Musicologica 1/2009

This study covers the state of traditional folk music and classical European music as non commercial genres in a field of audio-visual media. Film, television and internet strongly influenced the taste of the consumer using the way of intensive propagation of commercially successful and economically perspective genre of pop music. This tendency however caused rapid decrease of interest for other, less preferred genres like classical European music, jazz, traditional folk music etc. Author as well evaluates percentage quota of recorded music devices with traditional folk music in regard to entire production of selected Slovak production companies after the year 1989.

We are concentrating our attention on the history of Slovak popular music in the years 1977 – 1989 with focus on implementation of musical and non musical folklore elements into it. They have played an important role in forming of unique music style, which was significant for our official as well as underground pop music scene of the 80-ties. For its self indentifying, these are the key elements and we demonstrate their appearance on examples of music bands and songs. We do analyze non musical elements (dress, lyrics) as well as musical elements of traditional folk music in notated examples. Laterally we give our attention to „middle of the road“stream, but the subject of our study is the song repertoire of the mainstream of the rock music.

The existence of kids’ folklore groups of Hungarian minority in Slovakia is directly determined by a sum of external factors, which are impacting the creation of such a groups, forming their profile and as well structure and character of their repertoire. Hungarian kids’ folk groups in Slovakia are mainly financially and by equipment supported by elementary schools with the Hungarian teaching language, local civic authorities or basic organizations of Csemadok (Hungarian social and cultural union in Slovakia). Management and professional leadership of folklore movement for the whole country is currently concentrated in competence of cultural-educational institute of Csemadok in Dunajská Streda.

An example of regional differences in the traditional Slovak music culture is visible when comparing villages Zazriva and Terchova, which lie on the frontier of regions Kysuce and Orava. The current condition is a result of complicated evolution process. The people’s relationship to music in Terchova is so strong, that even after moving into different places of the country, these people maintain and perform the local instrumental music of the village they come from for several upcoming generations. (Model of conservative culture) Under the influence of new media the expressions of traditional folk culture weakened. For this reason some components perished, what is visible for example on the fiddler corps from Zazriva.

Author of the study „Fist fiddlers and folk music groups from the region of Popoľanie“ has put down knowledge pieces from his research in terrain in years 1998 – 2007. The exploration was focused mostly on the technique of variations of the 18 first fiddlers’ comming from different folk music groups and localities of the Slovak region of Podpoľanie. Embellishment of the simple traditional folk songs melody by using of grace notes is typical for first fiddlers in all regions of Slovakia.
First fiddlers from Podpoľanie are using typical style of playing called „vrchársky“ style, which is already more than 100 years old. It is known for his variable figures and grace notes as well called „cifra“. These are used with strict rules and were spread among musicians in the way of instrumental presentation, where the main role belongs to the stem musical tradition especially for the gipsy musicians. The second half of the 20th century was characterized by the stormy evolution of the Podpoľanie variation style of violin play. This happened with a contribution of recording technique and possibility for the musicians to play together in traditional folk ensembles and folklore festivals. Despite of these influences the traditional form remained untouched in villages of west and east part of the Podpoľanie region.

A region is a given geographical locality with a historical tradition and language.  It is questionable which Slovak regions, with the integration of countries into Europe, can be considered as independent cultural units.  Slovakia has been divided differently regarding musical history in the 18th and 19th centuries, authentic folk music culture, and differently again as regards the modern conception of music’s cultural regions in the 20th century.  Well-known regions for authentic folk culture are Podpoľanie, Horehronie, Liptov, Spiš, Gemer and Šariš, to which belong individual municipalities.  In this conception, the regional centres of new music in the 20th century, as well as of modern popular music in minority genres, were Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov, where there was a concentration of musical scholarship, listeners and historical tradition, as part of the cultural environment. Slovak musical historiography in the 20th century distinguished between central, eastern and western European culture, of which Slovakia is a part.
Regional culture includes equally amateur musicmaking and mature professional musicianship, which does not automatically move into the professional sphere because the artists do not have such an ambition.  They do not wish to move in the highest national or international circles because of the negative effect on their personal and private life.  They have the chance to progress from regional culture to professional and finally global music culture.  They wish, however, to maintain quality and remain active at a regional or national level.  High-quality professional music culture is connected with sufficient development and support from regional music culture… versus the global cultural media.  From this it follows that the relationships between professional and amateur, global and regional is not antagonistic but polar and complementary.  The question remains, where authentic culture has been lost, of folk music and whether popular cultural, for example in the shape of world music, is its continuation.  The guarantee of the quality of global culture is not the existence of the unique in developing countries but active and high-quality fostering of amateur and regional culture.  Present-day regional culture in Slovakia has several forms: the domestic musicmaking of children attending EASs; classical chamber music ensembles and choirs; concertgoers and passionate collectors of recorded music (especially listeners to opera and the relics of salon musicmaking, most often playing and singing serious music at the piano); the gospel music culture of children and youths; the club culture of students (jazz, alternative rock, folk, country and „chanson“); the active and passive reception of music (listening and playing); the garage culture of rockers; the amateur creation of music at home by means of software and synthesizers (house music); the productions of rappers and DJs; members of wind bands; folklore groups, and folk singers and musicians.

This contribution theme is historical evolution of ensemble music in Slovakia, instrumental groups, whose function, repertoire and interpretation style are based on folk musical tradition. At the same time these ensembles were impacted by music of other social classes like Aristocracy and baronage as well as by urban environment. On the background of the main theme, author is giving attention to the oldest combination of instruments on our territory – drum and reed-pipe as well as to archaic but up until today alive combination of bagpipe and violin and fiddle and cymbal music groups who are considered the most dynamic forms of folk ensemble music in Slovakia at present. Evolution line is closed by brass bands, which are presenting cultural interference of urban, military and village environment.