutors are especially welcome in periods of uncertainty and institutional instability.4 The main idea of this essay is to explore the musical practices in the light of post-socialist transformations, using the personal narratives of its multiple and creative capacity in 1

Gerald W. Creed, “Deconstructing Socialism in Bulgaria,” in Michel Burawoy and Katherine Verdery, eds., Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham, Boulder, New York and Oxford: Rowman&Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999), 223-243, 224.

2 Since its basic meaning the term transition signifies a linear process of transition from one “hegemonic” and “totalitarian” regime to “democracy,” scholars agree that this term is not adequate for the process of social transformation which contains many complexities, uncertainties and contradictions, and can vary in different societies. They recommend the term social transformation, which illustrates this process better (Verdery 1996:220).

In this essay, the term transition is employed in order to underline its usage in the personal accounts of my interlocutors, but with the meaning which corresponds to social transformation.

3 Katherine Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next? (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996), 11.

4 Chris Hann, Humphery Caroline, Verdery, Katherine, “Introduction: Postsocialism as a Topic of Anthropological Investigation,” in Chris M. Hann, ed. Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia (New York: Routledge, 2002), 1-30, 7.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ana Hofman everyday life strategies.5 With that respect, I have opted for the oral history method, which made it possible to keep a record of the individual accounts of my interlocutors and their personal histories. Authors such as Paul Thompson, Donald A. Ritchie and Liz Stanley6 argue that the main purpose of this method is not to get the information of value itself, “but to make a ‘subjective’ record of how one man or woman looks back on his or her life as a whole, or part of it.”7 This approach unveiled the strategies of remembering and re-constructing the past, but also the ways in which current economic, political and cultural changes affect the personal lives of people involved in the research.8 I examine the personal discourses on musical activities in rural areas in Southeastern Serbia (more precisely the area of Niško Polje) by talking to people who were actively involved as participants (singers, players, dancers) in the local culture events, as well as those of its organizers. Women and men I have talked to belong to the older generation of villagers born prior to and during WWII, who actively participated in the custom practices but also in the cultural event called the Village Gatherings (Susreti sela), which represented a corner stone of the culture life in villages of this area from the 1970s to the mid 1990s. Analyzing the discourses around this event, my aim is to show the way the socialist culture practices are employed and deployed in the dynamics of the relationship between the past and present in the post-socialist context.

Village Culture Life The state-supervised culture events represented an important vehicle of ideology of modernization and emancipation in socialist Yugoslavia. According to official discourses, they played a significant role in “channeling” amateur culture activities and “development” of rural culture. The activities within amateur groups and societies were seen as essential for the reinforcement of sociability, sense of responsibility and organization, and many other positive qualities in people: “Today’s village, a village of socialist relations, maintains only the socialist culture. That requires that the amateurism in a village 5

The musical perspective of the traumatic social changes in the post-socialist societies after 1991 seems to be neglected by the researchers in Southeastern Europe. Apart from the works on Bulgaria and Caucasus (see Timothy Rice, May It Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994); Donna Buchanan, Performing Democracy: Bulgarian Music and Musicians in Transition (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006), Look Inside This Book Balkan Popular Culture And The Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, And Regional Political Discourse, Series Europea: Ethnomusicologies And Modernities, Scarecrow Inc., 2007); and Tziztishvili (Sergey Arutiunov and Nino Tziztishvili, Cultural Archetypes and Political Change in the Caucasus, Nova Science Publishers, 2009), there are no studies addressing this issue in other post-socialist countries.

6 Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past – Oral History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), Donald A. Ritchie, Doing oral history (New York: Twayne Publisher, 1995), Stanley, The auto-biographical I .

7 Thompson, The Voice of the Past—Oral History, 199.

8 Mojca Ramšak, a Slovenian ethnologist who uses the biographic method in her research, asserts that personal memories and life stories are crucial for understanding the way people connect personal experience and an interpretation of the past with their social environment. Mojca Ramšak, “Zbiranje življenskih zgodb v slovenski etnologiji,” [Collecting life stories in Slovenian ethnology] Etnolog, 10 (2000), 61, 29-41, 30.

10 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical Practices as Everyday Experience ... should be, in true meaning, part of the overall amateur and culture life in our society.”9 As a part of that process, in 1973, the manifestation with the official name “The Contest of Serbian Villages” was established by the Government of the Republic of Serbia (in the local variations as well as colloquial language it was called the Village Gatherings). There were some corresponding manifestations in other republics of former Yugoslavia, but, on the whole, the manifestation focused exclusively on Serbia and its two provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo. It was organized as a state (republic) project, but the very organization was based on the work of culture organizations and amateurs at a local level. The official organizer was the Serbian Culture-Educational Association (Kulturno-prosvetna zajednica Srbije) situated in Belgrade with its local branches in all regional centers. However, the real organizers, as well as the last link in that bureaucratic chain, were the Culture-Educational Associations (KPZs) and the Houses of Culture (Domovi kulture) in villages. The competitions were organized at four levels of the territorial governance: the local (lokalni-seoski), the municipal (opštinski), the regional (regionalni) and the republic (republički). Local competitions were organized within one region as a specific kind of gathering of two villages, where one village hosted its rival. Local winners were given the opportunity to compete at a regional level, and if successful, at the final manifestation organized at the republic level. All activities were assessed by a jury appointed by the Regional Board of the event and comprising of five to seven qualified cultural and educational workers, medical doctors, agricultural experts, architects, ethnologists, music teachers and journalists (taken from the Regulation of the Village Gatherings). Bearing in mind the socialist ideology of progress, the principal aim of the Village Gatherings was to enhance “village development” and improvement in the field of culture in rural areas.

On the other hand, despite the official discourses claimed the importance of this event, the Gatherings actually were seen as a marginal form of the state sponsored activity, in accordance with the overall policy toward villages in Serbia during socialism.10 My interlocutors stated that party functionaries and culture administrators were not particularly interested in the program; their role was just to show up in order to underline the formal nature of the event. Hence, since the Village Gatherings was focused on rural life and achievements in the local rural culture, the urban public at large was not particularly interested in it.

The attitude towards the Village Gatherings varied over the years, depending on both political and economic changes in Serbia. It began losing momentum after the breaking up of Yugoslavia, but still continued to exist during the leadership of Slobodan Milošević.11 His controversial politics of flirting both with socialist and nationalist ideas (propagating at the same time both Serbian nationalism and the Yugoslavian idea), resulted in a phenomenon that many of the socialist culture practices sustained, in addition to the new ones created in accordance with the new 9Vukadin 10

11

Radojković ed., Mali [The little], 6 (1974), 7.

Despite the ideological emphasis on progress and modernization, sluggish agrarian reforms, the emphasis on industrialization and low investment in agriculture showed that the rural areas and their cultural life were largely neglected by official policy (Hoffman 1959:562).

Marija Bišof, the current secretary of the Serbian Cultural-Educational Association, states that some of the leading administrators of that organization during the 1990s were closely connected to Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 11

Ana Hofman political demands.12 That politics of continuity with the socialist past enabled the preservation of several socialist culture patterns. Paradoxically, in the rural environment, which was at the time proclaimed to be the main force supporting nationalist politics, culture life functioned the same way it had in the previous forty years, and the Village Gatherings continued to be held in many areas without considerable changes.

However, with the beginning of the 1990s, the weakening of the administrative system of the KPZs and generally unstable political climate caused a loss of interest in the Gatherings in villages. Interlocutors emphasized that the multiparty system, which brought about strong polarization of political orientations, was the main obstacle in organizing the event. After the democratically orientated parties won at the local elections in 1996, which influenced the dissension between the republic and local authorities, organizing the Gatherings became increasingly difficult. Many of the people who had actively participated in organizing this event stated that the frequent alternation of the local authorities and the party conflicts were the principal reasons why it was very difficult to find people willing to cooperate on the same project in the second half of the 1990s.

After the end of Milošević’s rule and with the so-called Democratic changes after the Fifth of October 2000, the network of KPZs was recognized as inappropriate due to its association with socialism and connection with the Milošević’s policy, and stopped being supported by the state. The closing of the state institutions that made up the institutional framework caused the Village Gatherings to be deemed as irrelevant and frivolous: The Village Gatherings lasted long, until 1996, or maybe 1995.

And then the politics started and the war and it all changed, shut down and changed.

A Susreti sela bili su dugo, do 1996, valjda godine 1995. I onda su počeli politike, počeo je rat i onda se to promenilo, ugasilo se i promenilo. (Vukašin Mitić, Trupale village) In general, this event was criticized because of its “old fashioned” concept, which is not in accordance with the current social and political moment and the new demands of the market economy and entertainment industry. As a result, once the most important culture institution in socialist Serbia—The Serbian KPZ with more than its 80 local branches lost its official status and financial support. As a specific kind of its substitution, the Ministry of Culture established the institution called “The Agency for Culture Production” (Agencija za kulturnu produkciju). As a result of controversial culture policy, both institutions exist formally today. The main KPZ in Belgrade is one step from closing, with two employees (including the director), and without any financial support, waiting for the official decision about its formal status.

Although the Village Gatherings was recognized as irrelevant after 2000 by the so-called democratic bloc parties, the attitudes of the local authorities varied regardless of their political orientation: in some municipalities, the Socialist Party of Serbia, which was the main supporter of the Culture-Educational Association’s activities during the 1990s, declared against the Gatherings, while some local authorities which belong to Democratic parties bloc maintained both the Association and the 12

Stef Jansen, Antinacionalizam: etnografija otpora u Zagrebu i Beogradu [Antinationalism: an ethnography of resistance in Zagreb and Beograd] (Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek, 2005), 21.

12 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical Practices as Everyday Experience ... manifestation. As a result of such a policy, this event still has continuity in some areas of Serbia (mainly Eastern and Central Serbia), but only as an independent project of the local culture institutions, without the governmental support.

“Old Times” The discourses of my interlocutors expressed significant ambivalence. Their stories about the Village Gatherings, acknowledge the present post-socialist reality, showing the dynamics of sentiments regarding the socialistic past – denial of the past on one hand, and nostalgia on the other: “Anger, resignation and selective nostalgia for the socialist era seem more significant in defining the new subjectivities.”13 The distinction between the “foregone times” and a current moment defined as “new times” was particularly present in their narratives. The “foregone time” is remembered as a period of suffering because of the difficult lifestyle (“lacked running water, electricity, and modern infrastructure and farming equipment”), but also as a time of harmony, cooperation and unity. People glorified the idyllic village life as a time marked by friendship, unity and generally good relations between people (“We lived differently at that time. Lots of things were happening, my son, lots of things, it was wonderful” – Drukčije se zivelo tag, Bilo svasta, sine, to je bilo svasta, divota je bilo). They particularly emphasized good social relations, seeing the close relations between relatives, neighbors and among the peasant community in general as the most important benefits of the foregone days. In their stories, the past was portrayed as a period marked by joint singing and dancing, which involved all community members in the common social activities: We are walking down the road, walking and signing. People sang. Now there is no love, no children, no sorrow, there is nothing now, no help, no nothing. Now there is only spite.

Bre, idemo si od put, idemo si, pevamo. Pesma je bila, pesma.

Sad nema ljubav, deca, nema žal, nema ništa sad, nema pomoć, nema ništa. Sad samo na inat. (Životka Stanković, Brzi Brod village) The Village Gatherings were represented to me by the villagers with a highly positive attitude, as a manifestation which was extremely beneficial to village culture life. They emphasized that this event was an excellent opportunity for young people to be engaged in some extra activities, to learn the old songs, dances and customs, and to meet their peers from the neighboring villages. For older people, it was a good means of reviving memories from the past and having a great time together. The Gatherings functioned as a new way of socializing and a specific “outlet” in the villagers’ everyday life, including different generations in the realization of the program: We had around five generations and all of them stayed on the stage—including those singers who sang the old, genuine songs, that is to say, the folk songs.

Mi smo skoro imali oko pet generacija i svi ostaju na pozornici i oni pevači koji pevaju izvorne ove stare pesme, kako bi rekao, ove narodne pesme. (Velibor Stanković, Prosek village) In remembering the Gatherings, my interlocutors particularly emphasized that 13

Chris M. Hann, “Dimensions of inequality: Gender, class and ‘underclass” (introduction to the Part II), in Chris M. Hann, ed. Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia (New York: Routledge, 2002), 93-94, 93.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 13

Ana Hofman the people involved in the organization were enthusiasts who worked without being paid. Even though the culture center halls had been demolished in many villages of Southeastern Serbia, sometimes left even without the windows and heating, they were always crammed with audience during the performance of the program. All members of the village community were delighted by the opportunity to welcome people from other villages and promote their village in the best possible way: Everyone brought what they had. And there people do not bring just anything. From food, drinks, roast meat. And also barrels of bear, those big schooners.

Ali je svako doneo šta je imao. A tu se ne donosi tek tako. Od piluci, meze, pečenja, pa onda roštilj nije bio. A onda su bili burići pivo, krigle one velike. (Velibor Stanković) Local organizers pointed out that the Gatherings became one of the most popular events and that the villagers were very dedicated to preparing for the competition at the Village Gatherings: We were debutants, you cannot imagine, a man will rise from the grave to take part in programme, the kids also said: uncle Dragan, when will we perform? Not to mention the boys and girls who wanted to prove themselves. That was really euphoria.

Mi smo bili debitanti, pa to ne znate, ma misliš čovek bi se iz groba podigao samo da bi učestvovao u programu, pa i ona mala deca, čika Dragane, kad ćemo da nastupamo, a da ne pričam momci i devojke koji bi da se iskažu. To je euforija bila.

(Dragan Todorović) My interlocutors emphasized that they especially enjoyed travelling with the local amateur groups, and participating in different manifestations in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia.14 They were most certainly delighted by opportunity to visit various places, and the important elements of their stories were the travels and contacts with people from other areas:15 I have pictures from the Village Gatherings, when I went to Bubanj and three days in Aleksandrovac. There was a banquet, the wine…you just pour it and drink. I have pictures, I will show you later. I have travelled, I have seen things, so, if I died now, I would not be sorry.

Imam i slike sa Susreti sela, pa kako sam i u Bubanj bila, pa tri dana u Aleksandrovac, bijemo li, bijemo. Ono gozba, ono vince točiš, piješ. Imam slike, imam slike, posle ce da vidimo.

Putovala sam..sad da umrem neće mi bude žao. (Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village) 14

Such as the Festival of the Folklore Heritage of Serbia (Sabor narodnog stvaralaštva Srbije), the Review of the Folklore Groups (Smotra narodnog stvaralaštva izvornih grupa), the International Folklore Festival in Zagreb (Međunarodna smotra folklora u Zagrebu) or the Balkan Festival of Folklore Heritage held in Ohrid (Balkanski festival narodnog stvaralaštva u Ohridu).

15 According to Stef Jansen the sense of mobility is generally present in the memories of former Yugoslavia. Longing for the “big country” and free travelling is the result of the post-Yugoslav restriction in mobility caused by war, difficult economic circumstances and visa policy, Jansen , Antinacionalizam: etnografija otpora u Zagrebu i Beogradu, 224.

14 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical Practices as Everyday Experience ...

In that way, people involved in village culture activities achieved a certain level of geographical and social mobility, which was not common for rural areas: “By performing at manifestations, particularly at big ones, the members of the group became important persons, and the first known experts, artists and tourists from their environments.”16

“New times” In the opinion of my interlocutors, although today’s people have much better quality of life, their social relations have seriously deteriorated (“Young people have everything but know nothing”—Sg se deca najela, napila pa ništa ne znaju, Ilinka Despotović, Trupale village). In contrast to the “old times” when people sang and danced at internal and communal gatherings (oro svaku nedelju), people today spend most of their time watching TV, “locked” in their houses. Villagers stated that they do not visit their neighbors and relatives as often as they did in the earlier times. They expressed disappointment at the disappearance of the most important events which provided the sense of unity and cohesion.

Local organizers stated that young people are not interested in village culture life and become embarrassed by those kinds of events, seeing them as rustic (seljački).

Women expressed disappointment at the fact that no one is interested in performing the old songs any more. Young people and particularly their grandchildren seem to be averse to the old style of singing, which they slightingly call “howling” (zavijanje). In their opinion, they do not find any amusement in the Village Gatherings type of activity, as a joint culture activity at the level of the village since nowadays there is no entertainment suitable for young people in villages, apart from the one provided by local clubs and cafes.

According to my interlocutors, the new authorities give preference to the urban culture, neglecting culture activities in the rural areas. Some of them even told me that the policy makers are aiming at building up an urban-based society (građansko društvo, which in the very etymology of the phrase excludes peasants), trying to distance themselves from their rural origins. All the people felt abandoned both by the local administrators in Niš as well as by the republic authorities who let the culture life in their villages die out: When the Village Gathering ended the interest of the people stopped. Everything was alive during the socialist system, the multiparty system killed everything, this democracy killed everything that can be destroyed. And this is true. Here in Niš, nothing is happening, amateurism in rural areas is completely forgotten. But Nisomnia (the popular music festival in Niš), I have nothing against it, but can you imagine to favorize African-american music and forgetting our own, that is awful.

Sa prestankom susreta sela interesovanje je prestalo. To je sve živelo dok je bio socijalistički sistem, šta ja znam kad je počeo višepartijski sistem sve je ubio, ova demokratija sve je ubila što je moglo da se ubije. I to je istina. Evo ovde u Nišu ništa se ne 16

Naila Ceribašić, Hrvatsko, seljačko, starinsko i domaće: Povijest i etnografija javne prakse narodne glazbe u Hrvatskoj [Croatian, Peasant, Old and Local: History and Ethnography of the Public Practice of Folk Music in Croatia] (Zagreb: Biblioteka Etnografija, 2003), 20.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 15

Ana Hofman dešava, amaterizam što se tiče seoskog područja su zaboravili.

A nisomniju, nemam ništa protiv nisomnije, ali zamislite da oni crnačku muziku favoriziraju, a svoje da zaboravljamo, pa to je ubitačno. (Dragan Todorović) They explain to me that individual ideas and energy exist, but without the municipality or state support, it is not possible to realize any project. Those attitudes assert the lack of communication between the political elite and the members of the rural society in Southeastern Serbia. The public institutions and authorities are perceived as ‘foreign’ and ‘distant’ which resulted in socially produced mistrust and negative representation of the state. That phenomenon of misinterpretation and tensions between the state and institutions on one hand and citizens and social actions on the other are broadly present in post-socialist societies.17

Nostalgia or Disappointment?

While working on the organization of the Village Gatherings the community members shared common duties, interests and goals, which provided cohesion of the rural community. That was a significant feature in creating the image of the sociable past, where everyone tried to help and contribute to the development of the community. To quote the people I conversed with, the main life qualities of those times were socializing (druženje), helpfulness (pomaganje) and unity (zajedništvo).

Their stories disaffirm the attitude that all socialist state-sponsored manifestations represented artificial and imposed forms of communal activities in rural society. In the personal discourses of my interlocutors, the Village Gatherings were recognized as a significant part of their everyday life strategies and the culture event with the longest tradition. At this point, I find Gerald W. Creed’s study on the erosion of ritual practice in post-socialist Bulgaria particularly useful in demonstrating the role of public manifestations as an important feature for sociability during socialist times. Creed points out that the village social networks in socialism were not ‘family-atomized’ as it was usually interpreted.18 The case of Niško Polje confirms a similar practice whereby the social relations during socialism were strengthened not only by the informal family festivals and gatherings, but by the state supervised manifestations as well.

In the accounts of my interlocutors I noticed an implicit referring to the socialist period as a time of better, more peaceful and safer life.19 Their stories are not directly influenced by the post-Yugoslav nostalgia for socialist times, but more for the

17

Christian Giordano and Dobrinka Kostova, “The social production of mistrust,” in Chris M. Hann, ed. Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia (New York: Routledge, 2002), 74-92, 89.

18 Gerald W. Creed, “Economic crisis and ritual decline in Eastern Europe,” in Chris M. Hann, ed. Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia (New York: Routledge, 2002), 57-73, 64.

19 Michael Herzfeld claims that the discourses of change and decline, particularly moral decline, are inherent in many societies, using the term “structural nostalgia” for that collective imagination of the perfectness of the preceding times, Herzfeld, Kulturna intimnost [Cultural Intimacy] (Beograd:Bibioteka XX vek, 2004), 184, 186. Every new generation produces the same narrative about the earlier period as that of more generous and kind-hearted people, where women were more modest whereas men were more responsible for their families.

16 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical Practices as Everyday Experience ... time marked by unity, cooperation and economic stability.20 Almost all of them emphasized that although they had been born in poor families, during that time they built houses, founded families and provided them with a good life. Particularly women, who got possibilities to be employed and build their social identity outside marriage and family for the first time,21 perceived this period as the time when they had achieved a certain level of social rights. As Predrag J. Marković claims, the processes of urbanization and modernization had a particularly important role in shaping the memory of the rural population in Serbia, since the development and prosperity are recognized primarily as a legacy of socialism.22 As a support to this claim goes the attitude of post-socialist theorists that the rural population is one of the most endangered in the processes of transformation in former socialist countries.

Chris Hann asserts that in post-socialist societies in Southeastern Europe, peasants are resisting the social transformations, feeling defended by the emerging differences among social groups.23 However, as Gerald W. Creed claims, the economic and political situation is not the crucial factors for dissatisfaction and disappointment of the rural population.

Vanishing of the culture practices which provided the sense of unity and cohesion of the rural society seems to be equally important: “Ritual decline is not simply a barometer of economic and political difficulty, but itself contributes to rural dissatisfaction and disappointment.”24 Members of the rural communities experienced the loss of the sense of social cohesion and the sense of agency in the changing cultural context. As a result, they have a defeatist attitude to present, and nostalgia for socialism arises predominantly because of the loss of faith in present future, not for ideology itself: “..uncertainty and insecurity in present circumstances create fertile ground for a sentimental longing for the past.”25 Volatile social and political climate, as well as a generally confusing social environment affected the recreation of the image of the past. This type of nostalgia, which is founded in the individual and cultural memories, is defined by Svetlana Boym as reflecting nostalgy.26 She asserts that in post-socialist societies, nostalgia is the defense mechanism against fast social changes and economic shock therapy and expresses longing for normal and stable everyday life.

20

Only few of them mentioned Tito or “the socialist past” (“After Tito, Tito, that is how I learned,” said one of them, Posle Tita, Tita, ja sam tako naučio).

21 After World War II the new socio-political conditions opened a space for women’s active participation in the public sphere. Activities of the newly founded women and feminist organizations (the most important state organization was the Antifascist Women’s Front, AWF—Antifašistički front žena, AFŽ) particularly tried to reach women in rural areas (Božinović 1996:171). Associations called the Federation of Women Societies of Serbia (Savez ženskih društava Srbije) were established in villages with the purpose of supporting the emancipation of rural women, AJ-142, Status of women in villages, materials from 1959-1962, F-616.

22 Predrag J. Marković, Trajnost i promena: Društvena istorija socijalističke i postsocijalističke svakodnevice u Jugoslaviji i Srbiji [Continuity and Change: Social History of Socialist and Post-socialist everyday life in Yugoslavia and Serbia] (Beograd: Službeni glasnik, 2007), 31.

23 Chris Hann, Humphery Caroline, Verdery, Katherine, “Introduction: Postsocialism as a Topic of Anthropological Investigation,” 3 24 Creed, “Economic crisis and ritual decline in Eastern Europe,” 70.

25 Michael Pickering and Emili Keightley, “The Modalities of Nostalgia,” Current Sociology, 54 (2006) 6, 919-941, 925.

26

Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 49.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 17

Ana Hofman From “Socialist Reviews” to “Democratic Festivals”

After 2000 social and political changes, once again the discourses of modernization and emancipation are dominant. As Ulf Brunbauer points out, the ideology of modernization is an integral part of the introducing of new liberal-democratic system in the countries of the Eastern Europe (Brunnbauer 2002:228). With that respect, the processes of European integrations are presented in the official narratives as a part of Serbia’s economic, social and cultural progress.

These discourses are also transmitted to the field of national culture, where festivals are not only recognized as a way of promoting of the traditional heritage but also as a contribution to building of the new image of modern, European Serbia.

In Niško Polje, as a consequence of the disappearance of the state support and disintegration of the village amateur activities, only two vocal groups continued to be active after losing institutional support. Regarding the above-mentioned changes in the official culture politics, these groups also tried to adjust to new demands.

Culture-Artistic Society “Vukmanovo” from village of Vukmanovo was renamed the “Kovilje Vocal Group” (named after a local plant) in 1997 and started performing at various festivals. As opposed to the socialist time, when this group performed mainly at a local level and in rural settings, in the post-socialist time it began to gain renown by urban audiences. Now, it performs both at various the Reviews of Traditional Music in Serbia and at international, Balkan and World Music Festivals: This year we are planning to go to Krušarija in small town of Teketo, one valley where we have been 5-6 times and won the first prize of Balkans, because that is Balkan festival. There were twelve countries and we were the thirteenth, it was amazing. And everywhere we go we are the winners. Two years ago we were invited to Guča and won first prize.

Ove godine u planu je da idemo za Krušariju, u mestu Teketo, jedna udolina gde smo bili već 5, 6 puta, i osvojimo prvo mesto Balkana, jer to je balkanski festival. Dvanaest zemlje su bile mi smo trinaesta zemlja bili, pa to boli glava. I kažem gde god da budemo prvaci smo. Pre dve godine zovu nas za Guču da idemo za nošnju i osvojimo prvo mesto. (Dragan Todorović) The leaders of these, in colloquial language also called ethno-groups, complained that they sometimes get the money from the city of Niš for internal travels across Serbia, but do not get any financial support for the international festivals. They asserted that when village KPZs were active it was easier to get the money since they had their own budget and the funding from the state was disseminated to the local KUDs. Without having a budget and institutional support, organizers stated that they are forced to “beg” for help from local sponsors and companies: They invited me to participate at the International folklore festival in Fivicano, but when I saw that I have to pay around 4000 eur just to participate ..and where to stay for these eight days, who will pay for that.

Mene su iz Fivicana pozvali na onaj međunarodni festival foklora da učestvujemo, ja kad sam video da je moram da dam oko 4000 evra, da platim samo za učestvovanje.. A gde da budemo 8 dana tamo ko će to da plati. (Dragan Todorović) Therefore, it order to continue with their activities, they had some intentions to professionalize groups, but emphasized that all people involved (as well as leaders)

18 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical Practices as Everyday Experience ... are amateurs and do not have enough time and to invest in managing of the groups.

On the other hand, in Niško polje some of the former state-organized cultural manifestations were transformed into local festivals usually organized under the supervision of the regional touristic organizations.27 Their main idea is to present traditional heritage in the light of the new market economy and a consumer demands.

Apart from the so-called culture-entertainment programme (kulturno-zabavni program), the offer included commercial exhibitions of the traditional food, craftwork, souvenirs and even fashion shows and beauty contests. The organizers emphasized that through the touristic offer the local authentic heritage is preserved and promoted. In their opinion, this so-called “festival” or “culture-historical” tourism represents very important aspect in presenting the national cultural heritage to the global tourists. However, it is important to keep in mind that many of these festivals depend on the support of the private sponsors, who significantly affect the creation of the culture offer and content of the events.

Conclusion Personal accounts of musical practices and everyday life strategies in Southeastern Serbia show all the contradictions and paradoxes characteristic of the societies in transformation. The individual discourses of the Village Gatherings I analyzed show that the collapse of the socialist cultual institutions which were the main supporters of the village culture life in Southeastern Serbia, resulted in the overall declining of villages followed by the fragmentation of the social and culture infrastructure. The obtained stories illuminate a significant role of these events in the everyday life of villagers, as a crucial element in providing a sense of social unity and cohesion. Villagers expressed the nostalgia for the socialist times, which cannot be taken as a subversive act, as a longing for certain ideology or political orientation, but more as an escape from the current traumatic transformation. On the other hand, the traditional music is market as a product in the so-called „ideologization of the market supremacy” in accordance with the dominance of the commercial interests. However, many scholars arise a question would and on which way, the local culture find their place in the global labor, having been critical of policies based on the transfer of the “Western models,” which overlook local context and dramatic social ruptures.28

27

Such as Festival of the Traditional and Folk Heritage in Niška Banja (Sabor izvornog i narodnog stvaralastva), founded as a part of spa turistic offer in Serbia.

28

Chris M. Hann, “Introduction…”, 5.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 19

Ana Hofman

20 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

F. Merve Eken Küçükaksoy, Turkey REVIVAL OF A TRADITION IN A NEW COMPOSITION

This study is based on my fieldwork about fasıl programs I have executed from 2003 to 2005 in four main and important entertainment places in Istanbul that cover contrast social and economic features in the city. I have chosen these areas because audience profile changes according to different socio economical structure of these areas and also this fact affects performance and repertory of fasıl. In this paper I want to discuss the entertainment music as explaining some social and musical changes in Turkey and in connection with this; reveal the place of fasıl performance in these entertainment music types and repertory, performing style of fasıl performances in Istanbul today.

Before mentioning the changes of fasıl performance, I want to mention about what is fasıl in Turkish Music? Fasıl is a form and performing style in Turkish Music at the same time. This term is used in Classical music in Turkey and also folk music in Anatolia. There are some different definitions about fasıl. One of them; fasıl is a form that is took shape by performing takım which is a set consists of all of the big secular forms in Turkish Music such as Peşrev, Kâr, 1st Beste, 2nd Beste, Ağır Semai, Yürük Semai, and Saz Semaisi in same makam that are composed by one composer.

But sometime takım and fasıl contexts are confused. We can say takım is a form that includes big secular forms in Turkish music and fasıl is a performance of takım. But in process of time fasıl has been described as a form. After the 19th century, şarkı form, which became popular especially in the Westernization Period in Ottoman, enter the fasıl repertory, it is forgotten the great forms such as Kar, Beste and at the middle of the 20th century, fasıl performance has only pieces composed in şarkı form. So in repertory includes some different songs and so fasıl’s context and definition changed: this once fasıl was begun to emphasize as a performing style. In this context, the important thing was not the order under the name of takım, contrarily, emphasized that

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy a performing style that the arrangement of the songs is based on some rules but changeable. Hereunder, fasıl is a performing style that consists of some chosen specific pieces which are tied one another by some rules, hold the distinction of a tradition of ensemble performance. The reason of fasıl is named as a form is fasıl performs depending on some rules about the arranging, and performance. I want to discuss fasıl as a performing style.1 There are some Turkish Folk Music performances are called fasıl in some regions in Anatolia. We could see fasıl as an ensemble performance tradition in Istanbul, Anatolia and even in Aleppo and Damascus where its name is Wasla; in Tunusia under the name of Ma’aluf and in Andolusian-Arabian performance with the name of Muwashha.

This classical fasıl form has started to change in the 19th century as another form of classical Turkish Music şarkı became popular and it was added to the fasıl repertory which caused the big forms to be forgotten. Therefore, this change affected the performers and they started to use usually şarkı forms in fasıl performances especially at the 20th century. This change in arrangement of forms affected the repertory and also performance. There has been based on some characteristics throughout the 20th century and fasıl is performed according to these characteristics: Fasıl performance starts with the big and slow form named Peşrev which is an instrumental form, and then goes to the faster forms. It starts and ends in one mode (makam), and is named after the makam such as Hüzzam Fasıl or Hicaz Fasıl. A fasıl ensemble consisted of sazendes (instrument players) and hanendes (singers). In a fasıl performance, the singers and players sing and play at the same time. All of hanendes in the group sing and play zilli def (tambourine with jingle) also. The ensemble’s chief is one of the hanendes and he/she is named as başhanende or serhanende. He sings and conducts the ensemble and determines which song was performed during the performance. Besides, he/she shows the passing of the songs by some gestures that he/she does on his/her instrument. In a classical fasıl ensemble, used instruments are kanun, kemençe, violin, zilli def, and ud.

1

At some sources, it is said that fasıl and suit form resemble each other. But the most important difference between fasıl and suit form is the pieces and forms in fasıl performance are changeable. In fasıl form, different pieces could be performed.

22 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Revival of tradition in a new composition

Picture 1: Darut’talim – i Musiki Heyeti. Fasıl Music Group in Early Republic Period. Gönül Paçacı Archive2.

In a fasıl performance, the strength of the repertoire is important. The number of the songs in the performance ranges from ten to sixty. These numbers can be changed depending on the repertoire knowledge of the musicians and the duration of the performance. As the fasıl musicians, who performed at the 1960s, say the fasıl performance used to last almost one or one and half hours generally. The choosing the pieces are important for performances because in a fasıl performance, the musicians must not perform songs of Turkish music. Fasıl songs differ from other songs of their lyrics, melodies and rhythms. These pieces are in Şarkı form and important to provide the continuity and dynamics of the fasıl performance.

The most important feature of the fasıl performance is continuity. One song is linked to the previous song with some short instrumental melodies and some link measures and they are sung by one after the other. This is one of the most important characteristic that gives the performance identity to fasıl performance.

Today fasıl term brings to evoke some musical programs in some entertainment places such as meyhane or restaurants that people go for the purpose of entertainment. So, how this traditional performance passes which process and today it took this form. This question must be discussed and thought as the parallel with some cornerstone events that affected to Istanbul entertainment life and social change process in Turkey. Entertainment life is one of the areas that are affected from the 2

Aksoy, Bülent, 1999. “Cumhuriyet Dönemi Musikisinde Farklılaşma Olgusu.” In Cumhuriyetin Sesleri, İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı press. p: 30.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 23

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy changes in a society. Fasıl performances, especially 20th century, had been performed in some entertainment places such as gazino3 and when people went to gazinos, and then they began to go to restaurant, bars and meyhanes after gazinos closed down.

Some selected Turkish Music forms used to performed in fasıl performances; then at present it is used a repertory consists of some popular songs of today. In the period that we labeled the revival of fasıl performance, the only singing and playing structure of fasıl performance has continued. May be this is the unique point that keep fasıl concept alive. So, did only performing style changed? Or has the performance style changed because of places and life have changed? We can find the answer of these questions as discussing the social change process and some important point in this process.

‘Changes in society general and particular, determine changes in music’ (Nettl, 1983:236). I could say that fasıl performing style is affected by sociological changes since at the ends of the 19th century and this change has lasted throughout the 20th century as parallel with the sociological and cultural changes. The reasons, which elicit the changes in society, reflected in performances, understanding and entertainment area that is human factor was very important. We can see that the changes in society reflect the fasıl performances. The repertoire, performing style, even also singing style of fasıl performance have changed in the length of time. Especially, with the modernization movements, which was started in the 19th century and brought in some changes at administrative structures and daily life of Ottoman society, some new entertainment forms such as theatre, cinema, night clubs, and new musical genres such as kanto started to take part in the entertainment life in the cities. After the foundation of Republic in 1923 and falling of Ottoman court, which supported the classical tradition during centuries, fasıl tradition survives by interest of especially people in the city.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, gazinos, which are known as the most popular entertainment places of Istanbul, started to be opened and hosted the fasıl performances. We consider that this era as parallel with the period of the change of gazinos. Because, both of researchers and musicians who has performed fasıl for 50 years expresses that fasıl performance disappeared after gazinos had closed down.

Changing Process of Fasıl Performance Two of the most important reasons of change were economic distress which emerged after the II. World War and the other, related to the War was migration from rural to urban especially to Istanbul in 1950s. The causes of this migration were mechanization in artificial and even economical difficulties, unemployment, and the educational problems.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, gazino customers were Turkish intellectuals and non-Muslims of the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Turkish intellectual and diplomats continued to be regular customers of gazino. (Beken: 2003:4) Gazinos accommodated some of the best 3

A kind of night club.

24 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Revival of tradition in a new composition traditional performers of time and some regular customers would come to listen to these musicians performing the fasıl at the beginning of the show. However, this scene changed after World War II. (Beken, 2003:3) Munir Nurettin Beken indicates this in his article ‘Aesthetics and Artistic Criticism at the Turkish Gazino’ with the following words: “Rapid economic growth during the post-World-War II era created a class of rural immigrants who migrated from Anatolia because of unemployment, acquired wealth and settled in Istanbul. Especially in the Democratic Party era, between 1950 and 1960, some large farm owners increased their incomes considerably.” (Beken: 2003:3). These people, who engaged in farming and trade, became a wealth class that gets rich. At that time the inflation rate, which reached 350 per cent between 1939 and 1945, caused the city dweller and even bureaucrats to become poor. Thus, these new rich people from countryside took place of gazino customers, who are mostly natives of Istanbul. They became both the permanent residents in Istanbul and regular gazino customers. (Beken 2003:3) The change in social statutes reflected to the repertory of gazino programs. Villagers, which separate their land, did not change their interactions and values so that they only migrate to urban. (Kıray 2007: 185) But they wish to see their customs in the urban. For instance they want to listen to music that they are accustomed. But in gazinos, the lyrics and melodies of some classical Turkish music pieces, composed by important classical Turkish music composers such as Hacı Arif Bey, Dede Efendi, did not appeal to them. “This social shift was reflected in the addition of the Folk Music as a fabricated urban genre into the gazino repertoire” (Beken 2003:3) Afterwards, the programs and repertories in entertainment places in the city, such as gazinos, had been formed according to the requests of the audiences, constituting a majority. “Because of this, the audiences who came to listen only to fasıl, disappeared from the gazinos by the end of the 1950s” (Beken 2003:3).

Some of these audiences could not go to gazinos because of economic reasons. Besides, they could provide for their musical needs from radio, concerts, and records. After this time, some musicians who performed fasıl continued their performances in gazinos and some of them joined the Istanbul State Radio. (Beken 2003:3).

In this period, fast changing process, which is also brought by technological developments, caused a transferring problem between the generations. In the 19th century, the industrialization movement that started in Europe and influenced the entire world also influenced the social life of people with technological developments in the 20th century. The fast moving mentality has been provided by technology, affected on individual behavior of human and it caused changing through from individuality to social. This change affected the customs in all areas of life, including music. In the 20th century, people travel faster, work faster, eat faster and, having fun faster. As the generation changed, expectations, wishes, and customs would change and the following generation would become strangers to traditions and customs of previous generations. The habits of entertainment of the people, who live with the First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 25

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy fast communication tools, the computers are produced by the latest technology and fast food has changed in parallel. This could be observed clearly in Turkey since the 1960s.

This is also reflected in music and the changing of entertainment habits affected in fasıl performance and, of course, repertory. It is thought that the fasıl performance lost its popularity even is finished completely after gazino-s had been closed down. The technologic developments have made an important effect in music industry which have brought new types of recording elements such as tape records and compact discs and this serious development has given people the opportunity of listening to the various music from many different cultures in the world not only listening to the music performed in their locations where this effect has changed the entertainment ways of people. What could be the reason of the popularity of fasıl today while a generation who has listened to fasıl performances in 60s did not like and listen to the fasıl performances of today where a new generation very much interested in listening to these performances today? At present, people has a various range of opportunities in listening to the many different music from different cultures of the world and also has many different ways of entertainment but they also prefer listening to this traditional performance; could this be a reason of fasıl’s representation of their tradition or feeling fasıl as a symbol of their identities or the opportunity of being a participant in this performance? By the way as it seems a very short period where the change has been very fast we can see that there is a serious matter of transfer between the generations.

80s was an unproductive period for fasıl performance but then in 90s it was being popular performance again. Since the 80s, the passing from closed economy to liberal economy and the process of integrated to global economy along with the second migration from rural to urban created a new changing process in the beginning of the 80s. In this period, arabesk music that was growing at the last decades became popular. Music market has grown by development of the technology and synthesizer entered the entertainment life and taverna music became popular. Many musicians took the stage with the synthesizer that can produce sounds of the many musical instruments. Even in those years, “disco fasıl” music programs which, a musician sings Turkish Art Music accompanied by synthesizer, emerged.

Revival of Fasıl Performance Fasıl performance began to be popular again at the beginning of the 90s.

Traditional form reappeared in a new composition. But this once people, their social and cultural conditions and related to this entertainment customs changed and this affected in the first instance the entertainment places and audiences, their requested and related to this the repertory.

Fasıl performance began to be integrated with the places where it is performed and have some symbols that related to the entertainment life of Turkey.

Previously, it was performed in gazinos, and now in restaurant where local entertainment places of these days. In the middle of the 20th century, saying “let’s go to fasıl” means “listen to Turkish Music in company with dinner” whereas today this expression have the same meaning with the “going to music hall, dinner in company

26 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Revival of tradition in a new composition with listen to popular Turkish Music songs, and dance” especially for young people.

However, not aim of only listen to music; at the same time when musicians perform fasıl, the audiences also participate in the performance as singing the songs in some restaurants and meyhane4s. In the time, some popular songs are added to the repertory and the repertory of fasıl began to change. The aim of fasıl programs in some touristic entertainment areas, which such as Kumkapı and Nevizade, amuse the tourists, and Taksim and Levent areas are visited by some wealthy people and so fasıl programs are different from each other. In Taksim and Levent, fasıl musicians perform popular songs of that days as well as some Turkish Art Music and occasionally Turkish Classical Music pieces that requested by the audiences. Although this differences, there is one mid-point all of the areas in Istanbul, they have a repertory that has popular songs, but performing styles are different.

Today, fasıl ensembles are different from old ones. Firstly, musicians perform at the amusement places under the name of restaurants. A fasıl group consists of four or five people. There is no any distinction between singers and players because all of the musicians in the group play their instruments and sing the songs. You can see the same instruments in every place where fasıl programs are performed. The instruments used are kanun, violin, ud, zilli def (tambourine with jingles), darbuka (percussion instrument), and clarinet.

Today, when we look at the fasıl performances, the biggest difference between in the past and the present is repertory of fasıl programs. The musicians formed their repertory according to the requests of the audiences. So generally, the songs that they sing, and makams they use are limited. Related to the change of repertory, the performing style changed. For example, fasıl musicians make more ornamentation when they perform a song. In Kumkapı, where is one of the touristic districts of the city, the musicians usually sing the most popular songs in different genres such as pop, arabesque, folk music, and even some foreign songs because many people go to the fasıl programs for entertainment and they want to listen to the popular songs which they like rather than the repertory of classical fasıl.

There is not so much effect of the past repertories in the fasıl performances of today as the songs of present time mostly take place in the repertories.

Depending on the effect of taking place in entertainment sector with the effects of 80’s the repertories are now mostly consisting of the popular songs of today. Also we can see arabesk pieces in the repertories by the effects of 80’s. Although today fasıl appears far away from its old traditional structure we can mostly see that it’s been tried to be performed as in the past but actually shaped by the audience grow up with the effects of today’s popular music. Songs like Gulum Benim (My Rose) – an arabesque piece – and Sezen Aksu’s Simarik (Saucy) – a pop music song – can be given as samples of this situation. Besides these many performers especially in the wealthy society regions like Levent are taking utmost care in playing Turkish Music pieces; or in Kumkapı region some foreign language songs are being performed depending on the participation of foreign visitors.

4

Meyhane: Alehouse

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 27

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy Fasıl performers who are performing about 50 years are attributing this change directly to the changes in entertainment ways of people. The audience of today does not like to listen to a performance as it is a concert but likes to sing and also dance with the songs which they have used to know from the past. Because of that fasıl is performed according to the repertories depending on the audience requests which we can not determine this type of performing as a concert just can say that a continuous performing of the popular songs. Pieces which we can be named as Turkish Music are being consisted of the songs composed in the 20th Century and mostly well known by the audience.

Picture 2: Fasıl Group of Galata Meyhanesi (Galata Tavern) in Beyoglu/Istanbul. Personal Archive.

When we take a look at the fasıl performances of today we can clearly see that the most similarity with the traditional fasıl performance is playing and singing together. As a traditional type fasıl was not in demand after the gazino’s were closed down and has been started to be performed according to the requests of the public after being born again with the effects of social changes during the time. Today in fasıl performances the performers act directly to the requests of the audience and the repertories are being structured according to the requests and enjoyments of the audience. The most important effect of the social change on this performance has appeared in this way. This change could be clearly seen both in repertories and performing style and also in the structure of the performing group. These features even showing variety in different places of İstanbul in fact meet in one common point. We can give as a sample of the changes in repertories the fasıl program performed in Evren Restaurant in Kumkapı. When we look at the changes in the repartories we can see also

28 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Revival of tradition in a new composition the big difference in performing styles. If special fasıl songs do not take place in fasıl repertory, the special style which gives fasıl is the characteristic of continuity will be disappear.

Picture 3: A view from Kumkapı in Istanbul. Personal Archive.

Conclusion Today, fasıl is one of the most popular entertainment music in Istanbul.

The fasıl performance as performed in the 1960s is today performed in the concert halls only. Fasıl was a traditional performance. Actually, many researchers and musicians, refuse to name these programs as fasıl because they assume the fasıl is traditional performance and today’s performances that are performed in restaurants should not called as fasıl. But today, when it is asked to young people ‘what fasıl is’ their answer is the programs performed in the entertainment places of today. So this is considered us that the transferring problem between generations especially during the last decades.

Despite some audiences do not wish to call this performance as fasıl, we see fasıl performance today in a different or a new composition in the fasıl programs in the entertainment places of Istanbul. If we accept fasıl performance as a serial composition and a form of singing and playing in unison, these programs have to be also accepted a fasıl.

Through the social changing process in Turkey, the fast change, which First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 29

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy also was accelerated by technology, upset the transfer between the generations and fasıl performance has been started to be considered only as entertainment music in the memories of people, so the repertory and performing style formed according to this view.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Çelik, Nurettin.2004.interview with the fasıl performer. Altunizade.

Istanbul Duyarlar, Bahattin; Kemancı, Yılmaz; Tekyaygil, Fethi.2005. interview with the fasıl performers.Kurtuluş.İstanbul Ergur, Ali.2004. Interview with the sociologist. Galatasaray.İstanbul.

Güntekin, Mehmet.2004.interview with the başhanende of İstanbul Fasıl Ensemble.Taksim.İstanbul Sayan, Erol.2004.interview with the composer, Maçka. İstanbul Secondary Sources Akay, Ali. 2002. “İstanbul Bir Eğlence Magapolü.” İstanbul 43:53-61.

Aksoy, Bülent. 2003. Avrupalı Gezginlerin Gözüyle Osmanlılarda Musiki. İstanbul. Pan press.

Aksoy, Bülent, 1999. “Cumhuriyet Dönemi Musikisinde Farklılaşma Olgusu.” In Cumhuriyetin Sesleri, 30-35. İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı press.

Aktüze, İrkin. 2003. Müziği Anlamak. İstanbul: Pan press.

Altun, Mehmet. 2002. “Yüz yıl öncesinin “Alaturka” İstanbul’unda “Alafranga” eğlence Alternatifleri.” İstanbul 43:90-95 Alus, Sermet Muhtar.

1995. İstanbul Yazıları. İstanbul: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür İşleri Dairesi Başkanlığı press.15 Aşçı, Gönül. 1997. “Huzur Faslı Tarihçesi ve Kuruluş Nedenleri.”

Unpublished undergrauate D. İstanbul Technical University.

Beken, Munir Nurettin. 1998. Musicians, Audience and Power: The Changing Aesthetics in the Music at the Taksim Gazino of İstanbul. UMI. USA. Beken, Munir Nurettin, 2004 “Aesthetics and Artistic Criticism at the Turkish Gazino.” In Anthropology and Music.

Deleon, Jak. 1996. Keyifli Konaklamalar. İstanbul. Remzi Press.

30 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Revival of tradition in a new composition DÖNMEZER, Sulhi. 1996. Toplumbilim, İstanbul. Beta Press.

Eken, F. Merve. 2005. Musical and Social Change as Reflected to “Fasıl” Performance in Istanbul.Unpublished Master Thesis. Istanbul Technical University “Fasıl.” Grove Music Online. ed. 2002. <http://www.grovemusic.com> Güçlüer, Ahmet. 1998. Fasıl Musikisinin Tarih içindeki değişimi ve Fasıl Aranağmeleri. İstanbul. İlyasoğlu, Evin. 2003. “Artık Şarkılar Söylenmiyor Köşk Bahçelerinde.” İstanbul. 45: 67-68.

Körükçü, Çetin, 199?, Türk sanat musikisi,İstanbul Merriam, Alan P. 1964. The Anthropology of Music. Illinois.

Northwestern University Press.

Nettl, Bruno. 1983. The Study of Ethnomusicology. University of Illinois Press. Urbana and Chicago.

Ozankaya, Prof. Dr. Özer. 1999. Toplumbilim. İstanbul: Cem press. Özkan, İsmail Hakkı. 1994. Türk Musikisi Nazariyatı ve Usuller Kudüm Velveleleri. İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat.

Paçacı, Gönül. 1999. “Cumhuriyetin Sesli Serüveni.” In Cumhuriyetin Sesleri. 10-29. İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı press.

Paçacı, Gönül, Zamanında Çözülmüş Olmak, İstanbul-İstanbul ve Müzik, S.45, Nisan 2003.

Popescu-Judetz, Eugenia, “Osmanlı’da Fasıl”, Osmanlı Ansiklopedisi, c.10, Yeni Türkiye press. Ankara, 1999.

Sakaoğlu, Necdet, and Nuri Akboyar. 1999. Binbir Gün Binbir Gece, Osmanlı’dan Günümüze İstanbul’da Eğlence Yaşamı. İstanbul. Creative press Sevengil, Refik Ahmet. 1998. İstanbul Nasıl Eğleniyordu?. İstanbul: İletişim press.

Sönmez, Mustafa. 2002. “İstanbul Eğlence Üretir, Eğlence Tüketir.” İstanbul, 43: 62-65.

Tekelioğlu, Orhan. 1999. “Kendiliğinden Sentezin Yükselişi,Türk Pop Müziği’nin Tarihsel Arka Planı.” Çalıntı. 31: 51-61.

Barfield, Thomas, ed. 1997. The Dictionary of Anthropology. USA. Bluckwell Publishers.

Tura, Yalçın, 2001. Kitabu ‘ilmi’l-Mûsiki ‘lâ vechi’l-Hurufat. İstanbul.

Yapı Kredi press. Ünlü, Cemal. 2003. “Ses Kayıt Gerçekleri Musikinin Hizmetinde.” İstanbul. 45: 86-89.

“Aileye ilişkin genel istatistik verileri” www.aile.gov.tr/aileist.htm

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 31

Fikret Merve Eken Küçükaksoy

32 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

AHMED TOHUMCU, Turkey

THE IDENTITY CHANGE OF TAVERNA This study exemplifies the tradition, change, revival process of a place which called as taverna, over the entire music story in 20th century and taverna’s identity changes, the processes of musical transitions will be analyzed. The field of this research is especially Istanbul, which was one of the centers of Greek or in other words Rum taverna’s in the 19th and 20th century.

The word taverna, comes from taberna means hut and shop in Latin and its explanation is drinking place with music in general. Today we use the English term tavern for a kind of entertainment locality all over the world. I should signify that the same Turkish term “taverna” turned into a proper noun in Turkey since seventies and the places named as taverna are differentiated with their concept and the most essential music style making in. That’s why I prefer to use the word taverna in Turkish.

Historical root of tavernas goes back to the Roman Empire. It is cited in some sources that tavernas are places in which wine and foot served. In the 4th century (A.D) The West Roman Empire vanished and The East Roman Empire transformed into Byzantium Empire, which capital was Byzantion that is today’s Istanbul. When Istanbul became the capital of Ottoman Empire in 1453, the name of “taverna” was transformed into “meyhane” in public expression which means a place of drinking wine in Persian. (see picture 1) It is mentioned in some sources that during and after the conquest of Istanbul, there was so many famous taverna which belongs to Byzantines. It is a crucial point that tavernas were belonging only to non-muslim people because of the force of Islam. Moreover, the constant characteristic peculiarity of taverna’s is that the majority of owners, workers, musicians and dancers was non-Muslim, especially Rums until twentieth century.

Upon we search the musical history of these places, we can not find an exact time about when music has started in them. But we can say that music and dance in entertainment are as early as humanity history. Therefore we can see that music, dance and alcohol was the focal point of entertainment before and after the Ottoman period.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ahmed Tohumcu

Picture 1 Musicians and dancer at meyhane

In 1830, Rums are get nation status with the establishment of Greece and cafe-houses that named as Cafe Aman, which includes alcohol drinks and music was opened in Piraeus, Athens, Salonica, Izmir and Istanbul. These places were the beginning of Greek tavernas’ transformation which symbolizes Greek nationality.

After the constitution of Turkish Republic, Turk-Greece war caused to the Lozan pact and population exchange in 1923. By the exchange, one million and five hundred thousand people of Rum population migrated to Greece from Turkey except for Istanbul and a new music type Rebetiko, which occurre in there, is a synthesis of Anatolian and Greece folk culture. Actually Rebetikos root goes back before the migration but the classical Rebetiko style occurre by means of the migration. As Alan Lomax says; only the most profound social upheavals- the coming of a new population, the acceptance of a new set of mores- or migration to a new territory, involving complete acculturation, will profoundly transform a musical style. So, due to contact among people and cultures, and the movement of population by migration is

34 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Identical Change of Taverna the most important case of such contact caused to Rebetico.

Rebetiko became so popular in very short time. It was performed by the instruments santour, kanun, violin, lute, oud and bağlama at first, but after the evolution of Rebetiko with Westernization other instruments like bouzouki, piano and guitar were added to the bands and cafe amans gave their places to a modern place, which is named as taverna. As a result, the notion of taverna is revived. And in the twentieth century bouzouki became the most important instrument in rebetiko bands and tavernas. (see picture 2)

Picture 2 Rebetico musicians and singers at taverna

Rebetiko was also very popular in Istanbul, where more than one hundred thousand Rum people were living. The count of café amans in which rebetiko was performed also increased rapidly. And by the revival of tavernas, Café Amans altered simultaneously. We can see that in the 1940s and 1950s all places which were belonging to rum people, for example cafes, night clubs were named as Rum or Greek Taverna.

The laterna, a mechanic instrument which repeated programmed melodies first appeared in Istanbul at the end of 19th century takes also a vital place in tavernas.

There was such interest in it in cities such as Izmir, Pire, Istanbul and Salonica. Soon laterna became indispensable to Greek communities and entertainment in tavernas. The most significant impact of this fusion was the rebetiko songs which was adapted to the laternas.

However by the reason of some cases, which are known as “6-7 September Incidents” in 1955, most of the Rums live in Istanbul are migrated to Greece and the count of Greek Tavernas began to be reduced. Eventually, by the reason of Cyprus Operation in 1974 they are completely disappeared among 1974 and 1982. After 1974, tavernas are commenced to be operated by Turks, and their musical First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 35

Ahmed Tohumcu content was changed. By the prohibition of Greek songs because of the Cyprus Operation, Rebetiko bands gave their places to a Turkish male solo singer, who plays piano at first and later an electronic keyboard with a synthesizer. However, tavernas lost their Greek identity and get Turkish one.

The factors which caused to come into being this type were migration indirectly but the main factors were socio-economic. Owners of tavernas preferred this single figure because of the low cost respect to the bands sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Additionally, in sixties middle class of Turkish society was be able to enjoy in places like night-clubs but these circumstances became to be get difficult in seventies. So, they preferred tavernas as entertainment places because tavernas were cheaper than the others.

At first Ferdi Özbeğen (see picture 3) was the pioneer of this figure in 1974 and his style made a remarkable impression in popular music industry in Turkey and accepted by the other musicians such as Ümit Besen, Arif Susam, Nejat Alp, Metin Kaya, Atilla Kaya, Cengiz Kurtoğlu, Cengiz Coşkuner and Coşkun Sabah. These solo singers who play piano, electronic keyboard, electric guitar or oud named as “taverna singer” or “pianist chanteur” or “lutist chanteur” and this style of music was named and categorized as “taverna music” in markets and industry. Consequently the new figure caused to a new music type in Turkey, named as taverna. The reason of this classification was only the music style which was only performed in the place of taverna.

Picture 3 Ferdi Özbeğen

36 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Identical Change of Taverna But with this new formation, rebetiko style has changed also and the new style which was covered an unclear kind of music caused to ambiguity in music terminology. The reason of this ambiguity was the repertory which was contained different types of music, as you can listen in Özbeğen’s albums, light Turkish music, tango, Turkish art and folk music. Özbeğen and his followers were singing in arabesque style, because the most important music style in seventies and eighties was arabesque and this trend was entirely dominated the Turkish popular culture those days. So, taverna music style was defined as a version of arabesque style. But we can see in Özbeğen’s albums that the beginning of this style was not having an arabesque characteristic and in time by the popularity of this style, Özbeğen and his followers started to singing with arabesque style.

Lots of Taverna album published in seventies and eighties. The solo instrument which the singer adapted to taverna by arabesque style and used in these albums was emphasized on covers (see picture 4) and the atmosphere of tavernas reflected to listeners by applause sounds, sounds of people who are speaking and dancing together, dialogs of performer with listeners etc. These reflections supported the term taverna as a type of music.

Picture 4 Cengiz Coşkuner’s Album Cover

With the end of the prohibition of Greek songs in 1982, a further genre named as Greek music began to perform in tavernas along with other styles. Performers and bands came back to tavernas and of course the other instruments like bouzouki.

The singer was generally from Greek origin, and the lyrics of repertoire were in Greek.

We can give examples for these singers such as Fedon and Hayko.

With this transformation Greek identity turned back to tavernas. But Turkish tavernas with solo singers and First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 37

Ahmed Tohumcu Greek tavernas with bands continued to be together with in different styles. This caused to an identity complication but I think two mixed culture run on history and assimilation on the repertoire maintained this togetherness.

So, music styles performed in Tavernas changed in the course of time.

There are some cases of changing repertories and musical styles in tavernas. But either under Greek or Turkish nationality, the songs performed in the same locality and listened from same peoples. Above all, the concept of taverna was perceived as a music style not a place from 1974. But because of this variety of music styles which performed in tavernas, these places should be considered as specific localities and areas. These views will also providing convenience to the classification of genres and musical codes.

38 STRUGAÂ MUSICALÂ AUTUMN

The Identical Change of Taverna BIBLIOGRAPHY Arı, Kemal. Büyük Mübadele, İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2003 Güngör, Nazife. Arabesk: Sosyokültürel Açıdan Arabesk Müzik, Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1993 Hiçyılmaz, Ergun. Eski İstanbul Meyhaneleri ve Alemleri, İstanbul: Pera Orient Yayınları, 2004 Holst, Gail. Rembetika. çev. V.Çelik Akpınar, İstanbul: Pan Yayıncılık, 1993 Koçu, Reşad Ekrem. Eski İstanbul’da Meyhaneler ve Meyhane Köçekleri, İstanbul: Doğan Kitapçılık, 2002 Örter, Erol. Buzuki Erol, İstanbul: Pan Yayıncılık, 1998 Sevengil, Refik Ahmet. İstanbul Nasıl Eğleniyordu?, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1998 Stokes, Martin. Türkiye’de Arabesk Olayı, çev. Hale Eryılmaz, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1998 Şener, Cemal. Türkiye’de Yaşayan Etnik ve Dinsel Gruplar, İstanbul: Etik Yayınları, 2004 Zat, Vefa. Eski İstanbul Meyhaneleri, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2002

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 39

Ahmed Tohumcu

40 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

BRANKA KOSTIC­MARKOVIC, MACEDONIA

ETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL DATA - STRICTO SENSU ET LARGO SENSU Instead of introduction What and how to collect? How to preserve the collected? Which is the most effective methodology? Are the musical parameters more important then the anthropological once? Is Bartok old fashioned? Is Finish method good or bad? What and how to analyze? To be PRO "TEXT" or PRO "CONTEXT" oriented? Follow Russians or Americans? Stay close to the old protocols or grab the new possibilities that offer modern databases? These are just several of dozens of possible questions that's bothering an ethnomusicologist today, but not just today because the situation was almost the same in the past.

We all have our subjects of interests, our personal approaches and thesis, but one thing is common to all of us. Every single ethnomusicologist depends on ethnomusicological data. If we ask now what ethnomusicological data is, one will say tonal structures, melody forms, intervals, refrains and interpolations, rhythms, verse structures, all musical characteristics; other will add the origins of the singers, sociocultural backgrounds, geographical and historical aspects of music and performers; the third one will start with audio files, their psycho-acoustical characteristics, spectral analysis results; and most of them will say the mixture of all these things... It's normal that some of us have wider or LARGER approach, and some narrower, STRICTER point of view.

In this paper, we'll try to focus on ethnomusicological data, whether it's treated only in its LARGO SENSU or in its STRICTO SENSU. We strongly believe that it is not important if it is LARGO or STRICTO, but is very important to accomplish that key word - SENSU. There is no doubt that any data referring our subject of interest can "make SENSE" and can be ethnomusicological data, but only if it's "good prepared", i.e. "available" for the future researches. We believe that good definition of

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Branka Kostić ­Marković parameters and their proper categorization into precise multimedia database is a step forward to real scientific results. We know that we can not solve all ethnomusicological problems, but, at least, we can make small contribution to a categorization of ethnomusicological data through a concrete example - structure of the multimedia database for The Firfov Collection.

To take all aspects into account Ethnomusicologists, by default, have to understand and interpret musical action and the interrelationship of musical and other social domains in world cultures.

The fact that musical phenomena are constantly changing challenges the ethnomusicologist to provide continuing interpretations of the world's various music. Modern educational institutions have to provide a theoretical and methodological foundation and have to prepare individuals to develop new or adapt existing concepts for solving current problems. There is a broad range of problems from a research perspective in which both humanistic and scientific considerations are integrated. That is why we have to make an effort to extend our anthropological and musicological approaches, but at the same time we have to focus on aural aspects of music.

Today, there is no doubt that A / D Conversion is CONDITIO SINE QUA NON. Consequently, the sophisticated digital sound archives play the crucial role in modern ethnomusicology. About two decades ago prof. Anthony Seeger pointed out that: "The roles of archives should be of concern not only to ethnomusicologists, but also to those folklorists, anthropologists, and linguists who make sound or video recordings as part of their field research".1 Later on, with the expansion of digital technology, sound archives were of concern not only to above mentioned, but predominantly of concern to sound engineers, librarians and WEB administrators. Today, in most cases, sound archives are full of all kinds of specialists and very few ethnomusicologists. In my opinion, we have to try to return ethnomusicologist back into the center of the archives, because he is the only one who can make a right decisions about the level of importance of different kind of data useful for ethnomusicology.

We'll quote two statements of our older colleagues.

According to prof. Ernst Lichtenhahn from the Phonogrammarchiv at the University of Zurich, "text" and "context" mark two fundamentally different approaches in ethnomusicological theory and research. The "textual" approach observes the totality of musical parameters and their organization, while the "text" itself is considered as singular musical event. The "contextual" approach takes into consideration the conditions, significations and meanings of the "act of music making".2 "The synthesis of textual and contextual approach is indispensable for an inclusive understanding of music”. But, he later stated: "it is not easy to realize this synthesis". At the end of his paper Lihtenhahn summarized that "the main reason for 1 2

Anthony Seeger. 1985. "The Role of Sound Archives in Ethnomusicology Today. In Yearbook of Traditional Music, Vol. 17, 8 Ernst Lichtenhahn. 2002. "Text - a helpful ethnomusicological category". In Contemporary Trends in Musicology and Ethnomusicology. Struga: SME, pp. 81

42 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnomusicological Data ... these rather unsatisfactory results ... is that generally not all aspects are taken into account".3 Once Ludwik Bielawski pointed out: "Investigations into any music require two supplementary and interdependent orders: the systematic order (of quality and quantity) and the historical order in time and space (contact and continuity)". But, he wrote: "The basic truth has not always been realized".4 How to realize this synthesis, how to take all aspects into account, and how to provide both systematic and historic order? Inspired by these two statements and from many others, and motivated from new possibilities that modern digital era gave us, we've decided to try to work on a system - multimedia database which will integrate all the aspects that concerns ethnomusicology. The task was huge.

Our (small) contribution (Ethnomusicological Data in the Multimedia Database for the “Firfov Collection”) The archiving of Macedonian music folklore in a digital format is undoubtedly the central and most important issue for us. The successful conversion of the extensive analogue materials of any kind – audio, visual, graphic, textual etc. (9000 analogue tapes in Macedonian Institute of Folklore only), to a digital format and digital recording of the old or new artifacts, should result in the formation of a multimedia database with audio, textual, graphic and analytical data. The multimedia database should provide a complete overview of the different aspects of folk music and the possibility for various statistical and other types of analyses. Consequently, one should come to conclusions about the nature and rules that govern Macedonian folk music.

Thus digitization accomplishes several major goals: the preservation of folklore in formats that would be useable or transferable in the future, an unrestrained flow of communication between the different data formats and a permanent possibility of non-destructive analysis or re-analysis of the digitized materials.

The awareness of the essence of the problem at UKIM SM in year 2000 resulted in systematic efforts to built project which will open a new page not only in the preservation of Macedonian folklore, but also in ethnomusicological analysis of the field data. The central task of this project was to create the multi-media database for music cultural heritage in digital format. Having in mind that the problem of digital archiving and documentation of folk music becomes crucial for the preservation of cultural heritage, the project was developed under the title "Research and Digital Archiving of Macedonian Music Folklore" with Musikethnologisches Archiv der Universitat Zurich and it was granted by SCOPES program of Swiss National Science Foundation for the years 2000-2003).5 The lack of an appropriate methodology and defined stan3 4

Ibid, pp. 84 Ludwik Bielawski.1985. "History in Ethnomusicology". In Yearbook of Traditional Music, Vol. 17, pp. 8 5 SCOPES 2000-2003 7MKPJ065572

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 43

Branka Kostić ­Marković dards together with the practical problems of the A/D conversion, determined the theoretical priorities of this project, i.e. to develop the methodological aspects of digital archiving of Macedonian music folklore first, and then apply the methodology in a given empirical corpus. I have had that opportunity to participate as an ethnomusicologist and I’ve created a pilot multimedia database for The Firfov Collection.

This corpus was provided courtesy of the Firfov family, which held in their possession completely, unprocessed Macedonian folk music material. The material was collected and recorded by the founder of Macedonian ethnomusicology, Zivko Firfov, in the period between the 1960s and middle of the 1970s, even though some of the recordings date as far back as the 1950s. The collection consisted of: - 46 compact cassettes numbered 1-50 - 5 compact cassettes titled Documentation and - 10 compact cassettes without numbers.

Unfortunately, Firfov himself has not provided the accompanying data with sufficient information about the recorded material and for the motives for its creation.

At that moment the estimation was that the collection consists of about 1500 vocal and instrumental songs of Macedonian folk music. The repertoire was diverse and includes both the genres of rural and urban folklore. It includes wellknown popular songs as well as completely unknown ones from the oldest rural tradition. The fact that the songs were recorded on audiocassettes, which is undoubtedly

44 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnomusicological Data ... one of the most unstable medium for the archiving of audio material, imposed the urgent conversion in digital format, which was done at UKIM SM in the period September 2001 – March 2002.

Prior to the beginning of the digitization, there was a need to define the methodological approach. This was done through our paper - Methodological Problems of Digital Archiving of Macedonian Music Folklor6. Nevertheless once the digitization started, the methodology needed adjustments, corrections and even some new structural elements. The new conclusions were presented in the master’s thesis titled – The Theoretical and the Practical Consequences of Digitization of The Firfov Collection7.

This thesis pointed out to the significant improvements of the applied methodology, i.e. the fine adjustments to the contemporary trends in musicology and ethnomusicology. It comprised the principals of digital archiving established by renowned and leading world institutions, such as Phonogramm Archiv from Vienna8, or international groups for standardization of storage and retrieve of digital data such as Dublin Core (The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative)9 or IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives)10.

As a result the multimedia database was divided in three basic parts: ·primary data (audio) ·secondary data (text, MIDI, still and movie graphics) ·tertiary data (analytical).

6

Бранка Костиќ. 2001. Методолошките проблеми на дигиталното архвирање на македонскиот музички фолклор (manuscript). Скопје: ФМУ 7 Бранка Костиќ. 2002а. Теориските и практичните консеквенци од дигитализацијата на колкекцијата„ Фирфов“ (master’s thesis). Скопје: ФМУ 8 http://www.phonogrammarchiv.at/ 9 http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/ 10 http://www.llgc.org.uk/iasa/iasa0013.htm

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 45

Branka Kostić ­Marković What does it mean?

According to standards, practices and strategies recommended by IASA11, the data can be classified into primary (data that exclusively refers to the audio, i.e. the strictly sound aspects of the works), and secondary (the remaining data, i.e. metadata for the primary data). The secondary data can have many forms (text, music and video graphics), and together with the primary data forms the concept of ‘cultural inheritance’. The secondary data in some cases is a part of the work itself (for example, the sticker of a CD), while some require additional compiling. The importance of the secondary data depends on the content, type of carrier and the future needs of the users, i.e. the use. But there was a need to developed, or extended this concept further - we included part for analytical data and we called it tertiary data.

Having in mind the size of our methodological task, to date our interest has been focused solely on defining the fields of the textual section of the database and presenting the possible variables for tertiary data.

The categories of textual data Defining the fields of the textual bases is a result of the need to organise them in a way which would ensure wide searching and identification of the entered material.

Because the textual data is basically a part of the secondary data, it is also a type of metadata. In digital archiving, metadata means data about data, i.e. detailed and specific expansion of cataloguing practice. According to IASA, metadata plays a vital part in the use and control of the digital collections. Therefore, its preservation should be the key component in the handling of any digital collection.

When defining the fields of the textual bases, one must keep in mind their compatibility and ability of conversion in other formats, such as network use (for example Internet). We therefore decided to start from the already existing systems of global standardisation of the metadata. We selected the Dublin Core as the most widely used and accepted system. 15 elements from The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set12 are made to suit a wide range of fields and purposes. They are mainly general. This ensures an easy conversion into this system and to the bases with multiple elements into the Dublin Core. In that case, one field from the Dublin Core incorporates many fields from the other bases.

Having this as our starting point, we stepped forward into defining the structure of the textual base of the Firfov Collection, leaving aside the question of its software format for the time being.

11

12

IASA. 2001. Standards, Recommended Practices an Strategies “IASA – TC 03”. IASA Archives, http://www.llgc.org.uk/iasa/iasa0013.htm www.purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core_elements

46 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnomusicological Data ...

Initially, the entire textual base of secondary data was conceived as a file.

Experience proved the need for its division into several parts. In this way we avoided the unnecessary multiple entry of the same data. Thanks to the computer format, these parts are mutually connectable, i.e. the data can be read from one part to the other, if the need arises.

Hence our structural division of the textual section of the multimedia base: - A secondary data file referring to the audio-files; - A secondary data file for the persons whose names appear in the base; - A secondary data file for the digital copies; - A tertiary analytical data file for the archived works.

When defining the names of the fields we had in mind that English is unquestionably the lingua franca of today's world. We therefore decided to use it exclusively within the creation of the base.

The first part of the base contains the information about audio files. It marks 18 categories which cover different types of data and are found in different formats: numbers, dates, names, titles, etc. In orders to economize on space, some data was coded. Here we find identification number of the corresponding audio file, its starting time and duration, information about melodic and lyrics incipit, the language in which the vocal and vocal-instrumental pieces are performed, data about personal names of authors, arrangers and performes of the pieces, information about the details of the original recordings, i.e. the digitized and archived materials, about the score, process of the digitization, the copyrights, etc .

The second section covers all the subject that in one way or another attributed to the process of the creation, performance, recording, processing or analysis of First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 47

Branka Kostić ­Marković the material in the base. It is composed of 19 categories, containing data about: the name and age of the performer, his/her nickname, he/her ensemble, sex, place o birth, ethnicity, religion, native and other languages in which the individual creates, level of education, profession, his/her current place of residence, special notes and data for the archiver, etc.

The third part of the base covers information about digital copies (clones).

It consists of 7 fields, most of which are covered in the first section. Here we find data about the authors of the pieces, the duration of the songs and their location in the collection, type and number of carrier of the audio file and the number of the audio file of the specifi carrier.

The last section of the textual base covers analythical type of data and it is connected to the tertiary part of the base which is our latest interest and it’s still developing.

Microsoft Excel software was used in order to realise the physiognomy of the textual section of the multimedia base. During the design of the models we ensured they were concise and clear for the potential users. The complete structure of the database for secondary data was presented in the paper The categorisation of the ethnomusicological data in multimedia databases.13

13

Branka Kostic. 2002b. “The categorisation of the ethnomusicological data in multimedia databases”. In: Contemporary Trends in Musicology and Ethnomusicology (from the Struga Music Autumn). Skopje/Struga: UKIM/ SMA, pp. 100-110

48 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnomusicological Data ...

Tertiary Data As we already mentioned, the development of this part of the database is still in process and the final version is still not made, but here we can present our preliminary categorization of variables that one should have in mind in archivation of music folklore and in the process of collecting parameters for further analysis. So, there are two major groups of variables: 1. Structural (content) variables 2. Semantic (context) variables

Structural (contents) variables The structural variables can be divided in two categories: 1.1.) music variables 1.2.) textual variables.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 49

Branka Kostić ­Marković 1.1.) Music variables We could further divide music variables also in two categories: 1.1.a) melodic variables 1.1.b) formal variables 1.1.a) Melodic variables, for which division we’ve been inspired by Buzarovski’s analysis of classical music piece14, would be: ·interval (tetrachord, modal or tonal scale systems, the interval features of the melodic line) ·rhythm (including meter) ·vocal (specific use of the voice) ·harmonic (where applicable) ·tempo (including agogic) ·dynamic ·articulation (including ornamentations).

This analysis should point out to the basic characteristics of the music materials, but we will also apply the new methodology including spectral analysis, use of bender etc.)

1.1.b) Formal variables Formal variables should give an insight of the formal structure of the analyzed songs. Having in mind that the formal structures could be (not obligatory) under the influence of the lyrics structure, after the analysis of the textual part of the songs, the final conclusions will be specified.

1.2.) Text variables The analysis of the text (lyrics) of the songs will include the traditional methods of analysis of the syllabic structure, accents, use of vocals and consonants etc.

2. Semantic (context) variables Undoubtedly the most intangible part of the analysis is the context of the analyzed material. The real context could be sometimes deeply hidden behind the music and textual layers, having remote semantic relations to the surface manifestation of the material.

That’s why a complex approach should be built including multidisciplinary analysis of the historical, ethnical, anthropological, cultural, social, economic and other variables. For this purpose, additional secondary data should be collected, 14

Димитрије Бужаровски. 1996. Увод во анализата на музичкото дело. Скопје: ФМУ, 13

50 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnomusicological Data ... including graphic materials.

Pointing out to the different variables we have already explained the basic methodology of the analysis. We should only add that all the collected tertiary data will be analyzed through different statistical methods- starting from the presentation of the frequency distribution, measures of central values, correlation, analysis of variance etc.

It is difficult to predict all the statistical opportunities which will be opened once we enter the tertiary data, and which of the statistical methods would be the most appropriate.

Instead of conclusion The experience with The Firfov Collection helped us to extend our approach to ethnomusicological data and continue with work in the field of, let's say modern ethnomusicology. The categorisation of the ethnomusicological data in the multimedia bases should be perceived as an open process, which demands constant redefining and adjustment. Having in mind that the Firfov Collection textual data base is the first of its kind here in the field of ethnomusicology, we might expect further work on its development.

Bibliography: Seeger, Anthony. 1985. "The Role of Sound Archives in Ethnomusicology Today. In Yearbook of Traditional Music, Vol. 17, pp. 8-15 Lichtenhahn, Ernst. 2002. "Text - a helpful ethnomusicological category". In Contemporary Trends in Musicology and Ethnomusicology. Struga: SME, pp.

81-88.

Bielawski, Ludwik. 1985. "History in Ethnomusicology". In Yearbook of Traditional Music, Vol. 17, pp. 8-15 SCOPES 2000-2003 7MKPJ065572 Костиќ, Бранка. 2001. Методолошките проблеми на дигиталното архивирање на македонскиот музички фолклор (manuscript). Скопје: ФМУ Костиќ, Бранка. 2002а. Теориските и практичните консеквенци од дигитализацијата на колкекцијата„ Фирфов“ (master’s thesis). Скопје: ФМУ IASA. 2001. Standards, Recommended Practices an Strategies “IASA – TC 03”. IASA Archives, http://www.llgc.org.uk/iasa/iasa0013.htm www.purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core_elements First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 51

Branka Kostić ­Marković Kostic, Branka. 2002b. “The categorisation of the ethnomusicological data in multimedia databases”. In: Contemporary Trends in Musicology and Ethnomusicology (from the Struga Music Autumn). Skopje/Struga: UKIM/ SMA, pp. 100-110 Бужаровски, Димитрије. 1996. Увод во анализата на музичкото дело. Скопје: ФМУ http://www.phonogrammarchiv.at/ http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/ http://www.llgc.org.uk/iasa/iasa0013.htm

52 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

ZEYNEP GONCA GIRGIN TOHUMCU, Turkey

CHOREOGRAPHY OF KINETIC REVIVAL

This paper focus on the creation, development and staging process of Turkish Roman1 (Rom) dance which has inspiration of Thrace Karşılama dances2. The process exemplifies the form’s re-enlistment in a new community and social context and resultant changes and freshly meanings in its signification. I want to portray this argument by elaborating the change period of an ethnic group’s dance that is shaped on the basis of a traditional folk dance motives and implies the revival process on the stage of a postmodern tradition.

Dance and Its Employment: Turkish Folk Dance With respect to Sklar all movement must be considered as an embodiment of cultural knowledge, a kinesthetic equivalent that is not quite equivalent, to using the local language (Sklar 2001; 30). Thus, dance is a cultural form that moves the body in a particular time and space, results as a creative process. Here, the shape of movement strengthens the narration as well as the poet supports the language. In this sense, dance crystallizes as a fact of performance in the general performance and it conveys the codes of capsulated culture by human body. So, ethno-cultural contexts, which assist the constitution of dance and the pose on the body, are crucial in terms of embodiment.

Bourdieu argues that the way the body is conceived, used, and experienced necessarily reflects the practical and symbolic structures of the natural, social, and political environment. (Cowan 1990; 23) As well as Bourdieu’s theory of unconscious or semi-conscious embodiment, it is necessary to talk about the bodies which are 1

In the text the words of Çingene (Gypsy) and Roman (Rom) are flexibly used with regards to their identifying act of themselves.

2 This qualitative study also include interviews and observations, I have exercised since 2004 in Istanbul and Thracian part of Turkey, as well as visual and textual literature.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu embodied in order to serve the purpose of any ideological formations by nation states that are top-arbiters of the same social and political environment.

Without no doubt that dance is one of the most naive mold of expression in the fine arts that makes declarations clear in various areas of social life. As a bodily explanation style for the conceptualization and generalizing of different ideologies, the most widespread representational domains are identity/belonging and nation/nation-state discourses in the use of dance. Bodies in motion are indispensable component of the strategic constitutions that are created to support various thoughts in historical process, as such in republic and nation-states. As Giurchescu cited since the beginning of the 19th century, in Central and South Eastern Europe, folklore was used in politics to symbolise the nation-state and to strengthen national awareness (Giurchescu 2001; 116)3 As one country of this region, folk dances have vital focus that are one of the folkloric units in the treatment of People Houses (1932-1951), which were established with the aim of generalizing especially nationalism in Turkey.

While these People Houses were trying to support republic reforms in social, economic, cultural, artistic areas, they had an essential contribution to deduce the elements of national culture by coming in sight various local peculiarities from all over the country. Thus, the “Turkey and Turk” notions became stable. Although staging of collected folk dances and becoming a national symbol of them took 40-50 years-that is very short time in terms of historical process-, it gained the most remarkable acceleration in that time4. In the history of republic, Selim Sırrı Tarcan (1873-1953) was the first person who suggested the folk dances as a national symbol (Öztürkmen 1998; 224). In his book, named as Tarcan Zeybeği he describes folk dances, especially the zeybek dances that impressed him and he explains the ways of establishing national dance by his aggregation that acquired by the body training education in 1909, in Sweden: “In this school (in Sweden), all of the national and local dances were investigated, and part of them were entirely eradicated, another part changed and organized, and the rest of them were put in the tradition” (Öztürkmen 1998; 225) According to Tarcan, the principal peculiarity of national dance is its performance that is performed in a collective order, contains no individual improvisation. In his orientalist view, the phenomena, comes from the addition of Zeybek dance’s original motives to a western form, is one of the initial reasons for debates about the authenticity of folk dances that changed in the transmission of them from natural medium to the stage. After that, efforts of People Houses, alternated with Tarcan’s national dance notion, initiated the nationalization period of folk dances.

In the process of nationality and institutionalization folk dance groups 3

for further information, see Shay 2002; Giurchescu 1995, 2001, 2007; Özturkmen 1998; Buckland 2007.

4 Before Republic area, the notion of national dance, was firstly added to agenda by Rıza Tevfik with the name of Raks (dance) in his article, Memalik-i Osmaniyye’de Raks ve Muhtelif Tarzlar, published in 1909.

54 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Choreography of kinetic revival primarily consist of local people in the first few years. Afterwards the collected datas were staged by folklore associations and in course of time by conservatories in new choreographies that compose a new cultural form. In this choreographies a part of dances are eradicated, and others are changed. In that time performers are generally volunteers or trained of folk dances5. In the 40s and 50s, the staging strategies of folk dances, which were especially collected from various villages of regions, were built with in terms of “higher art intelligence” of People Houses and in course of time they became to be elements of the national culture.

A meaningful point in here is a fact of nation-state that is dominated by diversity and dynamism. Actually, there is no wide difference between the artistic strategies of any nation-states which internalize the nationalism as a modernist movement. Central qualities of these strategies are elegance, refinement, proficiency, poetic expressions of common history, etc. So, folk dances had shaped with these peculiarities in the process of Turkish nationalism embracement. Consequently, improvisational dances are out of the category of nationality, because their creative process is actualized on the individual basis and maybe because of its belongings to an ethnic group. In here, the main idea of Tarcan’s national dance notion again leaped out: Turkish folk dances, has consciously chosen from fields and newly shaped in the frame of dignified art, intensified Turkish nationalism for a long time.

Re-enlishment Process of a Dance: Thrace Folk Dance and Roman (Rom) Dance In Turkey, one of the most suitable examples for these constitutions is the collection and staging process of Thrace folk dances. The experiences of Şerif Baykurt who starts the works on dances of this region, echoes conception of his time: “Baykurt’s probes started in 1940s. Up to the common judgment of this time, there was no national dance in Thrace. Up to many researcher dances of Thrace comprise mainly Gypsy dances…He continued to scrutiny more acceptable dances than some dance styles that have copious hip and belly figures…He witnessed a dance, named as Drama Karşılaması in a wedding party in Kırklareli and he persuades dancers and musicians of Kırklareli People House to display this dance. Even though dances of Thrace were criticized as non-Muslim or emigrant dances at first, in 50s they had been an accustomed part of national repertory” (Öztürkmen 1998; 242) (see diagram 1).

Two crucial points of the quotation, which are lacking of national dance and entity of Gypsy dance, are related to the historical and social shape of the region.

Actually, Thrace is a region that combines various different cultures that occurs as results of migrations, in a historical sense. The groups of people, who are the carriers 5

It was initially appearance in 19 May Republic celebrations of the Gazi Education Institution’s students, in Ankara.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 55

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu of distinctive cultural peculiarities at different levels, share this region like Turk, Albanian, Gypsy, Pomak, Tatar, Circassian, Vlach, Patriot, and Bosnians. Maybe many of other regions of Turkey also have the same picture, but the key point in here is the condition of the group in a whole and their assimilated or marginalized positions. In the non-assimilated or marginalized communities the expression of identity is obvious.

The Gypsy emphasis in here is also related to this situation. Gypsies live in their way with a new formation that contains both their peculiarities and cultural features of hosted communities which they shape during their historical journeys. However, there is generally a common dominator, being Gypsy that is unchangeable. One of the most important reasons of it is the socialization processes that Gypsies share the other Gypsies and non-Gypsies at many levels. As a result, for marginalized or semi-assimilated Gypsies, this situation is similar with the pluralism approach of John Furnivall, in 1930: side by side, but unnested life of way, with his words “medley point” in life (Girgin Tohumcu 2007; 45).

Diagram 1: Staging Process of Thrace Karşılama Dances Musical and bodily statements of Gypsies who use the music and dance as common tools of representation could be seen in all areas of life. At first, these facts were ignored by the nationalist policy of nation-state, then they gained different

56 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Choreography of kinetic revival formation by changes in social life and finally they have been included to the whole culture. This process could be exemplified by the combined story of Karşılama and Gypsy/Rom dances of Thrace.

One of the basic categories of Thrace folk dances, Karşılamas has been known at least since forties. Karşılama means face-to-face, is performed by couple or the groups of couple. However, Karşılama dances are performed in many regions of Turkey (like Eastern and Center Anatolia, Black Sea, Eagan, etc.) and in Balkans (Serbia, Northern Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.) within the different names and rhythmical orders. The embodiment stories of Karşılama dances, which are distinguished mainly by musical, movemental and compositional narrations, are usually functional in the displaying of such rituals as ceremonies, festivals, and seasonal celebrations. Karşılama dances of Thrace are termed in regards to the regional names and the themes of narrations. Some of them might be called by different names in different regions, although they have the same movement patterns with varieted by bodily and cultural dynamics.

The recreation process of Karşılamas in another form points out the differentiation on the bodies of Gypsy/Roma, live in there. Gypsy/Roma who came to Thrace by population exchange from Greece, are one of the influential and effected ethnic groups, recreate their dance as a cultural indicator, as well as movemental system. In times, Turkish Rom dance became to be constituted as a new form of improvisational kinetic stories addition to some figures that are barrowed from Karşılamas. However, it does not come to vogue as a Rom dance yet.

Diagram 2: Bodily differences of Rom and Karşılama Dances First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 57

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu In fact, Rom and Karşılama dances are different from each other, except some foot applications, rhythmical structure, and accompaniment instruments (see diagram 2). Among the various Karşılama dance forms, Kız Karşılaması, Tekirdağ Karşılaması, Pancar Havası (Beet Tune), Drama Karşılaması, and Tulum havası (Bagpipe Tune) which is closer to Rom dance. These forms except for Tulum havası resemble Rom dance in terms of just body position and some foot movements, but Tulum Havası is very similar with Rom dance style, as if its name replaced to the word of Rom. Nevertheless, nationalist policies ignored Rom dance which is possible to think it as a separate category until the very end of 90s. For instance, in the considerable sources of folk dance’s collection and catalogs that dated 1975, nor Rom dances either other ethnic group dances were not mentioned. In general literature, references of Gypsy/Rom still was bodily expressions that include just belly and hip movements. 6 Bülent Kurtişoğlu gives clues about the time of putting in words of Rom dances by non-Rom peoples: “In the beginning, locality predominated in Thrace folk dances. Then, in 70s and 80s the dances and music’s of different groups were included to repertory, because dancing was always the same. Rom dances are added to this repertory long after.” (Özgün 2007; 86) So, the aim of bring acceleration to ‘monotone’ folk dances also brings the acceptance of music and dances of distinctive groups. In this quotation, the late coming of Rom” dance is related to its addition to the lists, not to its exploration.

Moreover, explanations of my informants prove the long life of Rom dance practices that have been performed at least from 1930s in local mediums by the bodily expression style of those times. After the 90s, it has begun to be staged, and then its context and movement lexicon was changed.

Essentialization and Particularization Process in Re-embodiment In the post-modern world conservative structure of social environments of Turkey became to be changed. So, the supply and demand relations of entertainment world are innovated as an extension of popular culture, which belt individuals down inside itself. In this consumption structure there is a compulsion for ‘cheerful’ Rom dances anymore. As well the subject of being Rom, voiced by the discourses of ethnicity and identity that have stalwartly heard after 80s, both comes to others attention and increases possibility of their expressions. The folk dances’ choreographies and movemental frames of official institutions (like TRT or folklore associations) became to be altered and in course of times, Rom dance figures that work them into Karşılamas, commence to be appearing. The dynamic and amusing structure of Rom dances fairly pointed out toward 2000s, thus the ideas of its use as a touristic material were increased. Such that, in 1999 Edirne Rom Ensemble was established 6

(See Baykurt 1995; 169)

58 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Choreography of kinetic revival which is attendant to Ministry of Culture and Tourism, consists of Rom musicians and dancers. The ensemble represents themselves as the voice of Rom citizens of Turkish Republic. Additionally, Baykurt counts Rom dance in the list of Thrace folk dances that are 120-130 dissimilar dance structures in his article (Baykurt 1999; 91-92). This event exemplifies Herzfeld’s notions of essentalization and particularization which were firstly suggested by Urban and Sherzer (1991). According to him, “essentialism is always the one thing it claims not to be: it is a strategy, born…of social and historical contingency. The agents of powerful state entities and the humblest of local social actors engage in the strategy of essentialism to an equal degree” (Shay 2002; 30). Thus, State and The People are represented with specifying their assimilation and differentiation degrees. So, Turks are staged by Turkish folk dances in a general frame, but housing some distinct colors. In the process of representation, differentiation is provided by means of particularization. In this creation any ethnic group is particulated by its cultural peculiarity. Like depiction of Igor Moiseyev’s choreographies for Tatars who are embodied as a combatant community among the conception of “Soviet Man”, Rom aura in Karşılama dances maybe characterized as fun-loving or lazy people expressions.

Eventually, this period is resulted in two opposite formations of bodily action: 1- Effective use of Rom dance figures in Thrace Karşılama dances, 2- The Karşılama figures that are staged in newly structure of Rom dance by folk dance groups. Thus, Rom dances are re-embodied, re-altered and re-revived when they come to the stage in choreographical spectacles as well as Thrace dances. Via this new composition, just as the smoothest way of identical expression is achieving for Rom society, the touristic configuration of Turkey becomes rich for non-Roma. After all, the entertainment world attains a fresh movement lexicon which is full of surprises by improvisational peculiarities and has a very speedy and excited aura.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 59

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu BIBLIOGRAPHY Artun, Erman. 1992. Tekirdağ Halk Oyunları Araştırması.

Aydın, Cengiz. 1992. Halk Oyunlarında Toplumsal Yapılanma. EÜ Basımevi: İzmir.

Bartenieff, Irmgard, Dori Lewis. 1980. Body Movement. Gordon And Breach: London.

Bauman, Richard. 1992. “Performance” Folklore, Cultural Performances and Popular Enterteintments. ed. Richard Bauman. Oxford University Press: New York. pp: 41-50 Batca, Maria, Ligia Fulga. 2002. “Globalization and Cultural Tradition” VI. Türk Halk Kültürü Kongresi Bildirileri. Ankara.

Baykurt, Şerif. 1995. Anadolu Kültürleri ve Türk Halk Dansları, Yeni Doğuş Matbaası: Ankara. ___________.1999. “Kırklareli’de Halk Dansları Araştırmalarının 55.

Yılı” Folklor/Edebiyat pp: 8593 Buckland, Theresa Jill. 2007. “In search of Structural Geist: Dance as Regional and National Identity” in Dance Structures: Perspectives on the Analysis of Human Movement, 187-235. __________.1995. Anadolu Kültürleri ve Türk Halk Dansları. YKY:İstanbul.

Chtouris, Sotiris. 2007. “Karmaşık Bir Kültürel Coğrafya” Folklora Doğru, pp: 5-81 Cowan, Jane. 1990. Dance and the Body Politic in Northern Greece. Princeton University Press: New Jersey.

Demirsipahi, Cemil. 1975. Türk Halk Oyunları. İş Bankası Yayınları: Ankara.

Desmond, Jane. 2003. “Embodying Difference: Issues in dance and Cultural Studies”, Meaning in Motion, ed. Jane Desmond, Duke University Press: London.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1993. Ethnicity and Nationalism. Pluto Press, London Gazimihal, M.Ragıp. 1997. Türk Halk Oyunları Kataloğu. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları: Ankara.

Girgin, Gonca. 2007. “Marketing Culture: The Big Rom Orchestra of Ahırkapı, Turkey

60 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Choreography of kinetic revival and the Musical Influence of a Minority” Over the Edge, pp.57-72 Cambridge Scholar Press: UK. Giurchescu, Anca. 2001. “Power of Dance and Its Social and Political Uses” Yearbook For Traitional.

Music, 33: 109-121 _____________. 2007. “A Historical Perspective on the Analysis of Dance Structure in the IFCM/ICTM” in Dance Structures: Perspectives on the Analysis of Human Movement, 3-21.

Kealiinohomoku, Joann. 1976. Theory and Methods for Anthropological Study of Dance, Howell Company.

Koçkar, Tekin. 1998. Dans ve Halk Dansları, Spor Kitabevi: Ankara.

Mach, Zdazislaw. 1993. Symbols, Conflict and Identity. State University of New York Press, Albany.

Markula, Pirkko. 2006. “Body, Movement, and Change” Journal of Sport&Social Issues. 30 (4): 35363 Özgün, Şirin. 2007. “Bulent Kurtişoğlu ile Söyleşi” Folklora Doğru, pp:81-87 Öztürkmen, Arzu. 1998. Türkiye’de Folklor ve Milliyetçilik, İletişim Yayınları: İstanbul.

Shay, Anthony. 2002. Choreographing Politics: State Folk Dance Companies, Representation and Power. Wesleyan University Press: Connecticut.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 61

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu

62 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

Selena Rakočević, Serbia

DANCING OF THE BANAT SERBS THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Banat is the multiethnic area that extends across northern Serbian (part of Vojvodina), southern Hungarian and eastern Romanian territory. Contrary to many ethnochoreological areas in Serbia, which started to be documented not before the second half of the twentieth century, the dance practice of the Serbs from this region can be studied through the whole last one hundred years.

Beside the ethnographic details considering certain dance events, one can find the data about dance repertoire as well as descriptions of the particular dance structures (formations and step patterns) in the literal sources from the first decades of the twentieth century. Those sources are collected and analyzed by Hungarian ethnochoreologist Laszlo Felöldi (Felföldi 2003: 36-43). The pioneers of the Serbian ethnochoreology, Danica and Ljubica Janković researched the Banat dance practice during 1930’s and 1940’s. They analyzed and discussed a lot of peculiarities of the repertoire, structure and performance of the dance practice of the Serbs in the Banat, as well as characteristics of its “musical accompaniment”. The results have been published in the fifth book of their edition “Folk Dances” in 1949 (Janković 1949).

Written descriptions of dances from this area which have been collected by some enthusiasts from USA as Dick Crum at the first place, have been published in the syllabus of the Kolo Festivals which have been held all over the United States starting in the 1960’s (Leibman 1992: xviii). Some of those syllabuses are available to me by kindness of the colleague Robert Leibman (Crum 1974 and 1976).

Field research of Banat during 1980’s (Golemović, Vasić) and 1990’s (Rakočević) has revealed the fact that the dance tradition of the Banat Serbs has changed to a large extent after the Second World War (Rakočević: 2005). Since the last decades of the twentieth century, the performance of the traditional dance repertoire from this area has disappeared from everyday dance practice. During this period, the traditional dance practice of the Banat Serbs has been reduced to the performances of

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Selena Rakočević the so called cultural artistic societies (KUD). This “revival” made possible the continuity of this dance practice. On the other hand, the stage performance as well as the proclaimed rules of what and how should be danced within those performances have concealed some of the main traits of the vivid Banat dancing. However, a lot of interviews with old people as well as video recordings of traditional dances made as a kind of reconstructions have been collected during the field research in 1980’s and, less, in 1990’s.

Complex ideological back ground of the activity of the cultural artistic societies controlled by the state and its governmental institutions during the socialist period of ex-Yugoslavia have already been discussed in ethnochoreology and ethnomusicology.1 This time I want to focus on the examination of the changes of the structure of the autochthonous kolo dances of the Banat Serbs, which appeared as a consequence not only of their metamorphosis i.e. transmission from the authentic context of the village dance events to the stage presentations,2 but also as a personal influence of the most authoritative choreographer of the Serbian dances from Banat – Dobrivoje Putnik (18.07.1913-13.08.1992).

Dobrivoje Putnik was a trained dancer and choreographer, but at the same time he was considered as a local, “authentic” dancer of Banat dances with great skill and experience. Because of this facts and his devoted work within the centralized promotion of the “authentic dance heritage” by the so called Seminars for Folk Dances which have been held all over Banat and ex-Yugoslavia, his influence on the practice of the cultural artistic societies especially those from Banat is immeasurable. Considering the fact that the traditional dance practice of the Banat Serbs has not been performed in the everyday dance contexts for at least last two decades, during 1980’s it could be seen within the performances of the so called “izvorne seoske grupe” (literally: village dance groups from the “source”), whose members were older village performers. Today, most of those dancers are not with us anymore and even at the beginning of the 1990’s there were no active “izvorne seoske grupe” all over the Serbian part of Banat (I do not have information about the Hungarian and Romanian parts of the territory). Starting from that period, all choreographies (dance suites) of the Serbian dances from Banat including the repertoire of the village dance groups of young dancers are exclusively created by Dobrivoje Putnik.

The modification of the structure of the Banat dances promoted by Dobrivoje Putnik will be identified through the comparison of the ethnochoreological data mentioned previously and materials from the field research in 1980’s and 1990’s and, on the other hand, video recordings of Dobrivoje Putnik as well as his published materials (Putnik 1991: 19-39). The procedure which will be applied is based on the 1

2

The role and semantics of the representations of the traditional music and dance within the stage performances by the cultural artistic societies have been discussed by several scholars not only from ex-Yugoslavia countries (Forry 1990: 80-90; Maners 2002: 83-88: Bajić 2006: 11-27; Ceribašić 2003; Marković and Hofman 2006: 315-333 and others) The concept of four types of the cultural performance of the dance, suggested by Lynn Maners, refers to: dances by destination, dances by metamorphosis, dances by diversion and ex-commodified dances (Maners 2002: 88-89).

64 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dancing of the Banat Serbs through the twentieth century methods of the structural analysis of traditional dances presented in the conference collection Dani Vlade Miloševića in 2006 (Rakočević and Ranisavljević 2006: 77-91).3 This system is the slight modification of the structural and form analysis of the traditional dances which have been created by members of the IFMC Study Group on Dance Structural Analysis which is published in 1974 (IFMC Study Group 1974: 115-135) and updated in 2007 (Giurchecu and Kröschlová 2007: 21-53).

Considering the repertoire of the Banat traditional dances it could be mentioned at the first place that Dobrivoje Putnik within his choreographies didn’t make the difference between dances of narrow local diffusion and those which have been spread all over or at least most of the territory during the first half of the twentieth century.4 That’s way the dances mladino kolo, krecavi ketuš and Kato, mi, Kato which are part of his choreograpihies have not been registrated by the Janković sisters, Dick Crum and Laslo Felfoldi nor during the field research. The concequence of Putnik’s influence is that those dances have been considered by the younger generations as the part of the dance practice of all Banat. In other words, the younger generations do not have the consciousness about the locally differentiated dance repertoire from this area nor about the diversities of its own dance practice.

Now, let’s concentrate on the structural analysis of the autochthonous kolo dances from this region in the interpretation of Dobrivoje Putnik. The term autochthonous kolo dances is used to refer the village dances which presence in the dance practice of this area, according to the literal sources, could be followed back to the second part of the nineteenth century (Felfoldi 2003: 36-43). Those are veliko kolo, malo (banatsko) kolo and paorsko kolo.

The primary characteristic of the kinetics of the traditional kolo dancing of the Banat Serbs is exclusiveness of the footwork. Motions of the other parts of the body are the consequence of the leg movements and the transferring body through space. The dancers are very aware of their performing dance style which can be illustrated by the iconic lyrics of one “poskočica” (double-lined verse which are shouted during the dance): “Gle, parade, ljudi moji, noge rade, telo stoji” (“Look the parade, my people, legs are moving, body is still.”). This characteristic of Banat kolo dancing is very well respected within the Putnik’s interpretations. He was considered as a great folk dancer from this area, so he tried to transmit this special and hard to perform dance style to his followers. The question is if they have succeeded in that or not.

In spite of the fact that the prominent formation of the autochthonous kolo dances could be the semi-circle, as well as the closed circle and their mutual combinations, which have been identified by previous researches as well as Dobrivoje Putnik himself (Janković 1949: 120; Putnik 1991: 31), within his choreographies Putnik 3

The form analysis of Putnik’s versions of the particular dances and of the dances which have been described in the literal sources won’t be presented this time, because of the reduced length of this paper.

4 The precise diffusion of some dances (krecavi ketuš and Kato, mi, Kato) is localized in Putnik’s writtings (Putnik 1991: 26, 28). On the other hand, he claimed that the dance mladino kolo is performed all over Banat under this name (northern Banat) or under the name kisel voda (southern Banat). However, those statements have not been confirmed in the other literal sources nor during the field research.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 65

Selena Rakočević autochthonous kolo dances from this area performed through the closed circle formation, but also with the formation of the lines of dancers. He used the semi circle not as an independent formation but as a part of transitions which functioned in the regrouping of the performers. The reason for that lies probably in an attempt of representing the Banat kolo dance practice primarily through its visually most dominant feature which makes it exclusive and different form other parts of Serbia.

Putnik insisted that the kolo should consists of the equal number of mail and femail dancers and that the pairs should join the dance gradually. This practice which is recorded also by the Janković sisters and Laslo Felfeldi (Janković 1949: 121; Felfoldi 2003: 45) but not during the field research became the exclusive characteristic of the stage performance of the Banat kolo dances.

The Janković sisters called the connection of dancers from this area „vojvođansko držanje“ (connections from Vojvodina) (Janković 1949: 121): men hold each other’s hands on the woman’s back while they hold the shoulders of the man next to them. This connection of dancers is visually illustrated by following kinetogram:

This was not the exclusive way of the connectioning of the dancers within the auchthonous kolo dances from this area. All the researches, even Putnik himself (Putnik 1991: 31), mentioned the possibility that kolo dances, at the first place paorsko kolo, could be performed only by men and that in that case men are connected through holding each other’s shloder. In Putnik’s choreoraphies, however, this opportunity is linked not with the performing of the kolo dances but only with the performing of the so-called male outperforming dances (numera, tri putarke and šaranac). The reason for this simplification lies probably in the dramaturgy laws of the stage performance, which imply that choreographies should be based on the contrasts between dances not only in the gender of the performers but in the ways of their connections too. On the other hand, in some of his choreographies, Putnik shows shoulder connection used to connect female performers in the line formation which would have been unthinkable in the traditional dance practice.

According to the structural analysis of the 28 video recordings of the autochthonous kolo dances of the Serbs from Banat, which have been made starting form the early 1980’s, the pathways depended primarily on the performance of the particular dance. Each dance had its own pathway: the pathways of the veliko kolo was the asymmetrical combination of moving to the left and dancing in the spot; the pathways of the malo (banatsko) kolo can be compared with the moving of the clapper

66 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dancing of the Banat Serbs through the twentieth century – it arises as a consequence of the performing, let’s use the formulation of the Janković sisters, “two steps to the one side, two steps to the other side” (Janković 1949: 122); at last, the paorsko kolo has been performed mostly in the spot. Those pathways can be illustrated by following graphics:

Those results are generally confirmed in the written sources, with several First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 67

Selena Rakočević differences. Some of the researchers pointed out that the pathways which appear as a consequence of the performing “two steps to the one side, two steps to the other side” are not analogous with the moving of the clapper because the motion to the right side has bigger amplitude (Felfoldi 2003: 44), also Felfoldi stressed that different pathways had not been conditioned by the performing of particular dance but by the historical period of the 20th century: the older way of performing both veliko kolo and malo kolo was asymmetrical combination of moving to the left and dancing in the spot, while the newer way was laterally symmetrical moving through the space (Felfoldi 2003: 44).

This researcher also pointed out that moving to the right was promoted as the initial moving through the space starting from the second decade of the 20th century (Felfoldi 2003: 44). Beside Felfoldi, the Janković sisters also notated that the asymmetrical moving was “the older” way of performing veliko kolo (Janković 1949: 123).

Within his presentations of those dances, Dobrivoje Putnik has always made the sharp difference between the pathways of the veliko kolo, malo (banatsko) kolo and paorsko kolo in the ways it is shown by the graphics. The differences which have been registered by Laszlo Felföldi and the Janković sisters probably existed during the first half of the twentieth century, but have been neglected during the later periods as a consequence of certain simplification and unification of the dance practice which, according to the major influence of the Putnik’s interpretations of those dances, prevailed also among villagers. The reasons why Putnik made such sharp differences between the pathways of certain auchthonous kolo dances from this area lie probably in the dramaturgy laws of the stage performance and the need for emphasizing the contrasts between the dances.

Considering the basic step patterns of particular dances Putnik also had his own interpretations. The basic structure of the step pattern of the veliko kolo which has been verbalized by the Janković sisters as “three steps to the left, one step in the spot” (Janković 1949: 123), in his interpretations was reversed and it consisted of “one step in the spot, three steps to the left”. This reversed step pattern Putnik has inaugurated as the exclusive and sole version of the veliko kolo through the whole territory of the Serbian Banat. Today, it is the only way of performing this dance within the performances of the cultural artistic ensembles. However, Laszlo Felföldi recorded the “old” version of the veliko kolo which is notated within eight measures. Also, the field research of the surroundings of the town Kikinda as well as the research of Dick Crum of the Romanian Banat (Crum 1974 and 1976), revealed the specific versions of the step patterns of the veliko kolo which structure consists of the combination of the moving to the left and dancing in the spot within the symmetrical six-bars structure (Rakočević 2008: 309-317). This version was performed by old people in the village of Mokrin even during 1980’s. However, thanks to the influence of the dance practice of the cultural artistic societies which accepted exclusively the Putnik’s interpretations of the veliko kolo, young generations from this part of Banat are not familiar with their local version of this dance.

The differences between those step patterns could be visually illustrated with simplified Labanotation of their “invariant” versions:

68 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dancing of the Banat Serbs through the twentieth century

Veliko kolo by the Janković sisters, Labanotation by Selena Rakočević

Veliko kolo by Dobrivoje Putnik, Labanotation by Selena Rakočević First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 69

Selena Rakočević

Veliko kolo Labanotation by Lányi Ágoston (Felfoldi 2003: 113)

Veliko kolo by Dick Crum, Labanotation by Selena Rakočević

70 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dancing of the Banat Serbs through the twentieth century The analysis of the internal structure of the step patterns of the Putnik’s versions of the particular kolo dances from this area, meaning the identification of the supports and leg gestures and their metro-rhythmical processing during dancing revealed the great diversity which has been also stressed by all of the researchers. The internal dispositions of the different supports (for example, steps in the spot, steps rightward or leftward, double steps, jumps on one leg or two legs etc) as well as leg gestures (low-forward, low-back etc) could be improvised during dancing. Those combinations could be various and each of them has uniqueness of Putnik’s personal improvisational style. However, that kind of male dancing is very hard to achieve so almost exclusively all of the stage performances of the autochthonous kolo dances from Banat are fixed and without any improvisations. This simplification in the way of the performing those dances appeared primarily as a consequence of the major esthetical principles of the presentation of the traditional dance and music by the cultural artistic ensembles, which is the reflection of the so called Igor Mojsejev’s school (Bajić 2006: 13-15). According to those criteria stage performance of the traditional dances should present great skill not of the individuals but primarily of the group. The consequence is that one of the major characteristics of the auchthonous kolo dances of the Serbs of Banat – unfixed variable interior structure of the step patterns – have been changed into simplified fixed structures.

One of the most striking features of the performing of all autochthonous kolo dances in Putnik’s interpretations is the increasing of their already very fast tempo. The value of the quarter notes (one support) is moving from 120 to 160 even 180 beats. Considering the fact that such accelerando have not been registered within the field research nor mentioned by the Janković sisters and Laszlo Felföldi it could be concluded that this manner of performing autochthonous kolo dances of the Serbs from Banat is the consequence of Putnik’s vision of how they should be performed on stage.

The furious finale in those interpretations ruined the unique quality of the processing those dances within the original context and that is the fine artistic varying of the basic steps.

In conclusion it could be said that all the changes of certain parameters of the structure of the traditional dances which appear as a consequence of their transmission from the original to the stage context are inevitable because the esthetic criteria of their performing have been changed. However, as it is the case with the autochthonous kolo dances of the Banat Serbs, the complex processes of remodeling the structure of traditional dances could be the consequence of the interpretation of the stage presentation of the tradition by just one person and his followers.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 71

Selena Rakočević References cited: Bajić, Vesna 2006. Od originalnog zapisa tradicionalne muzike i igre ka preradi, obradi i kompoziciji. [From original notation of traditional music and dance to its adaptation, treatment and composition]. Unpublished master thesis. FMU. Beograd.

Ceribašić, Naila. 2003. Hrvatsko, seljačko, starinsko i domaće: povijest i etnografija javne prakse narodne glazbe u Hrvatskoj. Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku.

Zagreb.

Crum, Dick 1974. “Veliko banatsko kolo.” Syllabus of Dance Descriptions for the 27th Annual Folk Dance Camp at the University of the Pacific. Stockton. Ca. 145-146.

1976. “Malo kolo.” Syllabus of Dance Descriptions for the 25 Kolo Festival. San Francisko. CA, 4.

Felföldi, Laszlo 2003. Plesne tradicije Srba u Pomorišju [The Dance Tradition of the Serbs from Pomorišje]. Samouprava Srba u Madjarskoj. Budimpešta.

Forry, Mark Edward 1990. The Mediation of ‘Tradition’ and ‘Culture’ in the Tamburica Music of Vojvodina (Yugoslavia). University of California. unpublished PhD. Los Angeles.

Giurchecu, Anca and Kröschlová, Eva 2007. “Theory and method of Dance Form Analysis.” Dance Structures. Perspectives on the Analysis of Human Movement. ed. Adrienne L. Kaeppler and Elsie Ivancich Dunin. Institut for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. 21-53.

IFMC Study Group on Dance Structural Analysis 1974. “Fondation for the analysis of the structure and form of folk dance: a syllabus.“ Yearbook of the IFMC. Vol 6.

International Folk Music Council. Kingston. 115-135.

Janković, Danica i Ljubica 1949. Narodne igre V [Folk Dances V]. Prosveta. Beograd.

Leibman, Robert Henry 1992. Dancing bears and purple transformations: The Structure of Dance in Balkans. University of Pensilvania, unpublished PhD, Pensilvania.

Marković, Aleksandra and Ana Hofman 2006: "The Role of Cultural-Artistic Societies in Emphasising the Identity of Bunjevci." Shared Musics and Minority Identities-Papers from the Third Meeting of the "Music and Minorities" Study Group of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM), eds. Naila Ceribasic and Erica Haskell. Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore

72 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dancing of the Banat Serbs through the twentieth century Research, Roc: Cultural-Artistic Society "Istarski zeljznicar." 315-333.

Maners, Lynn D. 2002. “The transformation and Rearticulation of Folk Dance Performance in Former Yugoslavia: Whose Tradition, Whose Authenticity?”

Authenticity. Whose Tradition? Eds. László Felföldi and Theresa J. Buckland.

European Folklore Institute. Budapest. 79-92.

Putnik, Dobrivoje 1991. „Srpske igre u Banatu.“ [Serbian Dances from Banat].

Narodne igre Srbije. Narodne igre u Banatu. Građa. Sv. 1. ur. Olivera Vasić.

Centar za učenje narodnih igara Srbije. FMU. Beograd. 19-39.

Rakočević, Selena 2005. „Kolo in Vojvodina: Traditional Dance as a Network of Different Meaning.“ Music & Networking. The Seventh International Conference. Eds. Tatjana Marković and Vesna Mikić. Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music. Belgrade.

2008. “From field to text: The mystery of the veliko kolo.” Music Culture and Memory.

No 2. eds. Tatjana Marković and Vesna Mikić. Department of Musicology.

Faculty of Music. Belgrade. 309-317.

Rakočević, Selena and Ranisavljević, Zdravko 2006. „Igra kao struktura. Strukturalna analiza bosanskohercegovačke igre trampa dva.“ [Dance as stucutre. Structural analysis of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s silent dance trampa dva]. Dani Valde Miloševića. Ur. Dinitrije Golemović. Akademija umjetnosti Banja Luka & Muzikološko društvo Republike Srpske. Banja Luka. 77-91.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 73

Selena Rakočević

74 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

LIZ MELLISH and NICK GREEN, England, UK PERFORMING TRADITION THROUGH TRANSITION IN ROMANIA: FOLK ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCES AT FESTIVALUL INIMILOR, TIMISOARA, ROMANIA

The Festival of the Hearts (Festivalul Inimilor) has taken place in the Romanian town of Timişoara annually since 1990. This post communist festival is organised by the city culture house and was inaugurated to commemorate the heroes of the 1989 Romanian revolution. Timişoara is located in the Banat region of Romania which is situated in the south west of the country close to the Hungarian and Serbian borders. This region can be divided into the Banat plain and mountain areas, each of which contains several distinct ethnographic zones.

This paper uses Festivalul Inimilor as a window to examine the range of performative strategies employed by the folk ensembles participating in this festival, centred around a case study of the Ardeleana, a couple dance found in south west Romania, which is included in its different variants in the choreographies performed by many of the participating groups. The fieldwork for this paper was undertaken during the last four editions of Festivalul Inimilor both during the festival performances and at the Choreographic Seminar held parallel to the festival, and forms part of a larger research project into folk performance in Romania being undertaken by the authors.

The authors start by setting the scene with information on Festivalul Inimilor, followed by a short theoretical discussion on cultural performances and folk festivals. Then, concentrating on the Romanian groups at the Festival, they look at the people involved in creating these performances, the structure of the musical accompaniment, and how this has changed over time and between groups. This is followed by discussions regarding the Ardeleana case study, concluding with a consideration of the extent to which these twenty-first century performances are framed within the various groups’ histories in the communist and transitional period.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Liz Mellish and Nick Green Festivalul Inimilor in Timişoara – the setting Festivalul Inimilor takes place over a period of five days in early July, and the performers include professional, amateur urban, and village groups from Romania, as well as visiting foreign groups. Timişoara takes pride in its multicultural heritage and the groups attending this festival include both those representing local minorities (including Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Croatian and Roma), and groups of Romanians from outside the borders of Romania. The performances take place on an open air stage in a park in the centre of the town, apart from the Sunday morning performance which takes place at the Banat Village museum. The festival commences with a full performance from the host ensemble, Timişul, based at the Municipal Culture House in Timişoara (Figure 1), which includes dance suites from Banat mountains and plains, and from other areas of Romania, interspersed with musical and vocal soloists including the most famous singers from the Banat region. The next day a parade of the participating groups takes place around the town centre and a commemorative wreath (Figure 2) is placed beneath the monumental cross for those who died in the 1989 Romanian Revolution. The parade ends in the park and the participating groups line up ready for the official opening of the festival, which is followed by the evening’s performance.

Cultural Performances and folk festivals The performances that take place during Festivalul Inimilor are what Singer terms as ‘cultural performances’ as they have ‘a definitely limited time span – at least a beginning and an end, an organised program of activity, a set of performers, an audience, and a place and occasion of performance (Singer, 1955:27). Guss, who considers festive forms as cultural performances, observes that these are not static but ‘unique performances responding to contemporary historical and social realities’ (Guss, 2000:23), and Anca Giurchescu considers that such festival performances can provide a rich source of material for study, as they can assist in understanding ‘the mechanism of adapting folklore for the stage’ (Giurchescu, 1999:52), and it is in this respect that the authors have taken these performances as a focus of their analysis in this paper.

Performances of Romanian music and dance to a seated audience have been recorded as taking place from the sixteenth century, when the ritual (Căluşerul) dances were performed in front of groups of noblemen in Transylvania (Bârlea, 1982:35), and by the eighteenth century these performances also included non-ritual dance as part of school plays (Kaposi and Pesovar, 1983:25). This performed folklore is often referred to as ‘folklorism’ (a term introduced in 1962 by Hans Moser (Moser, 1962)), an ‘invented tradition’(Hobsbawm, 1983:1), a second order of folk dance (Hoerburger, 1968:31) or a parallel tradition which exists independent to ‘authentic’ village folklore (Shay, 2002:18). However the authors consider that there is continuity and exchange between folk music and dance that constitutes cultural performances and folk music and dance that continues to exist as part of a community’s social life. Shay

76 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ... comments that the exchanges of material between the village and urban dance ensembles ‘creates a dynamic cycle that encompasses the appropriation of cultural and choreographic elements from field to stage and a return to the field of presentational elements’ (Shay, 2002:17). Anca Giurchescu observed that dancers who are members of performance groups introduce the material they have learned during their more formal training into social contexts (Giurchescu, 2001:118), and also that research into older dance traditions that are dying out but remain within the memory of older generations, results in obsolete dances being revived and incorporated into dance suites for performance, and subsequently some of them may be re-introduced into social contexts’ (Giurchescu, 2001:118-9).

Music and dance that can be linked back to a certain location and a time in the past is often referred to as ‘traditional’ dance, and cultural performances as performances of ‘tradition’. However the authors of this paper, would agree with Handler and Linnekin who view tradition as a ‘symbolic process’ (Handler and Linnekin, 1984:286) not a static entity, and that the doing of ‘something because it is traditional is already to reinterpret, and hence to change it’ (Handler and Linnekin, 1984:281,286).

Thus a dance that is termed as traditional is not fixed or cast in stone at the time that it is turned into a written text, but continues to evolve or mutate overtime, with tradition itself being the process (or method) giving rise the repetition of the dance at future time. This continued change in the dance is influenced by many parameters in the surrounding environment. In the case of performed folk dance the people involved as choreographers, ensembles directors, dancers and musicians may change, or, if not, their ideas on performance strategies may or may not alter as they grow older. The performance is also subject to outside influences of fashion, media, local and state politics and economics. The next sections will consider the continuity and the change in the roles played by those responsible for the collection of Banat folk dances from the village settings, the arrangement of these for stage performance, and the external influences on the musical production over time.

The ‘experts’ Village dances in Romania have been studied both by academics ethnographers from the Romanian Institute of Folklore who record the dances in context, and also by choreographers who notate and transfer the dances to the stage setting, and more recently to recreational folk dancers. Dance choreographers from Bucharest visited many regions of Romania from the early 1950s and constructed stage representations of regional folk dances, with some of these set stage choreographies being documented in published books. For example, the 1954 Jocuri Populare Romîneşti has a collection of dances including a section on Banat dances but with no reference to the sources (Proca-Ciortea, 1954). Ballet master Gheorghe Popescu-Judeţ published Jocuri din Banat in 1953 (Popescu-Judet, 1953), and made a research trip to Caraş-Severin and Timiş in 1967 with Eugen Gal (Gal, 1998). Eugen Gal was also on a research trip to Caraş-Severin with Afilon Latcu in 1970 (Gal, 1998). In 1964 Timişoara researchers published a book of the dances from the Banat plain region (Marcu et al., 1964).

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 77

Liz Mellish and Nick Green Maestro choreographers Theodor Vasilescu and Tita Sever published two compilations of Romanian dances in 1969 and 1972, the later references Ion Munteanu as the source for the Banat dances (Vasilescu and Sever, 1969, 1972). Banat region choreographers Afilon Latcu and Ion Munteanu published a book of the dances from the Timiş and Bistrei valleys in 1971 and in 1974 a book of the dances of the Almaj and Caraş (Laţcu and Munteanu, 1971, 1974).

Within the region of Banat certain key choreographers have been influential in the folk ensemble history from the late 1950s through to the present. These key individuals, who include Emilian Dumitru, Ciprian Cipu, Toma Frenţescu and Nicolae Stănescu have a predominantly Banat heritage, as opposed to a Bucharest training, which has lead to the choreographic and dance style that is now considered to be “Banat”. These choreographers were mostly born in Banat villages and moved to the main towns either to study at high school or university or to become professional dancers (Table 1). The legacy of this era of dance enthusiasts remains in the folk ensembles based in Timişoara and has been disseminated into a network of folk ensembles based in other towns and villages within Banat, and also in the Romanian diaspora that are led by former dancers from Timişoara, and through teaching by the key Banat choreographers in ensembles in the rest of Romania and outside the borders, especially among the Romanian minority within Serbian Banat.

In the Banat villages the majority of the dance groups are led by an interested local individual who is responsible for the teaching of the dances and the staged arrangements, and often also dance in the performances (note that in the urban ensembles it is not normal for the choreographer to participate). However these groups often have choreographic support from one of the key urban ensemble choreographers, for example Toma Frenţescu, with the group Gugulanul from the village of Borlova.

The authors’ future research will investigate whether the continuation of rural village groups and urban ensembles into the twenty-first century will help to maintain the skill set by providing basic dance training for many children and supporting the continued inclusion of these types of dances on social occasions.

78 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ...

Table 1 - Banat ensembles and choreographers Group

“Banatul”

Affiliation

1960s

“Hora Banatului”

Timişoara young persons culture house

“Hora Timişului”

Timişoara childrens culture house

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Nicole Ciprian Cipu Stănescu Miloslav (1985-1987) (1992-1994) Dorul Haiduc Miloslav Tatarici Emilian (1994-195) Tatarici Dumitru (1977-1985) Dei (1987-1990)) an Claniţa (1995-1996)

Country funded professiona l ensemble

University of “Doina Timişoara Timişului” Students Group Timişoara municipal “Timişul” culture house National railway (CFR) Bănăteana company club

“Izvorul” “Palatul Pionierilor”

1950s

Toma Frenţescu

1959 Emilian Dumitru

Emilian Dumitru (1968-1974)

Marius Ursu

Toma Frenţescu (1974 to present)

Nicolae Stănescu

Todică (1970-1990) Todică Gheorghe (1970-1990) Galetin (1975-1983), Nicolae Stănescu (1977-1983) 1960s Gheorghe Galetin

Deian Claniţa

Chiu Doina, Susan Doina

Susan Doina, Cristian Chira

1960s Gheorghe Galetin

Transforming village to stage – Musicography Music is a key constituent to the dance performance, so developments in the musical performance are interrelated with the ensemble progression, although the music may be subject to different evolutionary motivations to the social dance. This can be seen in the musical accompaniment for staged dance performances in Banat First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 79

Liz Mellish and Nick Green which has evolved over time in conjunction with the prevailing musical styles of Banat music found within the community. Various stages in the development of this musical accompaniment can be seen at Festivalul Inimilor where ensembles have maintained different styles of musical interpretation. The authors consider that styles have continued to evolve because music-making is a commercial venture with professional musicians still providing music for community weddings and other events, hence the music continues to develop in a performance role.

In Romania, as in much of Europe, the violin became the predominant melody instrument of village dance music, displacing various shepherds’ flutes and bagpipes. The Banat style of violin music has an accompaniment from a second violin playing a simplified version of the tune together with a drone. Although this style can still be presented by the violinists in Banat, the only ensemble using this for dance performance at Festivalul Inimilor is the ensemble of Romanilor din Gyula (Romanians from Gyula) that performs Romanian dances from the village of Elek (Aletea) now in Hungary which form part of the continuation of Bihor-Arad region dance repertoire.

This style of music is commonly presented by Hungarian based folklore groups who generally exclude more modern instruments when performing a folk repertoire.

The musical accompaniment played for Romanian ensembles and village groups has been influenced by the formation of professional folk orchestras in the communist period and also by the natural development of local variants of popular music.

The communist period urban folk orchestra generally combines a line up of melody violins, with bass and large ţambal, plus a number of additional instruments from local traditions which are seen to represent their region. At Festivalul Inimilor this style is presented by the professional folk orchestra of the county ensemble Banatul, founded in 1970, who have not substantially changed their orchestration over the last three decades.

The introduction of the taragot into Banat music can be credited to Luta Ioviţa of Caransebeş in the 1920s. The 1960s to 1970s state produced 7” records show that the taragot was already established as a solo melody instrument in the Banat region. Currently the taragot or the musically similar soprano sax is used as the lead melody instrument in virtually all performances by Banat based groups, from both villages and towns, playing the melody in unison with clarinets and violins. An example of such an orchestra at Festivalul Inimilor the Doina Timişului ensemble founded in 1959.

Popular Banat music developed into a woodwind group using taragot, soprano saxophone and alto saxophone, possibly during the 1970s to 1980s. During the 1980s illegal recording studios in Timişoara produced Musică Sârbeasca which was very popular, but was suppressed by the state (Bessinger, 2007:107). This indicates a lively music scene with developing popular styles of interpretation. Post communism independent record producers featured popular Roma musicians, one being Ion Olan from Caransebeş (Eurostar productions CDS 239). Much use is made of strong vibrato on long notes, rapid tonguing of fast note sequences, with many embellishments, and harmonising producing a very full on sound that literally buzzes with the notes. This is

80 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ... now representative of Banat, being the mainstay of both the wedding music and dance ensemble music, loved by Bănăteni, but is sometimes uncomfortable to western European ears. Representative of this style of music at Festivalul Inimilor are the orchestras of the Semenical ensemble from Reşita and Timişul from Timişoara (Figure 3). The current generation of professional musicians in Banat who are from either Romanian or Roma backgrounds, make their living from the wedding market, as well as being attached to the folk ensembles. The continuing evolution and the current recent style of Banat popular music, found on the locally produced cassettes and CDs, uses one or more alto saxophones with keyboard accompaniment which is represented at the Festival Inimilor only by the Roma performances.

An independent branch in the evolution of folk music in Banat are the brass bands (fanfara). Throughout much of Europe brass bands became popular from the late 19th century, as part of the military music and also as town and village bands.

This tradition has continued in many Balkan counties where the local dance melodies have been transformed for brass arrangements. In Romania these are still found mainly in villages of Moldavia, but also have a long history in Banat. At Festivalul Inimilor the dance group from Bănia is accompanied by the local Romanian village brass band which was founded 1922 (Figure 4).

Case study of the “Ardeleana” dance A case study of the performances of the Ardeleana couple dance at Festivalul Inimilor was undertaken in order to illustrate comparative strategies in contemporary performances by Banat ensembles. This choice was made as the Ardeleana is common to the repertoire of all ensembles, and enables the exclusion of the less varied group of men’s dances and circle dances which are generally of fixed choreography and are less useful in this analysis of choreographic strategies. The methodology used involved choreographic and musical analysis of the performances of ensembles appearing at the Festivalul Inimilor between 2005 and 2008. This analysis included the contents of the choreography, duration between changes, number of figures in the time, changes in formation, changes in tempo, inclusion of play acting or solos, the use of crescendo in musical accompaniment to add interest and tension, plus the more subjective qualities of the music, dance style, and the success of the overall performance.

This analysis was undertaken by participant observation and an analysis of video recordings made during the festival performances between 2005 and 2008, together with a study of published transcriptions, and discussions with group choreographers regarding choreographic strategies. It was supplemented by making comparisons based on participant observation and video recordings of ensembles from elsewhere in Romania and Romanian groups from outside Romania performing “Banat” choreographs.

The Ardeleana dance is found on the western side of Romania, broadly covering the counties of Timis, Caras-Severin, Arad and Bihor, and among Romanians living in the villages of Méhkerék (Mecherechi) and Elek (Aletea) which are in Hungary adjacent to the border with Romania. The formation of the dance is couples, with First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 81

Liz Mellish and Nick Green the man and woman facing, and the couples are arranged in a column in the dance space, often in a compact spacing so that it appears to be a line of men facing a line of women. The men and women in couples use various hand and arm connections (often called “holds” in dance terminology). The couples are separated unlike in English or American Contra dance where the couples are often joined in lines.

Ardeleana dances are made up of a number of basic figures, but they are mainly static in the dance space or at most move from side to side. The figures of the dance match the musical four measures phrases and are usually symmetric, in that each sequence is repeated in the opposite direction to the repeat of the musical phrase. There are three rhythmical variants of the dance: moderate 2/4 music, fast 2/4 music or syncopated rhythms (where the dance rhythm deviates from the expected regular beats), and local dancing styles are added to this giving the Ardeleana regional characteristics.

The most commonly used regional names are given in Table 2. The specific Banat local style is very different from other Romanian styles: the steps are on the balls of the feet, the knees give a svikt (taking the Scandinavian term for the up and down motion) often at odds with the steps, and the steps are subtly timed and often fully syncopated.

Table 2: Ardeleana regional variants Bihor Slow Ardeleana Polca, Poarga,

Ţara Moţilor (Apuseni)

Banat

Ţarina

Ardeleana, Lenţa, Duba

Fast Ardeleana syncopated Ardeleana

Ţarina

De Doi Sorocul (couple dance type)

Luncanul Mânântel Pe Picior

For the older generation of village Bănăteni these dances were still performed in their social context. Nicolae Stănescu told us how, in his village in the 1950s, the boys would dance Brâul until the girls arrived at the event, from then on they would only dance couple dances (source: personal communication July 2007). Forms of the traditional Ardeleana are still danced on social occasions, at weddings and at Ruga (Saint’s day) celebrations both in villages and in the city of Timişoara. The formation used now mostly has the couples scattered in the dance space (instead of organised columns), or is sometimes danced in small circles rather than in couples.

Beyond the basic Ardeleana figures, there are many options for adding women’s pirouettes and Ländler (arm twisting) figures into staged choreographies, and these mostly remain within what is viewed as “traditional” by the dancers, although these are not included in the dance notation books.

The Ardeleana dance – strategies for stage performance The Ardeleana is predominantly a dance of couples in place with only small lateral movements. This gives rise to performances in only three basic formations: parallel lines of couples, grid of couples, and a wide arc of couples. The choreo-

82 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ... graphers acknowledge this limitation and generally draw from a small number of figures that allow for movement to change the formation. Only one variant of Ardeleana called Măzărica allows for substantial travelling and is often choreographed either in two counter-revolving open circles of couples for contrast or is used for stage entry.

The village researchers documented certain figures from each village, some of these have specific music and some are danced in groups of two couples, although the combinations danced socially were probably dependent on the dancers. A suite of Ardeleane (plural of Ardeleana) within a stage choreography rarely maintains these as separate Ardeleane dances, each with their own appropriate figures to their melody, before moving on to the next version of Ardeleana. The groups that do are mainly children’s groups and village groups, and in these groups the time between figures changes is greater than fifteen seconds. The most common use of Ardeleana is to combine figures in a sequence such that the music and dance have a degree of correlation in texture and points of change; however certain urban based groups use this strategy to create more impressive figure sequences. On average the figures change between every ten to fifteen seconds. Only the Banat professional ensemble, Banatul, change figure more rapidly than the melody structure (less than every ten seconds) with the orchestrated melody bearing no co-ordination with the dance.

The visual impact used by most Banat ensembles in staging of Banat dances is the mass of dancers in perfect unison, all performing identical steps in the local style. The desire to remain close to the “authentic” figures appears to be strong with most of the Banat choreographers, and this can lead to many choreographies looking very similar to the uninitiated. These choreographies always have the men facing the audience; the costumes worn are a stylish modernised adaptation of the old white linen village costumes, however the music can be contemporary, which the authors term the “rustic modernised” strategy. This strategy can be compare with the Hungarian presentation of the similar dances from the village of Aletea (Elek) where the women face the audience which allows the men’s’ improvisation and leg movements to be clearly seen, with these leg movements not being constrained to uniform motion. These group wear town influenced costumes, and dance to older style music, which the authors term the “authentic recent past” strategy.

In contrast to the ensembles in Banat region, the choreographers in Bucharest have removed this static constraint of the Banat dances by combining figures from different dances with choreographed linking sequences to a single musical melody.

This strategy can be considered to improve the visual impact for the audience, but further removes the original construction of the dance type. This has led to there being a wide separation between the “Banat” dance style performed in the Banat ensembles and the “Banat” style of the Romanian performance tradition in Bucharest. This may be a result of the predominantly rural Banat heritage of the choreographers working in Timişoara, which contrasts with the possibly older styling that was transported outside Banat via the work of the Bucharest based master choreographers and is now presented within Banat choreographies danced by ensembles in other parts of Romania and in the Romanian diaspora who have not been taught by the key Banat choreographers.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 83

Liz Mellish and Nick Green Continuity, change and memory / nostalgia in performance Many of the individuals who are currently involved with the leadership, choreography, musical directorship and administration of folk ensembles in Banat have been involved in the same or a different role for long periods, and in many cases throughout the history of the group, This long involvement of key individuals has provided a stability that has enabled these groups to have a substantial fund of collective (group) memory. The authors would argue that, in line with Connerton, they would view the group’s performances, as ‘embodied practices’, which provide a means of passing on memories within the group, so that this ‘recollected knowledge of the past’ is ‘conveyed and sustained’ among and between generations’ (Connerton, 1989:38), thus providing a mechanism for ‘memorising which extends memory well beyond the (dancing) lives of the individual’ (Bloch, 1998:81).

Thus these cultural performances act as a mechanism for the transmission of memories of the past from older members of group to younger members through the repetition of the dance suites and musical arrangements. This does not detract from the fact that as Blacking said ‘all music (and dance) is socially constructed, so every performance is a unique ‘patterned event’ [...] whose meaning cannot be understood or analyzed in isolation from other events in the system’ (Blacking, 1995:227), but these new events take place within defined boundaries, determined by the groups past history.

Conclusion In this paper, the authors have considered the range of performative strategies employed by the folk ensembles participating in the Festival of the Hearts (Festivalul Inimilor) in Timişoara over the past four years. In conclusion the authors consider that a group’s performance is framed within its own history, which in these cases is in the communist and transitional period, with continuity taking priority over change in these performances. This continuity in group’s performances in the Banat region comes from the strategic importance of the key people (the experts), who were from village backgrounds and have been involved throughout the group’s life span. These experts are driven by their personal vision and enthusiasm for their local folk music and dance and have continued their involvement unaffected by the changes since 1989. Their continuing input has resulted in the overriding choreographic style remaining relatively unchanged since the group’s inception.

On the other hand the musical accompaniment has evolved in style and instrumentation with the musicians playing regularly for local weddings and celebrations as in Banat the local popular culture of continues to have a place in the community. This is reflected in the ensemble music that generally has followed the fashion changes in the music used for community events, although the musical arrangements used by each ensemble has tended to remain close to that used at the development point when the music was originally arranged.

84 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ...

Figure 1 Timişul ensemble at Festivalul Inimilor

Figure 3 Taragot and saxophone musicians

Figure 2 Festival wreath

Figure 4 Bănia village brass band

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 85

Liz Mellish and Nick Green References BÂRLEA, O. (1982) Eseu despre Dansul Popular Românesc, Bucureşti, Cartea Românească.

BESSINGER, M. H. (2007) Muzică Orientală: Identity and Popular Culture in Post Communist Romania In: BUCHANAN, D. A. (ed.) Balkan popular culture and the Ottoman ecumene : music, image, and regional political discourse.

Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.

BLACKING, J. (1995) Music, Culture and Experience: Selected Papers of John Blacking (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology), Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

BLOCH, M. E. F. (1998) How we think they think - Anthropological approaches to cognition, memory and literacy, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press.

CONNERTON, P. (1989) How Societies Remember, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

GAL, E. (1998) Seara Bună-n Sezătoare: Culgere de Folclor Muzical 116 Cântece şi melodii de joc de pe cuprinsul ţării, Timişoara, Editura "Augusta".

GIURCHESCU, A. (1999) Past and Present in Field Research: A Critical History of Personal Experience. In: BUCKLAND, T. (ed.) Dance in the Field - Theory, Methods and Issues in Dance Ethnography. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.

GIURCHESCU, A. (2001) The power of dance and its social and political uses.

Yearbook for Traditional Music, 33, 109-121.

GUSS, D. M. (2000) The Festive State - Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural performance, California, University of California Press.

HANDLER, R. & LINNEKIN, J. (1984) Tradition, Genuine or Spurious. The Journal of American Folklore, 97, 273-290.

HOBSBAWM, E. (1983) Introduction: Inventing Tradition. In: HOBSBAWM, E. & RANGER, T. (eds.) The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

HOERBURGER, F. (1968) Once Again: On the Concept of "Folk Dance". Journal of the International Folk Music Council, 20, 30-32.

KAPOSI, E. & PESOVAR, E. (eds.) (1983) The Art Of Dance In Hungary, Budapest: Corvina Kiado.

LAŢCU, A. & MUNTEAN, I. (1974) Folclor coregrafic din Almaj şi Caraş, Reşita, Comitetul pentru cultura şi educatie socialista al judetului Caraş-Severin, Centrul de îndrumare a creatiei populare şi a mişcarii artistice de masa.

LAŢCU, A. & MUNTEANU, I. (1971) Folclor Coreografic din Văile Timişului şi Bistrei, Reşiţa, Centrul de îndrumare a creaţiei populare şi a mişcǎrii de masǎ al judeţului Caraş-Severin.

MARCU, I., CĂRĂUŞ, M. & ILICI, S. L. (1964) Dansuri Populare din Banat, Timişoara.

MOSER, H. (1962) Vom Folklorismus in unserer Zeit. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 58.

POPESCU-JUDET, G. (1953) Jocuri din Banat, Bucureşti, Editura de Stat pentru Literatura si Arta.

86 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Performing tradition through transition in Romania ...

PROCA-CIORTEA, V. (1954) Jocuri Populare Româneşti, Bucaresti, Editura de Stat.

SHAY, A. (2002) Choreographic Politics - State Folk Dance Companies, Representation and Power, Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University Press.

SINGER, M. (1955) The Cultural Pattern of Indian Civilization: A Preliminary Report of a Methodological Field Study. The Far Eastern Quarterly, 15, 23-36.

VASILESCU, T. & SEVER, T. (1969) Specificul Folclor Coregrafic Românesc, Bucureşti, Comitetul de Stat pentru Cultură şi Arta , Casa Centrala a Creaţiei Populare.

VASILESCU, T. & SEVER, T. (1972) Folclor Coreografic Românesc, Bucureşti, Consiliul Culturii şi Educaţiei Socialiste.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 87

Liz Mellish and Nick Green

88 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

DIETER CHRISTENSEN, Germany/USA

AGENTS OF CHANGE. Musical practices in a village of the Hercegovina, 1957-1974.

Musical concepts and musical practices are part of cultural processes, by definition subject to and an integral part of ever-ongoing change. Because of a certain shortness of diachronic music ethnographies in general, and in the domain of Southeast-European folk music in particular, the causes and mechanisms of change in local rural practices over time still await more systematic study.

This paper reviews field data gathered by Nerthus Christensen and the author over a period of 17 years, from 1957 to 1974, in the village of Gabela, Hercegovina. During that time, Gabela was an agricultural village, located on the edge of the fertile Neretva valley, near Metković and close to the border with Dalmatia.

Musical practices in the village were prevailingly vocal and polyphonic. Over the period under discussion, a number of changes in repertoire, performance practices and musical concepts took place that we can link to external influences: changes in property structure, farming techniques, electrification of the village, use of radio, labor migration etc. I explore in some detail the processes of change in the music of Gabela with special attention to the agents and their specific effects on repertoire and practices.

How did we choose Gabela for our studies? Well, we did not. In August 1957, my wife Nerthus and I enjoyed our honeymoon on the island of Korčula, on the central Adriatic coast. Wonderful sunshine, good swimming, pleasant food and wine, but after two weeks of idleness we became a little restless. We had learned some Serbian the previous year for some collecting work in the Klepa region of Mazedonia, so talking with people, especially in the market, became part of our daily routine. And when one of the vegetable vendors, young Andrija Krvavac, who was about to run out of the tomatoes and grapes he had brought from the mainland, invited us to visit him in

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Dieter Christensen his home town in the Hercegovina, we accepted with pleasure. One evening, we boarded the ferry from Korčula to Ploče, and then the narrow-gauge railway took us to the railroad station of Gabela. The station was dark, no "town" in evidence. We asked the station master for the hotel. What hotel? Where is the town? What town? Who are you looking for? Andrija Krvavac. Which Andrija Krvavac - there are five of them!

Fortunately, we had taken photos of Andrija, and had them printed in Korčula, so it was easy: “ah, Andrija poštolar!“ Andrija the cobbler/shoe maker.

This had been the last of the two daily trains; the station master took us to Andrija’s house over rocky paths through the dark, woke up the family. So began for us the wonderful experience – over the next 17 years – of being allowed into another world. It is also called scholarly research or fieldwork.

Serious scholars select their subject matter in a rational and systematic way, giving thought to the state of prior research, current questions in their discipline and issues of methodology (see Christensen 1997b, Christensen 1997c). Well. We were just lucky. Nothing was known of Gabela’s musical practices and very little of the wider setting in the musicological or folkloristic literature, but as we later discovered, the village presented a rather interesting case. We enjoyed Andrija's hospitality for ten days and returned five more times (1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1974) over the following 17 years, staying a month or two each time and keeping in touch by mail in between.

During this period, the culture of the village of which the musical practices form an integral part, has continued to change, as have the approaches – questions - used in my research. Still, there have been stable elements both in the musical traditions and in the research methods applied. It is mainly under the aspects of change and stability that I will presently review my data on the musical traditions of Gabela.

1.2 State of knowledge It is customary to outline the state of knowledge from which an investigation departs. The former Yugoslavia is held to be a comparatively well known area, ethnomusicologically speaking. There is an impressive bibliography on Balkans folk music. Closer inspection reveals, however, that most entries refer to mere editions of folk song melodies and texts, whereas analytical studies are less frequent.

Perhaps best known in the Western Hemisphere is the book by Béla Bartok and Albert B. Lord, "Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs" (New York 1951).

This book has had a great influence on subsequent folkloristics/ethnomusicology and has frequently served as a model. It treats an incoherent body of recorded folk songs, collected by Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord, in terms of musical structure only, without making an attempt to take other aspects of music tradition into consideration. Actually, 61 out of the 75 melodies presented in that book come from southern Hercegovina, whereas neither Serbia proper nor Croatia proper are represented by even a single musical example. To cut a long story short: publications on Yugoslavian folk music offer a wealth of raw material on music and text structure,

90 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ... and also stray remarks on other aspects of folk music tradition. There are a few publications which treat special aspects of folk music tradition systematically, such as the studies by Gerhard Gesemann, Walter Wünsch, George Herzog and others on epic singing with gusle, and comparative studies by Cvetko Rihtman and others on musical structure. No study has been published, however, which describes and analyses the functioning of a local music tradition; and no data have become known whatsoever from the vicinity of Gabela other than those collected by me.

1.3 History Gabela is an agricultural village, situated in the Western Hercegovina, on an oblong limestone hill which commands the wide alluvial valley of the river Neretva.

In 1957, the population was ca 1,400 but had grown to 2,400 by 1968. The administrative center was the small town of Čapljina, some 7 miles to the north, but commercial ties were much closer with Metković, 2 miles to the southwest, which administratively belongs to Dalmatia. This situation on the border between Dalmatia and Hercegovina has ruled the history of the site for many centuries. Gabela was a border fortress of the Venetians and the Ottomans alternately, until early in the 18th century the place was given up and laid barren because of continuous malaria epidemics. Therefore, the older local history has no immediate bearing on the present culture.

Re-settlement began in the late 18th Century, and by the middle of the 19th Century, a new village had formed on the old site (see Christensen 1997a). In 1852, the Catholic parish of Gabela was re-established, some time later also an orthodox (pravoslavni) parish appeared. The denominations concentrated around centers on opposite ends of the hill, and kept apart. Since the parochial registers were destroyed at the end of the second World War, little authentic data are available as to the origins of the settlers. Some indications come from family traditions and family names. As for the Catholic community, those who assumedly arrived first came from the Neretva gorge between Mostar and Čapljina; others came from Dalmatia and from Western Bosnia.

The orthodox settlers were apparently brought en bloc by the Turkish administration, according to the Ottoman policy of moving hetero-religious or hetero-ethnic groups to the borders of their empire. The Gabela group of orthodox peasants came from Serbia, as maintained by group members and corroborated by their Ekavski dialect, but the specific region or place is not known to me. Also, a Moslem beg had been residing in the village, as evidenced by the ruins of his tower, but none of his offspring or creed have remained.

The very particular ethnogenesis has decisively influenced the musical traditions of Gabela.

1.4. Economy and outside contacts After the formative period of the village, outside contacts were dynamic factors in the musical traditions. These were and are largely connected with the village First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 91

Dieter Christensen economy. The first settlers in the 19th century were small farmers and pastoralists, and agriculture has remained the economic basis of the village to present times. The wide and fertile valley of the Neretva river with its facilities for irrigation and the mild, warm climate permit an intensive agricultural production, which includes cereals, potatoes, vegetables, fruits like grapes, figs and melons, and tobacco. It is of economic importance to Gabela, that the Neretva is navigable up to Metković. Further, one of the first actions of the Austrian administration after the occupation in 1878 was to build a railroad from Sarajevo to Metković, with a station just outside Gabela. This stimulated the production of vegetables and fruits which then were sold by the farmers themselves on markets as distant as Sarajevo or the Dalmatian islands. Thus the contacts of the village population with distant urban centers intensified to an extraordinary degree. Other contacts with the world at large were limited to what may be called normal in this region: primary school, military service, irregular visits to the nearest small towns for various reasons, and intermarriage with some neighboring villages. A more recent development, dating back to the late nineteen forties, is an inclination of young men to learn a handicraft - mason, shoemaker, carpenter, butcher, painter, tailor, - even if they do not plan to pursue it. The apprenticeship takes them regularly to Metković.

The description which I have given to this point holds true for the situation as observed in 1957 and, to some extent, in 1960. I shall now outline some of the developments in the 1957-1974 period.

Official population figures show a considerable increase from about 1,400 in 1957 to about 2,400 in 1968. This, however, is mainly due to an administrative act, the incorporation of a settlement outside the village proper. This new settlement, which was set up a mile from the village after 1963, houses railroad maintenance employees. They come from different parts of the Yugoslavia of the time, mainly from Dalmatia. Even by 1974, no noticeable contacts had been established between the village and the workers' settlement.

Changes have occurred in land tenure, and consequently in the entire economy of the village. Whereas formerly land was private property, after 1957 a cooperative was established which by 1968 held an estimated 50% of the arable land, while the rest was still private property. The private land was almost exclusively used for raising vegetables, grapes and melons, which family members traded on urban markets. No grains are raised on private land any longer. This had consequences for the musical tradition. Also, an increasing number of people were looking for employment outside the village. Several left the village altogether, others worked in the vicinity but continued to live in Gabela, thus multiplying the outside contacts of the village population. Of even more importance to the musical tradition was the electrification for the village, which started in 1958 and was completed in 1965. In 1968, there were more than 200 radios and 39 television sets operating in Gabela.

Urban and national attitudes as transmitted by these media influenced the musical traditions of Gabela.

92 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ...

1.5. Social organization A few remarks must suffice to sketch those aspects of the social organization of the village which have bearing on the musical traditions. I refer to factors which shape groups that have common musical activities. Religious denominations divide the village into two parts. Contacts between the Catholic and the Orthodox section are very superficial, cross-marriage is socially not accepted by the Catholics. Our initial association with the Catholic section has always prevented us from establishing closer contacts with members of the Orthodox group. Therefore, the following refers to the Catholics only, unless otherwise stated.

The most important social factors, in our context, are relationship, neighborhood, godparentship (kumstvo), and age, in this order.

Individual households of patrilinear relatives, as a rule, form clusters within the village. Social ties within such patriclans are very strong. This shows, for example, in working jointly in the fields and in the house as well as in formal and informal gatherings, which may include musical activities. Neighbors and godparents are the non-relatives who are most likely to join a patriclan on such occasions. On the other hand, unmarried young women and men, cure i momci, crowd together and share musical activities, regardless of their belonging to other social groups. In spite of some overlapping, the musical traditions of the two types of social groups differ markedly, as far as the uses of music are concerned. They differ also in other aspects: for instance, in the rate of change, and consequently, in musical structure. A discussion of the uses of music within the village will help elucidate these points.

2. Uses of music The wedding is the event that calls for the most intense musical activities over a period of 3-7 days. Weddings are preferably held from December to February, that is, when there is no work in the fields. Those participating are mainly the relatives and neighbors of both bride and bridegroom, from which also the wedding officials for each side are chosen. These svati have to perform a ritual in which practically all conversation between the parties is sung solo or in chorus. Therefore, the officials for each side are chosen partly on the grounds that they are able to perform the wedding songs, and that they share a repertory so that they may join in a chorus. This pattern stabilizes the tradition, including the musical repertory, within a given patriclan. Other musical activities during the wedding have entertainment rather than ceremonial aspects. They may be joined by everybody present, and are not specific for a wedding.

Death calls for ceremonial wailing, which as a rule is performed solo by female relatives of the deceased.

The Christmas season, from mid-December to New Year, sees the performance of Christmas songs veselanje by choruses of 3-5 people, both in the house and outside. These veselanje have nothing to do with the church, and the texts do not First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 93

Dieter Christensen always refer to Christian concepts.

During Lent, parts from the Passion of Jesus Christ are sung within the family, mainly by older people. This can be done solo, or by groups of 3-5. The text is read from a hymn book, but the music is local and traditional.

The singing of lullabies needs no further explanation.

Harvest songs: in 1957, wheat and other grain were still reaped with a scythe or sickle by women. This was done cooperatively by the married and unmarried women of a patriclan, or of any part thereof. The work was accompanied by antiphonal singing.

Informal gatherings with singing could happen anytime and without obvious reasons. Relatives would visit each other and would always be granted hospitality. If the right mood developed, this frequently resulted in communal singing.

The groups of unmarried would meet separately on other occasions, such as corn chucking or the sending-off of conscripts.

3. Musical Styles and their uses.

The artistic products of Gabela's musical practices, of which we have recorded approximately 350 items over the 17 years1, can be arranged into three major groups, according to certain elements of their musical structure (see also Christensen 1959). These elements are a narrow or wide range of the melody, narrow meaning a third or less; and the organization of the scale, which can be microtonic or diatonic. I have chosen the term microtonic instead of hemitonic here, since the interval of a perfect second is not constitutive in these scales. Under the label diatonic I have listed scales which use halftone- and whole tone steps alternately, and related scales of West Asian origin. As the only subgroups I have used monophonic or polyphonic performance. Actually, other aspects- for instance, text structure, rhythmic organization, tectonic form and so on, would lead to many more subgroups which are of particular interest to problems concerning the origins of the Gabelese music. I shall touch upon these points without going into too much detail.

A The first stylistic group is characterized by narrow melodic range, usually limited to a large third, and by a microtonic scale, which has four or more distinct steps within the large third. More than one halftone interval is used in melodic succession.

Other common elements of style are short phrases, vibrato, rhythm, or complex metrical organization, and the occurrence of polyphony (multisonance) in perfect seconds whenever a song is performed by more than one singer. Another important fact is that this group does no include individual melodies that would have a text of their own. The recorded items are not songs in the sense that melody and text form an 1

A small selection is published on a LP with extensive commentary, Christensen 1990.

94 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ... inseparable entity. On the contrary, the group consists of a number of melody patterns, to each of which various texts can be fitted. There are specific melody patterns and texts for specific uses.

Solo songs Mani boja desna ruko moja. Harvest song žetalička. 3 old women, use: reaping wheat Vid' sprovoda mile Mace moje. Ritual lament kukanje. 1 woman solo, use: wailing over a deceased.

Solo songs in this style, as still in function in 1957, were kukanje (wailing), kantanje (Lent recitation), uspavanke (lullabies), and žetaličke (reaping songs). The texts consists mostly of deseterci, that is, lines of ten syllables, which are lined up according to end rhyme, association of ideas or mere incident.

Chorus songs The great majority of those items belonging to group A have been sung by choruses of three people, either male or female or mixed, and this, to the best of my knowledge, is well in accord with the tradition. Whenever the situation permits, music in Gabela will be made a group affair, and group singing will immediately produce polyphony. There is a surprisingly large number of melody patterns with pertinent patterns of polyphony in group A. Moje dragi daleko da Bome. Joking song ganga. 3 old women use: general entertainment This song is called a ganga, which means: joking or mocking song. The term refers to the text only. Ganga texts consist of two lines of 10 syllables each, with end rhyme as a rule. There are several hundred ganga texts known in Gabela, and new ones are being made up all the time. Each text can be sung on various musical patterns, not only of group A, but also C. Singing gange was perhaps the most popular musical activity in Gabela. Here, one singer starts, the second one takes over (preuzme) and "leads the song" (vodi), while singers 1+3 keep the drone. They follow the melody in unison in two instances only. Polyphony is limited to the interval g-a.

Ječam žele lijepe djevojke. ganga. 3 women, use: general entertainment

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 95

Dieter Christensen One singer starts and leads the song throughout, while the other two sing the drone, which moves on three steps a half-tone apart. The melody oscillates around the drone, producing intervals of a half-tone and a perfect second. The musical structure of the singing with gusle, the West Balkan's bowed lute, is very similar to that of ganga singing, only that the role of the drone is taken by the lute. This similarity is seen also by the local people: singing the drone is referred to as zagusliti, that is: playing the gusle.

B. The stylistic group B is very small. The melodies are wide in range, frequently more than one octave, and the scales are microtonic. These songs are only performed solo. The local name of this genre is putnički, which means traveling song.

This type seems to have developed from calls that travelers exchanged over long distances, a use that continued until the 1970s in the region of Livno (Bosnia), whereas it had vanished in Gabela already in the 1950s. The incorporation into the wedding ceremonial seems to be secondary. The texts generally are invocations, appeals, greetings, or toasts, or they refer to traveling with horses.

Oj mili Bože oj za sve bu ti fala. putnički (svatovski putnički) 3 men alternating.

C. The melodies of the third group are based on the diatonic scale or sections thereof, or on West Asian scales - often hicaz - related to the diatonic scale. Actually, this group is quite heterogeneous in itself, and the main unifying element is that none of these melodies are autochthonous to the region of Gabela. The great majority of the songs in this group can be identified as comparatively recent imports to the musical traditions of Gabela. The sources are the rural and urban folk music of other parts of Yugoslavia - mainly Bosnia and Serbia. Mediating the contacts have been and still are visits of inhabitants of Gabela to those regions and urban centers, and more recently, radio, television, and recordings.

Whenever a song of this group was sung solo, this was done to imitate some commercial recording, and the performance was valued according to its similarity to the model; or, there were no people present to form a chorus. Usually, these songs are performed at social gatherings and the soloist will be accompanied by improvised second and third voices which follow a stereotyped pattern. In contrast to the realizations of this technique in other regions, there is a strong preference for

96 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ... perfect seconds, both in isolated chords and in sequences. To this pattern of ad-hoc harmonization, many melodies of various origin have been adapted. The singing u pratnju (in company) is mainly practiced within the groups of unmarried, and the next two recordings have been made with such groups.

The first recording was sung by 5 young girls. The text is an ordinary ganga text, a deseterac sung uz sredinju, that is, starting in the middle of the text line.

The text form would be BBAB. The melody is probably from Serbia, though here it was maintained that the song was "old in Gabela". The example also demonstrates the assimilations of styles A and C. Oči moje lete ko mašina. 5 young girls

The melody of the final example is a bosanski sevdah, a Bosnian love song with the typical augmented second. It is fitted into the same harmonic pattern as the former example. The text of this song has been used also with melodies of group A. Actually, our example 4 represented a close variant of this present text, which again demonstrates the mutual relationship of both style groups.

Ječam žele Tuzlanke djevojke chorus men and women

These remarks must suffice to demonstrate the most important structural traits of Gabelese music. What conclusions can we draw from this brief analysis of music structure?

4. Style and history The analysis shows that there were three different musical styles coexisting within the village tradition up to 1974 (see Christensen 1959). The narrow and wide microtonic styles, which I have called A and B, were largely associated with ceremonial aspects of social life and with activities that have been little affected by changes ever since the village was founded, namely: wedding ceremony, wailing, Christmas and religious singing, pacifying children and reaping wheat. Nevertheless, the narrow microtonic style played an important role also in all other musical events.

Informants stated over and over again that these types of singing had been handed down from the ancestors, and there are no good reasons to doubt these statements.

Actually, within these style groups there is only one single recorded song in my collection which the performers declared to have learned outside of Gabela. They learned it in Western Bosnia when serving in the army, and remembered it poorly.

Therefore, it is safe to assume that the 1957 repertoire of melody patterns in style groups A and B came to Gabela with the settlers in the last century, or developed on First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 97

Dieter Christensen the spot.

As mentioned before, Gabela is exceptionally rich in such melody patterns. Moreover, analysis revealed that certain melody patterns were sung only by members or immediate neighbors of certain patriclans, whereas others seem to be generally known within the village, or rather, the Catholic part of the village.

Informants corroborated this observation.

In connection with what I said about the formation of the village by settlers from different regions, and about social organization with regard to musical in-group activities of relatives, the observation that the different local groups of relatives within the village maintain partly differing musical traditions supports the hypothesis that these group traditions are rooted in the respective place of origin of a family. This would explain the extraordinary wealth and diversity of melody patterns in Gabela. It also poses the question: what are the roots of the different group traditions?

Generally speaking, musical structures closely related to our style A, narrow microtonic polyphony, have been reported from a contiguous area extending from Istria along the Adriatic coast southeastwards to Montenegro, including all of Dalmatia and the northwestern parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Isolated occurrences are found in Macedonia and Southern Bulgaria. Cvjetko Rihtman has tentatively connected this style with a pre-Slavic population, the Illyrians. As to the immediate sources of the respective part of the old Gabelese repertoire, this problem has to be left to future research.

I encountered the wide microtonic singing, style B, also in the regions of Livno and Vitina, and apparently it is a common phenomenon in the Dalmatian mountains from Split to the Neretva. There is little specific quality about the individual renderings of traveler's calls, regardless whether they are part of a wedding ceremony or not, so that a study of their distribution will hardly add to our knowledge on the origins of Gabela traditions.

The songs which fall into our third stylistic category, wide and diatonic, were mostly associated with group entertainment, lacking ceremonial aspects. Most individual songs in this category were considered locally to be new imports to Gabela.

Actually, in the early 1970s, people over 40 years of age rarely knew how to perform these songs well, and had not learned to sing them in a chorus when they were young.

This makes it highly probable that the custom to sing diatonic melodies with polyphonic vocal accompaniment has spread to Gabela only after 1945. A very probable source for this technique are the urban centers, where a similar technique is popular with young people. This supports the argument that polyphonic singing of diatonic melodies was introduced to Gabelese practices by the groups of unmarried.

The introduction of this style into the wedding ceremony was limited, in 1960, to the phase when the young participants welcome the bride and her attendants with dancing and singing.

The preference of perfect seconds in the Gabela tradition shows clearly that the aesthetic values regarding harmony are largely determined by the old singing

98 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ... style.

5. Change and stability, 1957-1974 So far, the analysis has referred to the situation as we found it in 1957 and which was largely still the same in 1960, though I have also used materials obtained in later years. Since that time, new developments have affected the village culture of Gabela. Major changes, including those in musical concepts and practices, were induced by external forces. The major agents were A. The forced conversion of village farmland from private to collective farming.

B. Electrification began shortly after 1957 and was well advanced in 1960. A consequence was increasingly easy access to the mass media – radio and television.

C. Labor migration. In Dalmatia and the poor karst areas of Western Bosnia, labor migration to Australia, Canada and the USA has been practiced for decades. Since the late 1950s, labor migration to Central Europe – Austria, Germany – has drawn young men away from Gabela in substantial numbers.

A. One direct consequence of the introduction of collective farming was that grain is now harvested exclusively with combines. Work songs for reaping wheat with scythes lost their function, performing and learning discontinued. Already in 1968, young women did not know what žetaličke were. Another consequence is that cross-group contacts within the village intensified, as members of different patriclans were now working the fields jointly. They shared musical activities during their working time in the fields, thus forming a third group crosscutting those of the patriclans and the unmarried. The only use of music within this group was during work in the fields, and the repertoire was identical with that sung during informal gatherings of the two other groups.

B. The electrification of the village – connecting all houses to the electric grid – led promptly to the introduction of radios and television sets, which became easily accessible to every single member of the community, with several radios in each patriclan, and television sets well distributed over the village by 1968. The consequences of this innovation were mainly threefold: a. The mass media reduced performance activities in the village to some extent by replacing them with the playing of recordings or radio. This applied mainly to uses of music within the patriclan, at informal gatherings and as wedding entertainment, but not wedding rituals, or within the groups of unmarried at their formal or informal gatherings, which were generally outdoor affairs. b. The mass media made new musical structures available for learning. In 1968, so-called Mexican songs were particularly popular with the young people.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 99

Dieter Christensen c. It can be assumed that the mass media influenced the attitudes towards the local music tradition. Such attitudes towards the different song genres and musical styles were verbalized by many informants, both in interviews and spontaneously, and they showed an increasing trend towards a stereotype: old is bad, new is good, local is bad, foreign is good. At the same time, in the early 1970s, a regional program broadcast from a station in Sarajevo under the title “Naše Sjelo” legitimized and revalidated, in the minds of the people of Gabela, some of their rural customs and musical practices: the program put ganga on the air.

C. Labor migration to Central Europe, which until 1974 had involved only the younger generations of the under 35 year olds, led to some alienation and disruption of learning processes, but the full effects were not yet evident when we last visited Gabela in 1974.

A re-study of Gabela “50 years later”, with a focus on the kinds and causes of changes in musical and dance practices, would be a desirable project.

100 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Agents of Change ...

References Bartok, Béla and Albert B: Lord 1951 Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs. New York: Columbia University Press.

Christensen, Dieter 1959 Heterogene Musikstile in dem Dorf Gabela (Herzegovina). Bericht über den 7. internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress Köln, 1958. pp.79-82.

1990 Naše Pjesme. Music from Gabela, Hercegovina, Yugoslavia. Berlin: Staatliche Museen. (=Museum Collection Berlin 2). Phono record (LP) with 28 pp. booklet.

1997a On the post-Venetian music history of a village in the Hercegovina.

Anthropological-ethnomusicological perspectives. Musica e Storia 5: 263-72.

1997b On object and methodology in music research: Concepts of music and paths of inquiry in 'historical' and 'comparative' musicology, in Ch-H. Mahling and S. Münch, eds., Ethnomusicology and Historical Musicology. Tutzing: Hans Schneider.(=Mainzer Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 36) 1997c Cross-cultural processes in music: Directions of research. In S. E. Castelo-Branco, ed., Portugal and the World: The Encounter of Cultures in Music.

Lisbon: Publicações Dom Quixote. Pp. 45-59.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 101

Dieter Christensen

102 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

URSULA HEMETEK, Austria

MUSICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BALKANS IN VIENNA Introduction

Figure 1: Poster of the Festival “Balkan Fever” (www.balkanfever.at) In April 2008 the festival “Balkan Fever” took place in Vienna for the (Vienna, 1st district), where mainly Balkan music is performed live or by DJs, holds on. The label “Balkan” is extensively used for “clubbing” and other musical events and attracts young people in masses. Goran Bregović’s concerts are sold out and Gypsy Brass is a topic to talk about among young generations whose listening habits are as far as possible from any traditional music. I could name many other examples underlining the trendiness of “Balkan Music” in Vienna. The music presented is seldom “traditional”. Mostly we find what could be called creative “world music” approaches, or

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ursula Hemetek several musical “markers” which are used as stereotypes for the Balkans integrated into popular music styles.

Compared to other Western European urban centers there seems to be a special quality about the musical “Balkan boom” in Vienna. Obviously there is a focus on the former Yugoslavia. Not by chance; it is based on the historical development of Vienna as well as on the ethnic backgrounds of the recent immigrant population.

Therefore my paper will mainly focus on that area. I have done research on the music of immigrants from the Balkans in Vienna for many years. But here I would rather develop some thoughts on the preconditions and musical trends of the Balkan boom and not primarily focus on its manifestations in Vienna. I would like the reader to keep in mind that I am dealing mostly with an outsider’s perspective.

1. Political and economic interests In April 2008, a symposium called “Balkan Express: Return to Europe – Talking Balkans”, took place in Vienna (http://radiokulturhaus.orf.at/highlight‘/’116292.html). Among the speakers were the highest representative of the Republic of Austria, the Prime Minister, as well as Austrian representatives from the business world, banking and the media. The representatives of the Balkan states who had been invited were either politicians (rather few) or artists and journalists. This representation on a very high level indicates that Austria obviously has various interests in the region.

Politically it is the integration of Balkan states into the European Union and economically it is investment in a promising market. The Austrian economy is one of the most successful investors in Balkan states and the profit is enormous. This symposium was mainly funded by the Erste Stiftung, a sponsorship fund of an Austrian bank that is expanding intensively in South-Eastern Europe. I mention only this example from a wide range because it reveals the mechanisms so clearly: the economy as the driving force makes use of politicians and the media in order to polish up the image of a region where investment seems highly profitable. This was done by presenting dialogues of seemingly equal partners with the same interests. The fact these partners were not equal was mirrored by the level of representation. While Austria sent the Prime Minister, Balkan states were only represented on a lower political level. There is obviously much more interest in this dialogue from the Austrian side than from the Balkan side.

In scholarly work, there are some positive effects of this economic interest: research projects in cooperation with Balkan states have priority with regard to funding, either by private funds or by the state, while EU funds which are accessible for Austrian institutions support scholarly cooperation with Balkan states. There would be many examples to prove this. I will just mention the funding of travel costs and accommodation for all Balkan participants of the ICTM World conference in 2007 by the Austrian government. The Balkans are obviously “an issue”.

Austria tries to feature as a “political expert” in Balkan matters, arguing with its history going back to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and with longstanding

104 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna expertise due to good relationships and its geographical position.

I do not wish to criticize these arguments; they are true to a certain extent.

Still, I can see a great discrepancy between the Balkans as a political and economic “topic of interest” and “Balkan images” in everyday life. The latter, the “Balkan images” are to be found on a quite different level and it is these that are much more connected to the musical Balkan boom than the ones mentioned above.

2. Balkan images and the “Balkan boom” There is a saying that “the Balkans actually start in Vienna”, which geographically might not be true, but emotionally could be, if you interpret the Balkans more as a view of the world and a way of life or, as Goran Bregović puts it in an interview: an emotional territory.

There is something special about the connotations of the word “Balkan”.

Geographically and culturally as well, there are many contradictory definitions of the region itself. The further you go northwest the more pejorative these connotations are.

It is a continuous process of “othering” by moving geographically from southeast to northwest. People always imagine that the Balkans start southeast from their own position. For the Croats the Balkans start in Serbia, for Slovenes in Croatia, for Austrians in the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia), and from locations in Germany, they start in Vienna.

On a more scientific level, I agree with Maria Todorova (1999: 31, 85, 267), who speaks of the perceptions of the Balkans in the minds of Western Europeans as an “exotic and imaginary sphere – a place of legends, fairy tales and wonders” in contrast to the “prosaic and profane world of the West”; as the Dionysian counter-pole of Europe, standing for “forbidden, erotic, female” or for the “dark side of the collective Europe”. These connotations do have some connection with the musical image of the Balkans in Vienna. For example, Richard Schubert, the organizer of the festival Balkan Fever, mentions in an interview (14.2.2006) that for Austrians, Balkan music conveys a cliché of a lifestyle that he describes as “hot”, “intense” and “sensuous”, and as the “other” to Western-European correctness and formality. Certain markers of Balkan music seem to fulfil these expectations.

Here is one quotation from the internet, a comment of a customer at Amazon.de (in a translation of Alkenka Barber-Kersovan) referring to the CD Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals by Goran Bregović: “Too many reports on the crisis have let us forget what the Balkans can also stand for: For an authentic life that was lost in Western Europe. The new work of the former rock star Bregović is exactly in this sense the Balkans at their best1. It is a record for any moment in life, because every moment in life has been captured on it.

Every gloomy emotion finds its musical expression here; every single manifestation of joy finds its adequate realization” (Ein Kunde 2002) (quoted from Barber-Kersovan 1

The quotation refers to the CD “Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals”.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 105

Ursula Hemetek 2009: 240) The keywords for what Westerners are searching for would be “authenticity” and “emotion”.

To my mind, Bregović and the films of Emir Kusturica certainly take up a central position in the popularisation of Balkan sound, and very much connected to that is of course the topic of the Roma and their music. The films “Time of the Gypsies” as well as “Underground” and “Black Cat, White Tomcat” have certainly created a musical image of that which is “Balkan”, using the Roma, their imagined way of life and their music to do so. In these films, we find all the above-mentioned perceptions concerning the Balkans, personified by the Roma2. “One of the artists considered to have significantly contributed to the popularization of Roma (and Romani music) is Emir Kusturica. … In his movies in the 1980s and 1990s, Kusturica imagined Romani people as genuine exponents of antiglobalism” says Aleksandra Marković in a most interesting study on “Gypsy Images in Goran Bregović’s music” (2009: 111). She also argues that already existing stereotypes about Gypsies are perpetuated in the films.

This makes them more powerful. The method of communication applied is that stereotype-consistent information is employed for comprehensible coding of the communicated message (see Lyons and Kashima 2001).

It seems to work. Of course, these films show fiction not reality. Still, they seem to be influential concerning Balkan images in Western countries, somehow even “representing” the Balkans and the way of life there. Therefore, many people feel misrepresented in these films and in the music. I have heard from Serbian colleagues that they feel very uncomfortable about being confronted in the West with the perception that they have a similar life style to the people in Kusturica’s films, and I have heard Roma severely criticising how they are represented, as people as well as in their music.

Alkesandra Marković continues about the music itself that in the Netherlands, where her study is located, is called “Balkan beat”: “Balkan Beat (also known as Balkan or Gypsy) is a music style undergoing increasing popularity on the World Music scene. It denotes music marketed as coming from the Balkans and played in clubs and discotheques of Western Europe” (Marković 2009: 109). “Balkan” and “Gypsy” are used synonymously in this context. Goran Bregović is seen as the most successful protagonist of this genre. Marković also denotes the three Gypsy stereotypes that contribute to the marketing as well as to the characterization of the music: “In Balkan beat discourse it is possible to identify three main stereotypes about the Roma, three sets of axiomatic statements that are (verbally and/or visually) used to communicate meanings between performers and the audience. ….Firstly, Gypsies are imagined as nomads who are free from constraints of modern life. Secondly, Gypsies are considered as naturally gifted musicians who are capable of experiencing extreme emotions and of communicating them to the audience. Finally, their trafficking in music styles has resulted in Gypsies being attributed with a broad range of music strategies, starting from innovating to appropriating to recycling to stealing music” (Marković 2009: 108).

2

The film Time of the Gypsies, directed by Emir Kusturica with music by Goran Bregović, won the competition in Cannes in 1989.

106 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna She goes on by mentioning criticism towards Bregović’s musical activities, as he is often accused of “stealing” music: “He uses the Gypsy image to justify his own compositional process (recycling and collage) and to claim that it is a natural way of dealing with traditional music. Praising Gypsies who ‘steal’ music in order to create new music, Bregović manages to interpret his compositional choices within the framework of tradition and authenticity. According to him, stealing from tradition is tradition; it is a traditional process of creating music” (Marković 2009: 118).

On the other hand, it was Bregović’s work that opened the door and the Western stages for Roma musicians like the late Šaban Bajramović, Esma and Boban Marković.

Figure 2: Šaban Bajramović 1936-2008 (famous Romani singer in the former Yugoslavia, died in 2008, from: dROMa 18/08:18

Figure 3: Esma Redjepova (famous Romani singer in the former Yugoslavia, still performing, from Romano Centro 61/2008: 8) First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 107

Ursula Hemetek The Bregović phenomenon is of course multi-facetted and can be studied and explained from many points of view. I want to include here the approach of popular music studies because these deal with the concept of “hybridity” more than ethnomusicology does. Bregović’s music is on the one hand rooted in traditional music of the Balkans, but this is only one side of the story. Alenka Barber-Kersovan, a researcher in popular music styles, argues that his roots in rock music are also an important component that lead to his musical success. The rock genre which laid the ground in this case was Yugo Rock.

3. Yugo Rock and Goran Bregović In contrast to other communist states, Western rock music appeared very early in the former Yugoslavia, due to the less repressive political system. Alenka Barber Kersovan sees the following reasons: “Hence, on the one hand (except for sporadic cycles of tighter Party control), in Yugoslavia a specific ‘repressive-tolerant’ political climate dominated, which proved to be favourable for the re-contextualization of western musical genres. Especially during the 1960s, as the economy boomed, the borders towards the West were opened, and the political atmosphere was rather relaxed, the country experienced a wide-ranging adoption of the western lifestyle” (BarberKersovan 2009: 233-234). Domestic rock groups emerged at that time and were supported considerably, also politically. Western popular music also served as a tool to diminish existing ethnic differences in the country, as the state ideology was aiming at unity and “bratstvo-jedinstvo”. The major characteristic of Yugo Rock from the beginning was the combination of traditional sounds with rock music. “Though one of the first groups that combined rock music with ethno-sounds must have been the Serbian band ‘Smak’ ……the official founder of Yugo Rock is generally considered to be ‘Bijelo dugme’”(Barber-Kersovan 2009: 235). Barber-Kersovan speaks about this new music genre as a “hybrid” that amalgamated local music idioms with international pop music. The group “Bijelo dugme” was formed in 1974 in Sarajevo and was the first band to draw audiences of ten thousand fans at their concerts and to obtain real commercial success. Goran Bregović was the bandleader then. In the West, he gained attention only later on with the music for the films of Emir Kusturica, as mentioned above. Later he toured with his “Wedding and Funeral Band” consisting of a symphony orchestra, a male choir, four vocal soloists and a Roma brass band. Later on, he also wrote music for the theatre and a number of stage spectacles. Sometimes he is called the “Ambassador of Balkan music”. He partly lives in Paris, and he resisted the temptation of being instrumentalized by one of the different parties for political purposes before and during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Therefore, “Bijelo Dugme” and Goran Bregović in his later musical activities stand for anti-nationalism and also for “Yugo nostalgia”, a term created some years after the war.

Obviously, it is he and his music that set the standards for the Balkan boom in the West to a great extent. However, and especially for the Viennese situation,

108 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna there is another factor to be considered.

4. Immigration as an important factor for the development of the popularisation of Balkan Sound in Vienna Vienna has long been and still is the “city of music”, at a crossroads of international flow and immigration. This unique condition arises from its history as the capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, its later position as the easternmost outpost of Western Europe during the Cold War, as the centre of working immigration from south-eastern Europe, and finally, as the nearest shelter for refugees during the Balkan Wars. For centuries, Vienna truly has been and today remains a multicultural city. Just to give you an idea of the diversity I will provide an overview below. Out of 1.6 million inhabitants of Vienna about 30 percent have immigrant backgrounds.

Ethnic/religious minorities in Vienna, an overview “Autochthonous”

In Austria since the:

Jewish community in Vienna

13th century

Czechs in Vienna

19th century

Slovaks in Vienna

19th century

Roma in Austria

16th century

Foreigners: Immigrants and

In Austria since:

refugees (largest groups) From Hungary

1956

From former Yugoslavia

1960 onwards

From Turkey

1960 onwards

From Czechoslovakia

1968

From Poland

1981

From Bosnia

1992

Some of these groups were labour immigrants like the Czechs and SloFirst Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 109

Ursula Hemetek vaks in the 19th century or the people from Yugoslavia and Turkey in the 20th century.

Other groups were refugees, like the Hungarians, Czech-Slovakian, Polish, or Bosnian people.

Most immigrants in Vienna have roots in the Balkan states. Labour immigration in larger numbers started from 1964 onwards, mostly from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey, because of a lack of workers in Austria.

Population Vienna

1.550.123

Immigrants from Serbia from Turkey and Montenegro

68.796

39.119

from Bosnia and Herzegowina

from Croatia

from Poland

21.638

16.214

13.648

Figure 4: Figures on immigrants in Vienna from the census in 2001 All these people contributed to the wealth of Austrian society, and have been living here for a long time. That probably would suggest that immigrants are welcome in Austria, but we witness the contrary in the political situation nowadays. Even though a large part of that immigrant population has obtained Austrian citizenship in the meantime, these people mostly face severe discrimination, in housing, the labour market and through everyday racism. Additionally, campaigning for elections usually reveals extreme xenophobia.

Hand in hand with the ethnic diversity in Vienna, there is also an astounding musical diversity. Besides existential or economic reasons as the driving forces for immigration, it can also be music as well. Professional musicians from the Balkans are attracted by Vienna’s image as the “city of music” and this leads to a considerable number of music professionals in town. Often people from the immigrant communities feel the need to express their cultural roots or at least to hear “their” music live. Immigrant communities need music and musicians for their rituals and festivities and the music of the immigrants from the former Yugoslavia forms a very lively scene in Vienna (see also Hemetek 2001, 2007).

Twenty-five years ago, with no Balkan boom around, there was little public awareness of these musical activities. Many of the immigrant musicians performed traditional music within their ethnic communities in a kind of ghetto situation and immigrants were the main target group for these activities. On the other hand, immigrants liked the popular music productions form their homeland and networks for production and marketing of these products were established a long time ago. Therefore, immigrants and immigrant musicians certainly prepared the ground for the Balkan boom in Vienna too.

Alenka Barber-Kersovan argues that as a consequence of forced migration due to the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, the hybrid genre Yugo Rock also found a new home in Western European countries, and she calls it “Yugo Rock in exile”: “The civil wars in Slovenia (1991), Croatia (1991-1992), Bosnia and Herzegovina(1992-1995), and Serbia (1999) left approximately 350 000 citizens dead and for-

110 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna ced some 3 500 000 people to flee the country. Further, with the disintegration of the federation and the declaration of the former republics Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia as independent states, not only did Yugoslavia as a governmental unit cease to exist but also its name. Thus, Yugo Rock became metaphorically as well as de facto deprived of its original territorial anchorage and found a new home in diaspora. This was especially the case in big European cities like London, Amsterdam, Vienna, or Berlin” (Barber-Kersovan 2009: 237).

Therefore, in addition to the perception of the “Balkans” and the Gypsy stereotypes in music based on traditional music, we have to take Yugo Rock into consideration and the popular music scene in general when looking at the Balkan boom. The fact that we can find “Balkan beat parties” mostly in venues associated with popular music supports this argument.

5. Looking closer at two music examples As I have outlined the socio-political context of music in connection with the Balkan boom above, I would like to look at the music making itself by using two selected versions of the Romani anthem “Gelem gelem”.

The first one is the Romani anthem as it was performed before the Balkan boom, a recording from 19903.

Figure 5: Ensemble Milan Jovanović (referred to as Paganini), featuring vocals, violin, accordion, keyboards and guitar, Vienna, 8th June 1990 (Hemetek et. al. 1992) 3

I am well aware that especially the Romani anthem exists in many different versions and this is just one out of many that could be heard in Vienna at that time (see Hemetek 2009). I selected these examples with the purpose of showing the development influenced by the Balkan boom.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 111

Ursula Hemetek This is a Serbian version of Gelem, gelem and it has the following musical characteristics: The melody is articulated in a free rhythmical way, structured in A and B (chorus). It is played by an ensemble featuring vocals, violin, accordion, keyboards and guitar. The singer takes a background role, there is no emphasis on the text as it is hardly comprehensible, in contrast to other version of the Romani anthem. The chorus is sung by two voices with the participation of the public. The orchestra consists of Roma musicians who live in Vienna and have immigrated from Serbia.

This style of performance is not a characteristic of Romani music in general, but a regionally influenced one. One can clearly hear the Serbian influence, particularly with regard to the instrumental elements. We encounter here a regional style of Romani music performed in a traditional way. The recording was made during the first presentation of Romani culture in Vienna (“Ausnahmeweise Zigeuner”) and it was probably the first time that this style of music – formerly internal practice of wedding music - was performed for a non-Roma Austrian public4.

The second version of “Gelem, gelem” that I want to deal with is performed very much in the “Balkan boom” sound and is published on the CD “Border Confusion” (2001) of the “Sandi Lopičić Orkestar”. Sandi Lopičić, who is a trained jazz musician and an offspring of the older generation of Bosnian working immigrants, founded this group in 1998 in Graz. “This musical body unifies predominantly professional musicians, who were mostly studying jazz or classical music at academy level.

A number of the members originate from the succession states of the former Yugoslavia, and are well informed about the music traditions of those regions and the bordering Balkan countries. This also accounts for the characteristic sound of the three female singers” (Barber-Kersovan 2009: 240). The repertoire consists of newly arranged traditional songs and original pieces all performed more or less with a jazzy touch.

Sandi Lopičić told me in an interview that the civil war actually was his motivation to be engaged in traditional Balkan music for the first time. He clearly has his musical roots in jazz. The target group of the orchestra’s performances is obviously the Austrian majority audience. This, as well as the “ethnic” “Balkan” touch in their repertory categorizes the “Sandi Lopičić Orkestar” as part of the so-called “world music” scene, hand in hand with other manifestations of the Balkan boom. The “Sandi Lopičić Orkestar” is far too autonomous in its musical creativity to call itself a follower of the Balkan boom, but still, the “Gelem, gelem” suggests some influence.

The introduction starts with brass instruments, trumpets dominating, very much like the Gypsy brass sound, in tempo rubato. The sound reminds one very much of “Gypsy brass”. This is followed by keyboards with percussion accompanying in a very jazzy manner the female voice that presents the theme, which is the melody of “Gelem, gelem”, sung in the Romani language. The first stanza is articulated in 4/4 metre, in phrases of the voice backed up by wind instruments. There is also a kind of a call and response articulation in what in the above version is the refrain. This is 4

The song was popular in the former Yugoslavia long before that time of course, but unknown in Austrian public.

112 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna followed by jazzy solo improvisations by the trumpet and saxophone. The whole piece is nearly seven minutes long. The sonic elements that recall the Balkan boom are obviously the Gypsy brass sound as well as the voice timbre of the female singer. The musical material itself, the Romani anthem, is of course the closest association.

Because by using this musical symbol of an ethnic group, all the stereotypical associations with “gypsyness” are evoked. This is of course the closest parallel to the Balkan boom on the social level. Roma music as a stimulus for non-Roma musicians would be the other.

Of course, there is still music played in Vienna that corresponds to the first example concerning style as well as performance practice. But usually it is not included in festivals like “Balkan fever”. The second one is much more “trendy”.

6. Dichotomies to conclude Dichotomies have been central to my considerations on the representation of Balkan music in Vienna. The economic interests of the West and immigration from the Balkans are the hard facts as preconditions of the Balkan boom. At the same time, there is a constant “othering” of the Balkans, obvious in the images and in the severe discrimination of immigrants from that region. To my mind, the musical Balkan boom is rooted in both. Vienna as the “city of music” and located at the very geographical border plays a special role as a city of immigration.

From the musical point of view, Yugo Rock and Yugo nostalgia do have a certain impact, personified by the musical ambassador Goran Bregovic and his activities. It is a new hybrid genre that he created and it would be World Music in one of the many possible definitions. Translated into the conference themes it is neither “tradition” nor “revival”, probably transition, but with several points of departure.

The musical representation of the Balkans in Vienna has different facets. I have been dealing mostly with the more profitable manifestations. There are others too, and you can see the contradiction in the following photographs. Roma musicians are doubtlessly central protagonists in the Balkan boom. On the one hand, middle class concert halls with standing ovations for the Boban Marković orkestra, obviously personifying some perception of “authenticity” for the audiences, and as a counterpart, Roma street musicians, very real in their need of money to feed their families, unnoticed by the Viennese people who pass by.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 113

Ursula Hemetek

Figure 6: Boban Marković ensemble featuring at Vienna’s Ost-Club, 2009-02-07 from http://www.ost-klub.at/gallerie.php?lang=1&id=998, access 28.9.2009

Figure 7: Gypsy street musicians in 2008 (from Romano Centro 2008/61: 17)

114 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Musical representations of the Balkans in Vienna References Barber-Kersovan, Alenka. 2009. »How Blakan rock Went West. Political Impliction of an Ethno-Wave«. In: Music in Motion. Diversity and Dialogue in Europe. eds. Bernd Clausen, Ursula Hemetek, Eva Saether. Bielefeld: transcripr Verlag, p. 233-252 Border Confusion. Sandy Lopičić Orkestar. CD 2001 Network Medien GmbH dROMa. Romani politika, kultura, tschib. 18/08 Hemetek, Ursula. 2001. Mosaik der Klänge. Musik der ethnischen und religiösen Minderheiten in Österreich (Schriften zur Volksmusikforschung Bd. 20), Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau Hemetek, Ursula. 2007. “Musical Practice of Immigrants from the Former Yugoslavia and Turkey in Vienna I”. In: Cultural Diversity in the Urban Area. Explorations in Brban Ethnomusicology. eds. Ursula Hemetek and Adelaida Reyes. Vienna: Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomsuikologie, p. 51-62 Lyons, Anthony and Yoshihisa Kashima. 2001. »The Reproduction of Culture.

Communication Processes Tend to Maintain Cultural Stereotypes«. Social Cognition 19/3, 372-394 Markovi , Aleksandra. 2009. “Sampling Artists: Gypsy Images in Goran Bregovi ’s Music”. In: Voices of the Weak. Music and Minorities, eds. Zuzana Jurková and Lee Bidgood, Praha. Slovo 21 Romano Centro. Heft Nr. 61, Juni 2008 Todorova, Maria. 1999. Die Erfindung des Balkans. Europas bequemes Vorurteil.

Damstadt: Primus Verlag References on the web Balkanfever: www.blakanfever.at, access May 2009 http://www.ost-klub.at/gallerie.php?lang=1&id=998, access 28.9.2009 http://radiokulturhaus.orf.at/highlights/116292.html

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 115

Ursula Hemetek

116 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

DANIJELA ILIĆ, Serbia

ASSIMILATION OF FOLKLORE ELEMENTS AND DIFFERENT CULTURES AND MENTALITIES IN THE 1ST SUITE FROM STEVAN HRISTIĆ’S BALLET “THE LEGEND OF OHRID”

This ballet, written in the mid-20th century, brings folklore elements of different peoples who participated in creating the history of the Balkans. The libretto is based on a fairytale and legend about the servitude under the Turks, while the music and the original choreography rely on folklore elements and models from the region of Macedonia. The two most prominent music motifs in the ballet are the songs Biljana platno beleše (Biljana Bleached the Linen) and Pušči me (Let Me Go), which, often varied, imbue the entire ballet. Hristić uses the process of transforming the original thematic material with the help of the so-called “montage technique”. In the intense dramaturgy, the possibilities of the form of the 1st movement, which is built on contrasts, are reflected on the other movements through the integrating role of variance, creating an ostinato on a single motif in the 2nd movement entitled “Grčka igra”(Greek Dance).

The third movement (“Janičarska igra” /Janissary Dance/) brings a folklore “aroma” of other Balkan peoples: Romanians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Albanians. The transformation of the material culminates in the last movement, using a complex of means, among which the varying of timbre and texture are assigned an important role.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Danijela Ilić Assimilation of Folklore Elements and Different Cultures and Mentalities in the 1st Suite from Stevan Hristić’s Ballet “The Legend of Ohrid” Composing suites based on the thematic material of a ballet is a widespread occurrence. The abundance of thematic material in Stevan Hristić’s ballet “The Legend of Ohrid” lends itself to creating 4 orchestral suites, of which only the first is composed as a typical suite cycle.

Suite no. 1 is written as a four-movement cycle with a clear and well-laidout compositional plan and with contrasts that are typical of the suites created on the basis of ballet spectacles.

The music-thematic logic reveals a well-thought-out dramaturgical and constructive plan leaning on the first movement, which is the most complex in terms of form and from which projections proceed toward the other movements of the cycle.

What is unusual about this movement is its dramaturgical realization, in addition to it being in a curious position. Namely, it is the place where the functions of the most significant movement and those of the lyrical center meet. The dual function of this movement pushes it into the foreground. It consists of three contrasting sections that form a thematic system of three linked stages, three monolithic thematic spheres.

The first movement is a typical example of a ternary contrasting-integrating form without reprise.1 First movement: A B 3/2 4/4 Sostenuto e marcatisimo..............................................

(Unison in the strings, (solo clarinet) horn and woodwinds)

C 2/4 Allegro („Tutti”)

The clear diatonicism and linear melodic exposition, as well as the sharp initial coloring, is what imparts the characteristic freshness to the first part of the form, which is shaped as a monolithic thematic mass, with a typically folkloric variant thematic material and the center on the tone “a”:

1

The distant precursors of this form are old suites with an elaborate first movement such as Bach’s Partita no. 2 in C minor. Characteristically, the first movement of these old suites functions as introduction, while the third movement is the center of active polyphonic development.

118 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Assimilation of Folklore Elements ... music example no. 1: Sostenuto e morcatissimo

The melodic line contains elements of the old tunes and, at the beginning, recitative elements, which help to enhance its starting energy. Following the entry of the thematic contrast without caesura comes the second part bringing a bright coloring and transparency. Appearing against the background of the unaltered mass in the strings is the solo clarinet with lyrical pastoral atmosphere. Juxtaposing the recitative element with the completely different atmosphere imparted by the solo clarinet creates a sharp contrast. The tradition of ancient proto-patterns is visible in this procedure, too; however, while the juxtaposition in these patterns occurs between adjacent movements of the cycle, Hristić applied this principle within adjacent parts of one and the same movement: music example no. 2: the beginning of part B

The connection with the first part of the form, besides the continued flow of the monolithic layer, is also established in the parallel variable tonal structure: in the first part, the center is on “C – A”, and in the second on “A – F sharp”. The parallel variable tonal structure is widespread in the national music cultures of Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

The variantly structured line of the solo clarinet bears a similarity with the final motives of the first part of the form. However, while these motives are given in a linear-melodic form, the texture of the second part is polyphonic. In this layeredness and ostensible inertness, the textural function of voices is transformed: while the solo clarinet retains the leading and the most stable position, the inverted First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 119

Danijela Ilić pedal “la” in the violas gradually expands its sonic ambit and, at one point, melds with the solo clarinet. Such a phenomenon is typical of heterophony as one of the most widespread forms of texture in Slavic melos: The six-part chord mass is sonically composed of short, second melodic lines. Their repetition over the course of 26 bars transforms them into micro-ostinato lines. A poly-ostinato complex is thus created, betraying 20th-century trends.

At the end of part B strict ostinato is disturbed. This transition from strict to free ostinato coincides with the change of key, which plays an important role in the dynamics of the development of the movement, as well as the entire cycle. The stability of the ostinato part requires some necessary factors that would bring about the increase of energy. The thematicism also changes and a new, dance part (part C) appears, further fuelling the increase of energy. /остинато/ The third part of the first movement (part “C”) has a dance character. The place where the idyllic atmosphere of the second part of the form is opposed to the powerful surge of energy marks the boundary between the second and third parts. music example no. 3:

The radical change in texture, the syncopation and the accompaniment in fifths that is typical of folk music-making all enhance the effect of the upsurge of the new thematic material.2 The changes in chord masses demarcate the boundaries of the stages between which there are no caesuras or modulating connections. In the national music of most Balkan countries (Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek), the structuring of instrumental forms, particularly dance forms, is done by sequencing parts that are identical in length. Theirs is a single-type rhythmic structure, with the concatenated parts often texturally varied, sometimes by introducing new keys.

In “The Legend of Ohrid”, the material of the third part of the first movement betrays a similarity with such a chain structure. At the same time, the absence of a visible caesura, the textural alternations and the introduction of a new thematicism all boost the dynamics and intensify the development of the material. The 2

Impulses from the first part break into the clear diatonicism, but now they are colored with dance nuances, creating preconditions for a connection with the third and fourth movements of the suite.

120 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Assimilation of Folklore Elements ... continual flow and the spilling of the development from one stage into another are achieved by extended thematicism3. (Thematic elements of one stage of the form extend their development into the next stage. allowing for their transformation as well as the appearance of new elements, as shown in the stages of the third part of this movement). The freedom to form a key scheme reveals the so-called “free” (or “open”) tonal structure.

The second stage of “Allegro” reveals a concatenation of the old thematic material and the relatively new one, which is typical of extended thematicism. A new four-tone motive (Dorian descending tetrachord) is introduced, forming a permanent ostinato layer whose sonic makeup remains unchanged: music example no. 4:

The imitative polyphonization of the texture intensifies the development.

A chain structure in every sense of the word is created since the extended thematicism that closes the thematic cycle actually takes it back to the starting point: music example no. 5:

3

Extended thematicism is characteristic of contrasting-integrating forms, creating a stronger connection that counters the mosaic material, the large amount of material and the danger of inadequate organization. The term was introduced by Penčo Stojanov (П.Стоянов, „Контрастно-съставни форми"- София, „Музика" -1973 г.).

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 121

Danijela Ilić Proceeding from the thematicism of the first movement are lines that develop in the other movements of the cycle. The modal basis of the movements becomes one of the integrating factors.

Exposed in the first movement, ostinato becomes a general principle for the structuring of the second movement (“Greek Dance”). This movement is the lyrical center of the cycle, harking back to part B of the first movement. The extended thematicism of the part C of the first movement continues to develop in the suite’s third and fourth movements.

The first movement’s ternary structure with its contrasting elements forms a dynamic system that carries the prerequisites for the development of the entire suite cycle:

122 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

MARIJA DUMNIĆ, Serbia DANCE IN CINEMA MOVIES OF EMIR KUSTURICA The focus of this work is the wider concept of a dance as a movement motivated by music. In this era of modern media, we are the witnesses of origin or existence of dances which belong to a different levels of the society and which may be deprived of tradition,1 but nonetheless they are under scrutiny of contemporary ethnochoreology. This research is based on the treatment of a dance in work of Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica. My approach to this work consists of systematizing the dancing spots in Kusturica’s movies according to their specific structural-semantic parameters. Furthermore, I will try to observe that characteristics within the context of particular films. The aspects of the transmission of traditional dances into artistic language of different media will be also discussed.

What makes Kusturica’s work distinguished is specific and complex permeation of imagination and reality,2 which can be used in order to observe the veracity of traditional dance and references to it or the position and function of a dance between these two polarities. Kusturica in a popular, romantic 1

M. Šuvaković suggests redefining of ethnomusicology and that may be applied to ethnochoreology: “The new ethnomusicology is a general science about musical cultures, not only because it gives a complete – integrated, synthetic – response regarding to totality of historical and geographical society, like in sociology of music, or in anthropology when it relates to unique human nature. The new ethnomusicology is established as a heterogenic and hybrid study platform, i.e. index map of discursive models about specific comparable or incomparable micro-societal representations and demonstrations thorough music. In order to resematize and redefine the new ethnomusicology we should have on mind already mentioned thesis that musicology is a general science about music as an art in Western sense, but ethnomusicology is general science about musical cultures or about cultures that are established, identified and represented by means of music (as M. D. emphasized).” М. Šuvaković, Diskurzivna analiza: prestupi i/ili pristupi „diskurzivne analize“ filozofiji, poetici, estetici, teoriji i studijama umetnosti i kulture, Belgrade, University of Arts in Belgrade, 2006, p. 245.

2 In literature, this approach is called magic realism. More about that in: G. Gocić, Notes from the Underground: The Cinema of Emir Kusturica, Belgrade, Student Cultural Centre, 2005, pp. 314, 318.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Marija Dumnić meaning flirts with the notion of folklore, which reflects on a treatment of a dance. The result of that is a so-called ethno which is distinguishable in many areas of his work.3 Under the auspices of this term are the products of contemporary popular culture which are simulacrum of traditional folklore heritage additionally named as ethno in order to have a market value. Kusturica is considered to be a moviemaker who is oriented towards post-modern phenomenon – the genre of ethno-movie,4 which represents “the new and self-conscious synthesis of ‘primitive’ environment borrowed from the Third World,5 modern standards of production borrowed from the West, and the transposition which consciously adjusted to the modern-art dialogue.”6 At the same time, it does not possess naivety which is typical for ‘folk’ art. Nonetheless, ethno can be understood as (partial) loss of author’s authenticity or as a result of a fear of losing the authenticity, in addition it is a consequence of nostalgia.7 Actually, Kusturica speaks very positively about that: “I like those [ethno] movies very much. I think that it is the only real weapon, the only real defense against globalization which is inevitable process – but the manner in which the globalization implements is actually historical and political deception. The difference between cultures is something in which we should believe in. Off course, I enjoy movies that represent small cultures, because all of a sudden they transfer me into the world I may understand.”8 It should be mentioned that in Kusturica’s movies dances are not technically complicated (the dance pattern is not in the foreground, it is inconspicuous and indistinguishable, furthermore presentation of a dance is often fragmented). Given that, it is most likely that no choreographer is engaged in the movie. The idea of a dance in a movie came from the director and is realized of actor’s own free will.9 It is clear that dance is not crucially important for Kusturica, but the very act of physical response to the music.10 As a result, 3

I. Čolović implies the renewal of Adorno’s jargon of authenticity while referring to Kusturica’s film poetics and his affinity towards architecture (he built his own ethno-eco village in Mokra Gora). He also mentions the expansion of ethno narration which may become ethno-mania. I. Čolović, Etno- Priče o muzici sveta na Internetu, Beograd, Biblioteka XX vek, 2006, pp. 273-274.

4 The term ethno-movie is taken from Gocić. More about that in: G.Gocić, op. cit, pp. 225-226.

5 The background of his movies is far from ‘normal’, ‘beautiful’ centre (for example, native Balkans, turbulent region with all its wild and good-natured heroes). (M. D.) 6 G.Gocić, op. cit, p. 293.

7 Ibid. More complete explanation on pp. 295-296.

8 Quotation from: G.Gocić, op. cit, p. 243.

9 This conclusion is reached on the basis of closing credits where no one is mentioned as a choreographer. Movie outlines, names of composers, producers, and performers of movie music are available on the web site http://www.kustu.com/wiki/doku.php?id=en:start and in the credits of the movies.

10 “Music acrobatics” is the subtitle of a movie Black Cat, White Cat, and that explains that statement.

124 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ... the concept of folklore dance11 implies the movement which represents a reaction to folklore music, therefore the dance does not originate from the rustic tradition of the Balkans.12 The applied film music and sound theories are of the opinion that the purpose of music and sound is to supplement the scene so that their presence is imperceptible and absence perceptible,13 while their function can vary from having musicians in the scene or discrete music of the atmosphere, to dramatically justified leitmotifs which are the essence of the emotions in a movie.14 Nevertheless, in Kusturica’s movies the music has specific value and important place in a story, because of its expressiveness, the manner of creating a plot, and defining characters.15 The filmmaker had an outstanding collaboration with a prominent composer Goran Bregović who created modern arrangements of folk songs.16 He also created new songs with ethno tone while using very well known elements of Balkans sounds in different combinations and idealized sounds of other exotic nations with whom The West is not very familiar, and all that with the help of the latest technology.17 Kusturica’s activity as a guitar player in a rock-band called “The No Smoking Orchestra” about which he did a documentary named Super 8 Stories18 actually represents his relation to music and how significant the music is in his work. The music typical of this band aim at simplicity and catchy tunes which are very acceptable to a variety of international audience who crave for simulation of a myth of Balkan savagery complemented with new primitivism 11 12 13

Term “folklore” is used here to mark locally specific dance of the folk.

This refers to west and central part of the Balkan Peninsula.

B. Vartkes, Muzika kao primenjena umetnost, Belgrade, University of Arts in Belgrade, 1981, p. 49.

14 B. Vartkes, op. cit, p. 50.

15 For example, live music is obligatory as a part of a stereotyped description of sevdah which is experienced in a bar. G. Gocić, op. cit, pp. 163,166.

16 It is about songs with unknown author which are part of traditional heritage. In addition, Bregović has almost never mentioned resources or models he used for his work, which is why he was considered to be plagiatrist very often.

17 In that way, Bregović gained popularity on the world-music scene, analogous to popularity of Kusturica and his ethno-movie. Furthermore, numerous similarities are present in their works: they are both inspired by Gypsies, they both use scenes of national celebrations, sevdah, fatal destiny of some heroes, happy endings. Interestingly enough, although Kusturica and Bregović (music amateurs) do not collaborate anymore, they both dedicated themselves to composing opera. Kusturica adopted the movie Time of the Gypsies and created an opera (unfortunately, I did not occupy myself with this opera because it is not available in region of Serbia at this moment), while Bregović produced Carmen With a Happy Ending (more about this opera in: V.Terzin, Opera „Karmen sa srećnim krajem“: Romi kao inspiracija u stvaralaštvu Gorana Bregovića (term paper in handwritting), Belgrade, Faculty of Music, 2008).

18 More informations about this band are available at http://thenosmokingorchestra.com/index.php. Kusturica’s son Stribor has his own band which composed music for the movie Promise Me This. More about Stribor’s band at: http://www.striborkusturica-thepoisoners.com/.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 125

Marija Dumnić which primarily implies a parody of commercial pseudo-folk music.19 Many songs from Kusturica’s movies became great hits so that they are still present in repertoire of modern ensembles who perform at the celebrations across this part of Europe (the most popular are “Mesečina”, “Pit bul terijer”). As the time passes the songs become labeled as ‘folk songs’ because of their familiarity with the audience which is achieved through distinguish charge of emotion and catchy melorhytmic pattern.20 In these songs, folklore is not shown as a part of the past, but as the present, authentic, realistic expression of modern emotion and tradition,21 therefore, the songs represent very successful blend of local and universal (i.e. something wide-spread that longs for timelessness). That bland is called ethno. Besides music citations, the tone of ‘authenticity’ is achieved through the use of aksak rhythms (7/8 and 9/8), very popular ‘two-part’ rythm,22 manner of female singing that comes from the Central Balkans (very distinguish is specific color of voice as well as melodic ornaments), drone, augmented second (which is very established association with the Orient), parallel thirds, band of tambura players and brass-orchestra with typical bar-manner of play, then traditional instruments (such as duduk), accordion, and even modern synthesizer. Very visible are the scenes of commanded musicians which point out their oppression,23 and their specific social status. Tradition is also shown through the use of specific dialects while singing. This treatment of folk music and music which is similar to folk has certainly marked dance in the movie, especially having on mind that most of the scenes with the dance are complemented with the adequate music accompaniment.

The treatment of a dance will be represented in concordance with the chronology of the movies, and the special attention will be drawn to Kusturica’s interpretation of the ethno in his movies. Afterwards, the descriptive analysis of dance events will be presented, accompanied with the presentation of a body, role of a dancer and structurally-semantic characteristics of dance scenes.

In Emir Kusturica’s early work, the dance that resemble traditional dance is not present and that is one of the characteristics of that period works.

19 20

More about that at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Primitives.

Movie soundtracks (which are the result of long-term collaborators) are best-sellers. More about significance of music in work of Emir Kusturica in: G.Gocić, op. cit, pp.

211-221.

21 M. Vitas, Uloga folklora i specifičnocti njegove upotrebe u stvaralaštvu rok-grupe ‘Bijelo dugme’ (graduation thesis, in handwriting), Belgrade, Faculty of Music, 2006, p. 61.

This paper is about a band whose front-man was Bregović, so that conclusions can be applied here, too.

22 That inspired Emir Kusturica & “The No Smoking Orchestra“ to name their album The Unza Unza Time, Komuna/Cabria/Barclay, Universal Music Company, 2000.

23 That occurs in the behavior of a singer (or a dancer) at the stage and a special demand that the band should satisfy (for example, “Black Obelisk” in Black Cat, White Cat, the Gypsies in Underground etc.).

126 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ...

In his movie When Father Was Away on Business24 the dance is not important for the narrative – during the movie, there are only two dance scenes (the first one is hardly noticeable), and in the foreground is the music. Nonetheless, in his other movies, the dance becomes important in many different ways.

In Do You Remember Dolly Bell?25 the motif of a dance event is very important for the story, also the couple dance occurs which serves to show idyllic marital relation of the characters. Given Kusturica’s recognizable approach to directing, the scene which shows the audience in a movie theatre that dance in their sits while watching erotic dance on a movie screen, is very interesting.

The filmmaker’s obvious passion towards representation of Gypsies as members of specific culture starts with the movie Time of the Gypsies.26 That passion will become one of the major characteristics of his poetic. The dance served to illustrate characters and the society, as well as the very well-known description of sevdah (lovesickness) and wedding. The most important scene for the story of the movie is the scene where invalid sister of the main character dances in dream of her brother and in that way she shows that she has recovered.

In the movie Arizona Dream27 filmmaker’s aptitude for describing events, characters and scenes in ethno style, becomes emphasized. This movie has no innovations in this field. The dance occurs to illustrate good mood and mutual attractiveness of dance couple, and also the dance in the scene is present.

In the movie Underground28 the dance serves to characterize the most active characters, to show the period of communism and wedding celebration. But, for the story, the most important is a dance movement of the main characters accompanied with the song “Mesečina”29 in the crucial moments of the movie. The dance of these three characters is logically presented in formation of a threesome which moves in circles along with camera, and that represent specific director’s intervention. The circle and circling can be interpreted as a symbol of unbreakable connection between characters who circle at the same time around a special underground world so that they lose themselves in time.

24 25 26 27

E. Kusturica, When Father Was Away on Business, Forum Sarajevo, 1981.

E. Kusturica, Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, Belgrade, VANS, 2003.

E. Kusturica, Time of the Gypsies, Belgrade, VANS, 2003.

E. Kusturica, Arizona Dream, France, Constelation /UGC /Hachette /Première/ Canal +/ CNC, 1993.

28 E. Kusturica, Underground, Belgrade, ITP Komuna, 2005.

29 The same scene appears twice in a movie, and that is a unique case in considered movies.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 127

Marija Dumnić Black Cat, White Cat30 is the most interesting movie for this topic because the dance is present almost during the whole movie: the dance serves to illustrate the characters and Gypsies as well. They are represented as a social group that dances often and the dance (accompanied appropriately) describes characters individually. Their vivacity can be understood as a popular idea of Gypsies as very happy and lively nation despite their poverty (as a symbol of bad luck). Their motto is that life is a dance, and we should behave in compliance with that as long as it lasts. In that we can identify Russo’s myth about noble savage.31 In accordance with that, the very movement is free.

In the movie Life Is a Miracle32 there is the impression that sometimes, dance is not linked to the narrative.33 Besides that, whenever the dance occurs where it is expected, the description is caricatured.34 Promise Me This35 gives us very long and superfluous pictures of reaction to music and stereotyped descriptions of bordels and weddings that are not important for the story. According to a film script, scenes of striptease and kolo are very important. I guess that insisting on dance in these last movies appears because of willingness to visualize famous celebrations from the Balkans to foreign audience.36 In rare cases some dances are named. That is the case with the dance kazachok in the movie Black Cat, White Cat: the protagonists Dadan and his security named the activity of kicking under the table between them and Dadan’s opponents, as kazachok. In relation to that, the same protagonist in a moment misunderstands the movement of grandmother’s hand as a manner of a dance, while for her, that movement symbolizes the manner in which Dadan will get his punishment.37 30 31

E. Kusturica, Black Cat, White Cat, Belgrade, ITP Komuna, 2005 The Gypsies are very important for Kusturica’s work. They do not have their homeland (many people say the same about Kusturica). Even when he is collaborating with the Serbs, he tends to present them as the Gypsies. The best example of that is his latest movie Promise Me This.

32 E. Kusturica, Life Is a Miracle, Belgrade, Rasta International – METRO FILM, 2005.

33 For example, in the first and last dance scene. On the other hand, going hunting is very important for the story, but the dance scene is superfluous.

34 In relation to the scenes of performance and send-off.

35 E. Kusturica, Promise Me This, Belgrade, 2008.

36 The best example of anthropological outsider interpretation of music and the life of Gypsies in time of war which is presented as wild, authentic, exotic and filled with politics, is represented in the book М. van de Port, Gypsies, Wars & Other Instances of the Wild – Civilisation and Its Discontents in a Serbian Town, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 1998.

37 Along with already mentioned dances and traces of a dance, rhythmic synchronized movement of three characters occur in movie Promise Me This. That movement can not be considered as a dance movement, since it was not inspired by music. Having considered the whole movie frame, it is more likely that origin of that movement can be traced to comic books.

128 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ...

The descriptions of gatherings and celebrations where the dance is present are distinguishable in Kusturica’s work. The most interesting scenes are the wedding scenes. The wedding occurs in almost all movies except Do You Remember Dolly Bell? and Life Is a Miracle, though, in the latter one there is ideologically similar scene of send-off. Therefore, that scene is considered as a compensation for a wedding. Through physical reaction to music, the group shows joy and in that way, the real association to that event is achieved. Couple dance, individual dance in a group, and free interpretation of kolo38 formation and at the last time very popular so-called train occur.39 In the movie Black Cat, White Cat the drama between the main characters is getting solved through a dance in the wedding.40 The happy ending of this movie (as well as Underground and Promise Me This) is presented through a dance of all characters.

Apart from the wedding, the scenes of dance event occur especially in Do You Remember Dolly Bell?. In this movie, members of young generation of a small town are the participants in that socially very important event, in which they show their affiliation to a group, their status and where they communicate with each other.

Speaking about the dance events, there is a question about location for dance. Typical locations are bars in which often exists dichotomy performer-observer, but there are also some other in-door and out-door spaces.

Having minded the locations of fabula, it’s noticeable that all Kusturica’s movies are shifted on periphery of modern civilization, and that is tool to effect little isolated community which is recognizable to narrower international public like escapist ideal of ‘domestic’.

It’s known that Kusturica often employs native actors which usually act themselves, or professional actors for roles which shown like most appropriated to them.41 In that actors’ assumption acting method is very similar with 38

The term kolo (or its synonym oro) in Serbian literature implies five different ideas: circular formation, a group of people dancing, dance event, the type of a dance in circular shape performed while accompanied by specific melody, and a type of a dance in circular shape with specific melodious, structural, and stylistic characteristics, that represents some ethnic group. These terms are common in the Balkans region and other ex-Yugoslav republics. More about that in: O. Mladenović, Kolo u južnih Slovena, Belgrade, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, 1973; S. Rakočević, “Kolo in Vojvodina: Traditional Dance as a Network of Different Meaning“, Music & Network, Belgrade, University of Arts – Faculty of Music, 2005, pp. 257-273.

39 The train is a formation characterized by a line of dancers arranged one after another. They are usually connected while holding on to one another’s shoulders. The most common line of path that forms during the dance is winding line.

40 Afrodita and Zare do not dance at their wedding because they are not willing to marry each other, though everyone expects a dance. While other people are dancing, disappointed Ida dances for Zare while he draws attention of everyone to his dance in order to make possible for Afrodita to escape. Afterwards, there is a wedding of real bride and bride-groom while guests express their joy through dance.

41 G. Gocić, op. cit, pp. 126-130.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 129

Marija Dumnić natural behavior, and with that is longing for authenticity even in division of roles.42 His actors separately and according to social position can be considered for marginal people, but director treats them like special in social structure – different, ridicules, but at the same time honored.43 In the movies are promoted their amateur’s skills which are typical for ‘Balkans’ characters and far from performing perfection,44 and there is also dancing. In fact, function of dancing in his movies is usually directed on expression of idea of dancing man (character), so the following classification on dancing types will be mostly supported by that.

Connected with that, the body is usually shown like free, so that is also like that in movement initiated with music: energy of the character is manifesting using optional pattern. Dancing body, especially female, in Kusturica’s movies is often treated like observation object, mostly exposed on scene (especially in erotic dance scenes). In presentations of couple dance, bodies of dancers usually show mutually attraction. There is also the idea of body like the metaphor of the life, because invalid bodies of some characters in imagination became able for normal functions, which exactly symbolize the dance.45 In general, most active part of the body in considered movies is certainly upper (hands, and then hips for women), but often there is impression that the whole body is active, especially when it has to symbolize wantonness.

Now, it will be shown classification of dances from movies according to their structural-semantic characteristics, which means number and gender of performers, and also dance movement which they perform in particular context. Dance types which will be pointed, in movie scenes can appear together, and considering the criteria, that is expected.

In all Kusturica’s movies most frequent dancing scenes are those in which solo dancers, separately or in the group, improvised move with music accompaniment. It’s noticeable that characters often with their dance manifest ‘energy excess’ and dance for they own, usually for showing good mood, and sometimes contrary: dance seems to have therapeutic effect for sad characters.

This is way of dance of both sexes and all statures (in dancing of the younger people sometimes is recognizable influence of the popular mass-media performers). Like it’s said, dance often is not connected with fabula, so its primary function is to characterize the performer (one, or group of them).

42 43 44 45

G. Gocić, op. cit, p. 131.

G. Gocić, op. cit, p. 104.

G. Gocić, op. cit, pp. 99-103. This is related mostly with music and acting skills.

It is shown in dancing scenes of Perhan’s sister (Time of the Gypsies) and Natalija’s brother (Underground). Very interesting is the fact that director engaged in both cases controverse Davor Dujmović: in Time of the Gypsies he played Perhan, and in Underground he was interpretator of Natalija’s brother character.

130 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ...

Connected with former, there are also some types of solo improvised dance, but they will be specially considered because of their context. One of block scenes is popular notion of sevdah, where the main character using dance (with accompanying elements) experiences catharsis.46 It is also part of established notion about Gypsies life and Balkans ‘macho men’. But, in some rare cases, women also can behave like that when strong emotions, especially sorrow, show by the dance with their weaker body, which is otherwise interpreted like seductive.47 Another type of solo48 dance is women erotic dance.49 On the occasion of this, female character exposes her body and dancing skill to the male views. Centre of movement is mostly in upper part of body (sometimes are used just not striking movements accompanied by music, and sometimes there is even striptease). Exposition is often emphasized by performing in front of the bigger public,50 which implies with more complicated movements.

By the way, dancing on scene is very often in Kusturica’s movies and doesn’t necessarily have to be erotized, and it can be even minor,51 but it always implies on dichotomy performer – observer, where are the both sides privileged comparing to another in special way: performer is superior with his attractiveness, while the observer is after all person who has to make decision about interesting of dance and performance in general.

Describing dance like sadness expression, it comes to the couple dance accompanied by the sad song.52 Although the couple dance in almost all cases has another connotation, I think that its function in movies When Father Was Away on Business and Life Is a Miracle to contrast mentioned presentations of good mood with its calmness, simplicity (‘rigidness’) and fixed steps pattern and behavior during the dance. More frequent couple dances can be interpreted like sign of mutually sexual attraction of partners, who show their closeness by dance act, which is representation of idyllic relationship.53 Dance 46

For example in Time of the Gypsies (similar in When Father Was Away on Business, but less peculiar). It is similar behavior of men in movies Underground, Black Cat, White Cat and Promise Me This – their unrestrained life in pictured with dance like that.

47 Natalija in Underground and Ida in Black Cat, White Cat. 48 Atypical cases when there are dancing in group exist in: Underground, Black Cat, White Cat, Life Is a Miracle, Promise Me This.

49 Underground, Black Cat, White Cat, Life Is a Miracle, Promise Me This.

50 Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, Time of the Gypsies (here it is part of sevdah show), Underground, Black Cat, White Cat and Promise Me This.

51 Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, When Father Was Away on Business, Arizona Dream, Life Is a Miracle, Promise Me This.

52 Sorrow is ‘sounded’ by minor tonality and slow tempo.

53 Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, When Father Was Away on Business, Arizona Dream, Underground, Black Cat, White Cat and Promise Me This.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 131

Marija Dumnić pattern is not recognizable, but couple dance is identified by holding and moving of partners. Example from Black Cat, White Cat is unique because of dancing with waltz music accompaniment, except noticed associations, has also meaning caricatured ‘Western’ ideal of well-situated, ‘ordered’ life of middle class.54 Unique example of invented choreography (although very simple and again hardly perceptible),55 is dance of pioneer group in movies Underground and Life Is a Miracle, which represent period in history of Yugoslavia (which was until recent times only recognized for homeland, i.e. land of origin by nostalgic Kusturica) when the children were really dancing like that during the performance which was organized in honor of regime. They are moving with aim to promote that time ideology of brotherhood and union through equality of all participants, which like some instruments with simple kinetic pattern contribute to forming network of ideological symbols, about what speak uniforms and specific music (fanfare and simple melody with marsh rhythm), too. Differently from other movies in which kinetic patterns are optional and individual, here they are invented for whole group of performers.

Differently from previous examples which, we can say, represent universal dance patterns, the most direct association to the traditional dance from Balkans is manifested through appearance of kolo.56 In fact, kolo is used like illustration for some special and cheerful situation which contents that dancing as typical, such as wedding party. In this situation, there is no some recognizable movement pattern, because the more important thing is connecting of larger number of dancers with hands in highness of shoulders in very liberal interpretation of the circle formation, with specific music accompaniment. For this representation isn’t important even typical moving of dancers in certain direction, but only emphasized rhythmical reaction by legs moving (mostly in one spot). So, Kusturica uses kolo like direct metaphor of traditional culture, and on kolo itself he refers not by step pattern, but with group of dancers in specific formation. Although on the beginning of this research I expected contrary, in Kusturica’s cinema opus there is no representative kolo dancing, i.e. continuing performing of simple, but recognizable step patterns in formation of 54

Waltz dancing on ship is used to show difference between Gypsies and members of rich class, and dancing like that on wedding party shows wish of Gypsies for social prosperity and identifying with higher rank. Except that, Matko parodies waltz by dancing with ice, because it use to him like mask for doing some works for which other people shouldn’t know.

55 In Arizona Dream there is example of thoughtful scene movement in use to describe acting character, but because it is completely minor and lonely case, it isn’t deeply considered here.

56 Time of the Gypsies, Promise Me This.

132 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ... semi or closed circle.

Considering that presence of dance usually has describing character or society function, there are even musical-dancing leitmotifs for some roles.

These are usually wanton characters, so their dance is also like that. Dance sometimes has metaphorical meaning, because it shows actors’ relationships, and substance and eruption of their emotional conditions which aren’t explained in narrative or photography. Also, director used dance to show some occasions for which it is immanent, such as wedding party, and usually it is even more important to him to show dancers than their dance. Often dance has secondary meaning and function in frame and in the whole movie. Connected with function and meaning of a dance, it’s interesting that typical in Kusturica’s creativity is scene of flying and levitation, what is in literature considered to be symbol of escapism (eventually of falling in love).57 According to this, maybe it can be questioned how much dance has connection with this interpretation, because the movements are often rapid, strong and comprise larger space, so there is levitation impression.

Kusturica became celebrity in professional circles too because of his brilliant ideas and their realization which is often very complex, so in movie can be parallely followed several levels, even in only one scene. Considering this stratification, it logically exists in dancing scenes: there are always detailed scenography and costume,58 what is noted by camera in way of good photography effect, even when it is moving. In fact, in his focus are scenes, which accented visual59 and emotional side of movie, while story and dialogs are in second plan, although there are good scenarios.60 Nevertheless, as it’s said, music also has very important place in essence of the movie, so dances that exist there have function to follow music and its functionality.

After all considerations I can summarize basics of Kusturica’s treatment of dance and its traditionality. In first two movies, that represent special stadium of Kusturica’s opus (pre-ethno stadium), dancing hasn’t peculiar function and there is no association on traditional folk dance. But, in other movies director is turning to showing different traditional visual and sound motifs, given through his view. On example of dancing elements it can be noticed that Kusturica uses simple and direct associations, which further superstructures to accomplish imaginary dance. Its function is to show some characters and situa57 58 59

G. Gocić, op. cit, pp. 170-174.

Some critics say – to much.

Kusturica’s connection with ethno is also presented in large influence of naïve painting on his opus (especially of Ivan Generalić). G. Gocić, op. cit, p. 263.

60 About Kusturica’s technical manners that have very deliberate base more in: G. Gocić, op. cit, pp. 264, 281-283, 287-289. Connected with upper, in spite of accent on visual, spatial side (opposite of temporal, audio) and fullness in scene, movies aren’t ‘slow’, and they are very extended.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 133

Marija Dumnić tions. Collective dancing, which is present in greater number of Kusturica’s movies, is closest to conception of ‘folk’ dance because it shows group from some cultural stratum in common reaction on music, and mass affirms that, even when there is a group of unconnected dancers who dance improvised pattern. This is also the most authentic dance scene. Director’s personal interpretation of traditional dance in nontraditional movie medium has also to show his mentioned inclinations to individual ethno concept, like some un-temporal and un-spatial category, and that’s the way how to promote his personal ideological attitudes.

In the end I need to comment and give some critical view on authenticity, i.e. stylization of dances in movies, and also to their context.

Knowing for movies success and relative small appearances of dances, it seems to be ungrateful duty for ethnochoreologist. I have to note that there is no any clear scene of traditional dance, and that there were a lot of model associations on it. But, these dances are successfully stylized considering Kusturica’s idea of folk and things he wanted to show with that. Except this, it’s noticeable that dancing sometimes has character of overreacting actions without constructive function considering movie narrative and scene logic. Dancing movements used for describing emotions of the particular characters are also often caricatured.

Watching director’s opus and his interpretation of Balkans and tradition, we should always know that his public is primarily people, who are not from Balkans, what implies on Kusturica’s caricaturing of authentic shows and their adaptation to European public expectations. It is very important to know that they observe Balkan-crossroad like exotic,61 but not in complete sense (like it is, for example, Chad): it is not completely alien and that is the reason why they can (and want) identify themselves with Balkans “wildness”. Nevertheless, Kusturica’s opus is at any rate intriguing for ethnochoreology too, because dancing is very often, and special problematic is director’s relation to the concept of tradition.

According to the symposium theme, I would like to tell something about presence of tradition, transmission and revival on the case of dances in Kusturica’s cinema movies. If tradition is observed like assemblage of values that one rural community orally transmitted for a long time, it can be affirmed that in considered examples it isn’t present at all, or if it existed, it hasn’t get revival. But, if dances on movie are observed related with today non-urban practice on Balkans, it’s noticeable that Kusturica in his artistic interpretation keeps some dance universalities, such as, for example, manifesting emotions 61

Excelent example for this is presentation of Trumpet Festival in Guča among Western Europe public.

134 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Dance in Cinema Movies of Emir Kusturica ... with rhythmical movement.62 From that view, transition can be understood not just like changing through time, but through medium change (which is non-traditional). In fact, Kusturica moves authentic contemporary on movie screen and adapts it according to economic-political demands of audience. Although start supposition was that Kusturica, known by his essentially romantic inspiration with local, ’untouched’ cultures and his alter-globalistic convictions, will stress clear quotations from some culture (even reconstruct something from the past), he uses in his movies simulacra and universal human symbols, emotions, and in the end – movements. This is typical creative work for postmodern artist, so something that should be traditional in fact is very artificial, even expressionistically over-accented. But, there is also question about connection with certain tradition: something represented on movie is familiar with everyone, it is far away from centre and urban rush, but we don’t know where exactly it is located. That’s the reason why his opus is intriguing for Western Europe63 – he shows everything with universal and marked symbols because he wants other to comprehend Balkans and Gypsy mentality,64 and precisely, construct it like exotic. Except he’s considered to be interpreter of that, Kusturica with his opus has also huge influence on creating of new cultural patterns which are in larger public accepted like authentic.

62

Some scientists had recognized in dancing like this even origin of dance (see: C. Sachs, World History of the Dance, London, 1938).

63 Author himself emphasis that he is more popular there than in Serbia. After all, his financial sources are the biggest there, just like his prizes. Also, Kusturica doesn’t have animosity for Northern American market, because it’s too commercial for his taste.

64 Both are ‘unperceivable’ in some way.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 135

Marija Dumnić

136 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

MOJCA KOVAČIČ, Slovenia THE MUSIC OF THE OTHER OR THE MUSIC OF OURS: BALKAN MUSIC AMONG SLOVENIANS

The dominant political, cultural, and media understanding of the term “Balkan”1 in Slovenia can be partially aligned with Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism (1996), in which Slovenia represents the West and its ideas, views, and prejudices.

For the West, the Balkans remain not only a geographical, but also social, cultural, and political realm between Europe and the Orient,2 whereas for Slovenia the Balkans mostly represent a part of its unwanted past, a negative image against which Slovenia defines itself. Slovenians have created a public “Balkanophobic discourse” (Velikonja 2002: 190) through their characterization of the Balkans as uncultured, undeveloped, violent, and so on, based on their political, social, and cultural past as part of a unified Yugoslavia, from which Slovenia seceded in 1991. The breakup of Yugoslavia continued with the secession of other republics, which suffered much worse military consequences than Slovenia did. The much greater severity of the horrors of war in other parts of the former Yugoslavia is another reason that Slovenia was able to ideologically distance itself from the other newly independent countries to such an extent. Their postwar status gave Slovenians “even more proof of the ‘Balkanism’ of this area” (Ceglar 1999: 76), and at the same time the situation once again awakened a negative perception of the Balkan region throughout the Western world. Therefore, as in most 1

2

In this article the term “Balkan” is not used geographically, but rather the concept of “the Balkans” and “Balkan culture” here includes only the culture of the former Yugoslavia, with which Slovenians are geographically, socially, and politically most connected. The term is discussed critically by Mitja Velikonja (2002), but both he and other authors that write about this subject continue to use it as the most appropriate one.

Todorova feels that the difference between “Orientalism” and “Balkanism” lies in the fact that the Balkans remain a provincial part of Europe, representing the negative, unruly, uncivilized “other self,” whereas the Western-Oriental dichotomy consists of inseparable entities. See Todorova (2001: 25–49) for further discussion.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Mojca Kovačič cases of east-west, north-south, or “first world–third world” dichotomies, Slovenians have slowly built up a negative image of the Balkans and their own superiority in comparison.3 Following the wars, the Balkans distanced themselves from Slovenia spatially and chronologically even more; Slovenians also established hierarchical superiority due to the country’s better economic and social position compared to the other Yugoslav republics and Slovenia’s accession to the European Union as well.

While the Balkans became a “synonym for a place Slovenians prefer not to be any longer” (Vodopivec 2001: 398) in political discourse as well, after Slovenia’s secession an opposing (and minority) element also formed a “Balkan culture,” which struck “roots in Slovenian cultural preferences and also in everyday life in a very specific way” (Velikonja 2002: 189). Because Balkan culture as an immigrant culture cannot remain isolated or exist in a vacuum, but is rather a “cultural synthesis that results primarily from spatial mixing of cultures” (Kostrič 2004: 23), Mitja Velikonja terms this new culture “Balkan culture in the Slovenian way.” Here it is important to point out that this Balkan culture is being created not only by members of other Yugoslav ethnic groups or their descendents living in Slovenia, but also by a portion of the ethnic Slovenian population. This article presents the Balkan cultural image in the form of three to music related cultural phenomena that have taken shape in Slovenia since 1991.

The Balkan scene Theme parties with music from the other former Yugoslav republics became a form of entertainment among young people after Yugoslavia’s breakup. The term “Balkan party” (Sln. Balkan žur) was widely accepted, and at most of these parties the music was primarily Yugo-rock (rock music of the former Yugoslavia). It is noteworthy that this “Balkan scene” was a part of the youth subculture4 of Slovenians, not immigrants. Other than the music itself, the other Balkan elements they imported were the following: watching old Yugoslav films and TV series, following Yugoslav sports, reading books and comics from Yugoslav times, shaping slang that used certain words and phrases from Yugoslav TV shows and films, and pronouncing words with a SerboCroatian “dark l,” which is not used in Slovenian5 (Muršič 2007: 96).

Peter Stanković explains the establishment of the “Balkan scene” in Slovenia during the times that Slovenian nationalism should have reached a peak (the early years of independence) with the argument that this was not only a “typical youthful opposition to their parents’ culture and values,” as is frequently characteristic of sub3

A negative, stereotyped image of immigrants from other former Yugoslav republics is often presented in national and commercial media, in which these immigrants are portrayed as being badly dressed and untidy, working in low-paid positions, speaking Slovenian poorly, and, frequently, engaging in criminal activity.

4 The “Balkan scene” is not a “traditional” form of subculture because it brings together members of various subcultural groups and others without their own subculture identity; most often it is limited only to the duration of its event, the “Balkan party.”

5 A dialect called “Yugoslovenian” (jugoslovenščina), a mixture of the languages spoken in the former Yugoslav republics, also took shape (Velikonja 2002: 200). The frequent use of “Yugoslovenian” is found most often in groups that did their mandatory military service in other former Yugoslav republics.

138 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The music of the Others or the music of the Ours ... cultural groups, but that this represented a “symbolic appropriation of the Balkans” (Stanković 2002: 233). Stanković also believes that this type of “nationalist discourse that emphasizes the unified culture and history instead of Slovenian identity . . . may also function as an ideology” (ibid.: 233)6 and thus achieve the same results as other nationalist discourses.

Young people excused their opposition to the new Slovenian state’s European orientation with the words “we were afraid that we would . . . become like the Austrians”7 (Ceglar 1999: 76), whereby “Austrianness” signified European frostiness, reticence, reserve, egocentrism, and mistrust,8 whereas “Balkanness” represented the positive values of openness, warmth, hospitality, and so on. In this case of appropriating the identity of the “Other,” youth subculture – which today represents one of the most frequent forms of sub-national identity throughout the world – thus further added to a full complex of stereotypes based on the opposition between “European” Slovenia and “the Balkans.” The Balkans, which Rajko Muršič describes based on a study of stereotypes found among students at the Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology Department at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts, represent a land of “danger, a place where social norms are ignored, an undeveloped and undemocratic place different from Europe, an anarchic country with legal chaos, a completely different world of poverty with a high level of illiteracy, and so on.” These numerous negative stereotypes are joined by some positive ones as well, such as “music and dance, humor, films, simplicity, relaxedness, hospitality, kind-heartedness, equality, rich in folklore and cultural diversity, and sports achievements.” The author points out that these positive stereotypes were expressed primarily by young people that had personal experience of Yugoslavia (Muršič 2007: 93).

Today the “Balkan scene” generation no longer spends its free time at “Balkan parties” because of its new social customs and different circumstances. Therefore it is clear that the “Balkan scene” is waning along with the social values of people that are between 30 and 40 years old today. This group has now reoriented itself toward “cultural tourism” (such as visits to Belgrade and the festivals in Guča and Leskovac), following Balkan film production, and attending individual concerts by Balkan musicians in Slovenia. As stated by a representative of a youth tourist agency that organizes trips to the Guča Balkan brass Festival: [Among the participants] there are very few really young people, ones around 20 give or take a couple of years. Most of the participants are young people around 30. That’s the Bijelo dugme [a Yugoslav rock band] generation, the people that grew up in the 1980s and listened to that music, knew it, and brought it to Slovenia with them in some way.

The younger generation doesn’t really know this Yugonostalgia, these 6

The provocative side of this type of scene is primarily the selection of dates for “Balkan parties,” which coincided with the most important Yugoslav holidays: Republic Day or the day before Slovenia’s declaration of independence in 1991. At the beginning, these parties were often organized by the group VIZUM SVIM ‘visa for all’ (the acronym is formed from the initials of their first names).

7 The opposing phenomenon of “Austronostalgia” is described in Baskar (2007).

8 These are the words immigrants from other Yugoslav republics (i.e., non-Slovenians) usually use to describe characteristics of the Slovenian population.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 139

Mojca Kovačič movies, they aren’t really interested in these things, unless it’s their own heritage. (S. F., Agencija Collegium 2008) The Balkan brass festival is therefore one of the places this slightly older generation can escape to in order to experience both Yugonostalgia and their own “youthnostalgia” in an authentic cultural environment. Slovenian attendees thus also breathe new life into the memory of Yugoslavia during its communist period. As a member of the band Dej še’n litro (‘Pass me another liter’) says: It also includes food, like suckling pig, and hygiene that isn’t on what you’d call a European level . . . . Basically, if all the hotels were “European,” personally I wouldn’t go to Guča. It has to be Balkan: Zastava 101s, Yugos, horses, donkeys, everything . . . carts, pigs on the roads . . . and of course music fits in with all that, too. (B. V., Dej še’n litro 2007) In 1993 and 1994 the Balkan scene moved out of the alternative and underground scene into the general club scene, becoming a general form of student party.

The musical repertoire was broadened to other musical genres, such as new Croatian pop music, “Balkan brass,” and “turbo folk,” thereby gaining a wider audience among Slovenian young people.9 This generation did not experience the Balkans as a region that belonged to them; their nostalgia was based on an imagined place and time that they had not experienced in reality.10 As Ana Hofman concluded in her research on the virtual networks of the people that participate in Yugonostalgia, the “past . . . is conceived of as a current trend,” and nostalgia becomes “part of their ‘way of life’” (Hofman 2008), which the market mechanism has taken over as well.

Nonetheless, it seems that this “way of life,” based on stereotypical notions of Balkanism, is usually only followed during people’s free time (on the web, at Balkan parties and concerts of this type of music, in culinary experiences, etc.), but the rest of the time they follow a “Western way of life.”

The Balkan trend There is yet another phenomenon in Slovenia connected with Balkan culture.

This is the incorporation of Balkan culture into everyday life by a group of young people, the so called čefurji. Čefur is a derogatory term for the descendents of immigrants from the other former Yugoslav republics.11 These individuals have reacted to being unwanted and marginalized in the environment they now live in by displaying their physical strength and aggression, and defining themselves through symbols; that is, they “express their ethnic origins in a confrontational way” (Jularić 2006: 59). In the 1990s the children of laborers that had immigrated in the 1970s entered adolescence and created a subculture whose visual symbols were inseparable from it (in the past 9 See also Ceglar 1999: 75–81.

10 Arjun Appadurai defines “armchair 11

nostalgia” as nostalgia in the absence of actual experience, which “provides the simulacra of periods that constitute the flow of time, conceived as lost, absent or distant” (2005: 78).

The definition of this term changes with respect to the social-political circumstances; Lidija Jularić observes that “the meaning of the pejorative čefur has come to encompass not only the people that belong to this subculture . . . but now also applies to any unwanted foreigner (Jularić 2006: 58).

140 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The music of the Others or the music of the Ours ... these included Yellow Cab shoes, Big Star jeans, and bowl hair cuts). Today one’s appearance is still one of the important symbols of this subculture, which of course is changing with time and fashion trends.

In some places, the impact of this subculture grew beyond its connection with ethnicity because Slovenian youth (primarily in urban areas) also identified with it. As a central Ljubljana primary school teacher says, “These days it’s popular to be a čefur,” and a twenty-year-old informant in Lidija Jularić’s study also knows “many Slovenians that pretend to be čefurs. They think that people won’t mess with them that way. So they listen to narodnjaki (ethnic music) and such” (Jularić 2006: 59). The term has gradually come to express cultural self-identification, and therefore moved from a negative to a positive connotation for both non-Slovenian and Slovenian youth (Velikonja 2002: 194). Slovenian adolescents take on the čefur image: the way of speaking, visual expression, and listening to current Balkan pop music. Thus, in addition to certain bars in Slovenian cities that play exclusively Serbian, Bosnian, or Croatian pop music, there are now also dance clubs with this type of music. The cultural policy of radio and television production editing mostly sticks to its “unspoken” ban on playing this type of music (exceptions include the “Balkan Express” show on Novo Mesto’s Radio Sraka and the “Somewhere Nearby” [Sln. Negdje tu blizu] show on Ljubljana’s Radio Salomon), and so its main distribution channel is the Serbian satellite television station TV Pink.

Slovenian Balkan brass bands Chronologically the most recent – and least studied – phenomenon in Slovenia is the appearance of brass bands in Slovenia. These are bands whose members are of Slovenian origin, but whose musical repertoires are drawn from Balkan brass music.12 Since 2000, at least six of these bands have formed in Slovenia. In order to interpret this phenomenon in more detail, Urša Šivic and I interviewed in the year 2007 two of these bands: Strizzy and Dej še’n litro.13 Both bands formed because they wanted to perform Balkan brass music, although their repertoires today include other musical genres as well. Their decision to perform this type of music was influenced by its popularity among Slovenian listeners,14 as the musicians themselves state: “everything came together . . . Bregović was popular then,” (Strizzy), or “that Yugo music is pretty popular right now, there are lots of these Balkan brass bands that play in Ljubljana, at restaurants and bars” (Strizzy). Their repertoires reflect the popularity of individual songs: “We sort of test the audience and then play what they seem to like the best” (Dej še’n litro). Members of both groups say they did not have contact with Balkan music in the past: “I didn’t exactly grow up with this kind of music . . . it got under my skin later” (Dej še’n litro).

12

The case of Dalmatian men’s choral singing, a foreign culture’s musical form, being transmitted to and assimilated in Slovenian territory, has been discussed in Šivic (2006).

13 Some of the statements and te recordinds of the concerts are also a part of the ethnografic film made by Urša Šivic and myself (Kovačič, Šivic 2008).

14 Ivan Lešnik describes a similar example in his article (2006) in which a band switched to the popular music repertoire of the other former Yugoslav republics in large measure because the Slovenian public demanded it.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 141

Mojca Kovačič On the one hand, members stress that they cannot completely identify with the Balkans, “because we’re Slovenians, we’re the accordion” (Dej še’n litro), but on the other hand they feel competent to perform this type of music precisely because of their connection with it: “We feel very close to the Balkans, or else we consider ourselves a part of the Balkans, and even though we were not born to this music we have a relationship with it” (Dej še’n litro).

The establishment of Balkan brass bands can be connected with Slovenia’s strong tradition of Slovenian brass music because this instrumentation is a precondition for imitating Balkan brass musical practice. Members of both of these groups have been or still are members of Slovenian brass bands. Members of both groups also participate in other musical groups (rock bands and jazz ensembles), and members of Dej še’n litro are active in local traditions, in customs such as Carnival processions or wine festivals, where villagers and musicians go door-to-door collecting wine. Some of Strizzy’s members are also professional musicians that are members of Ljubljana’s SNG Opera and Ballet orchestra and the RTV Slovenia symphonic orchestra, and some are students in the jazz department at the Austrian university.

Both groups’ repertoires are broad and include other popular music as well. In addition to “Balkan brass standards”15 (Dej še’n litro), they perform pop and jazz tunes, and traditional brass band and folk-pop music, and “so that it doesn’t get boring . . . we’re pumping from the ‘well’ of ethno music” (Strizzy). The bands are not identified with Balkan music because they are not promoted as trubači (Balkan brass players), but as groups with a broad appeal. The visual identification with Balkan brass music is seen primarily in the group Dej še’n litro, who incorporate elements such as sticking money to their foreheads, playing “among the people,” and occasionally their style of dress. The group thus reconstructs a potential cultural experience that is not based on ethnicity, but rather selected details (Boyn 2001: 53).

Strizzy’s instrumentation, which includes a battery of drums and requires amplified bass guitar, is more geared toward stage performance, which represents a super-contextual relationship between the audience and performers. It is precisely audience participation and interaction between the performers and listeners that is an essential component of this type of music, so in that sense the Dej še’n litro group comes closer to the “original.”

Conclusion The phenomenon of Slovenian Balkan brass ensembles could be considered parallel with the other musical phenomena that fit into the “world music” concept and are taking place in Slovenia and abroad. Individuals’ ethnicities no longer have an important connection with the music they perform and, in most cases, even less with

15

These include the songs “Mesečina” (Moonlight), “Kalašnikov” (Kalashnikov), “Đurđev dan” (St. George’s Day), “Jovane Jovanka,” and music from the TV series Odpisani (The Written-Off).

142 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The music of the Others or the music of the Ours ... the music they listen to.16 In the last few years this phenomenon has been most visible in Slovenia’s dance culture17. Nonetheless, Balkan music has a different status in Slovenia. Its connection with the historically unified Yugoslavia, nationalism, and politics cannot be overlooked. Music stirs up opinion in the public and the media, and the various connotations people attribute to it cannot be tossed aside. The examples presented here allow us to conclude that these Balkan cultural phenomena on Slovenian soil are based on three different concepts that are, however, strongly intertwined: nostalgia, created by a real or imagined image of the past based primarily on entertainment and music; fashion trends, which among young people are created by the predominance of the children of immigrants from the other former Yugoslav republics; and the world music concept, because “musical cultures of the former Yugoslavia . . . over time have become more remote and thereby also exotic, particularly for the younger generation”18 (Šivic 2006: 2). I conclude with the words of Mitja Velikonja, who comments that Slovenian Balkan culture “lives on, and not only as a passive and nostalgic reminiscence of the past, but also an active, innovative cultural paradigm, a productive mix of various traditions and values” (Velikonja 2002: 200).

Literature: Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

Baskar, Bojan. “Austronostalgia and Yugonostalgia in the Western Balkans.” In: Božidar Jezernik, Rajko Muršič, and Alenka Bartulović, editors. Europe and its Other: Notes on the Balkans, (Zupaničeva knjižnica collection no. 20). Ljubljana: Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, 2007, 45–62.

Boym, Svetlana. The future of nostalgia. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

Ceglar, Miha. “Balkan scena.” In: Peter Stankovič et al., editors. Urbana plemena – 16

17

18

An interesting phenomenon of Balkan music and dance in the US is described in Mirjana Laušević’s book Balkan Fascination (2007). The author concluded that, in a large majority of the population she studied, their own ethnic origins were not the reason they became involved in Balkan music and dance. Nonetheless, on the other hand it appears that their motivation lay in their perceptions of their own ethnic origins as “empty” and unsatisfying (their answers to questions about their origins included statements like “I’m really nothing;” “I am not anything, I’m just an American;” “I have no particular ethnic background,” etc.), and that their desire to have an “ethnically interesting” origin led them to an “adopted ethnicity;” in this case, an imagined Balkan identity (Laušević 2007: 21–22).

Dance courses are accessible and attractive to a broad range of people, who would previously have found dance as an art form too distant and only accessible to individuals that were involved with it professionally. Thus the dance scene has been joined by larger numbers of people than the musical one because musical performance demands much more skill than dancing. Therefore, in the musical domain it is largely the listeners, more than the performers, that determine the popularity of particular types of music in a particular place, and often dictate the performers’ musical repertoires.

Slovenia is, however, also the farthest from the other former Yugoslav republics in musical terms, both from the textual/linguistic point of view and the musical one (the “Alpine” musical area). The dichotomy between music in the Balkans and Slovenia is represented by an oriental sound vs. an Alpine one.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 143

Mojca Kovačič Subkulture na Slovenskem v devetdesetih. Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 1999, 75–82.

Hofman, Ana. Sound Nostalgia: Music and the Yugoslav Virtual Networks on the Internet. A paper presented at the 5th Meeting of the Study Group Music and Minorities [of the] International Council of Traditional Music(ICTM), Prague, Czech Republic, 24th May to 1st June 2008.

Jularić, Lidija. “Subkultura imanovana ‘čefurji.‘” In: Dragan Stanojević, editor.

Roaming Anthropology.Belgrade: Klub studenta etnologije i antropologije, 2006.

Kostrič, Jana. “‘Balkanska kultura’ v Sloveniji po letu 1991” (undergraduate thesis).

Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, 2004.

Kovačič, Mojca and Urša Šivic. Guča after party : etnografski film. Ljubljana: Glasbenonarodopisni inštitut ZRC SAZU, 2008.

Laušević, Mirjana. Balkan Fascination. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Lešnik, Ivan. Between the Balkans and Europe: Study Case of the “Mambo Kings” Band. In Urban Music in the Balkans: Drop-out Ethnic Identities or a Historical Case of Tolerance and Global Thinking? “In honorem Ramadan Sokoli.”

Sokol Shupo, editor. Tirana: Documentation & Communication Center for Regional Music, 2006, 369–376.

Muršič, Rajko. “The Balkans and Ambivalence of its Perception in Slovenia: The Horror of ‘Balkanism’ and Enthusiasm for its Music.” In: Europe and its Other: Notes on the Balkans, (Zupaničeva knjižnica collection no. 20). Ljubljana: Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, 2007, 78–105.

Said, Edward. Orientalizem. Zahodnjaški pogledi na Orient. Transl. by Alenka Bogovič et al. Ljubljana: Studia Humanitatis. Inštitut za humanistične vede, 1996. Šivic, Urša. “Akulturacija dalmatinskega klapskega petja v Sloveniji.” Paper given at the conference Istrski etnomuzikološki susreti. 13 and 14 May 2006, Roč, Croatia.

Stanković, Peter. “Uporabe ‘Balkana’: rock in nacionalizem v Sloveniji v devetdesetih letih. Teorija in praksa, 2002, 39(2): 220–238.

Todorova, Maria. Imaginarij Balkana. Ljubljana: Inštitut za civilizacijo in kulturo, 2001.

Velikonja, Mitja. “Ex-home: ‘Balkan culture’ in Slovenia after 1991.” In: Barbara Törnquist-Plewa and Resic Sanimir, editors. The Balkan in Focus – Cultural Boundaries in Europe. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2002, 189–207.

Vodopivec, Peter. “O Evropi, Balkanu in metageografiji.” In: Maria Todorova, Imaginarij Balkana. Ljubljana: Inštitut za civilizacijo in kulturo, 2001, pp. 381–401.

Interviews: Interview with Rok Nemanič, Bojan Vovk, and Bojan Zakrajšek (members of Dej še’n litro), Famlje, 13 October 2007.

Interview with Jure Gradišnik and Vid Pupis (members of Strizzy), Ljubljana, 11 October 2007.

144 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

BERNA ÖZBILEN, Turkey

FIRST OTTOMAN-TURKISH POPULAR MUSIC KANTO: TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONAL TO MODERN KANTO PERIOD This is a historical and fieldwork based study. My research is about the first Ottoman-Turkish popular music Kanto through 138 years. Yesterday to nowadays kanto genre changed and traditional performance style left its place to modernized performances. Change has clearly shown itself both in the structure of music and in the performance area (theatres, gazino, records).

My field study started in 2004 and continued until 2006. My fieldwork approach covered interviewing, observing, getting information by questionnaires, recording and taking photographs. I tried to find out how and why kanto has changed through years. I observed todays performances and made interviews with todays kanto performers whose names are Nurhan Damcıoğlu, Madame Ankine (Aysun Işık), Seyfi Dursunoğlu (Huysuz Virjin) and Ayben Erman.

I researched past performances from the books of authors who had witnessed the kanto period such as folklore expert Sadi Yaver Ataman, historian Reşat Ekrem Koçu, journalist and authors Sermet Muhtar Alus and Ahmet Rasim, and I also benefitted from the sources of theatre historians such as Metin And and Özdemir Nutku. I addition to these, I benefitted from the sources of contemporary researchers.

One of them is the collector and researcher Cemal Ünlü whom I interviewed during my fieldwork and who supplied me special sources of kanto. Others names are contemporary journalist Ergun Hiçyılmaz, and a contemporary author Murat Belge. I also benefitted from the old newspapers and magazines.

At the end of 19th century, Westernization and modernization movements considerably effected Ottoman Emperorship and public life. Innovations and improvements experienced in political arena, and also in social and cultural life.

Parallel to this, public’s entertainment understanding is changed, thus kanto took public’s attention and it became very popular in a very short while. Within the multi-national structure of Ottoman Emperorship, Armenians, Istanbul Greeks, Jews,

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Berna Özbilen Levantines, and Roman-s had lived together. Kanto genre was born in such an atmosphere as a product of this term. All these different ethnic groups attracted its audience to the theatres.

The origin of the word “kanto" adapted to our language from the Italian word cantare which means singing (Ünlü interview 2005). It can be described as active songs, typically sung by women performers, with music and dance performed simultaneously to an orchestral accompaniment.

It is said that it was firstly played in the performances of itinerant Italian theatres that came to Istanbul in 1870. Then it appeared in the tuluat (improvisatory) theatres before the beginning of the real plays as a kind of overture... (Ataman1 1997: 271). The author, Sermet Muhtar Alus who had observed the early performances described kanto with these words: “First the introduction, then the lyrics, shaking the shoulders to a violin solo, turning around the pivot, cocking the head, shimmy in oriental dance style, and at the end using the tango like dance steps, leaping around the stage like a partridge, and then disappearing behind the slowly closing curtain” (Alus 1934: 10).

The most considerable characteristics that popularized this genre are Kanto-s had been composed without art anxiety, they have easily understood words, they have simple melodies. Moreover, women’s appearance in the front stages among the public, Armenians’ and Istanbul Greeks’ attractive accent and emphasis differences which are related to the ethnic identity, dance, humour, and comedy features attracted the attention of public and maintained the popularization of this genre.

Kanto lyrics, singing style of the performers, dance figures, and feminine costumes support that kanto is a genre peculiar to women. Women had come to the stages with very ornate costumes. Their physical appearance attracted audiences’ interest. As we read the observations and saw the photographs they were generally fat women, and their physical appearances was more important than their musical performance in the Early Period (between 1870s to 1920s).

Kanto lyrics accommodated allegory, its subjects reflected its day’s actuality.

Its main subjects focus on the real and the topical events. The people from different jobs, topical events, the people from various ethnic groups such as Gypsy, Arabic, Persian, the people who lived in Black Sea region of Turkey, and the discussions between men and women were among the principle kanto types.

Kanto called “daktilo” (“typewriter”) is a product of 1937s. Typewriter means secretary. Women started to work in different jobs in those days. Since womens’ working in social life was a new and an actual thing, typewriter kanto was born (Kantolar CD No 9).

Most of the lyrics express that women could do everything as men (for ex. driving a car, drinking, etc.), the importance of money, the success of women, and revolting against men. “Woman Driver” and “If a Woman Becomes a Driver” are some examples: “Woman Driver” I was called woman driver, I drove faster than the bird I was called mad driver, I can drive the uphill On the way I will honk the horn; and I tear the men into pieces…. (Kantolar CD No 11) “Woman driver is sung by Bayan Semiha. The composer is 1

Sadi Yaver Ataman is a Turkish musicologist, folklore expert, educator and artist.

146 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

First Ottoman – Turkish popular music Kanto ...

Fahriye Aslan. Recorded by Columbia in 1943-44 (?).

“If a Woman Becomes a Driver” – The Duetto of Kamelya Woman:

Man:

Do we have anything absent that man possessed?

We had our hair cut from the root If all of the women came together Can’t we be a driver?

Don’t come near to the woman driver Do not get in the woman’s car without saying goodbye to everyone Take your shroud with you Good luck to your head (Hayat 1961: 9) Traditional and Modern Kanto Period and Styles

Considering the history of kanto, it is possible to talk about two periods and two styles: Traditional and Modern. Traditional style is experienced between 1870s to 1965s. In this period, kanto singers had learned kanto by watching, observing and listening to the real kanto singers’ performances. Traditional kanto singers performed between the years 1870 to 1930s. Most of the compositions belong to these singers; when some of them are anonymous. Beginning from 1930s to 1965s new singers and the singers who had sung to the recordings imitated traditional singers styles.

No:1 Peruz

No:2 Naşit Özcan, Şamram, Küçük Virjin, Mari, Avantia and Amelia

Armenian women are the first kanto performers and can be accepted as creators of this genre. Istanbul Greek and Jewish women also sung kantos which they learned from Armenian women. The most famous performers were Peruz (No 1), First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 147

Berna Özbilen Şamiram, Minyon Virjini, Eleni, Büyük Amelya, Mari Ferha, Rana Dilberyan, Nıvart Hanım, Zarife Hanım, Niko and Amelya2. Men accompanyed kanto singers in duet performances, but they always had a secondary, and an assistant role while accompanying duettos. It is known that since the Muslim women were prohibited to come to the stages, they did not come to the stages until Republic. Theatre artist Vasfi Rıza Zobu mentioned in his article that Kadriye Hanım had come to the stages with the name Papasköprülü Amelya which is an Armenian name (Zobu 1961: 10). This is a clue that Turkish women did not sing kanto revealing their own identities until Republic (1923); but they came to the stages before Republic by using Armenian names. As a consequence of Modernization movements and the considerable impact of the founder of Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkish women have granted many crucial rights in the society beginning from the Republic Period and from now on they began to appear on the stages independently.

Printed sources are the most important evidence of kanto tradition. These sources shows us how rich the repertory was in the old days. We learn about the kanto singers and compositors names, kanto repertory, and modes. The most important printed sources of kanto are Nuhbe-i Elhan Kantoları, Kanto and Kanto Mecmuası.

Although the style of this period can be described as ‘traditional’, differences occurred in performances. These were examined by the researcher Cemal Ünlü in two periods as Early Period Kanto and Post Republic Kanto (Ünlü 1998). This grouping especially showed the structural change in kanto music. These cover the instrumentation difference in both periods and new popular music influences such as tango, foxtrot, rumba, operetta, and revue songs in the 1920s Turkey.

No:3 Antrak Orchestra Before the Republic, kanto orchestra which accompanied kanto singers generally consisted of five people. In order to gather spectator, these orchestras made music approximately before one hour left for the beginning of the play and performed music in front of the theatre doors. This music was called “antrak music” and the kanto orchestra was called “antrak orchestra” (No:3). Its instruments before the Republican Period were violin, clarinet, trumpet, snare drum, trombone, and cymbals. Kantos were composed in various Turkish music modes. Although some of the kantos are 2

..Küçük Amelya, Aramik, Minyon Viyolet, Madam Blanş, Avantiye, Oranya, Raşel, Rozali, Matild Mari, Madam Avantiya, Despina, Dardispanyan, Hermine, Viktor Haçikyan and Anjel, Pipina, Viktorya, Büyük Mari, Matmazel Roza….

148 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

First Ottoman – Turkish popular music Kanto ... anonymous, Early Period Kanto compositions generally belonged to the singers’ themselves3. In the Post-Republican Kanto Period, Western instruments were joined by Turkish musical instruments such as cümbüş, ud, çalpara, kanun.

What I term Modern Kanto, began in 1965 and continued until today. Singers performed kanto with a new style. They imitated the old singers by listening to them from their recordings, and using their notations. Since they did not watch and observe the old singers, and they did not learn kanto from themselves, but from the people who observed them; it is not possible to say that these performances reflected the traditional kanto. Moreover, their endeavours created a new style that tries to catch up with the old performances fame. From now on dances and performance styles depended on the singers’ initiative, and these emerged in front of the audiences with new choreography, and arrangements.

In general, the development process of kanto can be examined in four stages: 1) "Tuluat Theatres Period” (1880 – ~1920s).

2) “The 78th Records and 45 rpm Period” (1900–1940/78th)(1965-1980/45th and 33th).

3) “Gazinos Period” (~1950s – ~1980s) and “Revival of Old Performances” (1960-1965) 4) “Ramadan Entertainments Period” (~1980s – 2008).

The aim of this grouping is to show the dominant performance venues in the different periods. Determined years above may not show the exact times, but indicate aproximate years. In addition, it is not possible to give definite years, because they sometimes intertwined into each other.

1) “Tuluat Theatres Period” (~1880 – ~1920s) Improvised (Tuluat) theatres had considerable importance for kanto performances, because kanto appeared in these theatres. Kanto was a theatrical music in this period, and the most popular time of this genre has been lived in these years.

The establishment of the theatre school Darülbedai in 1914 accelerated the disappearance of improvised (tuluat) theatres4. This fact accelerated the disappearance of authentic kanto. Considering kanto singers’ Armenian accent characteristic, singers learning style which indicates expert-apprentice relationship, exaggerated ornate costumes, and womens’ appeareance; it is sure that performances have a traditional character.

2) “The 78 Records and 45 rpm Period” (1900–1940/78s) (1965-1980/45s and 33th) Kanto became a recording genre rather than an actual stage genre. Since kanto gained its meaning with its visual characteristic before the Republic that is, before 1923, it could not be thought without visuality. The most important thing was the dance and body movements of the singer. With the improvements in recording technology, visuality had gained a predominant importance. These recordings took the 3 4

Peruz, Şamram, Eleni, Virjin, Minyon Virjin, Büyük Virjin were some of these composers.

Because the uneducated and ignorant artists, who abused tuluat, made this genre decline.

Since it was a product of the 19th century entertainment life, after those years kanto had never been popular as it was in the "Tuluat Theatres Period”.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 149

Berna Özbilen attention of the audience directly to the music and voice of the singer. If we only consider the audial part of performances, it is possible to say that traditional vocalization style is tried to be continued. Although most of the performers beginning from 1923 are Turkish women, they tried to sing the kanto with an Armenian accent.

Another striking property of this period is that men had sung kanto on the records.5 As a general term, the products which were popular in its time and were not based on traditions or rules of its time; all the popular genres were called kanto in one period, and because it was a popular genre of those days the men had sung kanto (Ünlü Personal Interview 2004).6 3) “Gazino Period” (~1950s – ~1980s) and “Revival of Old Performances” (1960-1965) Kanto was performed on the gazino stages.7 Todays famous kanto singers have come to the stages in the 1965s gazino period. After the closing of gazinos in the 1980s, they sang kanto especially during the Ramadan months in various places such as shopping malls and concert halls etc.

4) “Ramadan Entertainments Period” (~1980s – 2008) Kanto has been sung in the Ramadans since it was born, but beginning from 1980s kanto pieces only remembered in Ramadan Entertainments. That’s why even today it was an unforgettable part of the Ramadan entertainments besides the other visual plays8. It has been sung in the stages in order to make the audience live a nostalgia.

Today performances take place in the concert halls, and rarely in the television shows. There are no new kanto compositions. All kanto performers use old repertory.

Nurhan Damcıoğlu is the best remembered name when we talk about kanto. Seyfi Dursunoğlu, who appears on stage under the name Huysuz Virjin (Bad-tempered

5

These included the instrumentalists (sazende), singers and hafız men who had learned the Koran by heart. Male performances were unusual examples and according to my study these examples only existed in the recordings. Moreover, there is no source talking about a male singer’s individual kanto performance. According to Cemal Ünlü who has very important studies on kanto within the years, kanto gained a general identity which was much more than being a musical form.

6

The male singers who made kanto recordings are as follows: Hafız Âşir Efendi, Hafız Yaşar Okur, Hafız Ahmet, Hafız Burhan Sesyılmaz, Hafız Selahattin Bey, Hafız Kemal Bey, Hafız M.Nazif, Hafız Kazım Bey, İzmirli Hafız Ömer Bey, Hafız Sami Bey, Derviş Abdullah Efendi, Hamit Dikses, Nafi Bey, Saim Bey, Refik Bey, Aksaraylı Yaşar Bey, İhsan Bey, Halit Bey, Şahap Efendi, Haim Efendi, Ali Efendi, Karakaş Efendi, Erzurumlu Ahmet Efendi, Hüseyin Efendi, Adnan Pekak, Faruk Bey, Zeki Bey, Karındaş Mahmut, Udî Afet Efendi, Ovrik Efendi, Kemanî İhsan Efendi, Kâtip Salih Efendi and Hanende İbrahim Efendi are within these people (Ünlü 2004).

7

According to Murat Belge’s interpretation, the Alafranga (European style) and Alaturka (Turkish style) styles became to be performed in the gazinos and “when the associations increased in modern life, the kanto became invalid” (1986: 377).

8

such as ortaoyunu (centre play) (traditional form of Turkish theatre performed in the open), meddah (story-teller), kukla (puppet), karagöz (shadow play).

150 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

First Ottoman – Turkish popular music Kanto ...

Virjin), is not a real kanto singer, but he uses kanto as a vehicle in his shows.9 Besides these, recently a new generation of singers (Aylin Aslım ve Tayfası, Seferad) began to sing a few old repertoire kanto pieces from their musical viewpoints. The instrumentation and the music is different from the old ones. Although they are not similar with the original form, these enterprises successfully attract the attention of the people. Moreover, these efforts are trying to bring the old songs to life by adapting them to today’s sound. Here I would like to present you three kanto examples tı show singing style differences (accentuate difference). You will listen same kanto-s from different performers in different years.

Conclusion Consequently, as we listen from the examples structure of kanto performances do not remain stable. From traditional period to modern kanto period, instrumentation, composition, musical structure, interpretations, entertainment places, and singers changed during 138 years. The only thing which does not change is the compositions and repertory. New musical types such as tango, operetta carried with the passing years. Kanto influenced from these new types, and took their characteristics into itself.

Since kanto reflects its day’s actuality, and it was a 19th century genre, within time it lost its topical position and it could not attune to contemporary entertainment life. Public prefer to listen the popular musical types, accordingly performers started to change the musical structure of kanto-s depending on audiences expectations10.

Eventually, traditional performances left its place to modernized performances.

Performances by a new generation of singers demonstrate that kanto has become a genre which tries to attune to todays sound.

References Albayrak, Sadık. Meşrutiyet İstanbul’unda Kadın ve Sosyal Değişim (Woman and Social Change in Constitutional Monarchy Istanbul). Istanbul: Yeditepe Yayınevi, 2002.

Altun, Mehmet. “Yüz Yıl Öncesinin ‘Alaturka’ İstanbul’unda ‘Alafranga’ Eğlence Alternatifleri (Hundred years before ‘Alafranga’ Entertainment Alternatives in ‘Alaturca’ Istanbul).” İstanbul: Eğlence Kültürü. 2002.

Alus, Sermet Muhtar. “Kantocuların Kadınnesi Peruz.” Yedigün. 1934, 70.

And, Metin. “Tuluatçılar ve Kantocular Üzerine Notlar II (Notes about Tuluat and Kanto Artists II).” Devlet Tiyatroları Dergisi. 1966.

9

Altan Karındaş, Ayben Erman, Aysun Işık, Meral Küçükerol, Oya Alasya, Seden Kızıltunç, Mürüvvet Sim are the kanto singers who came to the stages approximately in the 1970s.

10

Sometimes an organ takes the role of a kanto orchestra. Or some performers performs kanto-s from their musical viewpoints.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 151

Berna Özbilen And, Metin. “Tuluatçılar ve Kantocular Üzerine Notlar I (Notes about Tuluat and Kanto Artists I).” Devlet Tiyatroları Dergisi. 1964..

Ataman, Sadi Yaver. Türk İstanbul (Turkish Istanbul). Süleyman Şenel, Istanbul: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür İşleri Daire Başkanlığı, 1997.

Ataman, Sadi Yaver. Dümbüllü İsmail Efendi. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Bankası Yayınları, 1974.

Belge, Murat. Kantolar: 1905-1945. Kalan Müzik Arşiv Serisi CD-Booklet, Istanbul: Kalan Müzik, CD085, 1998.

Belge, Murat. Tarihten Güncelliğe (From History to Actuality). Istanbul: Alan Yayıncılık, 1986.

Sevengil, Refik Ahmet. İstanbul Nasıl Eğleniyordu?

Entertaining?). Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1998.

(How

was

Istanbul

Ünlü, Cemal. Geçmişten Günümüze Türk Müziği (a)/ Bir Opereti Yaşamak (b)/ Yıldızlar Düşerken (c)/ Direklerarası'ndan Pera'ya Kanto (d) (Turkish Music from Past to Present / to Live An Operetta / When the Stars Are Falling / Kanto from Direklerarası to Pera). Istanbul: İş Bankası Yayınları, 1998. Ünlü, Cemal. Kantolar: 1905-1945 (Kantos: 1905-1945) (e) Kalan Müzik Arşiv Serisi CD-Booklet. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik. CD085. 1998. Ünlü, Cemal. Interview with the author. 4.Levent. Istanbul. 2004 and 2005.

Zobu, Vasfi Rıza. 1961. “Kadriye Hanımın Macerası (Adveture of Kadriye Hanım)”.

Istanbul: Tifdruk Matbaacılık. no.11, vol.1, (1961) 10-11.

Zobu, Vasfi Rıza. “Tiyatro Tarihinin En Büyük Aşkı (The Most Greatest Love of Turkish Theatre).” Istanbul: Tifdruk Matbaacılık. no.10, vol.1, (1961) 12-13.

Picture No:1 Peruz. Yedigün 1934, no.70, p.15.

Picture No:2 Naşit Özcan, Şamram, Küçük Virjin, Mari, Avantia and Amelia. Hayat 1961, no.10, p.9.

Picture No:3 Antrak Orkestrası. Hayat 1961, no.10, p.8

152 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

YVONNE HUNT, USA CROSSING THE BORDER THE CASE OF THE ZURNACI-TAPAN ENSEMBLES OF BULGARIA AND THE DAOULIA OF THE SERRES PREFECTURE OF GREECE

Ensembles commonly known as daoulia in eastern Macedonia, Greece, have a long history in the region, possibly dating from the 12th century according to literature and iconographic sources. Fivos Anoyanakis, well-known Greek ethnomusicologist, writes of related double reed instruments, forerunners of the zournas, which existed as early as the Homeric era. One such instrument, the avlos, was the primary wind instrument of ancient Greece, and provided musical accompaniment for many occasions including athletic contests and other events dedicated to the gods. Today that role is filled in this particular area of Greece by the instrument known as the zournas and the accompanying drum called the daouli.

As recently as three-four decades ago the Serres Prefecture of eastern Macedonia was rich in ensembles composed of two zournadhes (pl.) and one daouli, locally called ta daoulia. At one time multiple ensembles could be found in the villages of Anthi, Flambouro, Paralimnio, Dhraviskos, Sidhirokastro, Iraklia, Neohori, Ayia Eleni, Limnohori and Myrkino. The daoulia of Dhraviskos alone were famed throughout the eastern part of the prefecture as the best musicians of the Pangeo Mountain region. Today, however, ensembles exist primarily in the village of Flambouro and the town of Iraklia. There is still one ensemble in Sidhirokastro, as well as a few individual musicians in Anthi and Neo Petritsi who play with ensembles when a regular member is absent.

Traditionally these ensembles are composed of Roma, not only in Greece but also elsewhere in the Balkans. Rudolf Brandl concluded that these instrument

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Yvonne Hunt ensembles most likely came with the Roma from their homeland in India, at some point entered the Ottoman military music and from there entered the music of the Balkan villages. (See 1996: 15, 18) In each of the previously mentioned towns and villages, the native inhabitants are sedentary Roma. Today there are also other Greeks living in each, but they, too, acknowledge the Roma as “dopioi” (translated as original, native, or indigenous).

Inhabitants in these and other villages rely on the musicians of these ensembles for their traditional events not only because of their proximity and availability but also because of their deep knowledge of those traditions and the appropriate accompanying music. In addition, these musicians are cognizant of the particular preferences of individual dancers in several villages, taking into account the capabilities of each and playing to the dancer’s specific desires in order to generate his deepest enjoyment and best performance.

For example, the dance, Gaida, is performed in almost every village of the prefecture. However, depending on the village or the individual dancer, the musicians must know to play it faster or slower, to accent certain beats as slow-quick-quick in some villages and as quick-quick-slow in others, to play both the slow and fast portions of the dance or only one portion, even to know the lead dancer’s personal variations and accent them accordingly. This knowledge is not gained overnight. Mastering a repertoire requires more than practice on the instrument; it also requires sustained contact with the potential customers over an extended period of time.

The particular part of Greece with which we are concerned, the Serres Prefecture, shares the border with Bulgaria, and more specifically with the region of Pirin. This southwestern region of Bulgaria is also well known for excellent musicians of these same instruments, known locally as zurna and tapan. While in the past there were such ensembles in many regions of Bulgaria, Peycheva and Dimov write that “…the present day zurnaci tradition is alive mainly in the Pirin region…(2002:256) and it “…is the only region in the country wherein zurnaci music lives as a continuing and self-renovating tradition.” (Op. cit: 257) There, too, the musicians are primarily sedentary Roma. Indeed, the same authors found some informants who claimed that only Roma, not other Bulgarians, play the instruments. The same assertion is usually made in Greece, although one non-Rom Greek zournatzis exists in one of the Serres villages.

Relations between the two countries have not always been peaceful, but the last two or three decades have seen great strides in both socioeconomic and cultural spheres. While citizens of Greece could cross the borders with relative ease in the past, needing only show their passport, the reverse has not always been true for Bulgarians wishing to enter Greece. However, with Bulgaria’s official entrance into the European Union in 2007, Bulgarians may now cross the border as easily as all other citizens of member nations, and they often do so. Most Greeks of my acquaintance agree that this is good for both countries.

With this newfound freedom of border crossing, Bulgarian musicians are more and more frequently appearing and playing in the villages of the Serres Prefectu-

154 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Crossing the Border: the case of the zurnaci­tapan ensembles... re. Solid friendships are beginning to occur between some Greek and Bulgarian musicians. Two masters of the zourna who have become fast friends are Samir Kurtov of Kavrakirovo, Bulgaria and Christos Karakostas of Flambouro, Greece, each of whom can arguably be said to be the best in his own country. At times they play together at what can only be called marvelous jam sessions; at other times they might play together at traditional events.

The music/dance repertoire of the Pirin region seems, when one looks at a list of the titles, to be very similar to that of the Serres Prefecture, so it might be quite natural that musicians from these two regions should either play together or play at events across the border. Some shared names are: Arap Havasi, Selenik, Aznatar or Haznatar, Drama or Drama Havasi or Drama Syrto, Uch Ayak, Taoushan Havasi, Chiftetelli, Gaida, Alaybey, Kavraki Leno, Patrouno, Gyouresh, Shirto or Syrto, Boyna, Kamber, Arnaout Havasi, Ormanli, Mangoustar or Mangusar, etc., etc. These are but a few of the similar or same-sounding names. In spite of these shared names, however, the melodies and the dances are not always the same.

While each musician in both districts has his own playing style, there is also a general difference in regional playing styles, discernable to one familiar with music of the regions. Although there are also similarities in some of the rhythms played--2/4, 7/8, 9/8—Bulgarians generally tend to play at a faster tempo than Greeks.

In both areas ensembles play for basically the same types of events: weddings, religious celebrations, athletic events, calendar holidays, etc. Nevertheless, not all traditions related to these events are the same in both regions. In addition, each locale may have other celebrations that are not shared, for which the ensembles play.

Before the opening of the borders, Bulgarian musicians rarely played at traditional events in the Serres villages. I, personally, had not seen any before 2002, and that was only on one occasion in one village. Now they are playing there with ever-increasing frequency. But what effects are their appearances having on the Greek musicians, on the traditional events and on the Greek villagers who are their customers?

In October of 2007 I had the opportunity to speak with two Greek zournas players about the Bulgarian ensembles playing in Greece, asking their opinions of the situation; one from Flambouro and one from Iraklia. The one from Flambouro, who is also a very successful farmer and does not depend on his earnings as a musician for his livelihood, answered immediately that it is a good thing, with no negative effects. The musician from Iraklia, who has no other income than what he earns as a musician, hesitated before answering. Eventually he agreed with the first. However, he may or may not have felt at ease answering in this situation as he had been hired by the first musician to be passadoros for this event.

Certainly, most of the musicians from Iraklia depend almost entirely on their instruments for their livelihood. Yannis Milkas, zournatzis from there said, “Instrument players do not have regular work. I may have a job one week, but I may be sitting home without anything to do the next two.” (Keil: 259) A daoultzis from Iraklia said, “Some days we have work and others we do not. This is the nature of our work.”

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 155

Yvonne Hunt (Op. cit: 217) The loss of work for these musicians of Iraklia means economic hardship.

During carnival celebrations in March of this year (2008), Bulgarian ensembles played at four of the six villages I visited. On 6 March they were playing in Sohos, a village where musicians from Iraklia usually play both at mid-week and at the traditional weekend celebrations. On 8 March, I was surprised to find musicians of my acquaintance from Petrich playing for dancers in the square in Vamvakofyto. They also played there the next day for the village’s traditional carnival custom. In the past, the last remaining daoulia ensemble from Sidhirokastro has always played for those events. When I asked locals why Bulgarian musicians were playing instead, they answered that the Bulgarians play for a lot less. One woman stated that “their”, i.e., Greek, musicians had to learn to play for less if they want work.

But will cost be the only consideration in the future? During the traditional carnival event in Vamvakofyto, the “groom” and many others accompany the “bride” as they go around the village. From time-to-time the bride is “stolen” by groups of men who run away with her. Everyone is alerted to this action by a change in drumbeats, and a posse is sent to her rescue. This year it appeared that the Bulgarian tapan player was totally unfamiliar with the custom as each time the bride was stolen he continued beating the rhythm of the current song, with no change. At times this left the abductors standing at a distance and waiting for the posse to retrieve the bride.

Bulgarian musician in Vamvakofyto, March 2008 During the entire weekend-long carnival celebrations in Flambouro, Samir Kurtov and his tapan player, Ognyan Fetov, played along with the local musicians; at times Samir took the lead and the local lead zournas player, Christos Karakostas, did not play. Even though almost everyone in Flambouro agrees that Samir is an excellent zournatzis, there were, nevertheless, many complaints, i.e., “He plays well but he

156 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Crossing the Border: the case of the zurnaci­tapan ensembles... doesn’t know our music”, “He is a good zournatzis but Karakostas is better and knows our music better”, “He plays too fast”, “He doesn’t play the right way”, etc., etc.

There were also complaints about the tapan player, that he does not beat the “correct” way. While it appears there are those who are less than pleased with this turn of events brought about by the opening of the border, nevertheless the celebrations continued in 2008 mainly as they have in the past several years.

Insert photo, “Karakostas and Kurtov ensembles, Flambouro, March 2008” But will this continue in ensuing years or will Greeks become more and more discontented with this change? In what manner will their music and dances be altered? How will the musicians of Serres and their playing styles be influenced by this influx of musicians from Pirin? Will there be a time when some of the old tunes still played in Bulgaria but which have disappeared from the Serres repertoire be re-introduced? Will local Greek songs be replaced by Bulgarian tunes in the same rhythm?

Will cheaper cost outweigh knowledge of tradition? Will Greek musicians, especially those who rely solely on their instrument for income, rebel against this influx of Bulgarian musicians, and if so, how, when? How will Bulgarians and their music and dance repertoires be affected?

Of course, these are questions that will only be answered in the future.

But could this new situation of the open border brought about by membership in the European Union be, in one sense, a reversal to the past, when there were no borders during the Ottoman Empire and citizens traveled across what are today’s borders with relative ease? The next decade should reveal some interesting observations and developments concerning the music and dance repertoires of this region.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 157

Yvonne Hunt BIBLIOGRAPHY Anoyanakis Fivos, 1991, Greek Popular Musical Instruments, 2nd ed., Melissa, Athens Brandl Rudolf, 1996, “The Yiftoi and the Music of Greece, Role and Function”, in The World of Music, Vol. 38, 7-32, Berlin Keil Charles, 2002, Bright Balkan Morning: Romani lives and the power of Music in Greek Macedonia, Wesleyan University Press, CT Peycheva Lozanka and Ventsislav Dimov, 2002, The Zurna Tradition in Southwest Bulgaria, Bulgarian Musicology Researches, Sofia

158 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

BELMA KURTIŞOĞLU, Turkey A GUSLAR IN ISTANBUL TO KEEP THE TRADITIONS ALIVE

The qualitative research including interviews and observations I have executed from 2005 to 2007 in some Bosniak quarters in Istanbul and Thracian part of Turkey reveals that the traditions are employed to connect the generations in order to build and survive the cultural identity, although some of their implementation or the forms have changed with the changes in the hierarchical order of the identity elements, due to the close relationship between the tradition and cultural identity. In this paper, I want to experiment this argument by examining a guslar, the gusla player, in Istanbul.

The cultural identity made of various elements change according to the social environment and conditions, while the hierarchical order of these elements also change due to the needs of the society. “When one of the elements is attacked by “others” or when there is a need to accord with the rest of the society or to distinguish from “others” through this element, it may become more significant to be underlined and to be protected” as Amin Maalouf suggests. This change in the hierarchical order of the cultural identity elements can be observed in the population of the Bosniak quarters in Turkey who immigrated in various dates.

The Bosniak quarters arose with the mass migrations of Bosniak people at the end of 19th century, 1920’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and developed with the isolated newcomers, mostly relatives, even recently during and after the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. The main idea of these quarters is providing the solidarity as well as consciously or unconsciously maintaining the belongingness to a cultural identity by creating a space for practicing the traditions, which were also immigrated by the conveyors. These quarters as well as traditional practices are not open to everybody. These practices are carried out in an “inner-directed manner”.

Among plenty of practices and the objects related to these traditions, the musical practices are very major, since music can be utilized as a cultural identity indi-

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Belma Kurtisoglu cator because “to listen to the authentic music, to perform it and to talk about it is an attempt for saying ‘we are different than others with that music’ to the others and to the own society” as Martin Stokes argues. The music instruments are also cultural identity indicators in two ways: the first is as an object with its symbolic meanings and the second as a means of producing music.

The gusla as an object as well as a music instrument plays an important role in showing the cultural identity. Gusli, gusla or gusle is an instrument widely seen in the Balkans; particularly in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Albania (lahutë) and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is one string (mostly), long neck, bowed and compound chordophone according to the Hornbostel-Sachs classification. Its body and the neck made of generally maple wood or okoumé (gaboon) wood are carved together. The sound box on which goat skin is stretched and fixed by metal pins, previously by wooden nails, is oval-shaped, pear or leaf shaped. There is a sound hole at its back. The skin sound table has also little sound holes which form various figures. To get the balance of the instrument, the lengths of the neck and the sound box are equal. The peg box, in which the single mahogany peg is embedded backwards, is the most symbolic part of the instrument. In addition to the ornamentation, the carved figures are the representative symbols which are elaborated on reflecting the characteristics of the nation or the cultural identity of the luthier as well as the performer in relation to the theme of the song that the gusla accompanies. These figures are mostly animals, among which the most frequently seen are the horse and the eagle. The Albanian laute has, for example, the double headed eagle which is on the national flag as well. The other type of figures is the portrait of a hero varying obviously according to the nation or cultural identity.

Güler, who is a guslar as well a luthier from Istanbul and who is the main subject of this paper, is very interested in the history, so he uses for example the portrait of Sokullu Mehmet Paşa whom he is proud of being Bosniak and many Ottoman sultans who are heroes for him.

It is performed by touching the fingers, mostly the index finger or thumb, on its single string made of a bunch of about 40 horse tail strings, recently fishing lines which extend from the peg across the fretless neck and the kobilica (bridge) to the tail wedge. The kobilica is placed on the lower part of the body, between the sound table and the horsehair string. The guslar plays it holding vertically but slightly leaning to the left on the knee or between the knees with the help of the bow, the gudalo. The fairly curved gudalo seems like a bough, contrary to the particularity of the peg box.

The strings of the gudola are also made of horse tail. Since the guslar recites or sings, while playing the gusla, he tunes it according to his voice range. The gusla provides the vocal performance takes over the whole performance which is largely based on the lyrics rather than the melody.

The songs that the gusla accompanies are the epic songs with plenty of verses which almost always tell the heroic stories of each culture from their own point of view in relation to nationalism. The epic songs which narrate the history of a certain cultural identity while helping to build and rebuild it at the same time, since the songs are learnt from the masters and the more talented guslars write or add new lyrics on

160 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

A guslar in Istanbul to keep the traditions alive them or compose new ones according to the changing hierarchy of the cultural identity elements; like Avdo Medjedovic (Međedović) from Bijelo Polje (1870-1955) who is called as the Homer of the Balkans by Milman Pary and Albert Lord from Harvard University after their meeting with him in 1930’s.

The guslar in Istanbul, Güler was born in Montenegro Rozaje in 1942, emigrated from Yugoslavia, as he calls, in 1961 and first settled in Küçükköy which is another Bosniak neighborhood then moved to Yıldırım quarter where he lives now. He was carpenter in Rozaje, now also having the same job and running a furniture workshop. He considers himself as Bosniak although some of his ancestors were Albanian. Güler learnt how to play the gusla from one of his older relatives and now tries to convey the epic singing tradition as well as the historical events to the next coming generation both by singing and constructing the instrument. He mentions about Halil Usta as one of his masters whose repertoire was very huge. However, he is complaining about the lack of the interest of the young people, being mostly the second or third generation in learning both how to play it and how to construct it. He stubbornly produces the gusla-s just for the “compatriots”, as he utters, who buy them as a souvenir. According to his opinion, this lack of interest shows that the younger generation loses its past.

In the Turkish literature, the novel, called Cemile1 written by Orhan Kemal and published in 1952 for the first time, also mentions about the gusla as a musical instrument of the first generation Bosniak immigrants. The author symbolizes it as a nostalgic object and its sound as a narrator talking about many different feelings, especially heroic ones, and scenes from the past. “Mujo was obliged to immigrate to Turkey; only whenever he plays the gusla, he returns again to his old lands and becomes the old brave gangster….. The old Mujo became half crazy after the lost of his daughters. He, with the gusli under his arm, plays, recites, cries since then whenever he wants.” …. “He took the gusla per side …. And started to play … Mujo lost his consciousness again. Now he is in homeland. He is bolt upright on his horse which is almost going to die from overeating ... He is very nervous because of the news told by the town people …. He imagines the heads which were chopped.” …. “There is a grudge and not yet taken revenge in the sound of the gusla! Longing in the sound of the gusla! There is calling out the lost beloveds in the sound of the gusla! …. “Gusla talks about the forests, streams, brooks, moonlights, beloveds, longing. Gusla shouts out, groans, gnashes teeth, mourns and cheers up. There are the sun, the night, storm, squall, and snow in the gusla; there are the past and the present in the gusla; there are sorrow, grief and misery in the gusla.”

In the narratives of Güler, two types of events are seen as the main theme of the epic songs. One of them is the battles which can be found in the history books and the other is the clashes of the local gangs which can be found in the oral history.

1

Cemile is a woman name and stands for a Bosniak girl living in Adana region of Turkey in 1930’s, who is the wife of the author of the novel in real life. Her real name was Nuriye who was born in Zagreb, migrated to Adana and married to Orhan Kemal in 1937. The other two main characters in this novel are Mujo and Malik, the father of Cemile, both of whom were members of a gang, killed Bosko Boskovic and therefore immigrated to Turkey necessarily.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 161

Belma Kurtisoglu As an example to the formal wars, the Kosova war, which took place in 1389, is the most frequently seen in the epic song repertoire. The parties of the war, of course, tell the same event from their own point of view. Mohaç war (1526), the wars occurred in Ottoman lands other than Balkan region as well as the recent war in 1992-1995, are the other cases. Güler, who is still weak in Turkish, tells the story of the epic song in Bosniak language and then translates into Turkish, as an example for the Kosova war, being aware that Serbian guslars tell the same story from a different point of view, such as in Vidovdan songs: “Sultan Murat I lives in Bursa. One day, a fortuneteller says “be your expedition blessed”. So, he moves to Kosova and settled there. He sends a letter to Serbian Prince Lazar by a Tatar delegate saying that “you must pay the taxes that you haven’t for 7 years and also give the key of the seven cities; otherwise I will kill you all. It is never seen that two sovereigns own the same land”. Prince Lazar calls the vojvoda-s (dukes), all of whom accept to pay the taxes except one. Two Serbian delegate visit the sultan to say: “Excellency, we don’t pay the tax but leave here since you will lose. We have 74 armored soldiers as well as our community has faith and well educated for fighting”. Sultan does not accept this offer although our army [the Ottoman’s] in cardigans fights just with a curved sword. When the battle begins in the early morning, wind wakes and the air gets dusty. The sultan prays and asks for help “Marry Almighty, I don’t come here for tyranny but to bring the justice”. The wind suddenly stops and it starts to rain. Our army wins against the crowded Serbian army. When the Sultan Murat I gets around the battle ground, a wounded soldier stabs him perfidiously.”

Güler gives an example for the clashes of the local gangs which mostly dates back to the late 19th century, which is called as the “revolts age” in the Ottoman history as well as which is a period of increasing nationalist movements.

“Bosniak Jusuf Mehonic2 organized a gang in Montenegro because the 3 chetniks were killing us, the Muslims. They [the Muslims] invite Bosko Boskovic, the head of the chetniks for a wedding ceremony. When he passes through the gate of the wedding place, he holds the arms of a woman and says: ‘You will be mine’. The other guests say: ‘She is the bride, she cannot be yours’. Upon this struggle, they call Jusuf to kill Boskovic. Jusuf immediately arrives there with the famous horse, called bedevil, and kills him and one of his two guards. Jusuf says the other guard ‘Go and tell everybody in Montenegro that Jusuf killed Boskovic’”.

With these narratives, Güler expresses the Ottoman and Muslim elements of the Bosniak cultural identity whereas the language he uses points out the Slavic and Yugoslavian elements. With the intent to construct a gusla with a pegbox having the portrait of Atatürk, he tries to show that he is a loyal citizen of Turkey. Furthermore, he tries to reveal the deep rooted Turkish element of the Bosniak cultural identity by dating the origins of the gusla to the Central Asian Mongolians due to the horse tail 2

Jusuf Mehonic is supposed to be a member of gang as well an officer assigned in the Balkan wars and to live between 1870 and 1926.

3 The name used for the Serbian nationalist extremists

162 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

A guslar in Istanbul to keep the traditions alive strings of the instrument. In his expressions embedded in the stories, he attributes also some qualifications to the Serbians, the Ottomans, the Yugoslavian and the Muslims, while giving some questionable historical information.

Except the language, the rest of elements of the cultural identity, i.e. Ottoman, Muslim, Turkish citizenship and Turkish, are those that are no more distinctive elements for Bosniaks after settling in Turkey where most of the “others” own the same elements. So, the repertoire of the gusla does not work anymore for the second and further generations, the related tradition is getting weaker and reduced to the gusla itself, existing not with the traditional musical function but as an nostalgic and symbolic object, which can be found hung on the wall of the Bosniaks’ houses, in the family photographs (see fig.1) and in the local Bosniak associations that exhibit them in a simple museological approach (see fig. 2). Moreover, there is no revival required yet in Istanbul since there is no need to reveal the Ottoman, Muslim or Turkish elements of the Bosniak identity for the time being.

Figure 1

Figure 2

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 163

Belma Kurtisoglu Güler, H. Male, born in Montenegro 1942. Interviewed in Istanbul-Bayrampaşa. September 2006 Kemal, O. 2007, Cemile, İstanbul: Epsilon Lord Albert B., Across Montenegro Searching for Gusle Songs (typewritten manuscript, March 1937. The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University) Maalouf, A. 2002. Ölümcül Kimlikler, Çn: Aysel Bora, İstanbul: YKY Stokes, M. 1997. Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity and Music. M. Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity and Music. New York: Berg Publishing

164 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

MLADEN MARKOVIC, Belgrade

ETHNOORGANOLOGY - FRIEND OR FOE? This paper has no intention to be the paper of all papers, the final solution for ethnoorganology or anything that big. This is just a small effort, made upon our researches of Serbian traditional music played on violin. And the particular example chosen for the paper (and chosen randomly of all examples we had) was recorded in North-Western Serbia, near Sabac. Coming from such small area, probably the conclusions of this paper will not be spectacular, or even significant or worthy for general discussion on a broad field of instrumental traditional music. However, we'll try.

With this paper, we'll try to entertain you. As for any entertainment, you are welcome to applaud, to smile, even laugh loudly, just relax and express your feelings. We shall not dance, or sing or play or whatever. Instead, we shall just compile some works, ethnomusicological works as a matter of fact, maybe changing a little bit the subject of those papers, and maybe, just maybe, we'll try to add something new or different at the very end of this presentation... But the space is getting shorter, so let's step up on the accelerator.

Fiction 1 - The Friendly One (really) First we should take a look at the chosen example, Charlama kolo (see the transcription in Appendix). This example was played by three players, one on violin, one on tambura ("kontra") and one on bass. We will focus on violin.

But, first we should take a look at the very instrument.

The violin is a chordophone instrument, with long neck and violin-like

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Mladen Markovic body (as you can see on the picture 1 in already mentioned Appendix). Also, one can spot four strings, stretching from tailpiece across the fingerboard to the tuning pegs.

The thickness of the strings vary from 0.23 mm (E) to 0.38 mm (G). Basic elements of the instrument are (picture 2): the body, the tailpiece, the bridge, fingerboard, tuning pegs and scroll, as well as the chin rest positioned just by the tailpiece on the body of the instrument. If the player is right-handed (like ours), the chin rest is mounted by special mechanism on the left side of the body, and if the player is left handed (which is much more unusual), the chin rest is, of course, on the right side of the body, or the corpus, as sometimes the player call it. On the upper side of the body there are two f-shaped holes, but their function is yet to be found. The players of the instrument don't have the real explanation for this, except that they are made for (quote) instrument to sound better.

The instrument is, however, played with bow (which is also the term used by traditional players). As you can see on the plate, the bow is just a little bit longer than the instrument itself, measuring approximately 88.72 cm, while the violin is about 79.34 cm long, measuring from button to scroll. Material used for the instrument making is wood, possibly plum, for it is the most common tree at the area of our field research. The wood is hand crafted, cooked and then glued together. There are two main boards, upper and lower, gathered with six smaller parts, forming the shape of the violin body, or the resonator.

*** Fiction 2 - Pretty Much Unfriendly, But Short Let's take a look into one transcribed example, play called Charlama (look at the Appendix). Players are calling this play kolo, which generally stands for dance in the community researched. We must note that all three players belong to Roma minority, inhabiting only 68% of the village (chart 1 - Appendix). Also, we've been told that there are seven more violin players in the village, making our host just 12.5% of all available players.

The origin of violin in this area is connected to the middle XIX century, when Milan Milovuk, famous violin player, performed series of concerts in Sabac. The interest for this instrument grown during the time, so today it is quite common among local inhabitants, making about 33% of the total number of instruments played (chart 2).

But, what the instrument and this kolo means to the community? First of all, kolo is a type of dance where people hold together in a semi- or fully-closed formation, usually at the form of circle. The violin player, thus, should stand during the performance at the centre of the circle, being some kind of conductor (plate 1 in addendum). Probably, this is inherited from the old times, when the whole tribe was

166 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnoorganology ­ Friend or Foe? gathered around the chief or the priest, so from our point of view violin now has the same role as priest's wand or chief's spear had in the distant past. The music played on this instrument, obviously, has the function of transmitting the divine word across the community depicted in the form of kolo. *** Fiction 3 - Even Shorter (Don't worry, we'll not direct you to the same transcription again, but, anyway, try to remember it!). Charlama is played by three-part band, consisting of one leading instrument (violin, playing the melody) and two accompaniment instruments.

Those instruments (tambura and bass) are playing the harmonic and rhythmic component of the piece, in the form usually known as dvojka among the players (bass plays mostly root tones of the chords, while tambura plays full chords in specific "es-tam" rhythm). Musicians for this example were gathered together especially for the recording session, but their performing level is obviously quite high. They can play together without a rehearsal, so any musical idea could be accomplished, even an improvisation to some extent. Speaking of musical form, the example of Charlama is divided in 53 smaller parts, usually 2 bars long (the player calls them stikovi), and the last one is actually codetta. Every single stik is similar to music sentence, in the sense of formal organization, because they are ending with some kind of cadenza. It is rather easy to determine cadenzas in the play for we have harmonic element usually absent from traditional music in Serbia, thanks to group performance, or the presence of the band. Those 53 parts are actually constructed of seven different melodic lines (with included variations), and can be further grouped in three major parts, similar to a form known as three-part song (ABA - look at the chart 3). However, it's true that the reprise part is not the same in its quantity as the first group named A, but nevertheless the scheme is quite familiar. One look at the tonal material reveals that there are no untempered tones. The reason for this is maybe somewhat new tradition, probably of urban origin, but also the need for group performance. In such environment the mutual tuning of the instruments is crucial, so the well tempered playing is quite common under such circumstances. Those formal aspects are most probably the evidence of transformation of old court music to musical folklore. Elements analyzed clearly indicate such connections. Also, we know that formal aspect of instrumental traditional music is just conformed to dance accompanied, thus being independent from player's will. ***

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 167

Mladen Markovic Instead of Fiction 4 - Something From Us Which fiction suits you the best?

Whichever you choose, it doesn't fit. The first one has no conclusion at all, being simply too mechanical and too - whatever you can imagine. The second has wrongly interpreted connections, while the third has two conclusions that are too groundless that barely needs a comment. And these are only three fictions, while we could make three on the third degree more fictions with different basic approaches.

And that's quite OK. But, the real question is - where's the truth? How can one really tell something about the instrument and the music played on it, and not to be the object of a serious critic, even mockery?

The answer is not too easy. When you speak to colleagues or students, the recipe for the research looks quite simple. You will go to field, make recordings, make transcriptions, analyze them, use appropriate literature and phonoarchives, combine it with your analysis, and finally make conclusions. Sounds quite simple. But - in practice, there are always questions. And new questions. And more new questions. And you are trying to choose just a small amount of them, according to a certain set of rules, more or less common to your research. What to do? And, not of less importance, how to do?

Nettl in his famous Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology wrote that etnomusicologists work on material practically left aside by the musicologists. At the first moment, it sounds pretty drastic, even insulting. But, on the other hand, it is stimulating, and very releasing in the sense of getting new possibilities for your own research. You could use the same methods used by musicologists, yet you aren't forced to do so. You can make your own methods as well. Of course, those methods sometimes can lead to researches like depicted in our short fictions, but with careful handling, sometimes they can bring something new and worthwhile.

At this moment, we will present just a little case connected with research of violin in Serbia. Often, one can begin the study of an instrument with some historic aspects. Development and origin. In the case of violin this is really unquestionable, we all know where the instrument come from, and the way it was developed and constructed. Maybe we can discuss just the part of its origin in Serbia, but, generally, historic aspects are not too interesting. Or we can make them as such?

Generally, when talking about historical aspects of musical instruments used in traditional music, usually the simple fact is omitted - why we are presenting historical information? Is it just because we were told to do so, or is it just so common that we are obliged to do it, like everybody else? The latter seems a little bit harsh, but rather true. However, the authentic reason should be the outcomes of the effective tradition played on the instrument. If it sounds too complicated, we could simplify it on basis of one simple example. For instance, are many formal aspects of today's violin practice in Serbia caused by technical development of this instrument?

The players alone are not interested in that, even they find these reasons

168 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnoorganology ­ Friend or Foe? pointless. Also, there is a common opinion that any play can be flawlessly transferred from instrument to instrument (you may have the same kolo played on various instruments). Maybe sounds a little bit confusing, but the reason is simple. The players just use violin, or any other instrument for that matter, as a sound tool, device for making music. Just like we use bulbs for getting light in our homes - you even don't notice them until they're spoiled, and even then you'll just replace them, without any idea of their inventor or the process of invention. They are just some utilitarian devices made to make your life easier.

The same is with violin. For players, it's just a tool. But, for us it is very important how it led to the very moment of performance, to that very performance, why it has such stylistic elements, registers, tone quality, ornaments etc. If the player of our charlama had gusle or ocarina, the play for sure wouldn't be the same. Technical possibilities of those instruments are entirely different, so the resulting musical piece would be different as well. Thus, the cause - the technical development of one instrument produced the consequence - actual music.

This cause-consequence system could be rather easily transferred to many aspects of our musical example. The bow itself gives you the opportunity to make dynamic and basic tonal quality. Our player selected only small part of these possibilities, for his play is pretty much flat, with occasional screechy tones during the change of the direction of the bow. This consequence has its cause - rather weak technique of the right hand. The instrument is held not between the chin and the shoulder, but with left hand. This fact (a cause) produced rather limited tonal material of this play (consequence), and only two registers of at least three possible, because the left hand cannot change positions. Not too many ornaments or their simplicity (consequence) are the part of personal style of the player and also his technical skills (cause). And so on and on...

On the level of transcription, we just want to say a few words about various possibilities and utilizations of cause-consequence system. Usually, we make one transcription for one musical piece (like the one in Appendix). That transcription should contain every imaginable data concerning the piece, i. e. melody, ornaments, dynamic, tempo and tempo changes, etc. But, let's say that we are interested in this particular example only in screechy tones occurring from time to time. They are the consequence of direction changes of the bow, and are heard especially when changing the direction from downward to upward. In "normal" transcription this element could be noted, but among all the other elements also could easily been overlooked. Besides, if we are interested only in specific tonal change, why bother with absolute pitches or ornaments? Wouldn't it be easier if we just note scrapes of the bow in time (see the added transcription in ? So, the cause of specific tonal change can have a specific kind of transcription as a consequence. Stylistic essentials (ornaments, tonal quality etc.) can thus be expressed only thru necessary elements of dedicated transcription, making process of analysis much more direct and flourishing.

Maybe this cause-consequence system could be our friend in thinking about somewhat unfriendly field of ethnoorganology. Those six pages are already First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 169

Mladen Markovic gone... If we entertained you just a little bit, it's ok. If we made you think just for a moment of some "ordinary" moments in research, even better. Of course, we could talk a lot more on this topic, we could present some more views on transcription, formal analysis, and not only "some". But, we'll left it for some other occasion. That's all, folks! For now...

APPENDIX

Picture 1 (The violin)

Picture 2 (Violin parts)

170 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Ethnoorganology ­ Friend or Foe? Chart 1 (Inhabitants of the village)

Chart 2 (Distribution of instruments played in the village)

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 171

Mladen Markovic Plate 1 (The forms of kolo-dance)

Chart 3 (The form of the Charlama play)

172 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

DANIELA IVANOVA­NYBERG, Bulgaria

“HORO SE VIE IZVIVA” (Observation on “Horo Se Vie Izviva” Festival-Competition and on the activities of the newly-born clubs for traditional dances in Bulgaria)

The subject of my presentation is “Horo Se Vie Izviva” [The Dance Line Is Curving] Festival for recreational folk dancing held in 2007 and 2008 in Sofia. Here I will follow the very first curves and turns of that festival and also will outline some reasons for the “boom” in recreational folk dance activities in Bulgaria in the past two years, raising some hypotheses, and drawing some conclusions as well.

For the period before 2000 one could say that there were no recreational folk dance activities in the Bulgarian urban environment at all; only very few unaffiliated attempts had been made in that direction. In my interviews with choreographers conducted in 2000-2002 they shared the opinion that there is a need for recreational folk dancing for everyone and this is something different than rehearsing for stage presentations where only young people are involved.

In the 1990s the economic situation was still unstable after the fall of communist’s government in 1989, and most people were neither in mood to dance nor able to pay monthly dues for their leisure activities. By contrast, in the past few years one may observe not only remarkably heightened participation in folk dance groups (recently called more often “clubs”) but also well developed club activities from one side of the country to the other. In the first “Хоро се вие извива” festival held in the spring of 2007 in Sofia, there were about 20 folk dance clubs competing. One year later – in March 2008 - there were 37 clubs with nearly one thousand participants, club members of different ages. They presented four traditional dances (following the obligatory program) plus two dances chosen by their leader. (1) The jury members (three

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Daniela Ivanova choreographers and one musician) were invited to decide which groups were to receive first, second and third prize and small grants. This remarkably raised interest in recreational dancing and in Bulgarian music and dances in general was the impetus for conducting my recent research. My surveys indicated that I should gather some personal information from the participants such as dates of birth, education, profession and marital status. My surveys raised other questions as well. Among them were: What was your motivation to attend Bulgarian dance classes?

Why did you choose this particular club?

Do you prefer to present on the stage the dances learned during classes or do you prefer to dance for enjoyment and recreation only?

Is there an increased interest in Bulgarian music and dance and if “yes”, what is the reason?

How would you qualify your mood after you finish the class?

What is more important for you – the social part, i.e., the contacts with other members of the group/club, or the need for dancing and/or “psychological “discharge”?

Summarizing the data gathered from 189 questionnaires, I would like to quote some of the answers concerning recent interest in Bulgarian traditional music and dance. To most of the people enquired there is no doubt that there is an increased interest in Bulgarian music and dance. (There is interest and the interest is pretty big; this interest is not only among the middle-aged people but also among the younger generations.)

A few main assumptions were made about causation for such interest a: Finally, folks became aware that we are Bulgarian and it is a shame that only chalga that is listened to.

There is an increased patriotism and more sensitivity to Bulgarian identity.

Yes, there is an increased interest because the Bulgarian dances are unique.

Yes, definitely, because dance is never-failing source for emotional stimulation.

Yes, there is an interest because our national consciousness was changed.

Yes, we get tired of chalga.

Yes, there is an interest because Bulgarian music and dance reflect our spirit and we have to retrieve these Bulgarian values.

Yes, there is new interest because of fitness and because of the music.

Hmm, good question…”Healthy spirit – in a healthy body” I would say.

174 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

“Horo Se Vie, Izviva” There is re-birth and it is evident. According to me this is stemming from the re-birth of our interest and love to the rhythms of Bulgarian dance. We all have this love inside which was sleeping until now. Second, there are many taverns and restaurants where they play Bulgarian music and you could enjoy both music and dancing.

And also nowadays it is affordable to pay the monthly dues for your leisure activities.

Some of us during university study barely succeeded in payment for their books...

THE CLUB – general outlining The chosen club was defined by the participants as “the best club”. It has “the best leader”, who, is as well, “the best choreographer”; his/her classes provoked great satisfaction both emotionally and spiritually. The classes are classified as related to both psychological fulfillment and pleasant physical exertion.

THE LEADER Almost without exceptions all the leaders have choreography education taken from the National School for Dance Art in Sofia or from the high institutes with choreography programs (Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts – Plovdiv, "Neofit Rilski" South-West University – Blagoevgrad), or from the newer private universities established after 1990 in Varna (“Chernorizets Hrabar”Varna Free University) and Sofia (New Bulgarian University).

PERSONAL REASONS FOR PARTICIPATATION A variety of personal reasons were exhibited. Part of the people enquired answered that they participate for self-satisfaction and pleasure only. Others added that they have no objections to dance for the audience, quite opposite; they enjoy performance before an audience. There are also people who simply marked: The club is close, the instructor is good, the atmosphere is nice and friendly.

After the class ended people are in high tonus; great spirit, so exited; fun; “I feel as if I am about to fly”. For most of the participants this great enthusiasm comes from the need for dance – this is “physical effort which allows (provokes) psychological “discharge”. The satisfaction comes also from the established friendly relationships among the people dancing together, joining hands. People share the opinion that there is a strong connection between all the aspects of this activity. Many classify the dance club as a “second home” or a “second family.”

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 175

Daniela Ivanova NAMING THE DANCE PRACTICE IN CLUB Some of the dance classes observed before to the festival were highly influenced by the style and manner of the folk dance ensemble’s rehearsals where the very first part is taken by the Bulgarian character exercise.(See Yanakiev 2000) Often these classes are named “repetitsia” [“rehearsal”] ( as well as “trenirovka” [“training”] both from the leader and the club-members. (2) 2008 ”HORO SE VIE IZVIVA” FESTIVAL RANGE AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF THE SMALLEST, MIDSIZED AND LARGER CLUBS The smallest groups taking part in the festival had only 8 or 9 participants (3). There were several groups with 13 to 20 participants (4). Next category has 25-40 dancers (5), and the larger had 50-60 dancers.(6) The most crowded club among the participants was “Folklorika” Folk Dance Club with 87 people.(7) The majority of participants were women. For example one of the groups had 19 women and a solitary man. (8); others had no male-dancers. (9) THE DANCERS. Educational background Dominant here was remarkable number of people with higher education.

For example: “Beli Brezi” Folk dance Club (Sofia): 40 people participated, 29 filled out the questionnaires, 4 of them – men. Among them - 26 with bachelor or masters degree, one college graduate, one educated at a specialized high school; “Detelina” Folk Dance Club (Plovdiv): 42 people participated, 38 filled out the enquiries, one man only. Among them - 23 with bachelor or masters degree, two college graduates, two students, two – no indication; “Lyubiteli Na Folklora” (Haskovo): 13 women participants. Among them - 9 with bachelor or masters degree, one educated at a specialized high school, three with high school education.

176 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

“Horo Se Vie, Izviva” THE REPERTOIRE The variety of the dances in the festival’s program was small when bearing in mind the extant material. The predominant dances were Daychovo, Paydushko, Chetvorno, Maleshevsko, Selsko Shopsko. Most of the people had very limited experience in folk dancing, so the leader usually started his/her first lessons with easy popular dances. At the same time the clubs which were founded three or four years ago had in their repertoire some complex dances. There are club members who are former dancers of folk dance ensembles who returned to dancing after years of non-participation; they not only love to dance but truly enjoy challenges in complex steps and figures.

DANCE COMPOSITIONS. One example from the festival program Many groups’ appearances demonstrate compositions borrowed from the choreography principles for stage performance. Folklorika” Folk Dance Club performed with 87 participants and their performance is a good example. The presented program was composed in the manner wherein dancers appeared on the “stage” (gymnasium floor designed as a stage), line by line, in particular sequence and in particular way. Dancers made a variety of figures. All they were well instructed how to move from one figure to another, how to build a straight line for the final bow, and also how to leave the “stage”.

THE MUSICAL ACOMPANIMENT Many clubs used same recordings and some dances (Maleshevsko and few more) were performed several times with identical musical arrangement. The reason for this is more or less the lack of efforts to find alternative arrangements. Very few were the groups having live music for their performances. There were also examples where the music did not correspond to the dance, as it was announced and presented.

THE DRESSES In the festival regulations there weren’t any requirements for uniform dresses but all the participants of the festival were dressed in particular uniforms chosen by the leader. Uniform clothing makes clear the differentiation and at the same makes clear membership in particular club (“colectiv”). A common outfit observed during the festival was: T-shirt in a bright color (some designed in a stylized folk manner) having the club’s logo and black spandex pants for men as well as for women.

There were also dancers wearing highly stylized stage costumes or folk ensemble’s rehearsal dresses. (Some of the women were wearing a stage necklace /“pendary”/ First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 177

Daniela Ivanova dressed in short black skirt, and black tights with artificial flowers in their hair.)

THE CLUB FORM IN BULGARIA. Looking at the data from a distance If the folk dance ensemble may be considered as a hybrid, crystallized in the symbiosis between folklore and classical dance, then the folk dance club may be considered as a special type of hybrid too. (10) Here the combination is between dance group for recreational dancing, as it exists as a pattern in other parts of Europe and the U.S.A., and the folk dance ensemble model established during the socialist period.

The dance club is a place where, presumably, anyone who would like to dance is welcome and dance has a recreational purpose. At the same time the people in Bulgaria who are leading the clubs are professional choreographers, not amateurs, and this festival clearly shows more or less the influence of their professional background and experience. The uniform (“ensemble” like) clothing is the first thing that attracts audience attention (the dress “speaks” before anything else). Both choreographers and participants actually have already an established understanding (apprehension) what folk dance performances are supposed to possess; many years (several decades) in choreography education are behind this process of “growing” and educating the audience. If we would say that the Bulgarian dance club is a child of tradition, this tradition could be taken in two ways: First - as related to the folk heritage; Second - as a model more or less based on the Bulgarian choreography school.

The participants in folk dance groups/clubs may be qualified as people from two main categories bearing in mind their ages and preliminary dance experiences: People whose age doesn’t allow participation in folk dance ensembles young people whose ages qualify them to be candidates for any folk dance performing group but who have no preliminary “folk” dance experience (the common background of all the performers in folk dance ensembles). The folk dance ensemble is not for people who would like to dance and perform only, but is for dancers who are well trained and the training process lasts years. It is relatively unusual for a newcomer to achieve the level of the others.

In comparison to the folk ensemble the folk club is more open and the stage performance (if there is any) is demanded from only those who desire to perform.

The only requirement is comfortable shoes. Some of the participants in the mentioned festival have as a dance experience only a few months or weeks. The dance line may include three, thirteen, or thirty participants, so there is no “danger” that the composi-

178 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

“Horo Se Vie, Izviva” tion would be destroyed if someone decided to leave the dance line in the middle of the dance. The music is traditional where many different arrangements may be chosen.

Here there are no unexpected transitions in meters as there are in the ensemble’s suites.

Dances performed with such accompaniments are considered as much better than artless fitness and aerobic exercises. The club provides opportunity for dancing traditional dances where folk dancing is associated (consciously or unconsciously) with village festivals, celebrations, leisure time and pleasant childlike feelings.

The group (club) of nowadays is a newborn urban phenomenon. At the same time there were folk dance groups performing on the stage very successfully in the very first decades of the 20th century. (See Dzhudzhev 1945, Tzoneva-Kusitaseva & Ivan Tsonev 2000). The appearance of clubs today seems to be in a sequence from fully drawn circle in the development of amateur folk dance activity -- from the very first groups performing traditional dances a century ago, through the high achievements of Bulgarian choreography (when choreographies made by Margarita Dikova, Kuril Dzhenev and few others are considered as Bulgarian classics) up to the present day’s return to basic folk dance forms that reflect the choreographic background of the leader. My research here raises the hypothesis that the contemporary Bulgarian dance club has become to some extent a derivative form of the folk dance ensembles.

Here the ensemble may be considered as a center which radiates its lower level dance peripheral forms (the folk dance club). The “democratic character” of the lower level forms actually presupposes their popularity and also bring new life to folk dancing.

What unifies the “center” and the “periphery” today is the shared love toward the Bulgarian folklore, the desire for an emotional stimulation provoked by the music and dance shared among people who have similar feelings and preferences.

The early groups that performed on the stage with great enthusiasm discovered that the stage “box” is something obviously different than the village square’s “openness”. But while the leaders of the first groups were enthusiastic dancers who were still memorizing many village dances, the leaders of the groups nowadays are professional choreographers that grew up in the rehearsal hall. They have passed through different training schools but all these schools are branches of same wellestablished Bulgarian choreography school. All the knowledge received is gathered in the rehearsal hall. If they have learned any traditional dances their number is usually small. Many of the choreographers have never been in the field even though some universities encourage and require students to gather stage material through field research. The university gives opportunities to master many skills – method of teaching, dance composition, creation of stage programs, etc. This educational background of the choreographers–leaders of the clubs that participated in the festival, was actually something which was easily recognized. In many appearances the difference between the folk dance ensemble’s performance and the folk dance club’s program was as thin as cigarette paper.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 179

Daniela Ivanova In conclusion BULGARIAN FOLK DANCE CLUB – BULGARIAN “REVIVAL”?

The Bulgarian folk dance club is a phenomenon which brings Bulgaria somehow and in some aspect nearer to countries such as Norway for instance, where folk dance has been resuscitated and brought back to life. “In our philosophy – wrote prof. Egil Bakka from Trondheim University, the revival of folk dance is of greater scholarly and humanistic value to contemporary culture than postmodern critics of tradition would allow.” (Bakka 1999: 80). According to the philosophy of the author here to dance traditional dances absolutely possesses positive humanistic value. As regarding the scientific contribution the situation in Bulgaria is different than the situation in Norway. In Norway all these activities are initiated by the ethnochoreologists and their university departments. There the main focus and accent are placed on research, recording, classification, and revival, bringing back to life the recorded but almost-forgotten dance patterns. In Bulgaria the main initiators are specialists in choreography. This fact by itself that the initiators are the choreographers who need jobs and realization already made the assumption that the direction will be mainly practical – teaching what was taught to them and much less – what was discovered in archives or as a result of fieldwork. I am not saying that it is something that couldn’t be achieved – quite opposite, but I am saying that this wasn’t observed during the festivals held in 2007 and 2008.

From a technical aspect - in the present days there is possibility and potential for such clubs to be established in every place that has dance floor. This opportunity and the relatively stable economy (in comparison to the 1990s) facilitate this growth process (11). It is both interesting and paradoxical that the folk dance ensembles picked the club route to survive during the upheavals of the 1990s, requiring monthly dues to be paid by the dancers. Years later - in the beginning of 21st century, one may recognize that some clubs behave as dance ensembles - starving to perform and to compete.

Turning now into a democratic society has offered more personal choices and initiatives but has also forced one to be more creative and entrepreneurial in finding one’s own way toward professional realization. To many Bulgarians, participation in such clubs is a “mass sport”, “fitness”, something “fashionable”. But at the same time many mentioned the word “roots” while answering the question about their motivation to participate. To me this implies the need to satisfy the eternal and deeply human need for beauty in one’s life, beauty that has been embedded from the very origin of traditional music and dance, patiently waiting for rediscovery by new generations.

180 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

“Horo Se Vie, Izviva” NOTES The data was provided by Eva Delinesheva – the main organizer.

The apprehension of that activities both as repetitisia [rehearsal] and trenirovka [training in sport] - one related to the art and second to the sport mirror the fact that the hall which provide the floor for that dance festival is “Triaditsa” Sport Hall in Sofia. „Slaveya”, „Mesemvria” Folk Dance Club.

“Zhiva Voda” Dance Club (Elin Pelin), “Nyuans” Dance Group (Sofia), “Vyara, Nadezhda. Lyubov” at United Kinder Garden (Gorna Malina), etc..

“Folk-Palitra” Dance Club (Sofia) for example, as well as “Detelina” Folk Dance Club (Plovdiv), “Gaytani” Dance Club (Sofia) etc.

“Igraorets” Folk Dance Club (Sofia) for instance, “Chanove” Folk Dance Club (Sofia) to mention a few.

The website of that club is: www.folklorika.com “Svetlina” Dance Group at “Svetlina” Cultural Center [Narodno Chitalishte], (Sofia) “Body Folk” Dance Club (Sofia).

The topic about the “hybrid” and hybrid forms were highly discussed during The Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “Music and Minorities in Varna, Bulgaria 2006.

Visit www.horo.bg

REFERENCES Bakka, Egil 1999 “’Or Shortly They Would Be Lost Forever’: Documenting for Revival and Research.” In Theresa Buckland (editor), Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods, and Issues in Dance Ethnography: 71-81. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Dzhudzhev, Stoyan 1945 Bulgarska Narodna Choreographia [Bulgarian Folk Choreography]. Sofia.

Statelova Rozmary, Angela Rodel, Lozanka Peycheva, Ivanka Vlaeva & Ventsislav Dimov (eds.) 2008 The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “Music and Minorities in Varna, Bulgaria 2006. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Bulgarian Musicology. Studies.

Tsoneva-Kusitaseva, Lilyana & Ivan Tsonev 2000 Bashtata na BulFirst Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 181

Daniela Ivanova garskoto Horo [The Father of Bulgarian Line Dance]. Sofia: Knizhen Tigar.

Yanakiev Yordan 2000 Bulgarski Tantsov Exercise [Bulgarian Dance Exercise]. Blagoevgrad

182 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

ALEXANDRA BALANDINA, Greece

THE YOUTH OPEN FESTIVAL IN KUMANOVO, MACEDONIA: A PROPOSAL FOR INTER-ETHNIC PEACE COLLABORATION

Introduction In this paper I explore how a specific music project that I coordinated as part of the Youth Open Music Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia may strengthen collaboration and create friendly relationship among the various ethnic groups in Macedonia. It is a project in the area of applied ethnomusicology, defined by ICTM Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology as the approach to ethnomusicology which is guided by principles of social responsibility, which extends the usual academic goal of broadening and deepening knowledge and understanding toward solving concrete problems and toward working both inside and beyond typical academic contexts.

The Kumanovo Youth Open festival was organized by the Kumanovo non-governmental organization Centre for Intercultural dialogue. The project was financially supported by the ‘Youth in Action’ programme of the European Union. The Centre for Intercultural dialogue (CID) is a non-governmental, non-profit youth organization that works on regional level in Macedonia and it was formed in May 2006

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Alexandra Balandina by active youth leaders from Kumanovo. The promotion of intercultural dialogue on local and international level, the support of active youth participation and voluntarism are main areas of CID’s activities. CID’s activities are created ‘by youth for youth’ and CID founders believe that ‘no one knows the local reality of the youth better than the youth themselves’ (www.cid-mk.org).

Kumanovo city, background information For almost ten years after the collapse of Yugoslavia, Macedonia was characterized as the ‘oasis of peace’ as it managed to escape civil war. However, tensions among ethnic communities did exist and political stability in the country was fragile after the break up of Yugoslavia. Peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups came to an end in 2001 with the armed conflict in Macedonia among the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) and Macedonian State Army. Various reasons are cited to explain this conflict, such as resurgence of ethnic nationalism and the demands for more rights on behalf of the Albanian ethnic minority, including cultural freedom, human rights, political and territorial autonomy. After six months of military crisis and negotiations the conflict was officially terminated with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (13.08.2001) by Macedonian and Albanian politicians and representatives of the international community.

Kumanovo, the third largest city in Macedonia located 40 kilometers northeast of Skopje, affected by the barrages near the village of Aracinovo - famous village because of the armed clashes in 2001 and highly symbolic strategic site occupied by the NLA - was confronted with the general climate of interethnic tension and violence. According to Hadži-Vasileva, ‘the ethnically mixed town of Kumanovo could easily have slipped into war’ (2004:207). However, as analysts report during the crisis in Macedonia, Kumanovo did not slip into bloodshed because of the efforts of local government and municipal authorities in relaxing the tension that arose between the various ethnic groups (Hadži-Vasileva 2004:215).

However, these conflicts went beyond military confrontation, extended the political realm and affected negatively the local population and the youth in particular, who experience minor inter-ethnic collaboration. The lack of interaction among the youth is related also to the ‘slicing’ of the city in ethnically, practically distinct, geographical areas: there is the Roma neighborhood ‘Sredoreka’ on the fringes of the city, the Albanian neighborhood and the Macedonian area. Geographical segregation is apparent in the youth daily experience: they live in different neighborhoods, attend different schools, and entertain in different bars and different zones of the city.

CID aims to enhance inter-ethnic interaction among the various youth groups. They assert that organizing a Youth Open Festival (YOF) in Kumanovo is the best way to foster interethnic cooperation and to promote and strengthen piece in the region.

184 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ...

The structure of the YOF project is a ten day workcamp1 that serves as a preparation for the three day festival. Participants in the workcamp and festival are local youth volunteers who are the main target group of the project, the SCI volunteers, SCI-trained ‘peace messengers’ and organizers who provide peace education activities.

The first four days of the workcamp are divided in two sessions. The morning sessions focus on group bonding by implementing various warm-up exercises, team building games and group discussions.

Figure 1: Team building games In the afternoon sessions international volunteers and local participants are divided into various task groups that focus on making the three days festival. These task groups prepare some of the events for the festival. For example the promotion group is responsible for the promotion of the festival (promotion includes making posters/leaflets, press release, peace promotion on local TV); the movie group coordinated by a film maker created a documentary film about youth in Kumanovo, the graffiti group projected peace symbols by using the art of graffiti.

1

A workcamp is a place where predominantly young people from all around the world (SCI volunteers in this case) live and work together for two to four weeks on a project organized by a local partner (CID in this case).

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 185

Alexandra Balandina

Figure 2: A slogan on the festival flyer states ‘For those who don’t know how to hang out, it is never too late to learn how’ The three day festival includes performances from various amateur music groups from Macedonia, Kosovo, and Serbia; party in local club with professional music groups from Macedonia (such as Foltin), joggling and animation group, a moving photo exhibition, intercultural corner (an evening where volunteers present to the public the cuisine of their respective country), projection of a film made by the volunteers, and a short music performance coordinated by myself, which is discussed in the next section.

The project involves a ten days workcamp2 and the three days youth festival. The first four days of the workcamp are divided into two sessions. The morning sessions focus on providing skills for conflict management, voluntarism, peace and human rights, it also focuses on group bonding by implementing various warm-up exercises, team building games and group discussion. The participants of the 2

A workcamp is a place where predominantly young people from all around the world live and work together for two to four weeks on a project organized by a local partner.

186 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ... music group had the opportunity to participate in peace workshops comprised of international volunteers in the mornings and perform various types of group bonding games. This contributed to an overall enthusiastic atmosphere of international and interethnic collaboration, promotion of peace ideals and general creativity.

Figure 3: Promoting peace ideals In the afternoon sessions volunteers and local participants are divided into various groups that focus on making the three days festival. These groups that prepare some of the events for the festival include the music group that I coordinated, the promotion group (responsible for the promotion of the festival; promotion includes making posters/leaflets, press release; peace promotion on local TV), the movie group (this group made a short film about the youth in Kumanovo) and the graffiti group (the topic of graffiti making is peace).

The three days festival offers performances from various amateur music groups from Macedonia, Kosovo, and Serbia; party in local club with professional music groups from Macedonia (such as Foltin), joggling and animation group, intercultural corner, the projection of the film made by the volunteers, the multiethnic and multi-lingual music group coordinated by myself.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 187

Alexandra Balandina The Volunteers Based Music Ensemble In 2008 intercultural collaboration among the various ethnic groups in Macedonia was not a novelty. Nevertheless, when the question of inter-ethnic collaboration appeared for the first time in post-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia it was instantly compared to the socialist mechanism of brotherhood and unity. In 1995 when theatre director Stefanovski initiated one of the first multi-ethnic project in Macedonia for the needs of the theatrical play Euripides’ Bacchae he searched for actors of Macedonian, Turkish and Albanian ethnic origin to collaborate. The result turned out to be ‘an explosive proposition’ (2006:70). Stefanovski mentions that the people he turned to would think: Collaborate! We’ve never collaborated before. We are suspicious of each other, we protect our interests, we are almost enemies. What do you mean, collaborate? We are trying hard to rid of those socialist-realist ideas and you want to sell them back to us? Are you trying to sell rope to the family of a hanged man?’ (ibid.)

In the YOF project, twelve volunteers of different race, religion and socio-economic level participated in the music projects coordinated by myself: one SCI volunteer from Serbia and youth comprised of Macedonian, Albanian, Roma and Serbian teenagers (age 17-22) all from Kumanovo. Only two of the participants study music (one at graduate level and one in private music school), four participants have active musical life as performers, the rest perform randomly or just love music making.

All participants were keen to sing, except the guitar player and the drummer.

Musically speaking, the youth are familiar with their own traditional repertoire but less with the repertoire of the other ethnic groups. In this short project the participants had the opportunity to enrich their cultural lives and experience musical traditions from other than own music heritages. The repertoire, decided by the participants themselves, consists of both traditional and contemporary music that represents not only Macedonian, Albanian and Roma musical traditions but also the influence of popular music culture on the Kumanovo youth, included the following songs: 1. Zajdi Zajdi. Macedonian Traditional Song. Solo and group performance.

2. Rrokka Mandolinën. Albanian Traditional Song. Group performance.

3. Solo Drums 4. Cobra, Roma Dance. Group dance.

5. Hip-hop dance. Performed by a duet.

6. Recitation of Serbian poetry. Solo recitation.

188 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ...

7. Jovano, Jovanke. Macedonian Traditional Song. Group Performance.

8. Rolling on the River. Rock song by Tina Tarner. Performed by four volunteers 9. Ajde Site. Rap song. Performed by two soloists including group choire.

The teaching and learning strategy focus on active participation.

Participants are engaged in selecting the music material and in performing and improvising music. The main teaching/learning style is peer learning –that reflects the non-formal education aspect - through rote imitation that often leads to the exploration of improvisatory techniques. For instance, a young Roma boy, Sudakhan, teaches his Albanian rap colleague, Jingo, a well known Roma dance Cobra.

Music announcement were done in four languages: Kumanovksi (Macedonian with Kumanovo dialect), Albanian, Roma and Serbian in order to represent all the ethnic groups that participate in the concert and to promote respect for cultural diversity.

The highlight of the repertoire was the final rap song Ajde Site, composed entirely by the young participants. The solo sections is composed and sung in Albanian and Roma, by two rappers, and the refrain is composed and sung in Macedonian and Serbian by the rest of the group. The lyrics and the melody of the refrain are composed entirely by the participants themselves. The refrain of the song emphasizes the concept of the project for harmonic inter-ethnic cooperation. It also demonstrates the interaction between the performers and the audience when the latter are invited to participate by singing the refrain: Ajde Site da peeme na glas. Ajde Site zapejte so nas.

Hajmo Svi sad da pevamo na glas. Hajde i Ti zapevaj uz nas.

Translation: C’mon All together lets sing in one voice. C’mon All sing with us.

C’mon All together lets sing in one voice. C’mon You too sing with us.

This song - music example video 3: Ajde Site rap song - is the final product of the creative interaction, composition and improvisation, of the whole group.

The communal creation of Ajde site, product the mutual enjoyment of music making, incited inter-ethnic interaction and cooperation during the process of music making and during the actual performance. Ajde Site song exhibits the power music – as social action - exerts over people, its power to inspire and to unite. Barber-Kersovan (2004) argues that the power of music lies in the process of music-making - which is a social occasion - which implies complex relationships within a music group, between the First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 189

Alexandra Balandina musicians and their audiences. In effect, Ajde Site exhibits that music is a social reality that has integrative powers.

My role as facilitator: Co-operative Group Work and Peer Learning Co-operative group work and peer learning appeared to be two prominent methods to increase inter-ethnic social interaction, to empower youth to take responsibility for themselves and others (in age-appropriate ways), and to participate and construct a better social and political environment.

As facilitator I employed several interactive techniques to improve inter-ethnic communication and group bonding. This in turn assisted the practice of interethnic music creativity which is also a strong group bonding process. Peer learning, characterized by the ability individuals have to experience a variety of roles, such as being leaders, observers, tutors and learners, is also a successful informal strategy for group bonding as it promotes face to face interaction and dialogue. Rote imitation is another informal learning method that affects positively group cooperation and group bonding. Rote imitation is an extremely flexible teaching mode, and as Elliott suggests, through rote imitation student develop a sense of ownership that springs from creating their own version of the musical material through creativity and improvisation (Elliott, cited in Woodward 2008: 76).

Generally, music and other forms of art are often being used as tools by community or social workers, and therapists to increase group cohesion and reduce stress for instance and very often the music itself seems of secondary importance, but during my work with the youth from Kumanovo I realized that the process of music making is important and that participants develop musicianship through active experience.

My role in endorsing group bonding was some times more prominent than others. In the following example, my stance as facilitator was distinctive in defending equality and in forging group co-operation. We all decided that recitation of Serbian poem should be included in the concert program. K. and D. suggested bringing various Serbian poems in the evening at my house so that we decide which one would be most suitable. It was instantly apparent to me that if I was to allow this to happen, our ensemble could become a negative microcosm model of a society where decisions are not collective and where some ethnic groups have more rights than others. My reply was short but they all understood it immediately: This is a common project, we should work all together, we should decide all together. This project is not mine, its not yours, its not his/her, this project belong to all of us, to all of you.

Through this short message my intention was to show an example of how

190 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ... one can promote equality, unity and joint responsibility. Group reciprocity and comradeship came about gradually and it was particularly evident in one incident before the concert. During the last rehearsal, the group was disappointed from one of its members who was not ready to perform their part. After days of encouraging this participant to rehearse their part I gave up and remarked that this is their concert and they are free to do whatever they want. One of the volunteers protested and said that I could not leave them do whatever they wanted and appear in public like that. My response was that I could not force them to do something if they did not want to and that this is their concert and its time for them to take responsibilities. In just few minutes the whole ensemble took charge of the situation. Someone helped the person to learn the lyrics by heart, another suggested to cut down the length of the lyrics and slow down the tempo, a third person was working with them on the rhythm and another person stayed with them after the rehearsal had finished to practice further.

When the rehearsal finished and everyone had their chance to speak they said: 16 year old boy

I came here from Serbia and I will give my best self hoping the concert will be great, I hope that you, the locals, also care about the concert.

17 year old girl

This is a small project, but its ours. It will stay locally and it will be talked about and remembered locally.

We should give our best.

When the ensemble did well at the concert everyone embraced each other proudly, including the members that initially were not well rehearsed. Thus, while common projects may provoke among its members various levels of dissatisfaction, shared aims and targets and the final success of the projects unite the participants and add to their group identity.

During the last day of the project I employed the snowball fight exercise where volunteers had to reflect and share their experiences of the whole project up until the day of the concert. They had to write down their feelings on a piece of paper without writing their names, then the papers are crumpled into balls and thrown gently at each other on the count of one, two, three. Each volunteer read another’s paper aloud. The statements convey feelings of enjoyment, befriending and good inter-ethnic acceptance and communication. Here is some of the feedback written by the volunteers: Name of concert: No Borders [written originally in English] Interculture (sic) Project [written originally in English] I liked the rehearsals very much because all ethnic group were together and

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 191

Alexandra Balandina there was no difference among us…I would like something like this to happen more often.

I really like Javid’s playing and Gaga’s singing. Our song “Ajde Site” is the best [originally written in English].

I would like us to feel very good and show a great success for us and for all the people who are going to see us today. I would like to greet my friends. First my friend Cuki, then Alexandra from Greece, Bjondina, Kate, Maria, Ivana, Damjana, Dragana, Alexandra and all the people from different places who are here with us, I am greeting you each moment.

The best crew. Friendship. When we are smiling sun is shining ☺)))))) Fun [originally written in English].

Figure 4: Group Bonding among the members of the music group Cultural Interventions and International Presence Festivals in Macedonia constitute a field of political struggles reflecting contradictory purposes and goals that replicate the different ideological views within Macedonia. On the one side, festivals constitute battlegrounds where nationalistic Albanian or Macedonian ideologies are being promoted (Dimova 2008). This is the

192 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ... case with the annual ‘high art’ festivals in Struga and Ohrid sponsored by the state (ibid. 2008).3 On the other side, festivals are used to promote solidarity among the various ethnic groups in Macedonia. In the latter case and especially since 2001 many festivals attract funding from transnational structures such as the European Union and various European and American NGO’s. Whereas independent activities in the cultural sphere were by and large absent until the 1990s, nowadays local governmental organization (such as schools, cultural centres), local NGO’s and private organization are also involved either as organizers, co-organizers or sponsors of such various projects. Generally, as Helbig observes, ‘cultural programmes that aim to bridge connections between people outside and inside the European Union carry great political significance for post-socialist governments’ as they are keen to gain ‘favourable standing with the European Union in order to secure political membership’ (Helbig 2008:47).

Realizing the importance of harmony among the various ethnic groups in securing social and political stability, international bodies are keen to support projects in other parts of the cultural sphere. For instance, bi-lingual (Macedonian and Albanian) radio stations in Skopje broadcast because of demands of international sponsors, such as the Soros Foundation or European Union Funds (Muršič 2002:5).

Macedonians are also keen to receive help from international bodies not only for financial reasons, but also because the integration – a pre-requisite of which would be harmony among its various ethnic groups - within the structures of the European Union seems to be one of the most promising alternatives for peaceful future.

Europe is a symbol of progress, democratic values and modernity and modernization, even if Albanians and Macedonians have divergent visions of modernity and even if the constructed ideal of Europe cultivates tension especially among Albanians and Macedonians. Neofotistos (2002:296) for example argues that Macedonians associate Europe with openness, civilization and modernization and security that stems from participation in the European structures. Whereas for Albanians Europe is equated with the absence of a nationalist ideology which grants Albanians equal opportunities to develop and prosper (ibid. 298-299).

In practice, in the case of the YOF in Kumanovo international presence was important not only to bridge connections between youth inside and outside the European Union. CID members promoted the idea of multiculturalism in the context of the international presence of a dozen volunteers from all over Europe who provided the necessary atmosphere, as they believe, to enact multiculturalism. CID members assert that by emphasizing multiculturalism, ethnic difference in Kumanovo among the local youth may attain peaceable status. For example, international participation attracted young people from Kumanovo to participate in this project and assisted interethnic collaboration among the local youth by emphasizing the multicultural dimension of the 3

Here is relevant to mention that cultural life in Macedonia until the 1990s was by and large based on state institutions under the Ministry of Culture promoting nationalistic political agendas, the aftereffects of which can be noticed in the present day Ohrid and Struga festivals. See Simjanovska who discusses the rigidness of the cultural institutions in Macedonia who are by and large dependent on the Ministry of Culture (2006).

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 193

Alexandra Balandina project.4 The term multiculturalism is today widely dispersed in Macedonian media with its own advocates and opponents.5 However, multiculturalism мултикултура in Macedonian - is not a native Macedonian term. This relatively recent term has been cultivated in western countries and states which are organized on a different basis than Macedonia or any other Balkan country where different populations have been living together for centuries.6 In fact, as Agelopoulos maintains - providing the case of Salonica that may also be translated in the Macedonian experience - culturally different populations do not permit us to posit a multicultural domain (Agelopoulos 2000:141). According to Agelopoulos, embracing the dominant western version of multiculturalism ‘contains the danger of an institutionalization of cultures in the public spheres’ and a ‘freezing of cultural differences’ (Agelopoulos 2000:142).

In conclusion, politicians, policy makers and NGO active in Macedonia should embrace the unique history of the country by recognizing local forms of ‘political, social and cultural pluralities’ – to use Agelopoulos expression (2000:142) when applying the term multiculturalism in Macedonia.

Outcomes of the project The value of this interethnic music-making project for the young participants from Kumanovo is multi-faceted. The underlying premise of this project is that music provides powerful basis to develop social relationship and to encourage respect for the ethnically diverse musical practices. It is important to note that both the learning process and the performance are significant feature in this project. Teaching, learning and performing music of each others cultural heritage means that music becomes an important tool for social interaction. Music provides invaluable intercultural connection that promotes acceptance of and respect for diversity and cultural differences, and it reduces negative stereotypes (which by and large are sustained because of the lack of contact among these various ethnic groups). The project promotes the acceptance and equality of all participants. It also aims to convey tolerance, empathy, understanding and sensitivity.

The programme will hope to eventually expand by including a plurality of musical styles and instruments and include other performing arts, such as dance, 4

It is relevant to mention that only 70% of students from Western Balkans have never traveled abroad or seen a European capital because of the strict visa policies (Kaulemans 2006:37). Thus, it is an important experience for young locals to interact with youth coming from abroad.

5 For example, radical opponents of the idea of multiculturalism in Macedonia maintain that ‘there is only one culture, my culture’ (Kocevski 2006).

6 See also Agelopoulos for a similar argument about the term ‘multiculturalism’ in Salonica, Greece as a recent import. He argues that ‘defining Ottoman Salonica as a multicultural society implies projecting our own modern standards onto a society which was organised on a different basis’ (Agelopoulos 2000:143).

194 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Youth Open Festival in Kumanovo, Macedonia ... theatre, puppetry, joggling, graffiti, film-making. Future research should observe the long-term political and socio-economic implications of implementing music programmes. Future goals for our programme will be to investigate implications of the projects on the participants, their families and their communities once the celebration of such festival ceases. We would need to monitor and reinforce interethnic collaboration among the various ethnic groups outside the context of the strict timeframe of the project. Furthermore, the project will pursue its aim to develop personal and social skills that would lead to the young’s successful cooperation in the larger society by encouraging intercultural understanding and tolerance.

References Agelopoulos, Georgios. 2000. ‘Political Practices and Multiculturalism: The Case of Salonica’. In Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference, edited by Jane K. Cowan. London: Pluto Press, pp. 140-156.

Barber- Kersovan, Alenka. 2004. ‘Music as a parallel power structure’. In Shoot the Singer! Music Censorship Today, edited by Marie Korpe. New York: Zed Books, pp. 6-10.

Dimova Rozita. 2008. “The Poet on the Bridge in the Biblical Land: Construction of Europe and Art Festivals in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.

Paper presented at the international conference “Europe at, across and beyond the Borders”. Panteion University 27-29 November 2008, Athens.

Hadži-Vasileva, Kristina. 2004. “Citizen Information Center in Kumanovo Helps Keep Peace by Encouraging Communication” In Managing Hatred and Distrust: The Prognosis for Post-Conflict Settlement in Multiethnic Communities in the Former Yugoslavia, edited by Nenad Dimitrijević and Petra Kovásc. Budapest: Open Society Institute, Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative.

Helbig, Adriana. 2008. “Managing Musical Diversity within Frameworks of Western Development Aid: Views from Ukraine, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

Yearbook for Traditional Music 40:46-59.

Keulemans, Chris.2006. ‘Reaching the Heart of the Matter’. In The Heart of the Matter: the Role of the Arts and Culture in the Balkans’ European Integration, edited by Chris Keulemans and David Cameron. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation. (Accessed on 12.08.2008 at www.eurocult.org).

Kocevski, Danilo. 2006. ‘Multikultura I Revolver’. Dnevnik, Number 2239, Saturday 18.03.2006. http://star.dnevnik.com.mk/default.aspx?pbroj=2239&stID=22205 Accessed on 09.08.2008.

Neofotistos, Vasiliki Panagioti. 2002. Resisting Violence: Hegemonic Negotiations of Ethnicity in the Republic of Macedonia. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Muršič, Rajko. 2002. “Games of Identification and Self-Presentation: Local Radio First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 195

Alexandra Balandina Broadcast in Skopje, Macedonia”. Skopje: Institut za Etnologia I Antropologia. http://www.iea.pmf.ukim.edu.mk/EAZ/EAZ_02/Mursic_EAZ_02_ang.pdf Accessed on 07.08.2008.

Simjanovska, Violeta. 2006. “The Path of Turning an Enemy into a Partner”. In The Heart of the Matter: the Role of the Arts and Culture in the Balkans’ European Integration, edited by Chris Keulemans and David Cameron. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation (Accessed on 12.07.2008 at www.eurocult.org).

Stefanovski, Goran. 2006. “The Heart of the Matter”. In The Heart of the Matter: the Role of the Arts and Culture in the Balkans’ European Integration, edited by Chris Keulemans and David Cameron. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation (Accessed on 12.07.2008 at www.eurocult.org).

Woodward, Sheila C. et.al. 2008. ‘South Africa, the Arts and Youth in Conflict with the Law’. International Journal of Community Music 1(1): 69-88.

196 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

LOZANKA PEYCHEVA, Bulgaria STUDIO ETHNO: A BULGARIAN RADIO PROGRAMME RESONATING THE GLOBAL THROBS OF LOCAL MUSIC The crucial political, institutional, economic and technological changes that have been occurring in Bulgaria since 10th November 1989 have had irreversible consequences for the “Bulgarian” mediascapes as a whole as well as for the radio broadcasting in particular. The media production Studio Ethno – a Darik Radio programme – is one of the effects within the limited area of Bulgarian radio evoked by this novel historical moment. (Darik Radio is a leading private radio with national broadcasting. It obtained a license from the Bulgarian Committee for Post and Telecommunications on 20th January 1993 as a media organization having a national radio broadcasting and a programme concept whose “majority of characteristics are close to those of a national station” [Dimitrov, 2003:5-6]. Snezhana Popova derives the self-defining form of Darik Radio “Radio for everyone but not for all” – particularizing that the identity of a radio station is “something like self-identity of its programme”.

Meanwhile thus it includes an entire image (self-presentation of the media, programme embodiment of the founders’ strategy, the public image and presentation of the media, its real usage [Popova, 2004:13-14]) via which the station integrates into the media domain.

Redirecting the attention: from experience to rationalizing Why is Stduio Ethno that has been my engagement for those 10 years stimulating me to conceptualize and subordinate it into the scientific frames and studies today? I could hardly find an elaborate and satisfactory answer explaining the variety of reasons. Probably Studio Ethno is still giving me the energy that I could incarnate into the context of my life. Perhaps all this is because of the fact that the conceptual synthesis and transformation into words of the accumulated life experience leads to a deeper rationalizing comprehension of the reality. In this connection Tsvetana Hubenova has written: “our natural ‘human situation’ is a ‘stay in language’ as if a stay

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Lozanka Peycheva in a home wherein we live and by which we understand our being” [Hubenova, 2005:346]. It is not unlikely that to be my nostalgic reaction to the indescribable feeling of ampleness and contentment left by each broadcast issue, especially by those that have dynamited the throbbing energies of the communicative disclosure during a close personal contact with prominent musicians.

Still and all, each attempt to verbalize the reality; each interpretative context appears as a result of certain methodological orientations and choices. The methodological challenge I am facing is whether presenting the media construction of Studio Ethno locked in a brief text I will manage to cover mentally and arrange the complex of events and details related to the radio programme, to account my individual experience, to combine analytically my intellectual and emotional involvement in making this programme.

Maybe this is one of the provocations popping when we approach the problems of musical experience as applied ethnomusicologists, i.e. how we should mentally construct and keep as an unity the multiple reality of nowadays musics that enter our lives chaotically, disassociated and fragmentary. Despite of their overall incomprehension we often catch ourselves in a situation of searching and finding in those musics different notions and meanings under the form of descriptions, analyses and rational interpretations.

A brief “visiting card” The programme started and expanded within a ten year period (October 1997 – October 2007) that used to be hard, crucial and crisis times in the newest Bulgarian history. These were times leading to irreversible dramatic changes in all levels and sectors of Bulgarian society. During these years Studio Ethno was broadcast about 370 times weekly (up to January 2007 on Thursdays at 20.00-21.00; then on Tuesdays at 20.00-21.00). The programme team Ventsislav Dimov – author and host/presenter; Mark Bosannyi – second host/presenter; Lozanka Peycheva – scientific consultant.

It is difficult to define Studio Ethno as a radio format from a single viewpoint. At a first glance that is a music programme, but broadcasts information and social messages stimulating knowledge and attitudes, urge the civil activities as well.

As far as its music profile is concerned, it could be compared with the similar radio formats established in world practice – Ethnic, International (formats designed for various ethnic groups and/or related to multiethnic messages) [Vachkov, 2004:112, 118], World Music (formats in European radio practice, presenting music from all over the world, related to folk music) [Vachkov, 2007: 28, 120, 125]. Similarly to the mentioned above programmes Studio Ethno uses folk, ethnic, traditional and fusion musics to encourage good heartedness and humanity, openmindness and alternative thinking.

Studio Ethno is not a conventional massmedia production; hence, it has no stable financial support from the governmental and commercial institutions. It is funded partially by the NGO Inter Ethnic Initiative for Human Rights Foundation (and partially by the private Darik Radio). Studio Ethno uses in some of its issues the music material for image building that expresses and supports particular events and activities

198 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Studio Ethno: a Bulgarian Radio Programme ... of the foundation. The mobilization of the cultures and music of the indigenous, subnational, minorities and other communities aimed at power structuring via their media presentation is defined by Faye Ginsburg as a “cultural activism” [Ginsburg, AbuLughod, Larkin, 2002:8]. Sometimes Darik Radio and its radio production Studio Ethno is the arena wherein a specific ‘cultural activism’ is performed for positive manifestation of ethnic and other community identities.

Meanwhile Studio Ethno is not a mainstream. It is an alternative to the commercial productions of media institutions. The radio programme produces and promotes, analyses and evaluates the power of the “small” local musics revitalized via its radio waves. Noteworthy the radio programme generates publicity not only of local but of global (as a cultural functioning and spreading) musics. Thus it projects the postmodern idea of equal values and opportunities, of a dialog and coexistence of cultural diversities.

The public acknowledgement of Studio Ethno Programme is evidenced by: 1) The 2004 Award for Musicology Studies: music criticism and publicism in media that went to Ventsislav Dimov for his radio programmes on Darik Radio and 2) The Award of the International Roma Union given to Ventsislav Dimov and Lozanka Peycheva for their merit to the progress of Roma culture in Bulgaria. The ceremony was held in January 2004 at the Studio of Darik Radio.

What does Studio ethno achieve? ● Outlines a media radio form to produce new public senses of the music; ● Merges the boundaries between classified musics (art, folk and pop) by giving equal opportunities, binding on the association principle and mixing of different music energies; overcoming the conventions of hierarchic styles and genres, context and meaning division; ● Roots the “ethnic” as a value perspective in Bulgarian culture treating different ethnic musics as of equal value (on the basis of their simultaneous, common utilization); ● Builds media images and leaves traces of “borderless music”; ● Stimulates the ‘taming’ of cultural diversity via dialogue and mutual understanding; ● Offers an own version of the meanstream WM (world music) – beyond the commercial interests of musical business; focuses on the local and minority, dialogical interaction between diversities and cultural variety. Promotes not only the officially launched albums, but personal music projects too, broadcast live music performed in the studio.

The media experiment with a similar expanding and opening refocuses and changes the meanings of musics that are usually “locked” in their conceptual limits, localities and positions in the cultural hierarchy. In this manner the vitality of the local is revitalized by means of radio communication.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 199

Lozanka Peycheva How does it achieve the radio communication?

Snezhana Popova outlines and analyses several key points in the radio communication process in her study on radio communication: the radio communicator as a mediator; the dynamics of radio audience; the structure of the radio text; analyses of the images [Popova, 1997]. The Studio Ethno radio communicator Ventsislav Dimov is simultaneously the author of messages, mediator in various contacts, and in some rare cases – an advocate of the massages of somebody else. Despite of the different roles and positions he appears in, Ventsi Dimov has a key role in the communication process, due to the high extent of “personal involvement of the communicator in the text pronounced” [Popova, 1997:41]. Though one’s appearance behind the microphone has always been a walk “on the edge between life and theater”, Ventsi Dimov succeeds in creating a radio image closer to the real self one, instead an image controlled and close to that desired by the audience.

The style of Ventsi Dimov has developed through the years. At the beginning Studio Ethno has a pair of radio communicators – Ventsi Dimov and Mark Bossanyi. Later after 2001 Mark Bossanyi is present sporadically. Even at the time when there have been a pair of communicators behind the microphone of Studio Ethno Ventsi Dimov has been the leading communicator at a “central position” not only because of the level of his awareness of the problems discussed, but because of his high communicative competence expressed by: 1) solid knowledge of the problem; 2) enough information about events and processes presented by the media; 3) excellent command of Bulgarian language and “a glib tongue”; 4) free expression of his own views; 5) sense of improvisation and ability to react instantly. Ethnomusics of different origin (belonging to a great variety of nations and ethnoi) pass through the author’s mind of Ventsi Dimov at different proportions and with different dominants finding in Studio Ethno a new context, and begin a life assumed in a new way. Ventsi Dimov’s positions, words, voice modulations, comparisons of music styles, genres and repertoires allow him to gather and focus the information, to roam discoursively and derive the musical vibrations and energies from different times, spaces and cultures. Consequently, to produce messages loaded with meaning and to announce publicly their significance.

Musics have been talked about via the techniques of radio interview by the voices of tens of studio’s guests – musicians, ethnomusicologists, writers, and poets. To direct the attention can be mentioned scarcely the names of some interesting and unforgettable guests of the radio programme, coming from different continents (Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia) and countries: Marta Sebestyen, Ferenc Sebo, Nikola Parov, Vandor Vokal, Aladar Pege (Hungary); Jacek Grekow (Poland); Kim Burton (Great Britan); Eddie Brannigan Branegan (Ireland); Christy Doran (Switzerland); Angelo Debarre, Hugo de Courson, Tristan Jeanne-Vales (France); Gorani – Seven-voice male a cappella singing group (Australia)] Fanfare Ciocarlia (Romania); Tamara Obrovac (Croatia); Vlatko Stefanovski, Ferus (Macedonia); Sanja Ilic, Miroslav Jovic-Misa (Serbia); Samir Preldjic

200 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Studio Ethno: a Bulgarian Radio Programme ...

(BiH); Kostas Theodorou (Greece); Timothy Rice, Donna Buchanan, Mario Piatza (USA); Ives Moreau, Judith Cohen (Canada); Risto Blomster, Risto Pekka Pennanen, Vesa Kurkela, Christoffer von Bonsdorf (Finland); Shamim Berkeh (Iran); Jutaka Ban (Japan); Theodosii Spassov, Stoyan Yankoulov, Elitsa Todorova, Nikolai Ivanov, Maria Palieva, Georgi Gylybov, Ivailo Ivanov, Gorgi Petkov, Jony Penkov, Milan Ognjanov, Ivan Marazov, Rosemary Statelova, Georgi Lozanov, Antonina Geljazkova, Ljubomir Bratoev, Tsenko Minkin, Masha Ilieva, Orhan Murad, Juksel Ahmedov, Mjumjun Tahir, Angelo Malikov, Kiril Lambov, Hristo Kjuchukov, Aleksandyr Kracholov, Savcho Savchev, Petyr Georgiev, Sofi Marinova, Haigashot Agasjan, Stefka Onikjan, Lika Eshkenazi, Etien Levi, Victor Lazarov, Veniz Samuilova, Nikola Janev; and musical formations “Transformation”, “Ikadem”, “Bulgara” (Bulgaria); Miroslav Tadic (Serbia/USA); Kofi Babone (Gana/Bulgaria); Cute Accuse (Nigeria/Bulgaria); Fredi Romero, Hulio Franko (Peru/Bulgaria); Martin Lubenov (Bulgaria/Austria); Yildiz Ibrahimova (Bulgaria/Turkey); Kalinka Vylcheva-Jenkins (Bulgaria/Great Britan); Elka Chernokogeva (Bulgaria/Germany); Diana Dafova (Bulgaria/USA).

Amongst them are musicians, researchers, producers, composers, conductors, directors, cameramen, artists, writers, dancers, choreographers, journalists, photographers, teachers, diplomats, and representatives of different minority ethnomovements – Gypsies, Turks, Armenians, Aromanians, Karakatchans, Vlahs, Russians, imigrants from Africa, Asia, South America and Caribbean.

One of the characteristics of the programme making its bright uniqueness is the non-uniform, provocative, creative invention, arrangement and realization of radio communication. The very headline of the programme prompts its being dedicated to the search of intellectual freedom, provocations, debates, innovations and experiments. Such a strategy is hard to place within the frames of a music entertaining or a talk-show programme. Therefore one finds different radio approaches, techniques and genres in the practice of that programme. It is worth mentioning the extreme, memorabilia from the history of the programme: 1) the live performance of a wind group (the Fanfare Ciocarlia – a Romania Gypsy Horns band); 2) meetings in the studio of musicians playing different styles, of different ethnoi and countries, who did not know each other but were provoked to produce a jam session without any rehearsal (the Englishman Mark Bossanyi and the Gypsy Boris Budakov; Indian tabla, Bulgarian kaval (pipe) and a guitar – musicians from Bulgaria and the Caribbean); 3) having radio bridges with correspondents from different places in the world in a single issue (Massachusetts and California, USA; Norway and Finland – North Europe; Poland – Central Europe); 4) speaking different languages during the radio conversation (Bulgarian, English, French, Romani, Turkish, Serbian, Hebrew, Armenian); 5) realization of uncommon ideas as issue topics (The Music of Antarctica).

There are no observations and studies (rating poles or content analyses) on the audience of Studio Ethno. But there are feed backs from the audience in some classical forms – letters, phone calls, searching of a way to meet the team in person.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 201

Lozanka Peycheva Regardless to the type of audience (mass, elite, specialized or interactive [Popova, 1997:74]), located in the space of the radio contacts Studio Ethno is a form of media that possess national and global radio circulation via the national broadcasting and the global network of Internet. Thus it manages to join translocally and communicatively the global process of communication.

Studio Ethno is a unique type of media practice that does not remain fixed by the frames of a radio programme. Owing to the team of the programme and especially to the intensive activity and creativity of Ventsi Dimov the conceptual ideas of Studio Ethno are being transferred and realized in different sectors of Bulgarian music life: 1) Stages – Thematic concert Ethnofest in Sofia (16.09.2006); Festivals of the ethnoi in Bulgaria in Nessebar (September 2004-2007); National festival of Roma Music, Song and Dance – Romfest Stara Zagora.

2) Other media – printed (specialized ethnopress – the newspapers Drom Dromendar, Akana, Jewish News and the magazines O roma, Ethnoreporter); electronic (Bulgarian National Television, BTV, TV7, TV Skat, Bulgarian national Radio, Radio France International, Info Radio).

3) Education – textbooks (Music for grade 9th of the general school, Sofia: Prosveta 2000), study materials (Series Roma music, Sofia: MICHP 1997).

4) Music industry – expert consulting of albums (Demko Kurtov’s Zurna Group, Gega, CD 276, 2002), booklet text for CD albums (Gypsy Summer, Kuker, KP/ R 01, 1999; Gypsy Music, Gega CD 266, 2001; Romane Merikle, Sunrise Marinov, 2005).

Getting beyond the frames of the musical Studio Ethno debates on topics of social importance like human rights, discrimination, environment protection, antiwar movements, civil society. Its team gets involved in certain initiatives and civil activities (an antiwar meeting – 2003; a concert against discrimination – 2004; an environmental action – 2006; civil activities for admitting the Armenian genocide – 2007/2008; cultural activities dedicated to the Decade of Roma Inclusion; assistance in organizing and coverage of ethnofests newly structured by ethnic movements – International Roma Day, Ramazan Bayram, Armenian Christmas, Hanukkah).

Conclusion For its ten years of existence Studio Ehtno has been a frame, arena and a means for producing the dialogue interaction and mutual cultural exchange and understanding. Opening global horizons to the abundance of musical vibrations of the local Studio Ethno leaves deep traces into the waves of the present day intensified culture traffic between local and global. The programme localizes the “global” ideas (environment protection, pacifism, human rights) and music expressing (world, ethno, fusion, jazz, art, pop, folk) in Bulgarian radio air. On the other hand it globalizes local events, styles and musicians (through the possibility to listen to the programme on the Internet

202 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Studio Ethno: a Bulgarian Radio Programme ... at www.darik.net and via personal contacts between the team and journalists, producers and musicians from abroad).

After its formal scission as a separate programme Studio Ethno continues to broadcast its messages already in the Folk Ethno Magazine programme. The latter merges the two author programmes of Ventsislav Dimov on Darik Radio Folk Magazine (since 1993) and Studio Ethno (1997-2007).

Something else – Studio Ethno is unforgettable being a limitless mental space, aura that has the potential to produce meanings, to catch delicate nuances of meaning, to charge with creative energy and to ensure a basis for expanding the individual boundaries by a free flight of spirit virtualized in the invisible zone of radio waves.

References Appadurai, Arjun. 2006. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”. In Meenakshi Gigi Durham & Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies. Key Works, 584-603. Malden, Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.

Dimitrov, Veselin. 2003. Darik radio: godini ot givota. Sofia: Sofiiski universitet “Sv. Kliment Ohridski”. [Димитров, Веселин. 2003. Дарик радио: Години от живота. София: Софийски университет “Св. Климент Охридски”.]

Ginsburg, Faye & Lila Abu-Lughod & Brian Larkin. 2002. “Introduction”. In Ginsburg, Faye & Lila Abu-Lughod & Brian Larkin, eds., Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain, 1-36. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Hubenova, Tsvetana. 2005. Modern/premodern/postmodern. Literatura I istorizum. Sofia: Sofiiski universitet “Sv. Kliment Ohridski”. [Хубенова, Цветана.

2005. Модерн/предмодерн/постмодерн. Литература и историзъм. София: Софийски университет “Св. Климент Охридски”.]

Popova, Snezhana. 1997. Radiokomunikatsiya. Sofia: Sofiiski universitet “Sv. Kliment Ohridski”. [Попова, Снежана. 1997. Радиокомуникация. София: Софийски университет “Св. Климент Охридски”.]

Popova, Snezhana. 2004. Radio, publiki, stilove. Sofia: LIK. [Попова, Снежана. 2004. Радио, публики, стилове. София: ЛИК.]

Vachkov, Luchezar. 2004. Radioformatut v SASHT. Sofia: Paradoks. [Вачков, Лъчезар. 2004. Радиоформатът в САЩ. София: Парадокс.]

Vachkov, Luchezar. 2007. Radio v Evropa: Profili. Sofia: Maker Arts. [Вачков, Лъчезар. 2007. Радио в Европа: Профили. София: Maker Arts.]

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 203

Lozanka Peycheva

204 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

VENTSISLAV DIMOV, Bulgaria

ROMA MUSICIANS IN THE MUSIC OF POST-1989 BULGARIAN MEDIA The text presents a study on the music of Gypsy professionals that was recorded and presented by the media of post-socialist Bulgarian media as a Roma/ Gypsy music. After 1989, like during the previous historic periods, professional Gypsy musicians have been playing a significant and versatile part in the development of Bulgarian folklore music [Peycheva, 1999:114-122; 2008:474-508] and Bulgarian music industry as well [Dimov, 2007; 2008 47-48; 2009].

This paper will focus on the other accomplishments of Roma musicians in the music industry related to manifestation of their own group musical identity. The questions ‘What and what type of Roma music is included in Bulgarian music industry?’ and ‘How is it treated?’ bring to the subject-matters of dynamics of the cultural choice in Bulgarian society, the one of majority – minority relations, of Roma music as a constructive element of group self-consciousness. Roma music recorded and circulated on the mass marked is not just a reflection of social and group predilections, it does participate the creation of the latter.

Roma participation in the recorded and media music of the period following the political changes in 1989 got its own face, if compared to that from the preceding periods of Bulgarian music industry (the first half the 20th century and the socialist period). The factors determining the evolution of Roma music are: progress in technologies and media; changes in the music industry and market; sociocultural changes in society that caused substitution of the old historic paradigm of ethnocentrism with the multiethnism one; activating of Roma ethno-movements in Bulgaria.

Roma musicians and music at the times of demo cassettes The circumstances determining the media music of Bulgarian 1990s were deregulation and liberalization – the opening of private music houses; launching of private radio stations and cable televisions; advertising activation [Kurkela, 1995; Dimov 2001:38; Buchanan 2006:427-431]. Together with the

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ventsislav Dimov folklore, popular and classical music the free media produced and imposed a new massive of a music style – Bulgarian ethnopop music. This new kind music has been listened to by a great part of the population as it filled a long lasting gap – local mass culture, entertaining with own, Balkan pop music.

Under the conditions of enthnopop boom Roma/Gypsy professional musicians got new possibilities to perform. Many Roma songs (in Bulgarian and Romani language) and instrumental music (köçek1 dances) were published and spread in unofficial, illegal ways – i.e. the so called demo-cassettes (pirated recordings): home-made cassette recordings with often non-professional technical equipment, which were sold at various street-stalls and markets during the late 1980s and early 1990s [Peycheva&Dimov, 1994].

For example, demo cassettes with Gypsy songs (Sever Orchestra; Diamond Orchestra – “Jeane, Jeane”, “Mazo”) and instrumental music (Kitna Trakia Orchestra; Osman Zhekov – kocek; Ivo Papazov; Kozari) with newly made songs (in Bulgarian) of Roma musicians (“The stones are falling” – Andon Sabev, “Songs to God” of Roma Evangelic movement; songs of(by) Milcho Gagov) were distributed in the late 1980s and early 1990s .

The raise of the Gypsy wave in Bulgarian cassette culture of the early 1990s is defined as a revolution that put to an end the deficit of Gypsy music in Bulgaria [Peycheva, 1995].

The new Roma music By mid1990s in the environment of early private music industry the still dominating cassette culture and the newly appeared private media, the prevailing layer of the official media and recordings – local ethnopop music – opened the opportunities to many Roma musicians and ensured a niche for a new Gypsy music on the market.

At that time started the movement for cultural emancipation of Roma music – there were attempts to restore the redundant Roma ensembles and to organize new amateur formations; the search for old Gypsy songs and the creation of new songs in Romani were revived. The latter movement was still chaotic and had no solid support of NGO sector (being established at the time) and of the Bulgarian government. The market was the chief motor and regulator of the creative processes in Roma music.

Investigating 84 cassettes, produced by 18 Bulgarian companies, Lozanka Peycheva draws conclusions about the musical polylinguism of the Gypsies in Bulgaria who record Gypsy, Bulgarian, Turkish, Serbian and other ethnomusics [Peycheva, 1995]. According to the author, though including different music ideas and traditions, sung in different languages, that music is Gypsy 1

Köçek – the world famous belly dance originating from Ottoman tavern dances

206 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Roma musicians in the media music ... with its interpretation – impulsive, expressive, aggressive and provocative under the sign of versatile music tongues, full of vigorous temperament, love for freedom and spontaneity. Eclecticism, deliberately searched by Roma musicians is connected with the partial loss of the own musical identity. Therefore the music performed by Gypsies is not always defined as a pure Gypsy music.

Regardless of the fact that due to commercial considerations the songs in the albums are in Bulgarian language (to sell larger number of copies amongst the audience of Bulgarians), a parallel stratum of commercial albums in Romani was formed for a couple of years.

What are the characteristic features of that new Gypsy music? It differs from ‘nevo gilja’ (new Gypsy songs) that occurred during the socialism.

The authorship of the novel songs is not always known, the lyrics are not always in Romani, it is not connected only with the Roma folklore and/or the Gypsy musical idioms from Russia, Hungary and Romania. This is a mixed music, created by professional Roma musicians, addressed not only to the Roma audience. There are elements from different musics in it with a domination of the Balkan and Oriental ones.

Many of the songs are sung in Bulgarian language, some in Turkish.

Its professional interpreting by Gypsy musicians makes this music a successor to the Balkan çalgia - popular pleasure ethnomusic. So, it is called ‘çalga’ not by accident. The critics of ethnopop music claim it ideologically, nationalistically and ethnically because of the stable relation çalga – Roma styles and performers [Rise, 2004:99], as a “Gypsyness”, “Gypsy music with vulgar pornographic text”, “Gypsy or Orient sound”, “Gypsy köçeks” [Dimov, 2001:93-118, Statelova, 2005:38] – all of them definitions assigned in a way to the Gypsy presence and images in it.

The emancipation of Gypsy/Roma musicians and music in Bulgarian ethnopop music industry and public media In the late 1990s and at the beginning of the new millenium the profile of Gypsy/Roma media music has been changing coincidentally with the changes in the industrial-media-technological profile of ethnopop music (establishment of major companies, forcing into of CDs and DVDs, emergence of new media). A pleiad of Gypsy musicians had already won the acknowledgment of ethnopop stars at the music market and media. Having passed the period of establishment as performers of Balkan hits covers and of newly created songs in Bulgarian language, some of them (Crystals Orchestra, Sophi Marinova, Shtilian, Geago, Super Express Orchestra, Johnny, Azis) overcame the requirement of producers and publishers to include only songs in Bulgarian in their albums. The tendency has been going on after the year 2000.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 207

Ventsislav Dimov Albums with Gypsy music or such comprising Gypsy songs were published by Ara Audio Video, Sunrise Marinov, Pick Music, Milena Records, Sunny Music. Instead of issuing cassettes with performance of Gypsy musicians and orchestras (often unfamiliar to the large audience) it was typical of the preceding several years ethnopop music to find its faces amongst the stars who had found recognition owing to the music industry.

The “high Gypsy” music: new Gypsy songs and formations is also broadcast. The Bulgarian National Radio records Gypsy songs produced by Angelo Malikov. Noncommercial music is being broadcast in the programmes of Darik Radio, Bulgarian National Television. The Music companies Balkanton, Gega New, Kuker Music, Sunrise Marinov, Star Records produce and issue albums with traditional and authors’ music from Bulgaria: “Chestita Vasilitsa” (Balkanton), “Romani chshaj, kalori” (Gega New); and from the world: “Tsigansko sarce” (Victory Records), “Balkan Gypsy hits” (Sunrise Marinov).

Albums presenting Roma music and music culture have been issued by non-government organizations with noncommercial, informative and educational purposes: “Roma music” cassettes - supplements to the tutorials with the same title (International Initiative for Human Rights, 1997); “Bahtale Romesa” – ensemble “Balkanska Kitka” form Zlataritisa (Amalipe); “Romani merikle” (Dimitar Georgiev and Sunrise Marinov, 2005); “Me chave Rovena” – Najden Yankov (Youth Day Center, 2007).

Though the outlined tendences of production and public presentation of Gypsy music exhibit different main motivations and strategies (commercial of the former and ideological of the latter), they result into a specific emancipation of Gypsy music and into bias of its establishing as positive images.

During those years there was a strong trend in public speaking public to establish and recognize as politically correct the name Roma music. This phenomenon was motivated by the efforts of Roma activists to impose the ethnonym Roma aimed at uniting the community [Marushiakova&Popov, 2007:171].

On the road to globalization – new media, new horizons The new media and the globalization processes at the beginning of the third millenium AD open new horizons to the Roma music in Bulgaria.

The mobility (trips of Roma musicians) changes the Roma music from Bulgaria. Having international experience, multicultural contacts, adopted global networks for communication and creating hybrid music Roma musicians like Marin Ljubenov and Yuri Yunakov gain cosmopolitan identity and meanwhile give their merit to the acknowledgement of Bulgarian Roma music world wide [Peycheva&Dimov, 2006; Peycheva, 2008:486].

208 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Roma musicians in the media music ...

Those musicians have been citizens of Western Europe or America for a long time. In the recent years the season migrations of Bulgarian Roma musicians have rather increased in number. They present their music participating festivals, playing at weddings or in public houses (Djago, Crystals, Sali Oka). They even have albums issued abroad (Karandila, Johnny).

Roma music also changes with the globalization processes. During the last two decades a new musical sector has been constructing called world music – a label for electric and global de-westernized pop-music. Traditionally dialogic, open to the rest, Roma music has fond its place on the orbit of actual hybrid musical phenomena.

During the recent years Roma musicians have been in pursuit for world jazz stages with music close (with regard to the hybrid origin, idiomatic of Balkan ethno-fussion and prevailing improvisations) to that of wedding orchestras but still differing from their music.

The new features of the Roma ethno-jazz (Martin Ljubenov and his groups [Peycheva, 2008:484-485], Karandila orchestra, Johnny [Levy, 2007:140-142; 145-155]) are in the stress on Roma contribution: via ethnic definition of musicians and music in the labels, via following established patterns of European Gypsy swing jazz and especially via searching for an accordance with the Balkan Roma traditions and jazz as a music of freedom, improvisation and mixing.

Roma music from Bulgaria is present in the global network (www) in various ways and in different contexts: on-line trade of albums; uploaded audio and video files, video music, media and information web-sites.

Exemplary for the new horizons and tracks of Roma music and musicians that have been got as a “gift” via the global network could be a website like You Tube. The ideology of the site is the easy consummation – watching and uploading video files up to 10MB and lasting up to 10 minutes.

Being so widespread, liberal, democratic (free access – any owner of a cell phone or video camera can upload his file onto the network) and easy to use (There is no need of special software to watch or download the clips. You have just to register in order to upload your file on to the network.) makes You Tube a metaphor of global network as infinity, fantasms and utopia.

Different images and sounds of Roma music from Bulgaria can be found in You Tube [Peycheva, 2008A] revealing how Roma music and Roma musicians use the Internet as an original instrument for free and democratic distribution of their local (in origin) musics.

Occurring on the Internet they get into an alternative public sphere which is an opposition to the mainstream media institutions dominated, limited First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 209

Ventsislav Dimov and controlled by authorities, hegemony political forces, ideologies and aesthetics. *** Gypsy/Roma music, recorded and broadcast in Bulgaria after 1989 has many faces and is heterogeneous but it is monolith as a marker that designates the variable roadmaps of the Gypsy movements and the uniqueness constant.

How does music industry influence the concepts of the non-Roma and of Roma population about their music and cultural identity? On one hand, media and the recorded music are a context and a factor for the collective cultural identity consciousness. In the search of their own cultural identity the Roma musicians of nowadays construct images, testing themselves as a minority with regards to the majority (in close up, in their homeland) and comparing their own with the different imminent (of other Roma world wide), and the different distant (Europe, the world) as well.

On the other hand, the music industry is related to the interactive outset, mass tastes and market, aculturation and globalization. The problem of “pure Gypsy music” is irrelevant, and the Romani forms its image in accordance to the expectations of the mass audience. While in Bulgaria çalga and Gypsyness evoke negative reactions, abroad the same music is one of new fashions of commercial world music – Balkan beat. The foreign audience is not interested in the borders between Gypsy, Bulgarian, Klezmer and does not demand purity of the components in the cocktail BALKAN BEAT BOX [Markovic, 2009]. The home audience knows and accepts Gypsy music wrapped by Goran Bregovic, but not the samples of its origin that are the songs of Shaban Bayramovic, for example. It might be because the standardized and issued distant by the media is more convenient and easier to comprehend than the different close which is painful to feel with all its harshness and arouses fears, prejudices and invention of protective limitation structures and procedures.

210 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Roma musicians in the media music ...

REFERENCES: Buchanan, Donna. 2006. Performing Democracy: Bulgarian Music and Musicians in Transition. Chicago: The University of ChicagoPress. Димов, Венцислав. 2001. Етнопопбумът. София: Българско музикознание. Изследвания. Димов, Венцислав. 2007. “Цигани/Роми в българската музикална индустрия”. В: Велина Топалова & Алексей Пампоров (съст.). Интеграцията на ромите в българското общество, 183-201. София: Институт по социология.

Dimov, Ventsislav. 2008. “On Some Early Sonic Evidence of Musical Hybridization: Observations on Commercial Gramophone Recordings from Bulgaria”. In: Rosemary Statelova, Angela Rodel, Lozanka Peycheva, Ivanka Vlaeva & Ventsislav Dimov. The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proseedings from the Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “Music and Minorities” in Varna, Bulgaria 2006, 43-50. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies – BAS, Bulgarian Musicology. Studies.

Dimov, Ventsislav. 2009. “Romani Musicians in the Bulgarian Music Industry (1944-1989)”. In: Jurkova, Zuzana & Lee Bidgood (ed.). Voices of the Weak. Music and Minorities. 2006,. Praha: Slovo 21, 179-184. Куркела, Веса, 1995. “Създаването на национална музика в посткомунистическите страни: обвързването й с медиите и нейното дерегулиране”. Български фолклор, С., № 6, с. 20-28. Леви, Клер. 2007. Етноджазът. Локални проекции в глобалното село. София: Институт за изкуствознание.

Markovic, Aleksandra. 2009. “Sampling Artists: Gipsy Images in Goran Bregovic’s Music”. In: Jurkova, Zuzana & Lee Bidgood (ed.). Voices of the Weak. Music and Minorities. 2006,. Praha: Slovo 21, 108-121. Марушиакова Елена & Веселин Попов. 2007. Studii Romani, Том VІІ. Избрано. София: Парадигма. Пейчева Лозанка. 1995. “Музикалният полилингвизъм на циганите в България (Наблюдения върху 84 аудиокасети)”. Български фолклор, С., № 6, с. 58-72. Пейчева Лозанка. 1999. Душата плаче – песен излиза. Ромските музиканти в България и тяхната музика. София: ТерАрт. Пейчева Лозанка. 2008. Между Селото и Вселената: Старата фолклорна музика от България в новите времена. София: Академично издателство “Проф. Марин Дринов”.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 211

Ventsislav Dimov Peycheva, Lozanka. 2008A. Gypsy Musicians from Bulgaria: transboundary and trans-ethnic mediators. In The Balkan Peninsula as a Musical Crossroad. Skopje: SOKOM. Пейчева, Лозанка&Венцислав Димов. 1994. “Демокасетите (За един неизследван факт от софийския музикален пазар)”. Български фолклор 20/4:25-34. Пейчева, Лозанка&Венцислав Димов. 2006. “Миграции и гурбети от България: музикални орбити”. В: Маргарита Карамихова, ред., Градиво за етнология на миграциите, 61-101. София: Етнографски институт с музей.

Rice, Timothy. 2004. Music in Bulgaria. Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

Statelova, Rosemary. 2005. The Seven Sins of Chalga. Sofia: Prosveta.

212 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

ELSIE IVANCICH DUNIN, United States/Croatia

THE "CLONING" OF ČOČEK IN MACEDONIA: MEDIA AFFECTING GLOBALIZATION AS WELL AS LOCALIZATION OF BELLY DANCING

Over many years my research interests have been focused on continuities and changes of dance/dancing with generational transformations among dancers. Last year when I presented a paper on a forty-year overview of čoček in Macedonia, the study showed that since the 1960s the čoček had evolved into a dual identity (Dunin 2008). For Roms, the čoček is a solo dance that is self-reflective of their identity, and it continues to be danced in family contexts and public performative events. For non-Roms, čoček is a style of music and oro dancing, with one or more dancers who improvise modified torso movement that is considered Gypsy-style. Non-Romani exposure to the čoček comes from seeing public performances of the čoček by Romani Cultural Artistic Groups (KUD) on stage, since the mid-1970s. Prior to those years čoček tended to be danced in privately organized Romani family celebrations that were segregated between men and women.

The 1967 research project1 to film and document "Gypsy" dancing in social contexts provided a rare opportunity to record a fifteen-year old dancer in Veles.

She was invited to dance for my 16mm filming in daylight (out of the family context where I saw her dance the night before).2 After forty years, her dancing gives a basis of the čoček movements that I refer to as the "older" style. The main characteristic is a vertical up and down abdominal movement, rather than a side-to-side hip action.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Elsie Ivancich Dunin

Figure 1. Fifteen-year old čoček dancer in Veles, 1967 (Photo by Elsie Dunin clipped from 16mm film.)

Twenty years later, a 1988 project to document dances in Macedonia among organized dance groups resulted in a record of two (of three known) Romani groups: KUD Phralipe in Skopje and Folklorna Grupa (FG) Trabotvište near Delčevo; the third, KUD Pralipe in Tetovo, was not available to be recorded.3 The 1988 filming verified that the "older" style continued in Romani communities of Macedonia.

Figure 2. Romani dancers in village Trabotvište performing čoček, 1988. (Photo by Elsie Dunin from digitizied videotape.)

The theme of media in this first symposium of the Study Group on Music

214 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ... and Dance in Southeastern Europe is the catalyst of another čoček presentation, and it comes about quite unexpectedly during the year. Twenty years after the documentation of only two Romani organized dance groups in 1988, I learned that there were additional active Romani dance groups in Macedonia (since its severance from "former" Yugoslavia in 1991), and that several of these groups would be performing in a festival program, April 2008, celebrating the eighth Romani International Day, a major holiday among Roms. Since I had not yet observed how this Romani holiday is celebrated in Macedonia and with the added potential of seeing new Romani dance groups in performance, I returned to Macedonia.

The festival of "folklor" (dance and music) groups was organized by Samet Salievski, director of the Ansambl Rušit Šakir in Kumanovo. Due to a lack of support funding, only five groups out of twelve that were invited participated in the 2008 program. See map with five sites of the Romani groups: Kumanovo, Kočani, Veles, Bitola, and Delčevo.

Figure 3. Map of Macedonia.

Five cities with organized Romani dance performance groups Significantly toward my interest in čoček, the five groups with their shortened and selected repertoire included čoček in their staged programs. In each group the females improvised the čoček; their dancing was not synchronized into a choreographed arrangement. One of the groups, KUD-MK Ternipe from Delčevo, danced čoček with torso movements similar to what I recognized as a kind of globalized belly dancing style in the United States.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 215

Elsie Ivancich Dunin

Figure 4. Dancers of RKEC Ternipe MK, Delčevo, in Kumanovo, 7 April 2008 (photo by Elsie Dunin from digital video) Initiated by the solo dancing in the Kumanovo festival program, I ventured into a tracing of localized čoček dancing in Macedonia and its convergence with globalized belly dancing. Solo čoček dancing in Macedonia is self-learned based on observation of frequent dancing within one's own Romani community. The dancing is not taught formally, so there is no analytic vocabulary assigned to the body movements. A characteristic torso movment style is self practiced and improvised. The 2008 program in Kumanovo confirmed to me that Romani females continue to present čoček publicly in an improvised and non-choreographed form, but the Delčevo performance group in eastern Macedonia showed a change in style when compared with dancers of forty and twenty years ago that were filmically recorded, and with contemporary čoček dancers in other regions of Macedonia. How did this "newer" movement style come about; how is there a convergence of a globalized and codified taught form of Middle-Eastern dancing with a localized self-learned čoček? In an informal interview in Delčevo, a few days after the Kumanovo program, I asked the young girls how they learned their movements, and what televsion programs they watched. I was speculating that a Middle Eastern Dance (MED) teacher had come into their midst. But I was wrong. The young dancers in Delčevo responded to my questions with what dancing they watch on television – " 'show' programs on channels from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey," and spontaneous responses "Džadže [Jade] in O Clone."4 We implicitly know that contemporary television programming influences our behaviors. But watching television is a passive activity. What is the process from a passive experience, to the action of accepting or creating a change in one's self-learned dancing movements? A primary condition has to be repetition in the watching and in

216 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ... the doing. Such is the case, from watching belly dancing in a Brazilian telenovela, O Clone. A Macedonian national television station, A-1, showed 250 episodes, five nights a week, in evening prime time, from March 2003 to February 2004. It appears that the Muslim family context (in Morocco) which includes numerous scenes with dancing, resonate with the local (Delčevo) Muslim family orientations, along with Romani societal acceptance of torso movements. An additional model of body movements appear in "show" programs of world famous "dancing" singers, such as Colombian entertainer, Shakira, with her West African style hip movements and who became popular in the same time period as the Brazilian telenovela.

O Clone unintentionally shows a form of globalized belly dance. At the time of the telenovela filming in Brazil, 2001, Middle Eastern belly dancing was already well-established with several dance schools in its major cities, and popularly performed in various venues by a wide spectrum of their dance students. The Brasilian dancers in the telenovela O Clone are a tip of a globalized linked network of dancers performing a similar codified belly dance form that is disseminated by world traveling dance teachers, connecting Brazil with the United States, Egypt, Germany, Malaysia, and so on. The telenovela with its frequent dancing scenes was watched daily over eleven months, and for experienced dancers who have a sensibility of torso movements to apply to their self-learning. Since 2004 the "new" improvised čoček movements have been danced in Delčevo's Romani family contexts and are danced publicly in performance group contexts.

The O Clone telenovela has its own dance genealogy. The featured Brasilian actress/dancer Giovanna Antonelli in the series learned her belly dancing from a respected Middle Eastern dancer/ teacher/performer, Cláudia Censi based in São Paulo, Brazil.5 In addition the other dancers in the series were taught in Brazilian dance schools.

Figure 5. Jade dancing in O Clone telenovela (photo clipped from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQLOtK74lQ)

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 217

Elsie Ivancich Dunin While the Delčevo Romani girls were dancing, I recognized a style of "Middle Eastern Dance" (MED) that I had seen among my own university dance students in the 1980s, and who wrote ethnographies about the MED in the Los Angeles area. Twenty years later, the MED is very widespread with its own publications, its music, costume suppliers, dance workshops. The internet is full of MED webpages and websites. I consulted with ethnochoreologists and performers of solo belly dancing, Helene Eriksen and Danielle van Dobben, for their assessment of the dance style being performed in O Clone (by watching YouTube clips of O Clone), and I spoke with Macedonian-born Paola Buling Blanton, a MED dancer and performer who trained in Chicago, Brazil, and California and who currently teaches Middle Eastern (she refers to her dancing as Oriental) dancing in Kuala Lumpur. I had the opportunity to interview Paola in Kuala Lumpur during the 25th symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, three weeks before this symposium in Struga. We talked about the teachers and performers of MED while she was in Brazil during the filming of O Clone.

The O Clone story6 takes place in Brazil, but most scenes are in Morocco, where the dancing scenes are supposedly happening. I searched for information about the dancing in the series. Interestingly there is no discussion or evaluation of the dancing, even though there is a multitude of promotional information about the actors, the music and the plot, and even a doctoral dissertation from Lynn University in Florida, about O Clone that has "an analysis of viewers' online vicarious and virtual learning experiences." The dancing is "invisible" in the textual information, but very available and indexed in YouTube. I turned to my specialist dance informants who confirmed that the dancing in the telenovela is not Moroccan style, but a stylized "Americanized" and "Westernized" Egyptian form of solo dancing that is widespread in popularity. This style is in the telenovela, and has become the model for the "newer style" of čoček in Macedonia.

The convergence of personal dancing movement knowledge along with a positive social environment gave the Romani girls in Delčevo a means to experiment and to be successful with their dancing, that is, dancing not only in their own Romani community, but in their KUD performances. A physical space with large mirrors in their KUD rehearsal hall allowed the girls to see themselves and their friends while experimenting and improvising their torso movements, that they had seen in the O Clone telenovela episodes, as well as in other television "show" programs. But the "shows" were single programs and not repetitive with the same dancers as in the O Clone episodes. The combination of seeing and then doing in front of a mirror where they are comfortable with watching their own bodies in a public space, is not a common feature in Romani communities. The O Clone episodes also showed females practicing at home and in front of mirrors. Many dance scenes were family oriented (in one episode, women are dancing in the kitchen); there is solo dancing at a wedding, at family parties, there are also erotic dance scenes between the featured female role and her husband and husband-to-be; and there are scenes with young children dancing.

Over the years, I have observed Romani families encouraging their young children to

218 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ... dance, so that the O Clone episodes with children also provided positive social approval for dancing.

Figure 6. Child dancing solo in scene from O Clone (photo clipped from YouTube)

Figure 7. Child from Veles, dancing solo in Kumanovo program 2008 (photo by Elsie Dunin from digital video) O Clone's dancing style may not be Moroccan, but that is of no concern to the young Romani čoček dancers in Macedonia. Inadvertently they have self-learned a performance style of globalized Egyptian style belly dancing, that has been passed on via television media, and after 2004, the younger sisters of the teenage girls are self-learning this new čoček style. They will not realize that they are performing a "new" čoček – it is their local čoček.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 219

Elsie Ivancich Dunin MEDIA The television media brought into the Romani households belly dancing that was acceptable to local social family values; there was a personal embracing of the telenovela characters and their expressive behaviors. Although O Clone was popularly watched on a Macedonia national television channel, the physical and social convergence experienced in Delčevo was not necessarily replicated in other communities or KUDs. In addition, recent technology and cyberspace media made this study possible since the Romani International Day festival program in Kumanovo five months ago. Media features used were: a digital camera to record and transfer images to DVD disk and into still photos; email communication; websites linking the belly dancers in Brazil with United States (such as in California, Arizona, Washington, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, New York, and so on), with Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Malaysia and Australia; Google searching revealed information and visual examples of belly dancing from many of these sites; YouTube offers scenes of O Clone episodes indexed with "dance"; and internet's SKYPE allowed direct conversations with specialists half-way around the world combined with immediate viewing of dancing examples while we were talking. This cyberspace media provided almost instant search results, and contributed to the study. All this media has impacted the way body movement can be viewed, studied, understood – not envisioned with the first tangible record of čoček with 16mm film in Veles, in 1967, nor in later years when video cassette recorders were used to document repertoire in Macedonia.

However, no recordings can match the observing of actual dancing, and I asked the symposium organizers if there was any possibility of inviting some of the Romani girls from different regions of Macedonia to demonstrate their čoček at this first meeting in Macedonia, hopefully setting a model for special local demonstrations of music or dancing at future symposia of the Study Group.

Epilogue to the paper During the evening (7 September), solo čoček styles were demonstrated by seven teenage girls (ages fifteen to seventeen) from Bitola, Struga, Kumanovo, and Delčevo. Dressed in their performance costumes they improvised a range of torso movements with full energy. Accompaniment was by "Ritmika," a percussion band of four drummers. Special awknowledgement goes to Ivona Opetčeska-Tatarčevska for her assistance in making contacts and arrangements with the Romani KUDs and their dancers. Photos of the evening demonstration are credited to Nick Green.

220 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ...

Bitola KUD Romalen Bair

Kumanovo KUD Rušit Šakir First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 221

Elsie Ivancich Dunin

Delčevo RKEC Ternipe MK 222 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ...

Struga KUD Kleopatra

Veles RITMIKA, percussion band Notes 1. In 1967 the United States Department of Health, Welfare and Education awarded Dunin a small contract grant to record dancing in social contexts among First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 223

Elsie Ivancich Dunin Gypsies in the Balkan countries.

2. A short movie clip of solo čoček dancing by the fifteen-year old in Veles was shown. The original 16mm film in 1967 had no sound, but the dancing was performed to the music from an audiotape recorded the night before while she danced in a small indoor space, 1967. A Labanotation description of čoček dancing was later prepared for an article in Makedonski folklor (see Dunin 1973:197-198).

3. The documentation of dance repertoire in Macedonia during 1988 was a preparatory step toward a book about dances in Macedonia. The publication project was initiated by the Kulturno Prosvjetni Sabor Hrvatske (Cultural Educational Council of Croatia) that was producing a series of books on costumes and of dances in all republics of (former) Yugoslavia. The 1991 war necessarily curtailed this publication project, but the collected dance data in Macedonia resulted in another volume by Dunin and Višinski 1995.

4. Since the 24-hour Romani televsion stations in Skopje, Šutel and BTR, are not strong enough to reach eastern Macedonia, the girls are not exposed to the dancing frequently seen in the Skopje area. But in eastern Macedonia they are able to watch television stations from Turkey and Bulgaria from where the Skopje Romani community has less exposure. Skopje, Kumanovo and Delčevo communities watch the Serbian "Pink" station that has many "show" programs with dancing.

5. On the web, there is a Portuguese language biographical page by Vivianne Cohen about Claudia Cenci: http://www.planetaarabe.com/materia_claudia.htm. Another webpage, in English, has a short notice about Censi as the teacher for O Clone: http://www.gildedserpent.com/articles21/brazilbdthania.htm.

Some of the dancer/teacher/performers in Brazil are part of an international network focused on Middle Eastern dance. For codified belly dance movements into particular styles, see websites by Yasmina: http://www.joyofbellydancing.com/bdstyle.htm and by Shira: http://www.shira.net/styles.htm.

6. A succinct description of the convoluted story line for O Clone may be found on the Wikipedia webpage: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Clone >.

References Barbosa, Elizabeth 2005 The Brazilian telenovela El Clon: an analysis of viewers' online vicarious and virutal learning experiences (doctoral dissertation). Boca Raton, Florida: Lynn University. (Entire text is online: http://www.floridabrasil.com/brazilian-soup-opera/index.html) Dunin, Elsie Ivancich 1973 "Čoček as a ritual dance among Gypsy women." Makedonski folklor 6(12):193-198. Skopje: Institute for Folklor.

2008 "Čoček in Macedonia, a forty-year overview." The Balkan Peninsula as a musical crossroad: Struga, Republic of Macedonia, 20-23 September 2007:115-125.

Skopje: SOKOM - Macedonian Composer's Association; BMIN - Balkan Music

224 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The “Cloning” of čoček in Macedonia ...

Information Network.

Dunin, Elsie Ivancich; Stanimir Višinski 1995 Dances in Macedonia, performance genre—Tanec; Orata vo Makedonija: scenski del—Tanec. Skopje: Tanec Ensemble.

Shira 2008 "Styles of belly dance in the United States, parts 1-3." The art of Middle Eastern Dance (by Shira). Online: http://www.shira.net/styles.htm Yasmina 2008 "The many styles of belly dance." Yasmina's joy of belly dancing.

Online: http://www.joyofbellydancing.com/bdstyle.htm

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 225

Elsie Ivancich Dunin

226 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

Ivanka Vlaeva, BULGARIA

MUSIC IN NORTHEASTERN BULGARIA IN 1950s AND 1960s – COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS The 1950s and 1960s are a specific period in the Bulgarian history as well as for the statement, development and research of folk music in Bulgaria. The changes in politics and economics have reflected on its existence and functioning. At that time the socialist ideology allot the very important role of the folk music (the so called narodna muzika in Bulgarian) in state politics as music of the common people – peasants and workers, which are a main factor in the strategies of the socialist state. Аmong the popular slogans at that time are: “art for the people”, “art nearer to the people”. Folk music becomes again a high quality mark in the socialist culture as well as two decades ago – in the 1930s, when the folklore was understood as a core for developing Bulgarian national musical style. The state helps in organization of a system for its safeguarding, promotion and development. One of the good sides of this politics is the founding and state financing (which in many cases is good financed) of state cultural institutions related to folk music. In this period was founded the Institute of Music (1948) Folk Songs and Dances State Ensemble (1951), Radio Sofia Folk Songs Ensemble (1951), High Music Pedagogic School (1964, now Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts), Secondary Music School Коtеl (1967, now Filip Koutev National School of Folk Arts) and many others. The mass interest to the folk music was tolerated. Vast music amateur movement and system of festivals have been established, which is not quite new at all. There are archival documents, which show that such kind of festivals was organized in 1950s – for example, The Festival of Peasant Amateur Movement in Community Centers has been carried out (Sofia, May 21-22, 1956)1. The regularity of festival network events starts in May 1960. Then the 1

Nikolai Kaufman, Scientific Archives (SА), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), folder 149, inventory 1799.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ivanka Vlaeva first new type folk fest took place in the village of Gramatikovo, organized not only as a kin or community meeting. The urbanization of the country, folk music professionalization and plenty of stage and media folklore events in Bulgaria helped in the process of folklore modernization2. In this period the folk culture of different communities had been researched. Many folklorists wrote and published materials of different regions of Bulgaria as a result of fieldwork and complex expeditions. A rich fund of archival materials, song collections and scientific studies had been collected. The state institutions lavishly helped and gave money with open hands. Common regional peculiarities of Bulgarian folk music had been extracted on the basis of local specifics.

To what extent are these regional characteristics and modernization typical for both Bulgarian and Turkish materials from Northeastern Bulgaria? This is one of the questions in the survey. It is a new topic in Bulgarian ethnomusicology.

Music folk characteristics of Northeastern Bulgaria First of all the ideas of music folk dialects in Bulgaria was realized by Vassil Stoin. This happened through the From Timok to Vita collection (Sofia, 1928)3.

Here are collected and published 4067 songs and instrumental melodies from Northwestern Bulgaria. The folklorist also used the concept music folk area in the introduction of the book. This concept is understood as musical peculiarities of a particular geographical region4. In the next decade song collections from other parts of Bulgaria were published – North Middle Bulgaria5, Rhodope Mountains6, Eastern and Western Thrace7. During the 1930s and 1940s Raina Katzarova developed this idea in her regional researches. All mentioned leads to the complex regional studies in the 1950s and 1960s. In this period other books were published, containing thousands of folk music samples originated from Outlying Parts of Western Bulgaria8, Northeastern Bulgaria9, etc. Elena Stoin rationalizes these problems later. She makes her general con2

About the modernization of folk music in Bulgaria see: Peycheva, Lozanka. Between the Village and the Universe: Old Folk Music from Bulgaria in New Times. Sofia: Akademichno izdatelstvo Professor Marin Drinov, 2008.

3 Stoin, Vassil (editor). Ot Timok do Vita [From Timok to Vita]. Sofia: Ministerstvo na narodnoto prosveshtenie, 1928.

4 Litova, Lidia. Bulgarska narodna muzika [Bulgarian folk Music]. Sofia: IK Svyat/Nauka, 2000, p. 7.

5 Stoin, Vassil (editor). Narodni pesni ot Sredna Severna Bulgaria [Folk Songs from North Middle Bulgaria]. Sofia: Ministerstvo na narodnoto prosveshtenie, 1931.

6 Stoin, Vassil. Rodopski pesni. Sbornik za narodni umotvorenia i narodopis [Rhodopian Songs.

Collection of folk works and ethnography]. Book ХХХІХ. Sofia: Bulgarska akademiya na naukite, 1934.

7 Stoin, Vassil. Bulgarski narodni pesni ot Iztochna i Zapadna Trakiya [Bulgarian folk songs from Eastern and Western Thrace]. Sofia: Trakiiski nauchen institut, 1939.

8 Stoin, Vassil. Narodni pesni ot Zapadnite pokrainini [Folk songs from the Western Outskirts].

Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1959.

9 Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (compilers). Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria [Folk songs from Northeastern Bulgaria}. Vol. I. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1962; Kachulev, Ivan (compiler). Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria [Folk songs from Northeastern Bulgaria}. Vol. II. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1973.

228 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ... clusions in a book named Music folk dialects in Bulgaria, published in 198110. In this book the folklorist systematizes the results of her vast field work experience and the large folk sample collections accumulated by Bulgarian folklorists through the 20th century. She generalizes the issues on the basis of thousands of published songs and instrumental melodies and these conclusions are fundamental for Bulgarian ethnomusicology.

Northeastern Bulgaria is one of the music folk areas, which is studied very thoroughly. There are different factors that influenced the creation of its culture.

Among them are demographic changes – movements and migrations of peoples11. In this way in the beginning of the 20th century the predominant part are Bulgarian Christians (locals and settlers from other parts of Bulgaria or abroad) as well as Bulgarian Mohammedans, Turks, Valachs, etc.

The first fundamental work, which reflects the state of musical folklore in this part of Bulgaria, is the collection Folk Songs from Northeastern Bulgaria. The fieldwork materials there are collected between 1928 and 1930 by Vassil Stoin, Ivan Kamburov and Pavel Stefanov. The first volume of the book (compilers Raina Katzarova, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin)12 was published in 1962 and contains 1376 musical samples. The second volume (compiler Ivan Kachulev) was published in 1973 and there are another 1485 samples, also written in notes during the fieldwork because of the missing recording techniques at that time13. The song functions, name of the folklorist who recorded the song, informant name and age, name of the village/town where the recording is from, etc., are noted in the collection. The applications are especially valuable. This practice began in the 1920s in the first song collection of this type – the above-mentioned From Timok to Vita. In these applications the basic characteristics of the songs are brought out – modes, scales, metre-and-rhythms, tone ranges, themes and also villages/towns from which the samples are recorded, and etc. Thus, these peculiarities give the possibility to make conclusions on main features of folk music of the region of Northeastern Bulgaria.

The analyses of these songs and other examples of Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from that time as well as the Elena Stoin’s generalizations on this topic give some concrete results. They can be systematized on some parameters. The conclusions show basic characteristics that are typical for the musical 10

Stoin, Elena. Muzikalno-folklorni dialekti v Bulgaria [Music folk dialects in Bulgaria]. Sofia: Muzika, 1981. About the role of the Stoins for the development of Bulgarian folk music dialects see: Peycheva, Lozanka and Ventsislav Dimov. “Paradigmite Stoin i ideite na bulgarskata folkloristika [The Paradigms Stoins and the ideas of Bulgarian folklore research].” – In: Ubileen sbornik 125 godini Vassil Stoin i 90 godini Elena Stoin.

Sofia: SBK – Sektziya “Muzikolozi”, 2005, p. 25-44; Peycheva, Lozanka and Ventsislav Dimov. “Future in the Past – The Stoins as Paradigms in Bulgarian ethnomusicology.” – In: Vienna and the Balkans: Papers from the 39th World Conference of the ICTM, Vienna 2007. Bulgarian Musicology. Studies. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2008, p. 40-49.

11 Stoin, Elena. Ibid., 319-321; Hadzhinikolov, Vesselin (editor). Etnografia na Bulgaria [Ethnography of Bulgaria]. Vol. I. Sofia: BAN, 1980, p. 255-259.

12 Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (compilers). Ibid.

13 Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (compilers). Ibid., p. 3.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 229

Ivanka Vlaeva style of Northeastern Bulgaria14. The most repeated structures and elements are accepted as typical. This systematization is representative of the basic regularities, but as all such structures it can not exclude other marked tendencies, exceptions and influences – it means that it is not absolute, final and static.

There are many factors which reflect on the size and character of the recordings in the studied period. I will mark only some of them. On the one hand, the researchers have not enough techniques and tapes. For that reason, the folklorists record musical samples by ear and they are not the most difficult in many cases. Also the repertoire of the folk performers was written partially – often only a couplet. On the other hand, considerable part of the archival materials from and after 1960s is collected during the folk fests (called sabori in Bulgarian). There are some written instructions about selection and evaluation of the folk music in them. Precondition for this are the foundation of state institutions, connected with the folklore, and a system of folk festivals. A copy of such directions from 1965 was saved15. It is attached to the file with materials from Kapanski Fest16 in the village of Ezerche, the region of Razgrad, from June 1965. The folklore in the festival was shown in some types of activities. They are: 1. individual singers and groups for folk singing; 2. instrumentalist and instrumental ensembles; 3. dancers and folk dance groups; 4. groups, performing customs; 5. folk costumes. This is intermediate division in music folk types which are shown and evaluated during the folk festivals. At first in the 1960s singers, instrumentalists and customs were presented in separate categories, but in the 1970s there were regional divisions17. According to the quoted directions the most valuable are the singers with good voice and originality; instrumentalist who play distinctive melodies skillfully; dancers who present typical local dances; groups which perform artistically authentic customs; and old artistic national costumes as a set. It is possible the indicated criteria to reflect on the next folk music presentations and selections at the folk festivals as well as boosting a certain repertoire.

In the 1950s and 1960s traditionally women and men sang in Northeastern Bulgaria, but only men played the instruments as well as in other parts of Bulgaria.

Male singing – the so called koledarski pesni, is very typical at Christmas (Koleda).

The singing is one-part – individual and in groups and in some cases with accompani-

14

During the last few years the Institute of Folklore – BAS worked out a nomenclature about traditional folk crafts and abilities in Bulgaria in the different geographical regions.

This is part of Intangible Heritage of Humanity UNESCO project See. Zhivi choveshki sakrovishta – Bulgaria [Intangible Heritage of Humanity – Bulgaria]. Sofia: Professor Marin Drinov Academic Publishing House, 2004; www.treasures-bulgaria.com (21.08.2008); About the nomenclature of traditional singing and instrumental performance see: Kaufman, Dimitrina i Lozanka Peycheva. “Traditional Singing and Instrumental Performance.”

In: http://www.treasures.eubcc/main.php?act=html&file=analiz.html (17.07.2006).

15 SA, BAS, folder 233, inventory 3865-3868.

16 Kapanski – with music of kapantzi. Kapantzi is one of the three basic groups of local population in Northeastern Bulgaria and especially in the regions of Razgrad and Popovo.

17 Peycheva, Lozanka. Between the Village and the Universe…, Ibid., p. 208.

230 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ... ment of kaval18 or gadulka19, only the settlers of Southwestern Bulgaria use tambura20.

Widespread instruments21 are gadulka, kaval, gaida22. As a result of the process of modernization some instruments like violin (called “brashofka” in the region of Razgrad23), accordion and clarinet are in use. There is a great variety of subjects in song texts: family, mythological, about customs, religious, historical, heroic, humorous, about the nature, etc. Most of the analyzed samples are love songs24. Following the Bulgarian tradition from the 19th century the folklorists record the functionality of music samples, i.e. when (in which occasions they are performed). The statistics shows that most of the records at that time are dance music. These are songs and melodies, which accompany dances for entertainment and this fact documents the changes in the style of living and also in the music. The next in numbers are custom samples. Predominant among them are male koledarski pesni (Christmas carols) and also female lazarski pesni (St. Lazar’s songs) – main male and female initiation songs. The other numerous groups of songs and instrumental performances are wedding and labour songs. The researchers comment that some customs like koleduvane (at Christmas) and lazaruvane (at St. Lazar’s day) are preserved in the northeastern part of Bulgaria in contrast to many other regions of the country and this helps the preservation of many samples of them25.

I have to mention another group of a new type of songs26. Usually their musical construction is built in a traditional way like traditional songs, but the subject and the texts are new. They are revolutionary, partisan, about socialist construction and socialist leaders, etc. The existence of these songs is documented in song collections and they are a testimony for the epoch and also for changes in the social, political and economic life in Bulgaria. I will cite two editions from 1950s – Narodni partizanski pesni 1923-1944 (Folk Partizan Songs 1923-1944)27 and Bulgarski savremenni narodni pesni (Bulgarian contemporary folk songs)28. Their collection is a fieldwork result of the scientists in the Institute of Music – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (now 18 19 20 21

Kaval – wind instrument, type of flute.

Gadulka – bowed string instrument.

Tambura – string instrument, type of lute with long neck.

Kachulev, Ivan. “Narodni muzikalni instrumenti v Dobrudzha [Folk musical instruments in Dobrudzha].” – In: Penkov, Ivan and Kiril Krastev (editors). Kompleksna nauchna dobrudzhanska ekspeditsiya prez 1954 g. [Complex scientific Dobrudzha expedition in 1954]. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bulgarskata akademiya na naukite, 1956, p. 164.

22 Gaida – wind instrument, type of Bulgarian bagpipe.

23 The violin was called brashofka under the name of the town of Brashov (Romania), where it was carried over. Kachulev, Ivan. “Narodni muzikalni instrumenti v Dobrudzha…”, Ibid.., p. 164.

24 See for example Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (compilers). Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria…, Ibid., p. 709.

25 Stoin, Elena. Muzikalno-folklorni dialekti v Bulgaria., Ibid., p. 321.

26 Stoin, Elena. “Savremennata bulgarska narodna pesen [Contemporary Bulgarian folk song].” – In: Izvestiya na Instituta za muzika [Bulletin of the Institute of Music]. Book 1. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1952, p. 125-146.

27 Stoin, Elena (compiler). Narodni partizanski pesni 1923-1944 [Folk partizan songs 1923-1944]. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1955.

28 Stoin, Elena and Ivan Kachulev (compilers). Bulgarski savremenni narodni pesni [Bulgarian contemporary folk songs]. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1958.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 231

Ivanka Vlaeva Institute of Art Studies)29. Despite the fact that most of these songs are from Northwestern and Southern Bulgaria, where they were created, there are also samples from the Northeastern part of the country.

When I analyze modes30 in the above-mentioned samples I can conclude that the diatonic is predominant in the Northeastern folk music31. Most of the songs are in Aeolian mode. Next are the samples in Ionian, Phrygian and rarely Dorian tetrachord/pentachord (or mode when the song is in the octave range or more). The samples with rich ornamentation have a larger tone range. They often are in parlando rubato (the so called bezmenzurni songs in Bulgaria) and in slow tempo. Among the chromatic modes the most widespread is hidjas with hiatus between the 2nd and the 3rd mode degree (it is the most used chromatic mode all over Bulgaria). Kardjagar with hiatus between the 5th and the 6th degree is also used.

There is a wide variety of metre-and-rhythms, but the most widespread are the songs in 2/4 time. The samples in rubato rhythm are next in numbers. There are irregular (uneven, asymmetrical, additive) metre-and-rhythms. More often in use are 5/16 time (2+3) and 7/16 time (in groups of 2+2+3 and rarely 3+2+2). From the other irregular metre-and-rhythms there are used 8 equal pulses (3+2+3) and 9 equal pulses (2+2+2+3 and 2+3+2+2). This and other statistics in different regions in Bulgaria are a basis for Elena Stoin’s conclusion that the irregular times become smaller in their variety and in their quantity from west to east32.

The Comparisons Now when I go back to the archival documents33 from the Northeastern Bulgaria recorded during the 1950s and 1960s I find out that they widely present the musical folk culture. Then the folklorists collected music from dozens of villages and towns. The records in some of them are made in different years and by many researchers. Because of the regional specifics characterized by many movements of the population through the centuries the specialists documented Bulgarian local and brought in music and also Turkish materials. It is known that each village has its own peculiarities and they help make a generalization about common characteristics for smaller and bigger regions. One of them is Northeastern Bulgaria. Other questions ari29 30

Stoin, Elena and Ivan Kachulev, Ibid., p. 215.

The system of Stoian Djoudjeff is used in Bulgaria. See. Djoudjeff, Stoian. Teoria na bulgarskata narodna muzika [A Theory of the Bulgarian folk music]. Vol. І. Sofia, 1954. In the current study the modes with hiatus were classified by using Djoudjeff’s system, but other modes are according to Glarean like the analyses in the cited volumes Folk songs from Northeastern Bulgaria. On the contrary, Djoudjeff uses the ancient Greek mode classification. About hidjas and kardjagar modes in the theory of Turkish folk music see: Markoff, Irene. “Aspects of Turkish Folk Music Theory.” – In: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 6. New York and London: Routledge, 2002, p. 77-88.

31 Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin. (compilers) Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria…, Ibid., p. 682-688; Kachulev, Ivan. (compiler) Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria…, Ibid., p. 752-760.

32 Stoin, Elena. Muzikalno-folklorni dialekti v Bulgaria…, Ibid., p. 351-352.

33 Documents from the Scientific Archives, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

232 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ... se: Are there common features between different communities who live together in the same musical folk region and also in one place? What unifies them? Are there differences?

In a search of the answers I tried to find both Bulgarian and Turkish records from one and the same place in Northeastern Bulgaria documented in 1950s and 1960s. I used materials from the Folklore Festival of the Turkish Population in the Ludogorie Region. The festival was held on October 1-2, 1966, in the village of Brestovene in the region of Razgrad. This festival is the most fully documented at the Scientific Archives, BAS34. Folk music from over 40 villages is recorded in these archival materials35. The main part of them is recordings and song texts. Unfortunately there aren’t sound recordings for some of the written text samples as well as the opposite. I searched materials from the above-mentioned villages in the other archival folders and also in the above-mentioned volumes of Northeastern Bulgaria. (In this edition there are only songs from 3 of the above-mentioned villages in the region of Razgrad – Malak porovetz, Zavet and Tetovo.) At this stage of my study I found out archival documents recorded in 17 of all 40 villages – both Bulgarian and Turkish. Only part of them is from the 1950s and 1960s – materials from 9 of the 17 mentioned places36. There I found out mainly inventories and song texts, because only few are recordings on magnet tapes. They give partial information – for example, about functionality, subjects, instruments and performers. For that reason I directed my attention mainly to recordings of some villages37. They are made in the villages of Rakovski, Sevar, Loznitza, Brestovene, Zavet (now a town), Piperkovo and Gorna Hubavka. These are the so called Turkish recordings. The name shows mainly the language of the song texts. The comparisons between their analyzed parameters and analogous parameters for the whole region of Northeastern Bulgaria will show if there are common characteristics between the folk music of different communities there.

In the Turkish records from the above-mentioned villages women and men sing predominantly one-part songs individually in the 50 analyzed recordings.

Only in one of the samples two women sing together (from the village of Zavet) and in another “Arsu ile Kamber” (from the village of Sevar) consecutively sing a woman and 34 35

Liondev, Petar. SA, BAS, folder 247, inventory 4171-4215.

For the festival see: Vlaeva, Ivanka. “Hybridity in Turkish Recordings from the 1960s in Bulgaria.” In: The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “Music and Minorities” in Varna, Bulgaria 2006.

Bulgarian Musicology. Studies. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, 2008, 36-42.

36 These villages are: Nozharevo – Petar Liondev, SА, BAS, folder 233, inventory 3851, 1965; Rakovski – Elena Stoin, SА, BAS, folder 194, inventory 2825, 1960; Sevar – Nikolai Kaufman, SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1806, 1957; Ezerche – Petar Liondev, SА, BAS, folder 233, inventory 3865, 1965; Zhelyazkovetz – Iliya Iliev, SА, BAS, folder 104, inventory 1089, 1954; Glodzhevo – Petar Liondev, SА, BAS, folder 239, inventory 4025, 1965; Dyankovo – Elena Stoin, SА, BAS, folder 274а, inventory 5041, 1969; Tetovo – Todor Todorov, SА, BAS, folder 236, inventory 3965, 1965; Gorna Hubavka – Nikolai Kaufman, SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1799, 1956 and Nikolai Kaufman, SА, BAS, folder 150, inventory 1811, 1960.

37 The access to the Musical Folklore Archives at the Institute of Art Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (part of the Scientific Archives of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) is limited in the last year because of its movement in another building and stock-taking.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 233

Ivanka Vlaeva a man, because the text is dialogic. In two recordings pairs of men sing in unison in other villages. Some of the songs have saz accompaniment38. Male performers play the saz. Most of the recordings with saz accompaniment are from the village of Sevar.

There live kazalbashi (called also aliyani in the region39 ) and the instrument saz is very typical for their music. Usually the texture of saz melodies is polyphonic. A specific rhythm and a perfect fourth played on the lowest two strings are used. I have to mention that some different saz tunings are registered in the 1950s and 1960s. Ivan Kachulev recorded a tuning of a four-stringed saz in Sevar during the Complex Dobrudzha expedition 1954 – g-g-g-d. In the village of Gorna Hubavka Nikolai Kaufman40 wrote up the tuning of nine-stringed saz (from Kolarovgrad – now Shumen) in his fieldwork notebook. The tuning is d2-a1-d1 (it is possible that the instrument sounded an octave lower). During the above-mentioned festival of Razgrad region in 1966 Petar Liondev recorded a saz performer of the village of Vladimirovtzi and his tuning. The voice of Ivan Kachulev announces each string in this record – g-g-c-f. This diversity reflects on the popularity of this instrument and also the different local tunings and string numbers. Darbuka (tarabuka)41 in ensemble with saz is used in some cases.

In other archival recordings percussions are heard – daire, zilli masha, tapan. Other instruments used in the analyzed examples are accordion and violin (which follows models typical for the folk instrument gadulka), and also clarinet.

These instruments, the ensemble accompaniment and also the choir refrain (in recordings from the village of Gorna Hubavka42) are a result of the modernization of folk music in this part of Bulgaria. The scientist organologist Ivan Kachulev draws attention to this fact as early as the 1960s43. Nikolai Kaufman also documents this fact and writes in fieldwork notes: „27.02.1960. There is a “team” in the village of Gorna Hubavka – sazes, tamburas, etc. and a choir of men. [They] sing non-arranged local songs and Turkish songs from other areas. The team consists of 50 people”. Some years later in a Razgrad festival Hatidzhe Ahmedova sings with an ensemble accompaniment, in which accordion and clarinet are solo instruments44.

The themes of the music in the mentioned villages as well as in others are various. Love songs take a large part. Family related songs, religious, ritual, about gurbet and about the nature take place together with them. Their function was marked rarely – in few of the samples. It becomes clear from the fieldwork notes that some of these songs are a part of religious rituals – for example, the kazalbash singing of nefes, 38 39 40 41

Saz („bugaria” or “baalama”) – string instrument, type of lute with a long neck.

Aliyani (aliani) – alevi.

Kaufman, Nikolai, SА, BAS, folder 150, inventory 1811.

Tarabuka – goblet shaped membranophone, called darabuka in the region of Razgrad and tarambuka in other parts of Bulgaria.

42 Kaufman, Nikolai, SА, BAS, folder 150, inventory 1811.

43 Ivan Kachulev – “A Tour of Ivan Kachulev in the Regions of Razgrad, Shumen, Targovishte, Omurtag and Sliven in Connection with the Zurnas and the Other Folk Instruments of the Minority Turkish Population (November 8-18, 1969).” The material is cited according to the publication of Margarita Popova. See: Popova, Margarita. “Materiali na Ivan Kachulev v Muzikalnofolklorniya arhiv na Instituta za izkustvoznanie – BAN [Materials of Ivan Kachulev in the Musical Folklore Archives of the Institute of Art Studies – BAS].” Bulgarsko musikoznanie [Bulgarian Musicology], 2006, 4, p. 5-82.

44 Petar Liondev, SА, BAS, tape PL 122-123.

234 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ... which was recorded in the village of Sevar. Another archival records mark festivities during the Bayram. “Ramazan manileri” (“Maanes for Ramazan”), recorded in the village of Hlebarovo is part of the religious patterns. It is performed with an accompaniment of tapan before sunrise during the Bayram fasting, Unfortunately the documented by Nikolai Kaufman Bayram recordings in the village of Sevar in 195745 are recorded on records and at the moment it is impossible to use them. Songs from the wedding ritual cycle are noted in the documents of the same fieldwork studies in 1957 and also in the recordings of the Razgrad festival in 1966. They are performed in different parts of the wedding ceremony. There is documented music from the village of Sevar in the following moments: „when the bride dances at the wedding” (Nikolai Kaufman wrote that the dance was called “sekmedzhik”)46, „when the mother-in-low dances the same dance”, but with another text as well as “wedding horo-dance”, (with the name „аyaк оyunu”), Recorded songs from the village of Sevar were sung during the wedding procession47.

There is also a new type of songs as themes and contents in the mentioned archival material from the village of Sevar (1957). For example, there is a recorded song text about Stalin48, and also a partizan song – both in Turkish language. In the text of this partizan song Pirin (a mountain, which is in the Southwestern part of Bulgaria) is mentioned. The informant answers the question of the folklorist Nikolai Kaufman – where does he know this song from, that this song was sung in their village, but he does not know more details. These songs are documents of the time and they reflect the changes in the political and social live of the peoples. The changes are nation-wide and they influence different communities and their musical culture. At the same time many samples as the mentioned ones are recorded mainly in South, Northwestern and Southwestern Bulgaria, because these regions are the places of partizan movement during the Second World War. Historical events influence the creation of new models, which reflect the present day.

Among the most important musical elements, which characterized music, are connected with the mode and metre-and-rhythm. After mode analysis it is possible to make a conclusion that diatonic is basic in the analyzed recordings from Razgrad festival in 1966. Most of the songs are in Aeolian mode. Next in numbers are samples in Ionian and Phrygian mode. Hidjas is most used among the chromatic modes and kardjagar is not so used. The metre-and-rhythm statistics on the same songs shows that 2/4 time is predominant and the half of all analyzed songs is in this meter. Second in numbers are the so called bezmenzurni songs (in parlando rubato) and they are one fourth of all samples. 7/8 time (in groups of 2+2+3 and 3+2+2), 9/8 time (2+2+2+3) are used most frequеntly from the irregular (asymmetric) meters. There is also a hete45 46

Kaufman, Nikolai, SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1806.

The text is about a girl who becomes a bride and is sad. Kaufman, Nikolai, SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1806.

47 Petar Liondev, SА, BAS, folder 247, inventory 4176.

48 In the cited edition Bulgarian contemporary folk songs samples from the same period are recorded and there are analogous subjects. Songs about Georgi Dimitrov – the hero antifascist from Leipzig, are a special part in it. Georgi Dimitrov is the first government leader in Bulgaria after the socialist revolution 1944.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 235

Ivanka Vlaeva rometrical row (non-regular combination of different meters) in the song from the village of Rakovski.

Conclusion I received definite results after the analysis and comparison of concrete indexes. The researched parameters are: who sings and plays the instrument (sex, age, profession), in what way are the singing and playing the instrument (individual or in ensemble, monophonic or polyphonic), song accompaniment (type, in which occasions), instruments (type of instruments and ensembles), subjects of the song texts, functionality, modes and elements of melody structure (mode, tone range, ornamentation), metre-and-rhythm.

In the 1950s and 1960s the sex differentiation in musical performances is valid for both groups of materials – Bulgarian and Turkish. Women and men sing, but only men play the instruments. They are from different ages, have different educational and social status. The oldest informants received a special attention as bearers of older and more authentic tradition. The singing is monophonic – individual or in groups who sing in unison. This is a common peculiarity for the whole region of Northwestern Bulgaria. Some of the songs have instrumental accompaniment. Traditionally in the Bulgarian materials these are gadulka, kaval and gaida49 while for the Turkish samples – saz, darbuka, daire, zilli masha, rarely kaval or a pair of kavals. It is possible that this instrumental differentiation is connected with the confession of each community. According to traditional Koran interpretations by different religious schools wind and string instruments provoke sinful emotions. The treatment of percussions is more favourable, because traditionally they are used during the pilgrimage (hadj). Maybe for that reason the saz is more typical for heterodox Muslims – the kazalbashes and orthodox Muslims play predominantly percussions as an accompaniment. The instruments under the western influence as accordion, clarinet and violin are used by both communities. In spite of the text subjects love songs and family related songs are the most popular for Bulgarian and also for the Turkish records. This fact reflects the first-rate place of the common in all mankind (universal) subjects in the folk culture. Records of new folk songs – partizan, about the leaders of the socialist period, etc. show that the new political circumstances have influenced everywhere and everyone. The parallels of the song functions in a context between both groups of materials in Northeastern Bulgaria are more difficult. Some groups of songs are clearly divided in Bulgarian materials. They are: ritual (calendar and family), labour (indoors and outdoors), entertaining (at the horo-dance and at the table/trapezni). The calendar ritual koledarski (Christmas songs) and lazarski songs (St. Lazar’s day songs) predominate from the calendar ritual group and the wedding songs – from the family ritual. Most of the labour songs are zhetvarski (at harvest-time) and sedenkarski (at working bee). There are also records of trapezni (at the table) and horovodni (at horo-dance). I found out information only about ritual music in the studied Turkish samples. Most of the notes are about Bayram songs and 49

The gadulka is more used in the northern parts while the gaida – in the southeastern music folk area.

236 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ... next in numbers are these sung at hadrelez or sayadzhalar. All recorded family ritual patterns are wedding ones. Concerning the mode diatonic is predominant in both groups of materials. Aeolian, Ionian, Phrygian and rarely Dorian tetrachord/pentachord/mode are typical. Elena Stoin writes that the songs in Northeastern Bulgaria have larger ambitus (octave or more than octave), more complicated melodies and richer ornaments – especially for the songs in rubato rhythm50. These are the main characteristics of analyzed Turkish recordings, too. The most significant chromatic mode in both Bulgarian and Turkish materials is hidjas with hiatus between the 2nd and the 3rd degree of the scale. The other chromatic mode kardjagar with hiatus between the 5th and the 6th degree is not so used. The most popular meter for both groups of documents is 2/4. The next in numbers are the songs in parlando rubato. Irregular (asymmetric) meters of 5 equal pulses (2+3) and 7 equal pulses (2+2+3 and 3+2+2) are widespread in Bulgarian patterns. Less in these samples are meters of 8 equal pulses organized in groups of (3+2+3) and 9 equal pulses (2+2+2+3 and 2+3+2+2). In the Turkish patterns at this stage of work are analyzed 7/8 (2+2+3 and 3+2+2) and 9/8 (2+2+2+3), but meters of 5 and 8 pulses are not found out, which does not discount the possibility of their usage.

I can conclude that most of the basic parameters of the analyzed patterns in this study are the same. The differences are probably connected with the confession of both communities – Christianity and Islam (orthodox and heterodox). They have a reflection on the music of the important religious festivities as function, text, instruments. These conclusions are based on certain fund of materials, which will be enlarged with more documents and analysis, but at this stage I can generalize that there are many common features in the both documented Bulgarian and Turkish musical samples.

The Balkans was shaped historically as a mosaic of many communities.

This variegation is especially clear in the border regions and those who periodically move from one to another country. These historical and demographical changes influence the culture. Therefore, large comparative research based on many sources and from different points of view is necessary as well as international professional joint team work for next studies of one and the same subject.

50Stoin,

Elena. Muzikalno-folklorni dialekti v Bulgaria…, Ibid., p. 363.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 237

Ivanka Vlaeva References Djoudjeff, Stoian. Teoria na bulgarskata narodna muzika [A Theory of the Bulgarian folk music]. Vol. І. Sofia, 1954.

Hadzhinikolov, Vesselin (editor). Etnografia na Bulgaria [Ethnography of Bulgaria].

Vol. I. Sofia: BAN, 1980.

Litova, Lidia. Bulgarska narodna muzika [Bulgarian folk Music]. Sofia: IK Svyat/Nauka, 2000.

Peycheva, Lozanka. Between the Village and the Universe: Old Folk Music from Bulgaria in New Times. Sofia: Akademichno izdatelstvo Professor Marin Drinov, 2008.

Peycheva, Lozanka and Ventsislav Dimov. “Future in the Past – The Stoins as Paradigms in Bulgarian ethnomusicology.” – In: Vienna and the Balkans: Papers from the 39th World Conference of the ICTM, Vienna 2007. Bulgarian Musicology. Studies. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2008, p. 40-49.

Peycheva, Lozanka and Ventsislav Dimov. “Paradigmite Stoin i ideite na bulgarskata folkloristika [The Paradigms Stoins and the ideas of Bulgarian folklore research].” – In: Ubileen sbornik 125 godini Vassil Stoin i 90 godini Elena Stoin.

Sofia: SBK – Sektziya “Muzikolozi”, 2005, p. 25-44.

Katzarova, Raina, Ivan Kachulev and Elena Stoin (compilers). Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria [Folk songs from Northeastern Bulgaria}. Vol. I. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1962.

Kachulev, Ivan. “Narodni muzikalni instrumenti v Dobrudzha [Folk musical instruments in Dobrudzha].” – In: Penkov, Ivan and Kiril Krastev (editors).

Kompleksna nauchna dobrudzhanska ekspeditsiya prez 1954 g. [Complex scientific Dobrudzha expedition in 1954]. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bulgarskata akademiya na naukite, 1956, p. 163-176.

Kachulev, Ivan (compiler). Narodni pesni ot Severoiztochna Bulgaria [Folk songs from Northeastern Bulgaria}. Vol. II. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1973.

Kachulev, Ivan. “A Tour of Ivan Kachulev in the Regions of Razgrad, Shumen, Targovishte, Omurtag and Sliven in Connection with the Zurnas and the Other Folk Instruments of the Minority Turkish Population (November 8-18, 1969).” – In: Popova, Margarita. “Materiali na Ivan Kachulev v Muzikalnofolklorniya arhiv na Instituta za izkustvoznanie – BAN [Materials of Ivan Kachulev in the Musical Folklore Archives of the Institute of Art Studies – BAS].” Bulgarsko musikoznanie [Bulgarian Musicology], 2006, 4, p. 5-82.

Kaufman, Dimitrina i Lozanka Peycheva. “Traditional Singing and Instrumental Performance.”

– In: http://www.treasures.eubcc/main.php?act=html&file=analiz.html (17.07.2006).

Markoff, Irene. “Aspects of Turkish Folk Music Theory.” – In: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 6. New York and London: Routledge, 2002, p. 77-88.

Stoin, Elena. Muzikalno-folklorni dialekti v Bulgaria [Music folk dialects in Bulgaria].

238 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Music in northeastern Bulgaria in 1950s and 1960s ...

Sofia: Muzika, 1981.

Stoin, Elena (compiler). Narodni partizanski pesni 1923-1944 [Folk partizan songs 1923-1944]. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1955.

Stoin, Elena. “Savremennata bulgarska narodna pesen [Contemporary Bulgarian folk song].” – In: Izvestiya na Instituta za muzika [Bulletin of the Institute of Music].

Book 1. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1952, p. 125-146.

Stoin, Elena and Ivan Kachulev (compilers). Bulgarski savremenni narodni pesni [Bulgarian contemporary folk songs]. Sofia: Izdanie na BAN, 1958.

Stoin, Vassil. Bulgarski narodni pesni ot Iztochna i Zapadna Trakiya [Bulgarian folk songs from Eastern and Western Thrace]. Sofia: Trakiiski nauchen institut, 1939.

Stoin, Vassil. Narodni pesni ot Zapadnite pokrainini [Folk songs from the Western Outskirts]. Sofia: Izdatelstvo na BAN, 1959.

Stoin, Vassil (editor). Narodni pesni ot Sredna Severna Bulgaria [Folk Songs from North Middle Bulgaria]. Sofia: Ministerstvo na narodnoto prosveshtenie, 1931.

Stoin, Vassil. Rodopski pesni. Sbornik za narodni umotvorenia i narodopis [Rhodopian Songs. Collection of folk works and ethnography]. Book ХХХІХ. Sofia: Bulgarska akademiya na naukite, 1934.

Stoin, Vassil (editor). Ot Timok do Vita [From Timok to Vita]. Sofia: Ministerstvo na narodnoto prosveshtenie, 1928.

Vlaeva, Ivanka. “Hybridity in Turkish Recordings from the 1960s in Bulgaria.” In: The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “Music and Minorities” in Varna, Bulgaria 2006.

Bulgarian Musicology. Studies. Sofia: Institute of Art Studies, 2008, 36-42.

Zhivi choveshki sakrovishta – Bulgaria [Intangible Heritage of Humanity – Bulgaria].

Sofia: Professor Marin Drinov Academic Publishing House, 2004; Zhivi choveshki sakrovishta – Bulgaria [Intangible Heritage of Humanity – Bulgaria].

– In: www.treasures-bulgaria.com (21.08.2008).

Archive Material Iliev, Iliya. Scientific Archives (SА), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), folder 104, inventory 1089, 1954.

Kaufman, Nikolai. SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1799, 1956.

Kaufman, Nikolai. SА, BAS, folder 149, inventory 1806, 1957.

Kaufman, Nikolai. SА, BAS, folder 150, inventory 1811, 1960.

Liondev, Petar. SА, BAS, folder 233, inventory 3851, 1965.

Liondev, Petar. SA, BAS, folder 233, inventory 3865-3868, 1965.

Liondev, Petar. SА, BAS, folder 239, inventory 4025, 1965.

Liondev, Petar. SA, BAS, folder 247, inventory 4171-4215, 1966.

Liondev, Petar. SА, BAS, tape PL 122-123, 1966.

Stoin, Elena. SА, BAS, folder 194, inventory 2825, 1960.

Stoin, Elena. SА, BAS, folder 274а, inventory 5041, 1969.

Todorov, Todor. SА, BAS, folder 236, inventory 3965, 1965.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 239

Ivanka Vlaeva

240 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

ENO KOÇO ­ Albania THE PRESERVATION OF AN ANCIENT TRADITION IN THE ARBËRESH ECCLESIASTICAL AND SECULAR MUSICAL PRACTICE AND FATHER LORENZO TARDO1 THE ARBËRESH BYZANTINE MUSICAL LITURGY Arbëresh, or Italo-Albanians, are the Albanian-speaking population in parts of southern Italy, the descendants of the 15th century refugees from the Balkans.

Maintaining their native culture and language, they now populate about 50 villages in Southern Italy. The oral tradition of the Arbëresh liturgical chants it can be said that it is based on the classical Byzantine, medieval style of chant, without “heterogeneous influxes”, as Father Lorenzo Tardo of the Abbey of Grottaferrata puts it, or other Ottoman expressive devices and musical effects such as “lamenting trills, guttural pulsations, nasal paraphoniae and nostalgic dirges” (Tardo 1938, 100). The Arbëresh possess a considerable patrimony of this repertoire, which even today is still transmitted orally.

At the present time the liturgy is sung in Albanian and Italian as well as the traditional Greek. In order to make the understanding of the text of the liturgy easier, in 1968 it was decreed that the use of the Albanian language should be substituted (although not totally) for the Greek language. Scaldaferri’s view is that “this obviously will provoke the abandoning of even the most recent forms of the modern Byzantine chant in Greek.

The most problematic situation encountered today”, according to him, “is in the Eparchy of Lungro where the very old liturgy has been completely substituted with that in Albanian and with music adapted from the modern Byzantine chant” (Scaldaferri 2000, 294). On the same language issue, Garofalo writes that “until few decades ago songs were sung only in Greek. Different translations into Italian and Albanian were used only recently. Believers (who generally do not know Greek) usually read editions in 1

This study has been kindly supported by research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Eno Koço Greek transliterated into Roman type with parallel translation into Italian” (Garofalo 2004, 276).

The Byzantine chant of the Arbëresh of Sicily is still perceived as not archaic or exotic, but as a living occurrence and developed with the consent of the local people, Sicilians, who have shown tolerance and sympathy for diversities. Tardo’s L’Antica melurgia bizantina is an important reference for Classical Byzantine music (from the 9th to the 15th century) and many recordings of these chants use Tardo’s theoretical investigation, which is meticulously examined in his book. He also referred to the Neo-Byzantine theory (from roughly the 15th century to the present day) concentrating predominantly on the “Chrysanthine” reform.2 Tardo based his musical grammar of Byzantine chants on the “ancient and modern” reading, classical form and Chrysanthus reform; the latter codification showed strong Ottoman influence. Tardo appears to disapprove some of Chrysanthus’ proposals presented in his Theory, among others, the note signs such as endófonon (endophonon), which he describes as performance styles of “an inner or nasal voice”, or rinofonia3 “an obvious anti-esthetical expression”. According to Tardo, these devices “do not exist either in any of the ancient codices or in the small but numerous theory texts of Byzantine music manuscripts” (Tardo 1938, 100).

The new Ottoman expressive qualities incorporated in the Byzantine chant, such as the small inflections and fluctuations in the intonation, Tardo did not perceive them as an enrichment of the flexibility of the voice or a conscious means of expression. It should be stressed that for strong ideological motifs, Chrysanthus’ approach attempted to provide a link between the genera of the ancient Greek music and Neo-Byzantine music; however, correspondences to Ottoman makams were also assigned in his Theory. Leaving aside distinctions between their theoretical organisations, the resemblance of modal systems and audible features of Byzantine and Ottoman modes is striking. This is because of the long co-existence in the same geographical area of Byzantine music and Ottoman court (classical) music.

Tardo makes clear that the Orthodox Albania of the 1930s certainly adopted the system and the chant of its neighbouring country, Greece, based on written or printed music of the post-Byzantine period. He points out that the Serbian, Romanian and other peoples of the Balkans, as well as the Albanian people, have long since adopted the liturgical music of the present day Oriental Greece altering it with the “polyphonic superstructures of anachronistic type” (Tardo 1938, XV). The following audio example is an Apolytikion (Greek: πολυτίκιον) or Dismissal Hymn, sung by the Byzantine Choir “Saint John Koukouzel” of the Church of Albania. It is recorded in 2005 and it clearly shows a Greek approach where, as opposed to the Arbëresh approach, the excessive articulation of words and rhythmic pulsating syllables take special priority (Audio Example 1, “While the stone was sealed by the Jews . . .”, First Tone).

However, Tardo is more interested in the Byzantine orally transmitted 2 It should be pointed out that what Tardo named as “Neo-Byzantine” notation, the post-WWII 3

musicology (Wellesz, Velimirović) termed “Middle Byzantine”.

Rinofonia (rhinophonia) is an alteration of the voice characterized by nasalization of sounds.

242 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Preservation of an Ancient Tradition ... chants, as he states: All of these Byzantine songs, used before in Albania, in Morea, in the Near East, and then transmitted and jealously preserved (as perhaps being something sacred and rather exaggerated) in the new places of Sicily, represent a monument of an incomparable value that, for their unaltered tradition, give a great prominence to the Byzantine melurgical art. The liturgical melodies, in their general complexity, belong to the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th.

The Albanians, loathing their Muslim slavery, left their homeland soil, not taking with them the ultimate musical pattern of Constantinople, or the scholarly and wise art of the refined protopsalti, but rather a provincial, mountainous and archaic tradition (Tardo 1938, 111).

In the 1930s Tardo made an appeal to the Byzantine world by stating that the classical Byzantine tradition should not be considered as being entirely lost, as certain songs still survive among the Greco-Albanian community of Sicily.

THE VOCAL ISON “QUESTION” “In the Oriental Church”, Tardo states, “the ison is traditionally conserved and it is of a very ancient origin”. He makes an assumption on how the ison was perceived and sung since the time of the great Fathers of Eastern Church, St Basil (4th century), St John Chrysostom (4th-5th centuries) and St Sophronius (6th century). The influence of the Byzantine Empire on Italy in the early middle ages was evident and the Roman Church referred to Byzantine chants for some of their theoretical and performance aspects. With regard to the ison practice, there are some contemporary theories which suggest that the ison, as Tardo also believes, was used in medieval Italy.

“On the practice of this kind of ison, that is the sotto voce chord, memories are preserved also in Rome. When the Greek colony was flourishing, the Greek chants alternated with the Latin ones, not only in the liturgical but also extra-liturgical functions” (Tardo 1938, 392). Based on the verses of the Greek chants, Tardo came to conclusion that the melodies of the chants were Greek, but the Latins added to them single chords and set the accompaniment in a Byzantine form expressed by the word sussurros (murmur).

It is on this basis that “the Gregorian chant, the far filiation of the Byzantine chant, has started to be accompanied by the organ” (Tardo 1938, 392). He also gives an explanation of the use of a “simple” ison based on the tonic, and a “double” ison, as he named the movements according to variations of the Tone (Echos) from the tonic to the dominant; these movements he is inclined to perceive as harmonic, or a certain form of polyphony. “There are parts”, he explains, “where the ison should not be heard, in some other parts where the ison should be slightly heard, and there are points where the ison should really sustain the fundamental tone of the whole singing part (Tardo 1938, 393). “The ison”, writes Tardo “corresponds to an accompanying note similar to the organ pedal or the so-called falso bordone” (Tardo 1938, 390). In First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 243

Eno Koço his Theory he uses the term “ison” also to represent a written sign or a distinct hand sign, chironomy,4 which identifies the repetition of a tone and expresses a special value of the rhythm. Tardo makes a special point by stressing that apart from certain Byzantine chants, such as the papadike and melismatic, not all of them are accompanied by the ison: the psalms, the prokimen and other small psalmodic forms, they do not employ the ison. In his L’Antica Tardo examines the ison feature but not, however, as a component of the Arbëresh chant. He clearly exposes his viewpoint on the use of ison sign and ison performance form (ύποφάλλω or ύπηχεω, accompanying) during the Classical period of Byzantine music, but he does not proceed to show why ison singing was not practiced in the Arbëresh liturgical chant, although a considerable number of these chants belongs to the Byzantine medieval period.

Tardo’s theoretical research is based on the transcription of the codices found mainly in the Italian land, in Badia di Grottaferrata, the Vatican Library, Biblioteca Ambrosiana (in Milan), as well as in some other great monasteries and libraries of the West and East. In my view, the practice of Byzantine chant which the Albanians and Greeks brought from the Balkans into the Italian soil did not make use of the ison: my belief is that any kind of ison employed in the Arbëresh chant would have been inherited from refugees arriving from the Balkans and not from that Byzantine legacy which existed in south Italy since the early centuries of the Christian era or after the 8th century, when the region was placed under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. I believe that no ison was brought onto Italian soil from Balkans church singing because the ison had only started to be used in the South West Balkans when the Byzantine practitioners left the peninsula after the Ottoman conquest. If during the medieval times the ison was intended to represent a graphic sign which “simply repeated the preceding note” (Tardo 1938, 267), from the 15th century onwards the practice of ison became an important style of singing of Byzantine chant; its role as a sustained base of the mode and the sole accompaniment over which the melody evolved, gave the chant its modal soul.

Tardo had strong reservations about the way the Byzantine melodies developed in Oriental Greece during the Ottoman period. The tendency to enhance the chants with polyphonic and harmonic textures or to re-dress them with details of a modern harmonization, this, according to him, disfigured and distorted the aesthetic sense of the Byzantine melody and destroyed the oktoechos tonality. To emphasize this idea he quotes a paragraph from the Rassegna Gregoriana, No 1-2 1909: “The application of the polyphonic style in Byzantine chants in the Balkans and among the Slavs has produced the destruction of the ancient ecclesiastical ήχοι and the traditional melodies; a great loss for the science, for the arts and for the liturgical tradition” (Tardo 1938, 394). Although he was against some patterns of adaptation towards a MiddleEastern approach that occurred in Greece and the Balkans, but also believing that the ison had an ancient origin as he described in his Theory, he “allows” an exception of its use in the Neo-Byzantine chants and accepts the idea expressed in the Μουσιxòς 4

The chironomy is the transcription of a series of gestures of the hand and/or fingers, each gesture representing a musical value.

244 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Preservation of an Ancient Tradition ... xόσμος (Athens, October 1929–February 1930) that the “admirers of the traditional melodies love leaving them in their original form, without any superstructure, except, it is understood, the artistic use of the ison” (Tardo 1938, 394).

It should be stressed that elements of microtones, melismatic ornamental patterns, improvised melodic formulae, and above all the ison, they dwelt in the corpus of the early and mid-medieval Byzantine chant but were of a basic, rudimentary nature.

During the Ottoman times, however, these rudiments developed significantly by absorbing resonant drones and heavily ornamental Middle-Eastern stylistic features. Discussing the microtones (quarter-tones and neutral tones) of the Byzantine chants, Tardo recognises the use of “intervals smaller than semitones, which also exist in nature” (Tardo 1938, 354). These divisions of intervals (microtones), according to him, were used in Italy up to the 16th century, but are also to be found in the traditional and popular songs, as well as the Byzantine chants of the Greco-Albanian colonies of south Italy. He also discerns that such fluctuations in the intonation occur in the contemporary Greek chanting practice.

PERFORMANCE Father Lorenzo Tardo of the Abbey of Grottaferrata, among others, put a great deal of effort into the practical revival and performance of the ancient Byzantine chants. If other scholars of his time were interested in the theoretical aspect of this field, Tardo’s inclination was both in theoretical and practical matters. His reconstruction of the liturgical chants could not be made just based on, as he described, “academic” approaches or “silent transcriptions” and “omitting the study of the living tradition” (Tardo 1938, 110). He was able to read the manuscripts of melodies composed for liturgical use and transcribe them from the Middle-Byzantine into Neo-Byzantine and Western notation. He was also able to sing the hymns from the Byzantine classical manuscripts as he was familiar with the traditional chant of the Sicilian-Arbëresh communities of the 14th and 15th centuries. Chorus conductors or Protopsaltis often enriched their repertoire by including newly composed chants and using the Oktoechos according to the necessities of the church. Tardo was one of them.

Based on the medieval theoretical texts and notated manuscripts, Tardo conceived the performance of the ison not as it developed in reality in the Balkans after 1453, i.e. as the lowest sound and foundation of the mode, but in an organ-pedal or falsobordone style, that is the soloist melody with a triadic form of choral accompaniment. Listening to his own performances of Byzantine chants with the Coro della Schola Melurgica di Grottaferrata where he acted as conductor, his perception of the “accompaniment” used in some of liturgical pieces becomes evident; it is of a falsobordone structure of an accord type in root position; the top note of the chord is often placed an octave higher than the lowest note of the melody and it is in a triad position.

The falsobordone type of the accompaniment, which is generally very light and serves as a gently woven background to a solo voice, changes the harmonic function according to the modulation of the melody. Here is an example where the falsobordone (droFirst Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 245

Eno Koço ne/ison) is conceived as a spread harmony of a consonant chord (Audio Example 2, Asate Kyrie, First Tone, in L’Antica Melurgia Bizantina).5 In another example of the Grottaferrata version of Byzantine chants, one can hear in the chanter’s melodic line two augmented second intervals, which, in another study, I have classified as Non-Diatonic (Chromatic) Mode C, Second Type (Koço 157, 2004). Viewed from a South Western Balkan Mode perspective, the cantor’s melodic range is comprised of two main structures; a non-diatonic pentachord above the tonic and a non-diatonic tetrachord below the tonic. Despite the fact that chants of non-diatonic (chromatic) intervals of Neo-Byzantine inclination with a drone accompaniment were hardly practiced in the Italian soil, Tardo’s attempt to match the Balkan’s new developments in the field of intonation or Chrysanthus’ assigned church modes (echoi) resulted in some ingenious outcomes (Audio Example 3, “Nyn dynamis”, Cherubic Hymn, Fourth Tone, in L’Antica Melurgia Bizantina). By employing this kind of choral accompaniment or, as he called it, organum vocale, for his transcribed ancient Byzantine chants, Tardo researched and experimented with what he considered to be the ison practice during the medieval times, based on his interpretation of palaeographic Byzantine notation.

The fact that in the Balkans from the 15th century onwards the ison took a totally different course, i.e. a participatory role in the form of a sustained single tone within an originally monodic, non-harmonized, chant, shows the importance of its function in the Neo-Byzantine liturgical tradition. It should be stressed that in the Epirus zone of the Balkans (in its geographic context), the Byzantine ison coexisted with the oral traditions of the iso(n)-based multipart unaccompanied singing (IMUS) of the same region. Neo-Byzantine ecclesiastical ison has more in common with the secular oral tradition of IMUS of South West Balkans than with the falsobordone type of ison used at the Badia di Grottaferrata. Although several Arbëresh clerics studied and worked at Grottaferrata and Collegio Romano in Rome during the end of 19th century up to present days, none of them tried to introduce the ison practice to their everyday musical liturgy in the Arbëresh churches of Sicily and Calabria. Just as they were loyal toward preservation of the ancient Byzantine rite in their church, sung in traditional Greek and recently in Albanian, so they were reluctant to introduce “new” features to their chants, such as the case with the ison, borrowed either from the post-Byzantine new tradition of the Balkans or the Byzantine medieval ancient tradition of Italy.

However, in recent times efforts have been made to adopt an ison to the traditional Arbëresh chants, but, in my view, it sounds out of context.

In Piana degli Albanesi I had the privilege to record the singing of the Eight Tones by Papa Jani Pecoraro, Parish Priest of the Cathedral of St Demetrio. He sung in both languages, Greek and Albanian. I am not certain how many of these Tones would sound similar to the Classical Byzantine turns of melody. However, compared to the present day “Chrysanthine” tradition where modes of soft and hard chromatics, excessive ornamentations, “through the nose” solos and the practice of the ison, Papa Jani’s versions of a Megalinario and oktoechos, sound somewhat different. They 5

CD accompanying the volume L’Antica Melurgia Bizantina, Coro della Schola Melurgica della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata diretto da Padre Lorenzo Tardo; registrazioni 1953-1956; Scelta e revisione dei brani: Padre Nicola Cuccia.

246 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Preservation of an Ancient Tradition ... have almost no Middle Eastern expressive devices, or shades of the Old Roman or Gregorian chant, although, at a certain period in history, the Old Roman chant is supposed to have borrowed the intonation, structure and system from the Byzantine Classical chant (Audio Example 4, Epì si cheri (In You Rejoices), from Theotokos to ònoma aftì – Mother of God is His Name).6 When discussing the Oktoechos system of the Sicilian-Albanians, Di Salvo noted that “a characteristic of these chants was the absolute absence of the chromatic scale of Plagal Second Mode and Second Mode used in the Greek Church” (Di Salvo 1952, 129). Papa Jani’s Tones have adopted, in my evaluation, a “light touch” approach towards the Neo-Byzantine Oktoechos (Audio Example 5, Second Plagal Tone, in Albanian).

Apart from the monastic tradition of Grottaferrata in the very recent times the performance of the Arbëresh chant has been revaluated, especially in the Bishopric of Lungro. The Neo-Byzantine musical system characterized, among other things, by melismatical melodies in a free rhythm and enriched by expressive elements, is the result of a research of Giovan Battista Rennis and is achieved through an impressive performance/recording of the Italian-Albanian Byzantine Choir of Lungro. Based on the supposedly Classical Byzantine legacy, Rennis uses long holding notes of the bass line and sometimes as a top line in combination with the solo parts to create a solemnity effect and a captivating resonance of a choral harmonized ison, a subtle blend of Byzantine tradition and Western chant (Audio Example 6, Megalinario, Megàlinon).

After the Byzantine period, between the 15th and 19th centuries, i.e. during “Neo-Byzantine” period and “Neo-Greek” or “Chrysanthine” reform, not only the ison, but other performance characteristics such as the timbral nuances, size of intervals and articulation of the melody developed with different inclinations: in Greece and the rest of Middle East, the novelty features comprised fluctuation in the intonation (expansion and contraction of intervals, the augmented seconds in particular ), semi-nasal tone qualities and highly wrought melodic embellishments (Audio Example 7, Protect, O Most Glorious, Mathimata, Greek Byzantine Choir). In Italy, on the other hand, in Grattoferrata in particular, during the second millennium the reverse of the meaning of the phrase “Rome conquered Greece but Greece conquered Rome” happened; it was the Byzantine chant that being separated from the Eastern main trunk and acclimatized to the new Western milieu absorbed some features of Old Roman and Gregorian chant of the 11th to early 13th century versions. Assumptions on the supposedly use of ison in the Old Roman chant are nowadays becoming more frequent (Audio Example 8, Offertoire, Old Roman Chant, Byzantine period).

6

CD “Theotokos to ònoma aftì” (Madre di Dio è il suo nome), Inni all Madre di Dio della tradizione bizantina di Piana degli Albanesi; Choro dei Papàs di Piana degli Albanesi: Papàs Giovanni Pecoraro, Papàs Marco Sirchia, Papàs Piergiorgio Scalia, Rosario Caruso, a cura di Girolamo Garofalo, Regione Siciliana, Assessorato Beni Culturali, Ambientali e P.I., in collaborazione con l’Eparchia di Piana degli Albanesi, 2003.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 247

Eno Koço BYZANTINE CHANT AND THE ISON Different views over the necessity of adaptation of a polyphonic language to Byzantine chant or leaving it intact and uncorrupted by Western or Eastern influences have always been a question of principle, of a doctrine of the Byzantine liturgy.

The addition of a second accompanied voice, for example, to the Byzantine traditional monophonic tune functioning as a variable ison, as well as other polyphonic effects such as the ascending major thirds in a heterophonic style, have attempted to change the perception that the Byzantine chanting is supposed to be strictly monophonic. Has this diaphony in thirds been borrowed from the idiomatic vocabulary of the folk music, or has it been borrowed from Western or Slavic practice? Joining the singing to the melody in parallel thirds also is a feature of Greek folk music. Commenting on the use of thirds in the Neo-Byzantine chants, as well as a kind of mania for harmonization of the Oktoechos recurring in Greece, Tardo paraphrases the journal Φόρμιγξ (February 1911) that “there are harmonized even the απολυτίxια of the οκτώηχος, with a continuation of thirds, which give to melodies, beautiful in themselves, a banal feeling” (Tardo 1938, 394). However, the ison function in the chants is not perceived by the practitioners as a matter of harmonizing, for example, the “parallel moving thirds”; its role remains participation. In some less frequent occurrences this participation, in a more systematized form, takes place as a double ison in which case the upper or second ison is a pentachord higher and is meant to be softer than the basic one.

The Byzantine chant was originally monophonic, but with the addition of the ison it became, in some way, more “dependent” on the harmony. Nowadays, performance reconstructions of ancient Byzantine tunes are quite often done by incorporating an ison in them with the intention of creating a pleasant moulding, similar to a presupposed earlier stylistic form of the ison practice, or making them sound more remote but at the same time more fashionable. This is obviously done with good intentions to show the best of the Byzantine chant legacy and also to relate it to classical Byzantine chant, or even to the supposedly ancient Greek classical music. A “variable ison” or a harmonized bass note to correspond the tune above it, and at other times a fully harmonized Byzantine chant (with the accompaniment of a second voice or a third one in vertical harmonization) as well as harmonising the intervals of the Byzantine echos within a Western tempered system have been attempted, but these experiments has been met with reservations among some Byzantine scholars. For academic purposes of a given study, it is, of course, interesting and tempting to research various stylistic approaches and shades of an ison, sometimes mutating it into an Occidental, organumlike refined bass, but any attempt to synthetically associate it with an ancient origin would have need of stronger evidence and more importantly would have to fit the consciousness and awareness of the people who practiced it at the time.

248 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Preservation of an Ancient Tradition ...

THE ARBËRESH TRADITIONAL MULTIPART MUSIC In Calabria, where the majority of the Arbëresh were settled, local people, the Calabrians, practised their own multipart singing. However, the newcomers brought from Albania and Morea a different kind of musical expression and structure.

The blending of the Balkan style with the local Calabrian style of multipart singing into a new repertory, a process which lasted hundred of years, created an Arbëresh/ Calabrian physiognomy by evoking feelings of remoteness and perceiving images of an individual and popular consciousness and imagination. Whatever the origin of the Arbëresh song, whether Albanian, Calabrian or from Basilicata, the present product is a fascinating result; a sensation associated with the vocal production, the Arbëresh language and elements of an accompaniment in the character of a drone; the latter, although a partial one, is a significant element. The folk traditional drone/iso which came to Calabria from the South West Balkans as a component of the song was embryonic and remained as such, of course, allowing room for a natural process of transformation. Conversely, during Ottoman times in the South West Balkans, the drone grew to become an important element of the multipart singing and employed a variety of specific styles of singing. The following example is a three-part ajre (a type of song with a pedal accompaniment) from Lungro in Calabria, characterised by its own structure and its own character. It is the first soloist that in a descending scale pattern opens the song followed by a second soloist that, together with rest of the drone group in unison, establish the initial modal basis of the beginning of the song. At the first hearing, the first soloist, in the nature of its declamatory style, gives the impression of a resemblance with the Albanian types of IMUS. However, the drone of this song, often doubled at the octave, makes a stepwise downward movement reaching at the cadence the interval of a perfect fourth. This form of drone movement differs fundamentally from the Balkan versions of IMUS where the drone remains unchangeable (Audio Example 9, Ti ndë një finestër e u nën një ballkun, You under the Window and I under the Balcony) COEXISTENCE OF ISON-BASED MULTIPART UNACCOMPANIED SINGING AND BYZANTINE CHANT Judging by their Byzantine (almost entirely oral) musical legacy of a specific repertoire and “classical” Oktoechos organisation, it could be said that the Byzantine chants of Southern Albania and northern Greece belonged to the “poor churches” tradition and did not strictly follow the Constantinople musical principles, but allowed adaptations, in fact corruptions, of mainstream scholarly teachings. The two approaches of iso(n)—secular and ecclesiastical—introduced into the South West Balkans through the eastern routes in mid-medieval times, were only in the process of their formation and did not reach Italian shores as a consolidated element of Byzantine chant or traditional secular multipart singing. That is why only segments of holding notes of a drone type could be found in Arbëresh multipart traditional singing, whereas evidence First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 249

Eno Koço of the use of the ison in Byzantine chant in the early stage of Albanian emigration is difficult to verify. However, the introduction of the ison for use in Byzantine chant, or rather Neo-Byzantine chant, brought by the clerics from the Orient, can be considered to belong to the late-medieval times.

In a wider spectrum, melodic outlines and patterns of folk origin, not solely in the South West Balkans but across the Byzantine Empire, also suggest an interaction between the folk-song repertories and musical liturgical tradition. The iso(n) of both traditions, liturgical and secular, in their earlier period, shaped features of the Medieval Byzantine culture, and in the course of time incorporated in them new Middle Eastern traits. Although the iso(n) of Byzantine chant functioned as a totally separate and different style from the traditional folk singing, it served the same purpose: to supply a tonal reference point for the melodies. This tonal reference, however, is not the only element of correspondence between the IMUS and liturgical Byzantine traditions; the interjected syllables of the text are used in both iso(n) practices. A combination of a syllabic iso sung to the text-words and the humming of the words of the verse line which accompanies the melodic-line, is a characteristic of Gjirokastër IMUS styles. In the Byzantine chant the ison holders sing together with the psalti (chanters) by saying, in certain places, the syllables of the text. The path from a rhythmic/syllabic ison to a hummed one and again resuming the syllabic ison, displays, from the point of view of technique rather than perception, a remarkable correspondence between the Gjirokastër IMUS and Byzantine chant. As far as the ison breathing as part of an entire musical phrase or closing verse line is concerned, that of the Byzantine chant has some fascinating parallels with the Tosk IMUS styles; in the latter the ison constantly holds the sound over the long phrases, while in the former the ison line carries on uninterruptedly, however, it changes to humming and resumes when the psalt (chanter) continues the melody.

Ramadan Sokoli remarks that “at the beginning of each pleqërishte (old men) singing, usually the leader of the group briefly marks the tone of the iso by oscillating his voice in a ‘gruppetto’ form around this tone, which terminates with a descending glissando” (Sokoli 1965, 129). Observing the intoning process among Prespa singers, Sugarman interprets it in a different way: “Before beginning the song proper, he or she intones the syllables e-o. This intonation serves in part as a signal that someone is about to sing and those others in the room should curtail their conversations and prepare to join in on the drone” (Sugarman 1997, 64). In discussing a record on Hymns of the Epitaphios and Easter, which included church services as well as folk songs from various Greek provinces and islands, Velimirović points out that “the second band contains a practice not observed in most churches, that of singing the intonation for the mode prior to the chanting. These intonations are found in mediaeval manuscripts but are never heard now in ‘normal’ services. It is therefore of substantial interest to observe these intonations as they lead into the hymns” (Velimirović 1978, 384). Another supposition could be that this intonation is a replacement of an accompaniment formerly played by the lyre of the anterior of primitive Christian origin with a vocal passage sung before the psalm. Thus, the “tone of the iso” of multipart unaccompanied

250 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Preservation of an Ancient Tradition ... singing and the apechema7 of Byzantine music seem to play the same role. As the apechema or echema is regarded, in the following dialog Wellesz quotes Tardo’s discussion on the intonation formulae: “How do you start, if you want to begin a Sticheron or another hymn of that kind? – “According to the Intonation”. “What is the Echema?” – “The layout of the Mode”. – “And how do you intone?” – “Anane Anes” – “What does that mean?” – “This is the approved and very useful beginning; when you hear it you will admire the singer who executes the Intonation” (Wellesz 251, 1949). Strunk observing the intonation process in an article dedicated entirely to the Intonations and Signatures of the Byzantine Modes stresses: “The formula of intonation, sung by a solo singer, the Canonarch or Protopsaltes, serves as a link connecting the verse with the chant that follows. . . . it serves as a preparation and as an announcement of the mode” (Strunk 1945, 353-354). Has the Byzantine intonation left any imprint on the intonation feature used in the IMUS? Any speculation that the borrowing could have been from the folk music to church music is hard to prove.

Returning to the Arbëresh singing, liturgical and non liturgical, a strong reason why it did not employ a clear iso(n) as in its country of origin is, I would like to reiterate, that this new component of multipart singing was only on the eve of its configuration as a sustained droning sound, whereas in the Balkans the iso(n) developed conspicuously and took on an important role. In Byzantine singing, initially as a foundation of the mode, the ison stayed on the same note, unchanged, but later it took the role of an intermittent pitch change and jumped down when the melody moved down.

In contrast, in the IMUS of the south-west Balkans, the iso dwelt within the framework of a pentatonic and archaic origin of singing, but it developed largely towards various stylistic forms and structures.

As the ecclesiastical and secular interrelationship is regarded, Çabej suggests that Byzantine liturgical practice penetrated into folk-song tunes of the Arbëresh as well as the chants of South Albanian Orthodox Church: Albania is also the land where Oriental-Islamic tunes are mingled with the Byzantine tunes found here, which became familiar to the people through the church. Differentiation between them becomes more difficult because Arabo-Islamic tunes were formerly mingled in the Orient with Byzantine tunes. . . . More apparent are the influences of medieval Byzantine tunes on liturgical and religious song and its dissemination from here to the secular song of the Albanians of Italy and also to the church song of the Orthodox Christians of south Albania (Çabej 1975, 128-9).

In a personal communication with Father Giordano, parish priest of Frascineto, he also believed that Byzantine music has influenced the Arbëresh traditional music.

7

In Byzantine music the term apechema means a short musical phrase preceding the chant and serving as an introduction to the scale or family of scales the chant belongs to.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 251

Eno Koço Bibliography Çabej, Eqrem. Studime Gjuhësore (Linguistic Studies), Prishtinë, Rilindja, Vol. 5, 1975.

Di Salvo, P. Bartolomeo. “La tradizione orale dei canti liturgici delle Colonie italo-albanesi di Sicilia comparata con quella dei codici antichi bizantini”, in, Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Musica Sacra in Roma 1950, Tournai 1952.

Garofalo, Girolamo. “Music and Identity of Albanians of Sicily: Liturgical-Byzantine Chant and Devotional Musical Tradition”, in Manifold Identities, Studies on Music and Minorities, ed. by U. Hemetek, G. Lechleitner, I. Naroditskaya and A. Czekanowska, ICTM, Cambridge Scholars Press, London, Chapter 24, 2004.

Koço, Eno. “Albanian Urban Lyric Song in the 1930s”, Europea: Ethnomusicologies and Modernities, No. 2, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004.

Scaldaferri, Nicola. “Paths between Orality and Writing in the Byzantine Liturgical Tradition in Southern Italy”, in Il canto “patriarchino” di tradizione orale, Neri Pozza Editore, 2000.

Sokoli, Ramadan. Folklori Muzikor Shqiptar (The Albanian Musical Folklore), Instituti i Folklorit, Tirana, 1965.

Strunk, Oliver. “Intonations and Signatures of the Byzantine Modes”, in The Musical Quarterly, xxxi (1945).

Sugarman, Jane C. Engendering Song, singing and subjectivity at Prespa Albanian wedding. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Tardo, Lorenzo, L’Antica melurgia bizantina, Scuola Tip. Italo Orientale “S. Nilo”, Grottaferrata, 1938.

Velimirović, Miloš. “Byzantine Hymns of the Epitaphios and Easter”, Record Reviews, in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 383-384, May 1978.

Wellesz, Egon. A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1949.

252 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

Rodna Velichkovska, Macedonia

THE INTEGRATIVE FUNCTION OF THE RITE SINGING IN MACEDONIA The influence of the folklore over the forming of the contemporary national culture may be best recognized through its integrative function. It appears as an immanent feature, expressed through a particular uniqueness, characteristic to this cultural phenomenon1. The gradual disappearing of the of the traditional folklore, she stresses, under no condition means disappearing of the folklore as a cultural phenomenon, thereby losing its typical features and obtaining new ones.

While acknowledging her argument, I would add that the traditional folklore musical expression in Macedonia continues to hold the same place it hitherto had within the common national culture, preserving at the same time the distinguishable manner of manifestation during the act of creation.

Thus, Naum Tselakovski, for example, during the exploring of Debartsa, Ohrid region, points to a very significant element related to the holyday female Voditsi, the performing of Lazar’s Saturday songs, thereby emphasizing that this interconnection of winter and spring rites and songs is an interesting phenomenon from scientific aspect, as well2.

My own field researches throughout Macedonia also corroborate this argument, clearly presenting the integration of the winter and the spring rites, expressed by the folklore musical texts within the rite songs. It features identical or similar topics in different genres of the songs, emphasizing its restricted character, where each song is dedicated for somebody. Relative to the hereinabove, I will state the folk singer from the village of Stratsin, Kratovo region, Trayka Lazarova’s accounts related to the 1

Ânina GaŸduk-NiÔkovska, "IntegriruÓçaÔ funkciÔ folÝklora", Folklor†t i s†vremenniÔt svÔt, Problemi na b†lgarskiÔ folklor, vol. 9, BAN, SofiÔ, 1991, p. 25.

2 Naum Celakoski, Debarca: Obredi, magii i obredni pesni, Skopje, 1984, p. 93.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Rodna Velichkovska rites and customs performed during the Voditse holydays and the singing the Lazar’s Saturday songs: “On St. John’s Day, I also went as a Lazaraka (women who perform the songs on Lazar’s Saturday),” she says. “If it was an unmarried boy, I would sing to him about some girl, if it was a child, I would sing a children’s song, if it was an older person, I would sing about old people, etc”. The same goes for Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka region, too. In the villages where the rite songs are performed during the Voditse Hollydays, they aren’t performed during the Lazar’s Saturday, and vice versa.

The cases when these two genres overlap are very rare. Basically, in both cases people song about health and love, which are the fundamental topics, relying on the magical force of the word, supported by the ritual activities, which is, in fact, the essence of the ritual complex. Thereby, the argument of K. Penushliski, according to which “the believe in the magical force of the word”, and in this case, concerning the wishes, it appears as an apotheosis of the welfare, success and happiness of people3. The numerous songs with identical topics confirm this argument.

Similar topics also may be found in the Gyurgyovden songs in the Prilep and Poreche regions, and they all have restricted character. Thus, for example, Proyka Momirovska (born 1908) points out that during the Gyurgyovden holydays in the village of Gostirazhni, Prilep region, songs were sang while swinging, emphasizing that when a little boy would climb the swing an adequate song would be performed for him; also they sang to girls and boys of marrying age, to older women with children of marrying age, etc4.

In accord to this we may say that they are connected by the magical elements and referring to the same problem, thus coming to almost identical results. Therefore, the wishes by their concept do not differ in the topics, since the power of the magical words and rites are but an asset to realize the desired goal, to which B. Petrovski also points5. As an illustration I present several texts of Voditse and Gyurgyovden songs, still alive on the field, along with the Lazar’s Saturday song: Ludo mlado brazda pravi, Ludo mlado brazda pravi.

Brazda pravi voda mami.

Neshto voda premrezhuje, Pa se chudi ludo mlado, shto mu voda premrezhuva.

Pa otidé pokraj voda, tam si najdé maloj mome.

3

K. Penu{liski, Tematikata na makedonskite obredni pesni, Makedonski folklor, VI/12, Skopje, 1973, p. 12

4 5

AIF m. tape. No.. 1133, Gostirazhni, Prilep region.

Bla`e Petrovski, Vodi~arskite pesni vo makedonskoto narodno tvore{tvo, Makedonski folklor, VIII/15-16, Skopje, 1975, p. 272

254 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Integrative Function of the Rite Singing in Macedonia maloj mome pokraj voda.

Pogledná go zalyubí se.6 (Voditse song) Brazda brazdi ludo mlado, Gyurgye le, (ey), Gyurgye le, i! lelyo!

Brazda brazdi ludo mlado, brazda brazdi voda vodi, neshto mu e prepushuva, ludo misli krtechina.

Ne mi bila krtechina, tuku bilo maloj mome.7 (|Gyurgyovden) Mushko dete brazdu brazdi, Lazáre, brazdu brazdi vodu mami.

Neshto mu gu premrezhuje, idé doma ta kazuje: - More tatko, stari tatko, brazdu brazdu, vodu mamu.

Neshto mi gu premrezhuje.

Dal je riba il je mrezha?

- More sine, mili sine, ni je riba ni je mrezha, tiki si je devojchénce, idi tamo pa ga chekaj, pa ga fatí desna ruka...8 (lLazar’s Saturday) According to some authors9, the transfer of the calendar-rite songs from one genre category to another most frequently occurs when the motive originates from another environment. However, in order to carry out such a transformation, the geographical moment is not always the decisive one. It is also possible for one song to appear in some other period of time and join another group, as it can be common in its pur6

AIF m. Tape No. 3400, Kratovo (1990). Zlata Miloshevska sings, born in v. Ketenovo, Kratovo. Recorded by Trpko Bicevski; deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. Voditse song. Perfomed to a boy of marrying age.

7 AIF m.t. No.. 1133, Gostirazhni, Prilep region, (1970.). Projka Momiroska sings (1908.) from v. Gostirazhni, Prilep region. Recorded by Blagoja Risteski; deciphered and melographed Rodna Velichkovska. Gyurgyovden song.

8 AIF, m.t. No. 3523, v. Dlabochica, Kumanovo region. Angelina Spasovska sings. Recorded and deciphered by Vesna Matijashevich; melographed by Rodna Veli~kovska. Lazar’s Saturday song. T is sang to the water, in the morning when the ritual washing is performed.

9 Cheorghe Vrabie, Folklorul: Object-Principii-Metoda-Categorii, Bucureşti, 1970, p. 121.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 255

Rodna Velichkovska pose to two different groups. There are other indications pointing that some songs which were originally reacted t other holydays, were torn off and added to another type of songs as, for example, the songs performed by the girls in Varvara (December 17), in the Kochani and Delchevo region, the Osogovo area, which also feature the wishes and desires of the “Varvara” girls, who go from a house to a house, singing: Idat, idat momi Varvarushi, nadzad ajte momi i neveste, i! darujte gi sos tankoto sito, ta da vi e sita godínata!10 or the song: Mori, babo, babo gyubetárko, imash sina, sina za zhenénye, sina imash, - Sina imam i si abér imam, samo chekam Varvára da doyde, da izbéram momá prema nego ama abér nemash!11 or the song: Ja nayrni babo guberáje, Ja nayrni babo guberáje, ja da vidi{ momi Varvarö{i, da pre~éka{ i da gi daröva{.

Ako ima{ sina za `enewe, da izbére{ moma Varvarö{a. 12

In that relation, Gizela Sulitseanu discovered similarity between the Christmas rites of the Romanians and the Lazar’s Saturday songs of the Macedonians, Serbs, and Bulgarians, emphasizing the fact that Lazar’s Saturday customs may be considered as an inheritance f the Christian customs of the cycle of winter holydays, most

10

AIF m.tape.No. 3328, v. Istibamye, Kochansko (1988). Singerst: Vena Dimitrova (51), born in the village of Bezikovo, Kochani region, married in v. Istibanya, Kochani region and Kotsana Ivanova borm 1927. In v. Bezikovo, Kochani region. Recorded by Trpko Bicevski; deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushla pesna”.

11 AIF m.tape. 3328, v. Istibanye, Kochani region. Same data.

12 AIF, tape No. 3919, Kamenitsa, Pijanets (2002). Singing: Tsvetanka Hristova, born in v.

Sasa, Pijanets region, Ilchova Tanaska i Gocevska Mare, born in v. Tsera, Kochani region, (Osogovo area). Recorded, deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushka pesna".

256 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Integrative Function of the Rite Singing in Macedonia of which are connected to the old, pre-Christian rites and customs13.

The hereinabove leads to a conclusion that all these rites and songs are closely related with each other and that most of the topics in this kind of songs may be easily added to a large number of holydays. However, the folk names for these songs as “Varvar”, “Voditce”, “Lazar’s Saturday”, “Gyurgyovden”, and so on, should be understood conditionally, and their genetic relation should be cleared through the dynamic interconnections within the complex of rite singing, consisted of poetry and, of course, music.

Textual and note examples

1. Ludo mlado brazda pravi

Ludo mlado brazda pravi, Ludo mlado brazda pravi.

Brazda pravi voda mami.

Neshto voda premrezhuje, Pa se chudi ludo mlado, shto mu voda premrezhuva.

Pa otidé pokraj voda, tam si najdé maloj mome. maloj mome pokraj voda.

Pogledná go zaqubí se.

AIF m. l. 3400, Kratovo (1990). Zlata Milo{evska sings, born in v.

Ketenovo, Kratovo region. Recorded by Trpko Bicevski; deciphered and melographed

by Rodna Velichkovska. Voditse song. It is performed to a boy of a marrying age.

13

Ghizela Suliţeanu, "Le cantique de souhait ("colindatul") des jeunes filles chez le peuple roumain dans le complexe du folklore balkanique", Makedonski folklor, VIII/15-16, Skopje, 1975, p. 291-307.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 257

Rodna Velichkovska 2. Brazdu brazdi ludo mlado

Brazdu brazdi mushko dete, brazdu brazdi! mushko dete.

Brazdu brazdi vodu mami.

Neshto mu gu premrezhuje, dal je riba il je briga?

Nitu riba, nitu briga, tiki bilo maloj mome.

AIF, m.l. 3523, v. Dlabochitsa, Kumanovo region. Angelina Spasovska sings. Recorded by Vesna Matijashevich; melographed by Rodna Veli~kovska.

Voditse song. It is performed to a bachelor.

3.Brazda brazdi ludo mlado

Brazda brazdi ludo mlado, Gyurgye le, (ey), Gyurgye le, i! lelyo!

Brazda brazdi ludo mlado,

258 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Integrative Function of the Rite Singing in Macedonia brazda brazdi voda vodi, neshto mu e prepushuva, ludo misli krtechina.

Ne mi bila krtechina, tuku bilo maloj mome.

AIF m.l. br. 1133, Gostirazhni, Prilep region, (1970.). Projka Momiroska sings, (1908.) from v. Gostirazhni, Prilep region. Recorded by Blagoja Risteski; deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. \Gyurgyovden song.

4. Mushko dete brazdu brazdi

Mushko dete brazdu brazdi, Lazáre, brazdu brazdi vodu mami.

Neshto mu gu premrezhuje, idé doma ta kazuje: - More tatko, stari tatko, brazdu brazdu, vodu mamu.

Neshto mi gu premrezhuje.

Dal je riba il je mrezha?

- More sine, mili sine, ni je riba ni je mrezha, tiki si je devojchénce, idi tamo pa ga chekaj, pa ga fatí desna ruka

AIF, m.t. 3523, v. Dlabochitsa, Kumanovo region. Angelina Spasovska sings.

Recorded and deciphered by Vesna Matijashevich; melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. Lazar’s Saturday song. It is sang to the water in the morning, when the ritual washing is carried out.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 259

Rodna Velichkovska 5. Ja izlezi babo guberáje

Ja izlezi babo guberájo, i!, Ja izlezi babo guberájo.

Da prechékash momi Varvarushi, da prechékash i da gi daruvash.

AIF, tape No. 3920, v. Moshtica, Pijanets, region Osogovija (2002). Jan|a Ivanovska (1954), Stojna Gavrilova (1942) and Dobrinka Zlatkovska (1955) sing.

Recorded, deciphered, and melopgraphed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushka" pesna

6. Ja izlezi ti mlada nevésto Ja izlezi ti mlada nevésto, i!, Ja izlezi ti mlada nevesto.

Da prechékash momi Varvarushi, da prechékash i da gi daruvash.

AIF, tape No. 3920, v. Moshtitsa, Pijanets, region Osogovija (2002). Singing: Jan|a Ivanovska (1954) (she “leads”), Stojna Gavrilova (1942) and Dobrinka Zlatkovska (1955). Recorded, deciphered, and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska.

"Varvarushka pesna”. It is performed in the same manner as Example No. 1 ("Kamenichko" peenye).

260 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

The Integrative Function of the Rite Singing in Macedonia 7. Ja nadzrni babo guberáje

Ja nadzrni babo guberáje, Ja naydzrni babo guberáje, ja da vidish momi Varvarushi, da prechékash i da gi daruvash.

Ako imash sina za zhenenye, da izberesh moma Varvarusha.

AIF, tape No. 3919, Kamenitsa, Pijanets (2002). Singing Cvetanka Hristova, born in v.. Sasa, Pijanets region, Ilchova Tanaska i Gocevska Mare, born in v. Tsera, Kochani regionj, Osogoviya area. Recorded, deciphered, and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushka pesna”.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 261

Rodna Velichkovska 8. Idat, idat momi Varvarushi

(a)Idat, idat momi Varvaru(u)shi, nadzad ajte (e) momi i neve (es) ti, i! darujte gi sos tankoto sito, ta da vi e sita godínata!

AIF m.l. 3328, v. Istibanye, Kochani region (1988). Singing Vena Dimitrova (51), born in v. Bezikvo, Kochani region, married in v. Istibanye, Kochani region and Kotsana Ivanova born in 1927 in v. Bezikovo, Kochani region. Recorded byTrpko Bicevski; deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushka pesna”.

9. Mori babo babo xubretárko Mori, babo, babo dzhubretárko, imash sina, sina za zhenénye, sina imash, ama aber nemash!

- Sina imam i si abér imam, samo chekam Varvara da dojde, da izbéram momá prema nego.

AIF m.l. 3328, v. Istibanye, Kochani region (1988). Singing Vena Dimitrova (51), born in v. Bezikvo, Kochani region, married in v. Istibanye, Kochani region and Kotsana Ivanova born in 1927 in v. Bezikovo, Kochani region. Recorded by Trpko Bicevski; deciphered and melographed by Rodna Velichkovska. "Varvarushka pesna”.

It is performed in the same voice as the song “Idat idat momi Varvarushi”.

262 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

Olivera Vasić, Serbia

INVENTING TRADITION ON THE EXAMPLE OF PADALICE FROM NORTHEASTERN SERBIA In the villages of northeastern Serbia in late 19th century an unusual phenomenon was observed among the Vlach population that attracted the attention of numerous researchers. The earliest data were published by teacher Riznić, who was working in the village Duboka1 in 1885. According to his description, during the celebration of Pentecost, the women of the village Duboka would fall into some sort of ecstasy, a trance, from which they could only be brought back by the dance of “krajčari” and the music of “karabljaši” (bagpipers).

I have already mentioned that this piece of news attracted numerous researchers from various fields, first and foremost doctors, psychiatrists, linguists, ethnologists, folklorists, writers… which is why today there is a large body of literature about this phenomenon. However, the numerous existing accounts differ to a large extent as they have been recorded in different villages at different times, interpreted mostly as an attraction (peculiarity) and associated with numerous legends specific to the villages of this region, while there are very few works that have attempted to uncover, at least to some degree, the cause of this trance.

Based on the available information, it is fair to say that this phenomenon was mostly present in the village Duboka2 and that it was relatively fresh up until the 1960s. After that, it began to disappear only to completely vanish in the mid-1980s.3 1

Dr V. Nikolić-Stojanović, “Dubočke rusalje ili padalice kao predmet kompleksnih naučnih studija”, Razvitak br. 2, Zaječar, 1967, 75.

2 Besides this village, the ritual was also performed in the villages Voluja, Ševica and Neresnica, and to a lesser extent in Rakova bara and Cerovica, while it only sporadically appeared in some other villages of the Zvi*d region.

3 D. Antonijević, Ritualni trans, Balkanološki institut SANU, posebna izdanja knj. 42, Beograd, 1990, 148.

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Olivera Vasić This ritual was performed in the village Duboka during the feast of Pentecost (on the 50th day after Easter) that coincided with the celebration of the village patron saint (zavetina). The entire festivity consisted of several parts: wakes (pomane, podušja), that is, collective feasts organized to honor the dead after which a procession would visit the village’s wooden cross (the holy tree). What followed was a collective lunch on the village green near the school (in the 19th century all this took place outside the cave from which the Dubočka river springs) where families sitting next to each other would eat their lunch on the ground. Following the lunch was the assembly, and it was only then that padalice, rusalje appeared. The state of trance, ecstasy was experienced by women of all ages who usually belonged to certain families, which is why this ability was believed to be hereditary.

There are many accounts of the behaviour of padalice, rusalje (both terms are used) during the state of trance, ecstasy. It depends on a number of factors.

Namely, the person giving the account (doctor, ethnologist, observer…) and whether it is the case of a genuine padalica – a person who is ill in some way – or a vračarica – a person feigning to be “struck by an illness” in order to use this state for her fortunetelling and predictions. The state of ecstasy is preceded by a feeling of anxiety, pallor and shivers, while right before she falls to the ground, padalica lets out a scream.

While in ecstasy (or trance, a term used by Dragoslav Antonijević, PhD to describe this state), rusalja twitches, screams, laughs, cries, speaks to “someone”, simulates sexual intercourse and all the while her eyes are closed, she does not react to the needle pricking (done to her by doctors) and nothing can make her open her eyes.

This would have been the first part of the ritual, the second being ritual awakening, that is the bringing back of padalica from such a state by krajčari dancing around her to the music of karabljaši (bagpipers) and by ritual acts involving sabers, knives, wormwood, garlic and water. V. Subotić4, who observed this ritual in 1897 and 1898, described the ritual awakening as follows: “Three finely dressed young women are called queens and three young men, who could be married, are called kings. The six of them form a kolo in the shape of a wattle. They are usually followed by a karabaš who plays the music to the dance called the king. The dancers hold each other around the waist in the following order: in his right hand, the first king holds a yatagan whose hilt is wrapped in a towel, he leads the kolo and is joined by the first queen, then the second king, then the second queen followed by the third queen and finally the third king who also holds a bare yatagan with a towel around its hilt. The dancers do not move in the usual way. They leap to the rhythm of karabljice (bagpipes) in a way that is similar to waltz steps. So joined, the male and female dancers and the karabaš are an inseparable entity and once they are called for, they move from one padalica to another and play for her, dance for her, invite her to join them in their dance and dance away, “cure” her “illness”!” V. Subotić goes on to describe that this dance is twice danced around rusalja, and the third time around the first king makes a “cross” sign on her chest with his yatagan, which is also done by the third king once he reaches her, while everyone else touches her with their left foot. After that the first and second king lift 4

V. Subotić, Rusalje u Srbiji i padalice u selu Dubokoj u Zviždu, Tri predavanja - Prvi kongres srpskih lekara i prirodnjaka, Beograd, 1905, 87, 88.

264 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Inventing Tradition on the Example of Padalice ... the rusalja and carry her between them (provided she cannot walk on her own), which changes the order of the dancers in that the three queens are now next to each other.

Then they resume their dance and stop after several dozen meters. They put the rusalja on the ground and repeat the same actions as the first time, after which they proceed toward the river where they stop for the third time. During that third stop, they repeat the same actions as the previous two times, the only exception being that while dancing around rusalja for that third time, they turn their backs to her (inverted kolo), after which they give her water from the river, which is poured onto the sheath of the yatagan and then poured over into the hand of the first king who gives her water to drink from his hand. During each stop, the dancers splash rusalja with water from their mouths, sprinkle her with wormwood and garlic they have chewed, call out to her and slap her on the face. According to most accounts, padalica awakens from her trance by the river and krajčari bring her back to the place where she fell.

In most cases the ritual awakening would last no more than an hour, while only vračarice, who in fact were not genuine padalice, would remain in the state of trance longer. In addition to all the mentioned actions surrounding the padalica, an incantation was also recited from time to time. It seems that this incantation was most accurately recorded by Radovan Kazimirović5, who comes from these parts (from the village Jabukovac).

Ep ša jar aša!

Again like that, again like that! Š’ nk odate jar aša!

Once again like that!

Aša b’la jar aša!

Again like that my dear (pale)! Š’djin gure ej!

And (more) from the mouth hey!

Aša b’la e….j!

Like that, my dear heeeey!

Kazimirović also mentions the names of the performers of the ritual awakening: trij krejičari are the kings; trij krejice are the queens. The most important role is given to the first king – marje krejičar, while the melody accompanying the dancing, “the ancient magical melody”, is called k’ndjeku dje kraj.6 While observing this ritual, Kazimirović recorded that the most prominent among the kings was Marijan B. Nikolić from the village Duboka, who claimed that he was very familiar with this ritual, that all the actions had to be performed with precision and that special attention should be paid to “dancing away of the illness”, the so-called recovering kolo – the last dance around the rusalja when the dancers move along a serpentine trajectory with their backs to her7 so that she would rise as soon as possible.

This phenomenon has not been fully explained to date. The first interpretation was given by Miklošić in his study Die Russalien ein Beitrag zur slawischen Mythologie, where he says that the name derives from the Latin word rosa, rosalia – rose, which was used by the Romans to decorate tombstones during Pentecost, and that the name spread across the Balkans at the time of Roman influence 5

R. Kazimirović, Čaranje, gatanje, vračanje i proricanje u našem narodu, Beograd, 1940, 110, 111.

6 R. Kazimirović, op. cit., 110.

7 R. Kazimirović, op. cit., 112.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 265

Olivera Vasić in these regions. Slavic scholars, including Slobodan Zečević, believe that rusalke (water nymphs) are mythical creatures from old Slavic mythology associated with rivers and springs as well as that Miklošić’s interpretation is an inept combination of our beliefs and the Roman festivity, which was brought about by “academic misconstructions” of popular beliefs.8 It is a fact that Old Slavic rusalke were associated the celebration of Pentecost in which they participated from the Tuesday before to the Tuesday after Pentecost (the third day of the festivities), just like rusalje or padalice. They were imagined as beautiful young women with their hair loose, which is why S. Zečević believes that this ritual is dedicated precisely to them.9 The third interpretation of this ritual is offered by Milan Majzner, who feels that Thracian-Phrygian cults devoted to the Great Mother of gods, Cybele, and her companions dominate this ritual in the villages of northeastern Serbia.10 Vladimir Jakovljević attempts to reconcile the existing conflicting opinions arguing that the ritual is a symbiosis of Slavic-rusal and Thracian-Hellenic elements associated with hysteria and Oedipus complex.11 According to doctors and psychiatrists, these are epileptic seizures and fits of hysteria based on an ancient religion whose causes they could not explain.12 An interesting interpretation comes from Dušan Bandić who sees a certain similarity between rusalje and shamanism, namely between the ritual trance and the ritual awakening. He believes that the trance is provoked by supernatural beings and that this ritual awakening forces these beings out of her body – exorcism (the forcing of evil spirits out of the body, house…).13 Obviously, this is indeed an unusual ritual which, having been detected too late, left no opportunity for a thorough description and recording. The fact that it only existed among the Vlach population poses another question: whether Vlachs brought it with them when they settled in these parts or they found it there.

Interestingly, the ritual used to be associated with wakes (pomane, podušja) so one cannot help but wonder if today’s pomane are some modern form of the entire original ritual seeing as padalice, while in trance, very often communicated with the dead who were not only from their own families. It would be fitting to mention that the population from these parts believes that during Pentecost the underworld opens up and the dead are all around us, and this underworld does not close until All Souls’ Day on Mitrovdan .

I felt that this slightly longer introduction was necessary for the understanding of this paper’s title. Based on the existing information from the literature 8

S. Zečević, “Rusalke i todorci u narodnom verovanju severoistočne Srbije”, Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja 37, Beograd, 1974, 110.

9 S. Zečević, op. cit., 111-113.

10 M. Majzner, “Dubočke rusalje – poslednji tragovi iz kulta velike majke bogova”, Godišnjica Nikole Čupića, knj. 34, Beograd, 1921, 243-257.

11 V. Jakovljević, “Preživeli oblici orgijastičkog vida arhaičnih rusaliskih obreda – homoljske rusalje, padalice”, Etnološki pregled 2, Beograd, 1960, 18, 22, 23.

12 V. Subotić, op. cit., R. Kazimirović, op. cit., 113.

13 D. Bandić, “Šamanistička komponenta rusaljskog rituala”, Etnološki pregled 15, Beograd, 1978, 25-27.

266 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Inventing Tradition on the Example of Padalice ... and the memory of the narrators, in the 1970s professor Dragoslav Dević made a documentary film entitled “Pluto’s Kingdom”, essentially about the cult of the ancestors (cult of the dead), which shows the reconstructed ritual of padalice, rusalje.

The main character was finely portrayed by a middle-aged woman, who had performed the ritual on many occasions at folklore festivals. The other parts of the ritual were mostly true to the information from the relevant literature (if not completely accurate, as in the case of the number of participants, the film still gives a pretty good idea of what the ritual was like), but we should bear in mind that it is, after all, a film (appendix 2).

A few years ago, quite by chance, I received video recordings of rusalje, padalice that were made in the village Ševica in 1996 and 1997. Interestingly, these videos show that not much of the ritual has changed. The time when they fall into trance is the same, that is, during Pentecost, but the ritual is now performed in the house or the backyard. The state of trance is characterized by pallor, mumbling, twitching… Rusalja is ritually awakened by a dance performed by three older men, that is, the kings and three girls-queens (a girl’s chastity was respected in the past). Their dance, which basically remained the same, was accompanied by the music of a violinist (1996) and an accordion player (1997). The moving of padalica to three different places in the backyard was in keeping with the original ritual. Instead of yatagans, the kings now wore knives, the herbs and water were still used in the appropriate instances of the awakening, and the recovering kolo was still performed during the last dance around padalica (appendix 3).

This ritual was no doubt an inspiration for choreographers (although there are no proper schools of choreography in our country) to arrange it for the stage. This was done by Bora Talevski, a teacher of folk dances in the “Luj Davičo” Ballet School, who named this work of his “The Queens of Duboka – Vlach Dances from Duboka”.

This title is somewhat odd since he was trying to combine the incompatible. The description of this ritual clearly shows that there is only one dance that is performed for a very long time up to the moment when padalica awakens from the trance. The ritual itself is portrayed inaccurately: the author envisioned padalica to gyrate herself into a state of trance; moreover, stilts are used, which is a strange way to convey the significance of water in the ritual. During the entire ritual awakening, the kings and queens are completely separated from the padalica as well as from each other. The dancers who are supposed to represent the kings perform a solo dance act with swords, after which the female dancers perform a dance around rusalja that does not exist in the ritual awakening and moreover, they move to the left, a motion that does not even exist in Vlach dances dedicated to the dead. This whole supposedly ritual segment ends with “strndžanje” with rusalja (a specific form of contact between the dancers in kolo) and with their passing through a tunnel. The second part of this medley consists of nine dances from popular repertoire which has little to do with the authentic Vlach dancing in Zvižd. You might think that I have some other reason to comment on the author’s idea in this way, but the truth is I really do not have anything against Bora Talevski, it is the inventing of tradition that I object to. All the more so because this choreography is part of the repertoire of the national ensemble “KOLO” and because it falsely First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 267

Olivera Vasić represents to the world the tradition of a part of Serbia (appendix 4).

That is all I have to say. Based on all that you have heard about rusalje, padalice from northeastern Serbia, you can judge for yourselves whether this ritual segment of the choreography is a case of inventing tradition or not.

Appendices 1. photographs from the archives of the Ethnographic Museum, taken by Sima Trojanović in 1901.

268 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Inventing Tradition on the Example of Padalice ...

a)

Padalica in contact with women asking her questions

b) The lifting of padalica after the first part of the ritual awakening, when the order of the dancers and the place of the ritual awakening are changed.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 269

Olivera Vasić

270 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

MEHMET ÖCAL ÖZBILGIN ­ Turkey GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP AND THE IMPACT ON TRADITIONAL DANCE AND MUSIC PERFORMANCE IN BERGAMA TURKEY. Culture is a dynamic fact that keeps changing. But the cultural change is the process in which a cultural structure of any community turns into another structure.

According to Mahmut Tezcan, cultural change may be seen in three ways. First, free cultural exchange of a group or community caused by interaction with a foreign cultural group or community without any internal or external interruption. Secondly, forced cultural change that takes place by means of imposing one group’s or community’s own culture and cultural components to another group or community by force. And the third manner of change is in the form of some planned and controlled cultural alteration that is able to reach an aimed level of culture.1 Westernization and nationalism are often cited as the major agents of change in terms of Turkish dance culture in the last century. Similar to other countries that have a strong nationalist agenda, the government plays a key role in the public institutionalization of folk dance in Turkey. Sometimes the government sponsorship and other times official censorship instigate observably dramatic changes in folk performance. In the 1900s during the Ottoman rule, Kemal Bey, the kaymakam (governor) of the district of Bergama in the province of Izmir, attempted to modernize his district’s performance repertoire by officially prohibiting the public playing of zurna (horn) at celebrations and festive events. As an alternative to zurna, Kemal Bey presented the clarinet as a perceivably more contemporary instrument. Since the clarinet differs from the zurna in terms of melody and rhythmic options, the folk dances, both staged and informal, changed in style and appearance. In this paper, based on the Izmir-Bergama example, I will examine the agents of change in Turkish dance and music performance. I will rely on a historical and comparative folkloristic 1

Mahmut Tezcan, Kültürel Antropoloji, Ankara, T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları,1997, s.205 (Cultural Anthropogy, Ankara, Cultural Ministry Issues of Turkish Republic, 1997, p.

205)

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin approach to interpret and analyze my data which was collected from historical records and firsthand observation.

Throughout the history one can observe various sanctions on the phenomenon of dancing. Since dancing was considered to be seditious for it was reminiscent of sexuality, especially according to many of the ecclesiastics, it was tried to be banned in many societies in various ways. However each time, the phenomena of dancing and music found their way out and proceeded on their way.

In the following part we will try to explain point by point some of the major prohibitions that affected the Anatolian dance culture.

PROHIBITIONS THAT AFFECTED THE DANCE CULTURE IN ANATOLIA IN THE PRE-REPUBLICAN ERA Prohibitions Brought By Islam Having observed that life is closely connected to the climatic changes in nature, men have organized various rituals through the art of magic to enhance the reproduction of animals, to increase agricultural crops, and to prevent natural disasters.

In time, the deepening of the philosophical dimension of these rituals led the men to believe that there are deeper forces beyond its own magic power in order to be able to dominate nature. This facilitated the transformation of the idea of faith and hence religions came into existence.

“The effects of religions on dances go back to old times. One can observe the effects of concepts, totems, sun and moon worshipping, religious sects, and a combination of all these elements. Let us explain some of these as an example. It is well known that Turks salute the rising sun and the moon and the doors of their tents face to the east: or that fire is regarded as holy since they accept it as the son of the god of sky; or that they believe fire expels badness and hence jumping over or walking through the fire helps to get rid of evil things.”2 Many sanctions were introduced that have affected the traditional life after the Turks converted to Islam. It was necessary to put a distance between men and women. Especially during the Ottoman Empire the ecclesiastics, through the use of prohibitive sanctions that aimed at traditional dances and music, tried to distance the societies from their own traditional music and redirect them to religious music styles which were molded with the Arabic culture. The differences that emerged in time within the Muslim religion made the situation more complicated. For instance, in the cem rituals which is the worshipping ceremony of the Alevis, performing the semah dance with men and women together is an integral part of their worship. However, since the majority of the population in Anatolia is Sunni, these rituals were either banned or suppressed by social pressure. The Alevi communities which isolated 2

Cemil Demir Sipahi, Türk Halk Oyunları, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları:148, Ankara, 1975, p.15.

272 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ... themselves for such reasons had to conduct their worship in secret until recently.

“Due to the independence of the villages and the villagers, however, this negative effect was less powerful in the villages compared to the cities. As a consequence, the village dances were more protected against the suppression of religion. In addition to that, the dances of religious orders which emerged out of the reaction against Islam could be regarded as one of the positive consequences of this effect.”3 Religious dances are usually performed according to strict rules in order to retain their holiness. Some of the religious dances survived until today without almost any change due to this fact. For instance, the dances performed by dervishes in Sema rituals are preserved for centuries and survived until today. It is also possible to have the exact opposite cases to this fact. Some of the religious dances continued their characteristics by adapting to the contemporary time and circumstances. An Alevi cem ritual that we attended in 2003 in the Ulubey village of Senirkent district of Isparta gave us important clues on these kinds of changes. The melodies and dances that were performed during the ritual, as well as the consumption of alcoholic drinks as a part of the ritual were exactly contrary to the practices of the Sunni order, however the use of Arabic prayers during the worship and some of the acts within the ritual order gave a characteristic to the ritual that differentiated it from that of the Alevi communities in other parts of Anatolia, but resembled it to the rituals of the Sunni communities living in the same region.

It is well known that social communities embrace the forcibly implemented sanctions only by transforming them according to the characteristics of their own traditions. Organizing an entertainment ceremony in Anatolia where men and women cannot interact would lead many traditions to loose their role since they usually provide a ground for many social phenomena such as choosing a partner and facilitating future marriages. For this reason the Muslim communities in Anatolia come up with solutions that would bring the two situations to terms. For instance we have identified that in 1980 in the Uluborlu district of Isparta by dividing the wedding scene into two sections through the use of a bed sheet the community managed to accommodate men and women in the same place without any direct contact, but still enabled them to dance to the same music. Another example could be the halay dances where people hold each other from hands, arms and/or shoulders and which are widespread all over the eastern half of Anatolia. Halay is a type of dance that men and women could perform separately as well as together in the form of a mixed line.

According to the Muslim tradition it is deemed inappropriate to hold hands and arms with the opposite sex that you do not have any blood relationship, therefore usually the people who are relatives hold each other forming a line or a circle that goes for hundreds of meters and they dance altogether.

3

Metin And, Türk Köylü Dansları, Folklora Doğru Dergisi, İstanbul, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Matbaası, 1990, V. 59, p.113.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 273

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin Migration and Forced Settlement Nomadic communities were forced to settle through the laws that have been issued at various points since the eighteenth century for reasons such as tax purposes or because they had conflicts with sedentary communities on pasture fields.

Moreover the vast empire that the Ottomans had established by expanding their territory from Africa to Central Europe paved the way to massive population movements through migration. This resluted in the ethnic cultural exchange between different communities living in the empire. Sometimes the state tried to establish a secure environment in the conquered regions by facilitating the settlement of communities from Anatolia in line with the official strategy. At other times the communities that were not welcomed by the administration were faced with forced migration. One of the most recent examples in the twentienth century is the compulsory population exchange between Turkey and Greece that affected the lives of millions of Christians and Muslims who were living in these countries respectively.

Even this example alone is sufficient enough to show us how the issue is complicated.

Forced migrations have affected the dance culture of the communities immensely.

Metin And mentions that the Ottomans were even performing most of the European court dances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.4 Most of the common characteristics that exist today between the traditional dances of the Balkan states and Anatolian dances is a result of the forced migrations during the Ottoman era.

Prohibitions on Instruments and Dress We know that in Anatolia the use of some instruments and pieces of traditional dress were prohibited for various reasons such as religion or modernization.

It could be argued that these kind of developments do not have a direct affect on the traditional dances. However, the differences in register between the banned instrument and the one that replaces it, the changes in tempo, pace, and quality of performance, and finally the emotions that the tone of the new instrument arouse for the performer would directly influence the improvisation of the dancer. Moreover, a lot of factors such as the comfort or the imposing outlook of a dress would indirectly contribute to the traditional way of dancing. That is why we have incorporated the prohibitions on instruments and dress into our discussion and the following is an example of these prohibitions: “’Starting from the Feast of the Sacrifice (Eid ul-Adha) of the year 1311, playing davul-zurna (drum and horn) was sharply and decisively prohibited by the Governor Hasan Fehmi Pasha. The Pasha in the proper sense took an innovative way since he had already prohibited such things as use of fire-arms during the religious festivals and the Easter, the Calf Festival5, or the use of zeybek dress in public.’ The kind of incidents that led to the issuance of such a comprehensive 4

Metin And, Türk Köylü Dansları, Folklora Doğru Dergisi, İstanbul, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Matbaası, 1990, V. 59, p.113.

5 http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=141522

274 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ... decree could be found by looking at the list of events in October and November of 1877 within the same volume [of the yearbook]: ‘Nowadays in various places of the İzmir region where the stiff breeze of war is blowing all over the place there were murders and pillages.

Greek outlaws dressed in zeybek costume were at times killing well off Greeks whose richness they knew very well or at other times they were kidnapping them or someone from their family and robbing them.

These were supposedly trying to hide the zeybek outlaws who always turned up at that time. However after a couple of incidents, it did not take a long time to understand who they were and the justice came down on them.’”6 Social bandit groups started to emerge in Anatolia as of sixteenth century as the social and economic system of the Ottoman Empire started to disintegrate. A constant peace-war situation was observed between the state and the members of these bandit grouos who were called zeybeks. They were appointed as paid soldiers and were entrusted with the task of establishing the security especially after the Jelali revolts that spread all over Anatolia in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century controlling the security by running the coffee houses by the main roads in the regions of İzmir, Afyon, Kuşadası, and Manisa became an important means of exsistence for zeybeks. However after a while they have started to demand excessive amounts of money from the passers-by in return of the security they provided. The government tried to ban the profession of zeybek and shut down these coffeehouses by issuing firmans (imperial edicts).

The most important characteristics that could be used to differentiate zeybeks who lived the life of an outlaw from the local populations of Western Anatolia is the different style of dress that they have adopted. Zeybeks had to carry all kinds of their daily needs and weapons with them since they were living by constantly moving in the mountains. For this reason, the zeybek dress with its various accessories and ornate embroidery had a much more impressive outlook compared to that of the villagers. This situation had an impact on zeybek dances as well. It has been considered that in male zeybek dances the dress and accessories bring about a much slower performance of the dances and make the movements look much more imposing.

The tremendous increase in the acts of banditry towards the nineteenth century forced the state to react. They thought one of the ways to eliminate zeybeks was to prohibit the zeybek dress. “Several mandates and decrees were sent to local governors and administrators as well as the inspectors who were commissioned to investigate the acts of banditry. Eventually Çengeloğlu Tahir Pasha, governor of Aydın, strictly prohibited going around with zeybek dress [in public].”7 Those zeybeks who did not accept the prohibition on dress rebelled. Many zeybeks died in the skirmishes with the state forces especially in cities like Edremit, Bergama, Bayındır, 6 7

Mahmut Ragıp Gazimihal, “Oyun Giyimi Ve Giyim Yasaklığı”, Türk Folklor Araştırmaları Halk Bilgisi Dergisi, June, 1953, V.2, pp.32-33.

Sabahattin Türkoğlu, “Tarih İçinde Zeybek Kıyafeti”, III. Milletlerarası Türk Folklor Kongreleri Bildirileri, Ankara, Başbakanlık Basımevi, 1983, pp. 417-426.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 275

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin and Aydın.

“Although C. Texier mentions that there were very few left of the old gorgeous zeybek dress around the year 1843, what he says is not true.

A. De Moustier who travelled in Western Anatolia in 1863 and talks about these incidents because [of the presence] of zeybeks tells us that ‘despite everything the determination of the zeybeks was not broken.’

While talking about these rebellions V. Cuinet says, ‘Zeybeks were massacred in Aydın after being defeated by the prevailing state forces, but they always held on to their dress.’”8 According to the information we receive from Tuncer Baykara we know that zeybeks continued to use their original dress until the Republican era despite the fact that it was not only prohibited in 1838, but also in 1894 and 1905.

PROHIBITIONS THAT AFFECTED THE DANCE CULTURE IN THE REPUBLICAN ERA Nationalist Movements The nation states which emerged in the twentieth century had fears that others would claim the values related to the cultural and artistic habits of their societies. They were concerned that modern way of life would destroy traditional values.

“In the aftermath of the World War II, there were numerous international initiatives established to enhance peaceful interchange between nations. Cultural activities, including music and dance, were considered one means whereby, outside the barriers of language, different peoples could affirm their identities and come to know one another better.”9 As a result of this many official or private institutional strategies emerged on behalf of preserving cultural assests and promoting them compared to other nations.

Cultural changes that aimed at modernization were either forced upon the society usually by intellectual circles who commended that these were the good and the right things to do, or they were carried out through official prohibitions. Although it can be considered that the modernized cultural material will degenerate, in reality the main aim of these efforts is to to preserve culture in its ‘original’ form as if it is a holy entity.

8 9

Tuncer Baykara, “Zeybekler (Zeybek Elbisesi Giyme Yasağı)”, Efeler, Aydın, Taşkın Matbaası, 1991,s. 96.

Teresa Jill Buckland, “Multiple Interest and Powers: Authenticity and the Competitive Folk Dance Festival” Authenticity Whose Tradition, European Folklor Institute, 2002, p. 71.

276 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ...

The Influence of Kemalist Ideas on Traditional Dances and Music In addition to the efforts of modernization and westernization, the nationalist policies that were implemented before and after the Turkish Republic are the most important factors that influenced the process of change in our traditional dances and music. The foundation of the Turkish Republic should be regarded as a cultural revolution as well. The main architect of this great change was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. During his period many concepts such as Turkishness, culture and ethnicity were reevaluated and traditional culture was dealt with great importance.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was not only a great statesman, but at the same time he was a man of culture. He has done important work regarding the collection, documentation and utilization of folk culture. In the period of Atatürk, many experts and scholars working in the field of folklore created very valuable literature.

Atatürk suggested doing research on national values by collecting them. Furthermore he encouraged people to present these works in international platforms. However his modernization efforts were sometimes misunderstood.

For instance at one point the broadcasting of folk music in the national radio was prohibited. With his directive this ban was removed.

Hat Law and Dress Code The young Turkish Republic was built upon a secular foundation. In order to eliminate those who would oppose secularism the dress reform was implemented.

The use of dress that contained religious symbols was prohibited. However, since the law suggested a western style of dress the richness of traditional Anatolian dress and finery was affected negatively by this situation.

“In the Turkey of the Republican era, with the ‘Hat Law’ issued on November 28, 1925 and with the advice and directives of Atatürk the traditional dress has been now replaced by the dress and finery of the western societies. Traditional regional dress that had a place in the daily life of our nation in the old days has come to a point of extinction for various reasons. They are either only kept as relics of the forefathers or they continue their existence in our lives as folk dance costumes.”10 After this period, starting from the urban centers in most of the country the traditional dress and finery turned into a ceremonial costume. The local dress that did not anymore have a place in the daily life started to be used as special costumes to be dressed in traditional ceremonies like henna nights or folk dance activities.

10

Yener Altuntaş, "Halk Oyunlarımızın Sahnelenmesinde Giysi ile İlgili Problemler", Türk Halk Oyunlarının Sahnelenmesinde Karşılaşılan Problemler Sempozyumu Bildirileri, Ankara, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Mifad Yayınları, 1988, ss..9-16.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 277

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin The Structure of the Traditional Dances and Music of the Bergama Region Bergama is a district of the province of İzmir. The district is in the northwest of the Aegean Region. It is established on the Bakırçay (Caicus/Caecus) basin which is surrounded by the Madra mountain to the north and the Yunt mountain to the south. Ayvalık, Burhaniye, and İvrindi to the north, Soma and Kınık to the east, Manisa and Aliağa to the south, and Dikili to the west are the neighboring cities of the district.

Zeybek is the traditional dance and music type of the Bergama region. We see that the zeybek dances are performed in two different ways in terms of their tempo: Slow (Ağır) Zeybek Dances: They have rhythmic patterns of 9/2 or 9/4.

Their tempo markings (metronomes) are Largo (40-60 bpm), Larghetto (60-66 bpm), and Adagio (66-76 bpm). The slow zeybek dances in Bergama are usually performed by men to instrumental music.

Fast (Kıvrak) Zeybek Dances: Their rhythmic pattern is 9/8. Their tempo markings (metronomes) are Andante (76–108 bpm), Moderato (108-120 bpm), and Allegro (120-168 bpm). These are zeybek dances that are widespread all over Western Anatolia which can be performed by men and women separately or together. They are usually dances performed by men and women together to melodies with lyrics.

Zeybek music, as it is the case for dances, appear as the representation of the emotional responses to the events that people face in their daily lives. The music of Zeybek dances which emerged from the reciprocal interaction of dance and music is accepted as an independent genre within Traditional Turkish Music both because of the characteristics of the structure of the music and also the differences in performance.

The melodies of Bergama zeybek dances consist of 3+2+2+2 beats or 2+2+2+3 of the nine beats rhythmic pattern. The performers start dancing at the 3 beats section of the rhythmic pattern without paying attention whether that section is the first or the last within the nine beats.

The instruments that accompany Bergama dances today are usually composed of double clarinets, trumpet (yellow horn), and the drum with cymbals.

PROHIBITIONS THAT AFFECTED THE STRUCTURE OF TRADITIONAL BERGAMA DANCES AND MUSIC Prohibitions of Forced Settlement The Oghuz tribes which migrated to Anatolia are called Turcoman, and those Turcomans who live in Western Anatolia are called Yörük. The Yörüks in Turkey who live in a wide geography from the Marmara to the Mediterranean regions loom large with their different cultural identities.

A new administration system was introduced in the Tanzimat period which can be regarded as a self reformation movement of the Ottoman state starting

278 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ... from the proclamation of the reforms in 1839. New ways were sought to settle the nomadic populations especially for tax purposes.

“In 1842 it has been suggested that separate [new] villages could be established for some of the nomads and some of the others could be settled in other [exsiting] villages. The issue of using force upon those who resisted settlement is a subject worth emphasizing.”11 Ahmet Vefik Pasha, the Superintendent of Inspection of the Central Wing of Anatolia, invoked violent supression in 1858 in order to settle those nomads who resisted. He ordered İzzet Efendi, the governor of the Bergama district, to immediately settle the tribes whereever they were currently living. Yörüks had to choose permanant settlement although they demonstarted a strong resistance to it. They had to quit stockbreeding and they tended towards agriculture and trade against their own will.

This prohibition created immense changes in the daily lives of the people who were living in the Bergama region.

Yörüks of Bergama who previously followed the course of a nomadic lifestyle, experienced a huge environmental change in terms of interpersonal relationships as well as their relationship to the nature after they adopted permanant settlement. İn spite of this fact, however, they continued the traditon of transhumance (half nomadic life style that includes moving to the mountain pastures during the summer time and to the plains in winters) which is a part of nomadism. It can be observed that the improvisational dances increase in variety as a consequence of environmental factors that broaden as a result of this dual life style. The colorful, dynamic and interesting structure of traditional dance and music culture of Bergama emanates from this richness of life styles.

Prohibitions in the name of Modernization During the period of Mahmut II the Ottoman administration got engaged in westernization efforts through some innovations. The first important development that is pertitent to our topic is the establishment of Mızıkayı Hümayun (the Imperial Military Band) in 1827. The musicians who were educated in this institution which could be regarded as an ‘Imperial Western Military Orchestra,’ pioneered the dispersion of western instruments in Anatolia that they were exposed at the Mızıkayı Hümayun, once their militray services were over. Many western instruments such as violin and clarinet which are used in the performances of traditional folk music today, were used to replace kabak kemane (a bowed Turkish folk instrument) and zurna (horn) by the musicians of that period. This, in turn, created a change in our traditional music. The use of western instruments was regarded as a sign of modernity and development within the administrative understanding of the period. Urban intellectuals started to perform western dances and music in urban forms of entertainment within this period as well. The effects of the developments in this period spread from Istanbul to Anatolia very quickly. Many statesmen or intellectuals working or living in the 11

Eyüp Eriş, Bergama Uygarlık Tarihi Bakırçay Üçlemesi, Hürriyet Matbaası, İzmir, 2003, s.238.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 279

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin provinces such as Kemal Bey, the Kaymakam (head of the district) of Bergama, sought various ways to indoctrinate ‘modern ideas’ to the people. Kemal Bey, having such an agenda in his mind, prohibited the use of davul-zurna (drum and horn) which were played in the traditional ceremonies in Bergama. He thought these instruments were primitive. He instead stipulated the use of western instruments such as clarinet and trumpet.

Kaymakam Kemal Bey We do not have enough information about Kaymakam Kemal Bey. Eyüp Eriş found 16 different documents related to him in the Prime Ministry Ottoman State Archives in Istanbul. The very limited official information in these documents include things like the fact that he was appointed as the Kaymakam of Bergama in 1903 (Hegira 1321), that the sultan gave consent to him to accept and wear the badge of Eagle Roj which was granted to him by the German state, that there were numerous petitions of complaint about him, that he was dissmissed from office in 1909 (Hegira 25/06/1327) which was acted upon the inspection report on Bergama and someone else was appointed to take his position. When we try to get to know Kemal Bey through these documents and the information gathered from the memories of the people living in Bergama today, in the eyes of the state he was a successful statesman, according to the people he was an unjust and harsh ruler known for his suppression, and he was described as an opportunist who prostituted his position by his numerous enemies.

We do not have any official document regarding the prohibition to play davul-zurna (drum and horn). Our findings are based on the memories and hearsay of the interlocutors from Bergama who are interested in folk dances and music. The only written source that reached our time which makes a reference to this event is the book Bergama’da Milli Oyunlar (National Dances in Bergama) published by the Bergama People’s House (Halkevi). The part that is relevant to our topic in this book is as follows: “Until the year 1322 R. [Hegira] only davul-zurna were used to played in Bergama. It was prohibited by Kemal Bey who was then the Kaymakam. Instead of davul-zurna, boru (trump), büyülü [büğlü] trompet (twisted trumpet), trampet (snare drum), zilli davul (drum with cymbals), and glarinet (clarinet) entered [were introduced] in Bergama.

There were beautiful zurna players in Bergama. Ferhat, who was from Yukarıbey village of Kozak subdistrict of Bergama, was among those who played zurna beautifully.

Ferhat was the master to Hüseyin Limon Çavuş (sergeant) from Aşşağıbey village of Kozak. Hüseyin Çavuş was the sergeant of the band team during his military service. He could write notes and play the zurna and the clarinet beautifully. He died in 1941 in İzmir State Hospital.”12 12

Yılmaz Ali, Osman Bayatlı. Bergamada Milli Oyunlar, Cumhuriyet Matbaası, İzmir, 1942, s.7.

280 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ...

By the help of this piece we understand that although more than forty years have passed since the prohibition the performance of zurna did not totally disappear. Moreover, although we understand that there was an increase in the performance of clarinet, people continued to play zurna within the same period.

People were trying to adapt themselves to the prohibition on the use of davul-zurna since they were afraid of Kemal Bey who was known for his harsh character, however it was not possible for a tradition that dates back centuries to change overnight. Ali İhsan Güngül, a folk dance researcher, reports that during the early years of the prohibition people who could not get used to the use of clarinet would secretly bring davul-zurna and dance zeybek in the so-called ‘Erkek Oturakları,’ a traditional male form of entertainment, which they organized in the grounds away from the city center. A book called Zeybek Oyunları ve Havaları (Zeybek Dances and Music) which was published in 1943 gives us the information that people danced to the accompaniment of davul-zurna in Bergama during that period: “The number of davul and zurna changes according to the range of the entertainment ground and the number of dancers. As the instruments could be played somewhere close to the dancers, at some point the drummer could play within the circle of dancers whereas the zurna players would stand outside. By this way another kind of harmony is introduced to the dance.”13 In the same book, however, when the author talks about the instruments used in the wedding traditions of the region, he says, “In the weddings the dances are performed to the accompaniment of davul and ince and kaba zurna. Later on clarinet, büğlü (büğl) [twisted trumpet], and snare drum formed a team.”14 This piece of information does not directly reveal anything about the prohibition, but it shows us that there was change going on in terms of the use of instruments in that period. Yaşar Doruk who wrote an article on the same subject informs us that the switch between the instruments was finalized later on: “Bengi is a slowly moving dance which could be performed by everyone and which has the attribution of being an opening melody among other zeybek dances. In the open air the instruments are definitely davul-zurna.

(Later on clarinet replaced zurna).”15 Moreover, Yaşar Doruk compared the dance music which is called Bergama Bengisi (Bengi of Bergama) that he scored himself with the same melody presented in Ferruh Arsunar’s book Anadolu Halk Türkülerinden Örnekler 1 (Examples from Anatolian Folk Songs -1) which was published in 1947. By this way he documented the change in music over the course of approximately forty years.

According to the account of Vehbi Yazıcıoğlu who is regarded as the most important key interlocutor who is still alive regarding the dances of Bergama, we understand that the instruments that accompanied the dances of Bergama in 1983 were only the davul and the clarinet: “I attended as an instructor to the ‘Teaching Zeybek 13 14 15

Osman Bayatlı, Zeybek Oyunları ve Havaları, Nefaset Matbaası, İzmir, 1943, s.8.

Osman Bayatlı, Zeybek Oyunları ve Havaları, Nefaset Matbaası, İzmir, 1943, s.36.

Yaşar Doruk, “Bergama Bengisi ve Efe Naraları Üzerine Bir İnceleme”, Türk Halk Müziği ve Oyunları Folklor Dergisi, Cilt:1, S: 5, 1983, s. 15.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 281

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin Dances’ course which was organized between the dates of 20-29 April 1983 in Ankara by the Presidency of National Folklore Research of Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Among the musicians from Bergama, Hikmet Gülşen and Hasan Gözetlik accompanied the dances that were taught throughout the course with their clarinet and davul respectively.”16 During the fieldwork on collecting the dances of Bergama that we have conducted together with Abdurrahim Karademir* in 1992, the dances that were performed by Vehbi Yazıcıoğlu were also accompanied only by clarinet and davul.

Conclusion At the present day, the traditional dances and music of Bergama are affected by the popular music culture that reaches the area through mass media.

Moreover, due to the high costs of traditional music performers keyboards that could be played by a single person are more preferred at the traditional entertainments. The musicians who play these kinds of technological instruments are, however, most often urban and educated professional artists who do not know the regional dance and music tradition. Despite the consequences of such a negative panorama the people of Bergama who are bound to their customs and traditions still continue the zeybek dance tradition in its original form.

Eyüp Eriş who conducts in-depth research on the history of Bergama informs us about the instruments that accompany the dance as follows: “There are dances in our region that are performed during weddings and festivals by the accompaniment of davul, zurna, boru (trump), and snare drum, or teneke (tin [trumpet?, clarinet?] and dümbek (a rhythmic instrument made of two earthenware or wooden bowls one end of which is covered with skin). These dances usually have melodies with lyrics which are sung.”17 Considering, however, the fact that this work is an effort at historical documentation, we should probably consider that the author is trying to mention all kinds of instruments that have been used in Bergama throughout history. We did not observe any traditional dance being performed with the accompaniment of zurna during the research we conducted in and around Bergama in the 1990s.

According to the information we got from Kemal Ergen who took an active role in the collection of the dances of Bergama region, in the early nineteenth century, within the fashionable westernization environment of the period, playing davul-zurna was prohibited and instead the use of western instruments was made a condition by Kemal Bey, the governor of Bergama at that time. As a reflection of this situation, the zeybek dances that are present in Bergama and its vicinity today are performed to the accompaniment of clarinet, trumpet, and band drum, contrary to the situation in the neighboring cities and towns. The dance and music culture which changed due to the prohibitions, however, could be observed in the neighboring 16

Vehbi Yazıcıoğlu, “Türk Halk Oyuları”, Türk Halk Müziği ve Oyunları Folklor Dergisi, Cilt:1, S: 8, 1983, s. 307. * Instructor, Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Turkish Folk Dance Department and Researcher.

17 Eyüp Eriş, Bergama Uygarlık Tarihi , Altındağ Matbaacılık, İzmir, 1990, s.353.

282 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Government censorship and the impact on traditional dance ... districts, although in the form of a diminishing effect. For instance, the districts of Ayvalık and Burhaniye to the north of Bergama clarinet is played. Whereas clarinet is totally absent in the traditional performances of Manisa province and Aliağa district to the south and west of Bergama respectively, we observe that zurna and clarinet could form a team with davul in the districts of Soma and Kınık to the east.

Today the traditional music is performed in Bergama by a clarinet playing the main melody and another one constantly accompanying in tonic and dominant of a makam during the performance which is called dem tutmak in Turkish. This style of performance that resembles in character to the davul-zurna teams of the neighboring towns is a proof of the fact that although zurna has been replaced by clarinet in Bergama, the performance tradition is still preserved. Today, the masters of zurna from Bergama whose roles have disapeared are totally nonexistent. The clarinetists of Bergama who filled the positions of the old zurna masters are among the most respected of their kind in Turkey. Moreover, local musicians are able to get a very popular place in the world music market with their solo clarinet albums, as it is in the case of Hüsnü Şenlendirici for instance.

Folk dances are types of dances which acquire certain emotions and meanings through the natural interaction between the musician, dancer, and audience.

The musical quality of all of the accompaniment instruments and the emotional intensity during the improvisational performance are directly related to the emotional intensity and the performance of the dancer. Within this context the accompaniment of zurna or clarinet has great importance in the performance of the zeybek dance. Because the form of the musical performance is the most important triggering element for a dancer to concentrate on the dance, to get enthusiastic during the dance, to enjoy the dance and to be creative.

The ability to play the clarinet more quickly and using more elaborate melodies compared to the zurna, speeded up the metronome of the dances of Bergama.

The ornamentation that is observed in the melodies has changed the feeling it arouses for the dancer and led to a swifter and a happier expression in the performance of the dances compared to the other slow zeybek dances of the Aegean region. The local dancer combines his/her own improvisational movements with the regional dance tradition within the possibilities offerred by the music and presents the acquisitions of a whole life time.

The aim of this work is not to prove how the prohibitions destroyed the traditional culture by changing it. Our aim is to present how even an individual intervention on the traditional culture can in time create a very important change.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 283

`Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin References Cited And, Metin; 1990 Türk Köylü Dansları, Folklora Doğru Dergisi, İstanbul, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Matbaası, , V. 59 Altuntaş, Yener; 1988 "Halk Oyunlarımızın Sahnelenmesinde Giysi ile İlgili Problemler", Türk Halk Oyunlarının Sahnelenmesinde Karşılaşılan Problemler Sempozyumu Bildirileri, Ankara, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Mifad Yayınları, Bayatlı, Osman; 1943 Zeybek Oyunları ve Havaları, Nefaset Matbaası, İzmir, Baykara, Tuncer; 1991 “Zeybekler (Zeybek Elbisesi Giyme Yasağı)”, Efeler, Aydın, Taşkın Matbaası, Buckland, Teresa Jill; 2002 “Multiple Interest and Powers: Authenticity and the Competitive Folk Dance Festival” Authenticity Whose Tradition, European Folklor Institute, Budapest Cemil Demir Sipahi, 1975 Türk Halk Oyunları, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları:148, Ankara, Doruk, Yaşar; 1983 “Bergama Bengisi ve Efe Naraları Üzerine Bir İnceleme”, Türk Halk Müziği ve Oyunları Folklor Dergisi, Cilt:1, S: 5, Eriş, Eyüp; 2003 Bergama Uygarlık Tarihi Bakırçay Üçlemesi, Hürriyet Matbaası, İzmir, Eriş, Eyüp; Bergama Uygarlık Tarihi , 1990 Altındağ Matbaacılık, İzmir, Gazimihal, Mahmut Ragıp; 1953 “Oyun Giyimi Ve Giyim Yasaklığı”, Türk Folklor Araştırmaları Halk Bilgisi Dergisi, June, V.2, http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=141522 Tezcan, Mahmut; 1997 Kültürel Antropoloji, Ankara, T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları,1997, (Cultural Anthropogy, Ankara, Cultural Ministry Issues of Turkish Republic, Türkoğlu, Sabahattin; 1983 “Tarih İçinde Zeybek Kıyafeti”, III. Milletlerarası Türk Folklor Kongreleri Bildirileri, Ankara, Başbakanlık Basımevi, Yazıcıoğlu, Vehbi; 1983 “Türk Halk Oyuları”, Türk Halk Müziği ve Oyunları Folklor Dergisi, Cilt:1, S: 8, Yılmaz Ali, Osman Bayatlı.

1942 Bergamada Milli Oyunlar, Cumhuriyet Matbaası, İzmir,

284 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey

“HORA ” and “KARSILAMA” DANCES IN EDIRNE REGION First of all, I would like to say something about Edirne City. The Byzantine name of this city is Adrianapolis in Byzantine times. It located on the North West border of Turkish Republic, on the crossroad of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Edirne has a rich cultural history because it is located in Thracian peninsula, a bridge between Anatolia and Europe. Throughout time a variety of migrants passed through the Edirne region because it provided shelter and sustainable goods for travelers yet very few settled permanently.

Through the history Edirne was a defense city near Tunca River and is located on a Balkan crossroads.

In a short time, these geographic circumstances highly affected the city’s trade position and caused it to be the capital city of the Ottoman Emperor.

The city’s close position to Europe, inner and outer migrations, sieges and

4‐8 September 2008, Struga R. Macedonia

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey wars, trade, big earthquakes and floods have caused dramatic change in the urban, social and cultural life of Edirne. For this reason, when compared to other cities in Anatolia, Edirne has a unique cultural structure In the first half of the 15th century Edirne was the center of the State. This fact in addition to the interest of politicians, high-ranking soldiers and generals, and important scientists increased the significance of the city.

In 1683, Edirne was populated with the soldiers and the migrants who were coming from the Balkans and Hungary because of the unsuccessful Ottoman wars. In the years between 1700-1750 when Ottoman Emperor started losing lands (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Hungary) people migrating to the East chose Edirne as their first stop and this caused the population of the city to further increase.

After Edirne agreement (2-14 September1829) people coming from Christian villages started settling in the city while the Turkish population evacuated. In addition, after the peace agreement with the Russians (11 February1879), approximately 40,000 migrants from Rumeli settled in Edirne. The population of Edirne reached 300,000 in the beginning of the 19th century.

After all of these events the population of the city varied largely due to earthquakes, floods, and continuing inner and outer migrations. The census made in the Balkan war time shows the population variety as illustrated below:

47289 19608 14469 4000 2324 46 46

Muslims Rom Jews Armenians Bulgarians Catholics Protestants

87781 total. 1

1

Edirne Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası Rehberi Yüzüncü Yıl Anısına 1885-1985, Arba Yayınları, İst.,1985, s:60

286 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region Another factor that affected the cultural structure of the city is the Silk Road.

The Silk Road starting from East and inner Asia comes to Anatolia through Iran. It passes through Istanbul and Canakkale (Bosphorus, and Dardanelles).

These trade routes convene in Edirne causing the city to be a big trading center.

The biggest migration from the Balkans to Edirne happened after the Turkish independence war due to the geographical exchange agreements. After the Turkish Republic was founded and during the First World War, migration continued.

The last link of these migrations happened in 1950-1953.

These were mostly families dealing with farming and small-scale mercantilism and local trading.

After all of the continuous migrations, migrants originating from the Balkans settled in Central villages and indigenous populations moved to establish rural mountain communities.

In some instances Balkan migrants mixed in with the native population while in others migrants remained separate villages.

In a very short time migrants and the existing local populations established a cohesive existence with one another.

Residents shared and exchanged common cultural traditions and customs, which caused old traditions to be innovated upon. The outcome is a rich and unique heritage that defines the Edirne region. The people who shared the same blood and destiny have lived with respect and love without discriminating against each other as Bosniak, Pomak, or Dramali.

Edirne inhabitants intermarried with one another, made ceremonies together, sang celebration and mourning songs together, and danced hand in hand together. The dynamic structure of daily life was reflected in the Edirne residents’ music and dances. They danced shoulder to shoulder and this demonstrates unity and togetherness. They danced face to face reflecting social intimacy and trust.

In this slowly evolving and shaping of a syncretic culture, some folkloric notions were subjected to change and progress—and one of these concepts were folk dances. At first the dances would be performed only in their place of origin and by First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 287

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey time they were carried to neighboring villages and districts. Migrations from village to village or village to city and musicians performing at one marriage and then another accelerated this distribution.

Moreover Edirne people have formed their own districts or villages, they have united and earned integrity. These people have seen each other’s dances and have listened to each others music. Sometimes they have accompanied these dances and other times they watched with special concern. When time passed and tradition transferred to new generations, the nationality and history of the dances have lost its importance and each became the region’s cultural value.

Rural relationships were more healthy and close because daily life was lived in a small area with less population. They were altogether in their life cycle ceremonies because the degree of closeness and kinship was already high in between the families. They would usually dance with women and men separate however they would dance together in circumstances where participants were family or close neighbors.

THE AREA RESEARCH WORKS IN EDIRNE AND GENERAL STRUCTURE OF DANCES

Edirne region folk dances are a synthesis of the values brought by the migrants who came from the Balkans and settled there in addition to the culture that existed when the migrants arrived. People who migrated from the Balkans and settled here strongly maintained these dances and did not let any change to happen to the dances authentic structure. Edirne region folk dances are performed in wedding ceremonies, bayrams, army farewell parties, special days, and various celebrations similar to Anatolia.

288 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region The first folklore area research works in Edirne began in 1965. These research works would be done in areas surrounding Edirne and in villages that have high migrant populations. The research works were carried out under the leadership of the museum managers of that time, Mr Sabahattin Turkoglu and his assistants Feriha Altinoglu, Sabri Citak, Ulku Denkel, and Cengiz Veznikli. In addition, they have benefited from Serezli Ahmet, an informant who was a migrant from Serres of Thessaloniki and lived in the center of Edirne at the time. The aforementioned researchers collected the first dances and music from Serezli Ahmet.

Later on Edirne folk dances developed as they were introduced by further research works of Sahsuvar Darcanoglu and the Edirne folk education center, other associations, clubs, and foundations.

The first folk dance show was performed in April 1965 for the city’s residents. Following that event, the first folk dance show featuring Edirne dances which introduced Edirne dances to rest of Turkey for the first time took place in July 1966, in folk dance celebrations at Istanbul Open Air Theater organized by Yapi Kredi Bank.

If we analyze Edirne folk dances, we see that they have specific, unique, and marked structures in the dance form, music form, and rhythms.

In open- air/ outdoor performances, Karsilama and Hora dances are being accompanied by two davul and two zurna. The instrument group, which is called “ince saz”, is used in indoor performances as well, however the davul and zurna will not be found in indoor performances. The “ince saz” groups are comprised of one or more of the following: clarinet, violin, kanun, darbuka, def, zilli masha.

The titles of the dances and accompanying music’s are mostly the names of places where people have migrated from in the Balkans such as Zigos, Drama Karslamasi, Gumulcine Karslamasi, Balkan Gaydasi.

Some other dances are named after people who became folk legends from their respected bravery such as Debreli Hasan, Kara Yusuf, Ali Yazicilar, and Kabadayi.

The dances are described as Karslama and Hora. Some researchers would define Gayda, Kasap and Kabadayı dances as types, sub-types or forms. Yet these are each individual dances that fall under the two main categories. The above-mentioned dances fall under the Hora category according to their form and choreologic structure.

Different from the other dances they have three parts –not enough difference to categorize them into another classification. Other dances except these dances have two parts. These two different parts are generally defined as slow and fast parts. The first part is slow and the second part is faster. The faster second part is called Kaldırma in the region where it is performed.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 289

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey The main themes in the dances are unity, trust, love, bravery, and heroism.

A dance can be accompanied by different song or songs and can differ in relation to the accompanying musician’s origin. For example, one can see more than one song for kasap, kabadayı or karsilama dances. It is possible for each of these dances to be performed in neighboring cities or villages. Sometimes we can observe the same dance with a different name or with the same name but in different structure.

This situation is normal due to the common points in cultural source and structure.

Actually it is not accurate to try and draw boundaries around the region and separate the dances from each other until Kirklareli and Tekirdag.

These dances have extensive steps and figures and they are performed with enthusiasm and dynamism. Generally the movements exhibited are clapping hands, vigorous squats and lifts, and Passes. Another key feature of the dances are the performances made on half point toes, or the balls of the feet.

The torso and vertebra are always held upright in all of the regional dances during vigorous squats and lifts.

All of the muscles in the back retain tension when the feet are in half point and sixth position.

Other than the vigorous squats and lifts, small plies, light step springs, and down and up rebounds are key features in these dances.

Passes, half points, and transfers are not unidirectional as they are in other region’s dances. Weight is laid upon both legs and thighs. The weight center is always on the hips. The major working muscles are the biceps and gluteus. When we look at the waist there is no perceivable rotation.

290 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region The rotation made is around the pelvis and acetabulum and it is very small. Another muscle group that works are the deltoids.

The contact in Edirne Horas by the holding of the shoulders and hands and the swinging of the arms and half point passes in Edirne Karsilama dances make these groups of muscles work.

KARSILAMA DANCES: These dances are performed by at least two performers and they have to be facing each other. More than two people can perform the dances and in this is the case then the dances will be performed in lines in which dancers are facing each other.

When the name Karsilama is mentioned, one may first think of Thrace as the place or origination however Karsilama is found in Bursa, Bilecik, Giresun, and Ankara (in the places where there are migrants). It is possible to correspond Tunceli Karsilama dances in the name of “kosalma.” Karsilama dances, which are considerably popular outside of Turkish borders in the Balkan countries, are performed with handkerchiefs in Thrace, with spoons in Marmara, and double handkerchiefs in Tunceli-Pulumur. On rare occasions, in Thrace, tespih beads can be twirled around in the hands of men instead of handkerchiefs. The accompanying instruments are kaba zurna, davul, klarnet, darbuka. In addition Baglama is being used in Ordu and Giresun Karsilama dances. The most important instrument is Davul. In order for a dance to be categorized as a Karsilama the following must be present: Dances performed in a face-to-face choreographic formation.

Opposing line dancers do not make bodily contact 9/8 time signature.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 291

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey

Karsilama dances are performed in Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdag, and surrounding areas in Thrace. These dances are featured at Wedding ceremonies, engagement ceremonies, pre-wedding henna nights by women. There are Karsilama dances present that are performed by women and men together.

We see that Karslama type dances are only in 9/8 time signature. The dancers face each other in two line formations and the two lines do not contact each other. The main structure in these dances is block movements. These blocks move back and forth, left and right. The dancers exchange places and turn—making these movements some of the main characteristics of these types of dances.

Generally the movements exhibited are clapping hands, vigorous squats and lifts, and Passes. Another key feature of the dances are the performances made on half point toes, or the balls of the feet.

292 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region In choreographic terms there is only a line formation. There are very few examples that are in half circles. The most important features are either two lines opposing each other or two circles, one inside another. The dancers perform facing each other; they don’t touch or hold each other.

In the dances there are turns; these turns are either from right to left or left to right and these turns are 180 or 360 degrees.

There are a variety of hand positions that are found in Karsilama dances. Sometimes the hands will stay level with the head while at other times the arms will be level with the shoulders. Sometimes the hands rest on the hips, sometimes the hands are in open positions moving in opposition to the lifting legs.

S o

me of these dances: Sülman Aga Beylerbeyi Karşılaması Edirne’nin Ardıda Bağlar Arzu İle Kamber Kazibem Kadriyem Selanik (Kampana) Kız Karşılaması Zigoş Trakya Karşılaması Drama Karşılaması Gümülcine Karşılaması

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 293

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey HORA DANCES: “Hora dances are one of the main dances performed in Kırklareli, Tekirdag, Edirne regions in Thrace. Generally men perform Hora dances. A pair of zurna and davul accompanies this type of dance. Hora dances are performed with discipline the dance has an order and a specific movement vocabulary that requires experience and traditional knowledge. It generally requires at least five people. The dancers hold each other from arm to arm, often by draping hands on one another’s shoulder. The most distinctive component of the Hora is the vigorous tapping of the feet in time with specific rhythmic patterns. The term “Hora tepmek” comes from the feet tapping.

Hora dances are performed in the region with local costumes in wedding ceremonies, engagement ceremonies, army farewell parties, religious or state bayrams, or every kind of happening that include the coming together of the community.” 2 There is no unity in the spelling of the word Hora. One can see different spellings for example: Hora, horo, hora, hürra, hor, horah, horu, hura… According to Gazimihal it is the shortened version of the word Horan which means black. The words Depki, Tepki, Depmek and Tepmek are used in the meaning of tapping the feet...

According to Cemil Demirsipahi, Hora is not a dance type but rather a figure.” 3 “Hora dances are usually performed by two davul and two zurna and they have alternating slow and fast components. They are created with the feeling of heroism of Serhat Tribes (Ceng-i Harbiler)… It is a popular style of dance in the Thrace region. It loses its beauty and affect if it is performed with less than 5 people. The person who leads the dance at the front of the line is called Hora Bashi. The Hora Bashi holds the handkerchief in his hand.” 4 Hora dances are primarily performed in Kırklareli, Edirne ve Tekirdag cities in Thrace and the Balkans. This dance is performed by holding hands or arms in a disciplined way, in a line formation just like Bars and Halay dances. Hora dances are mainly performed in cities in Thrace however they are spread throughout Kocaeli, Sakarya, Çanakkale, Bursa, Bilecik, Bolu cities in Marmara and Aegean where there are migrants.

Hora dances are mainly performed by men and women together however there are Horas that are performed by only men. The time signature of Hora dances are 2/4, 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 10/8 and they are being performed by holding pinky fingers, from holding 2

Büyük Larousse Sözlük ve Ansiklopedisi, Cilt: 11, s: 5388.

Cemil Demirsipahi, Türk Halk Oyunları, Ankara, T.T.K. Basımevi, 1975, s: 261.

4 Sadi Yaver ATAMAN, 100 Türk Halk Oyunu, İstanbul, Tifdruk Matbaacılık, 1975, s. 112.

3

294 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region one another’s shoulders or belts. Hora dances are generally being performed in forms of a circle, half circle, and line.

Like in Karsilama dances, in Hora dances the torso and vertebra are always held upright in during vigorous squats and lifts. All of the muscles in the back retain tension when the feet are in half point and sixth position.

Other

than the vigorous squats and lifts, small plies, light step springs, and down and up rebounds are like a spring causing the dances to move up and down in a rapid manner.

Passes, half points, and transfers are not unidirectional as they are in other region’s dances. Weight is laid upon both legs and thighs. The weight center is always on the hips.

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 295

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey Some of these dances: Gelseyrek Fatoş Balkan Gaydası Arnavut Gaydası Yarım Kasap Takuş Çoban Kızı

Kabadayı Stafalka Arzu ile Kamber Pomak Gaydası Eski Kasap Sirto Galamatya (Kalamatya)

REFERENCES ARTUN, Erman; Türk Kültürü, Sayı. 458, Ankara 2001, s.366-371 ATAMAN, Sadi Yaver; 100 Türk Halk Oyunu, İstanbul, Tifdruk Matbaacılık, 1975, s. 112.

BAYKURT, Şerif; Türk Halk Oyunları, Ankara, Halk Evleri Genel Merkezi Yayınları, s: 18.

Büyük Larousse Sözlük ve Ansiklopedisi, Cilt: 11, s: 5388.

DEMİRSİPAHİ, Cemil; Türk Halk Oyunları, Ankara, T.T.K. Basımevi, 1975, s: 261.

Edirne, Republic Of Turkey Ministry Of Culture/1556, Ankara, 1993.

Edirne Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası Rehberi Yüzüncü Yıl Anısına 1885-1985, Arba Yayınları, İst.,1985.

Edirne İl Yıllığı 1967, Dizerkonca Matbaası, İst., 1968.

KAHRAMAN, M. Atıf; Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet Dönemi Kırkpınar Güreşleri (1924-1951), T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları/2013, Ankara, 1997.

Meydan Larousse Büyük Lügat ve Ansiklopedisi, cilt:7, s:35. ÖZDİNÇER, Ferruh; Edirne Halk Oyunları, Ege Üniversitesi DT.M.Konservatuarı T.H.O. Bölümü Lisans Tezi (Basılmamış), İzmir,1994.

296 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN

Hora and Karsilama dances in Edirne region SEZER, Ayhan; Kırkpınar, Sportif Yayıncılık, İst., 1999.

TÜRKOĞLU, Sabahattin; Folklor Araştırmaları Dergisi, 1965-1966. www.edirne.gov.tr/ www.trakya.edu.tr http://www.kultur.gov.tr/portal/default_en.asp?belgeno=1988 http://www.kultur.gov.tr/portal/tarih_tr.asp?belgeno=3408 http://www.balkan.gen.tr/ikincibalkansavasi/edirne.html FIELD SPECIALIST: Şahsuvar DARCANOĞLU Folk Dance Feriha ALTINOĞLU Folk Dance İsmail Hakkı SOYYANMAZ Musician Yaşar ÖZDİNÇER Neriman KÖYLÜOĞLU Metin YANYACI Rahmi YANYACI Kerim YURK Bahattin ZAZA

Retired Teacher and Researcher of Retired Teacher and Researcher of Retired

Teacher

and

Retired Civil Servant Arts Historian and Retired Officer of Ethnographic Museum Musician Musician Journalist and Researcher Teacher of Folk Dance

First Symposium of ICTM Study Group for Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe 297

Ferruh Ozdincer, Turkey

298 STRUGA MUSICAL AUTUMN