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Folklore Revival Movements in Europe post 1950. Shifting Contexts and Perspectives.
Stavělová, Daniela
This collection of papers emerges from a symposium on the folklore revival movement of the second half of the twentieth century which was held in Prague in October 2017. As the current findings of ongoing research in this volume demonstrate, across Europe, the performance and investigation of folklore revival movements, especially music and dance, is of vital interest and relevance to understanding their manifestation in the second half of the twentieth century. This present collection opens the door to further critical examination of the power of such cultural practices, their political salience, whether at national, institutional or individual levels, and their deep-seated impact on people who have encountered and evaluated folk revivalism in their lives.
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We all Know That, Don´t We?: Situating Scholarly Knowledge about the Czech 'Folklore Movement'
Zdrálek, Vít
The text is a reflexive contemplation of the ‘common sense’ in Czech music folkloristics/ethnology from the point of view of the Czech ethnomusicologist whose personal as well as research experience has, significantly in this context, been formed outside the Czech folklore and folkloristics/ethnology practices and discourses. Partly based on reflexive ethnographic observations of the ongoing research project ‘Weight and Weightlessness of Folklore: The Folklore Movement of the Second Half of the 20th Century in the Czech Lands’ (2017-2019) hosted by the Ethnological Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, partly based on autoethnographic self-inspections of the author’s experience of the ‘alien affect’ towards the dominant Czech folklore discourse in the Czech-German ‘borderlands’ of the 1980s and the 1990s, and partly discussing the post-1989 folkloristics/ethnology versus anthropology debate and the less pronounced, but no less acute music folkloristics/ethnology versus ethnomusicology debate in the Czech Republic, the text formulates what it hopes to be the key questions for understanding the positionality of Czech music folkloristics/ethnological knowledge and creates an intellectual space for self-reflexive disciplinary discussion which it sees as critical for the future of the Czech music folkloristics/ethnological research.
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Literature on the Folklore Revival Movement in the Czech Journal Taneční listy 1963: a Critical Analysis
Gremlicová, Dorota
This study examines texts published in the Czech journal Taneční listy which deal with the folklore dance and song revival movement after 1945. A detailed analysis is conducted of various texts from the 1963 volume, paying special attention to the dominant themes and typical patterns of thinking. Through the analysis, shifts in the conceptualization of the folk movement in Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s are addressed in connection with changes in the social, political and cultural contexts.
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The Power of Tradition(?): Folk Revival Groups as Bearers of Folk Culture
Pavlicová, Martina
A growing interest in rural folk culture among the intelligentsia could be seen throughout Europe (and in the Czech Lands also) in the nineteenth century, often as a symbolic aim of finding a national identity. The turn of the twentieth century saw the demise of many archaic manifestations of folk culture in the everyday life, however also the beginning of their “second life”. The paper is opening questions about the role of folk revivals groups in this process.
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Folklore in the Era of Socialism. Display Window of Official Culture or a Little Island of Freedom? Folklore Movement in Contemporary Historical Research and Oral Historical Studies
Vaněk, Miroslav
The folk movement has often been referred to as an official part of the "culture of socialism", alongside other sourcees of official culture, and as possibly an export item of Communist Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, the perspective of the actors has been neglected. The folklore "movement" in the context of the study of contemporary history and oral-historical studies is gradually looking for pioneers in oral history to investigate this phenomenon. Recently, projects and studies have emerged that turn to the actors themselves. Their views are beginning to disrupt the predominant view of folklore as monolithic organized folk entertainment. On the contrary, for some actors, active participation in the folk ensemble could represent an imaginary little island of freedom. The role of oral history is, in this respect, irreplaceable. Research needs to be undertaken by knowledgeable and ethical professionals. Particular consideration should be given to analyzing the position of insiders conducting research.
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Preface
Stavělová, Daniela ; Buckland, Jill Theresa
The preface introduces into the topic of the edited volume that brought together ethnochoreologists, anthropologists of dance, ethnomusicologists, folk music scholars and educators, oral historians and anthropologists, some indeed combining these disciplinary fields. It explains the different statements and perspectives used in the collection by the authors investigating folklore revival movement and opens the door for further critical examination of the power of such cultural practices, their political salience, whether at national, institutional or individual levels, and their deep-seated impact on people who have encountered and evaluated folk revivalism in their lives.
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Formal or Informal? Folk Music, Folklore Revival and Music Education
Kratochvíl, Matěj
Traditional folk music in the Czech Republic was usually connected with an informal way of knowledge transfer from generation to generation. Personal contacts with experienced musicians played an important role in transmission of repertoire, style, and skills to younger ones. During the 20th century and especially in its second half, with the development of the revival movement, this system changed. While some of its aspects have remained, the transmission process was strongly influenced by a formalized and institutionalized system of public music education. Music education both in grammar schools and in the network of so called “Basic schools of arts” (Základní umělecké školy), where children learn music as a hobby, has had an impact on the way traditional music is taught today. These changes include the emphasis on different aspects of musicianship, drawing inspiration from other genres of music, and a different way of organizing ensembles including a higher representation of girls in them. In my text, I am presenting findings from my own experience as well as from interviews with musicians from several generations. I am trying to demonstrate how their particular experience with learning and teaching traditional folk music has informed their approach to the way they perform, listen to and think about music.
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The Folklore Revival Movement in Former Czechoslovakia: Dichotomy of the Term
Stavělová, Daniela
In the Czech Lands, the folklore movement is used to refer to the existence of folklore ensembles and their stage production. Recently, however, the term has gained negative connotations as it is associated with the era of Communism, especially the ideological pressures of the 1950s. The reason for these negative associations is that folklore was performed as politically harmless entertainment preferred by the ideology of the day, thus, the folklore movement became representative of values associated with the ideology. The paradoxical, and less known, fact is that members of folklore ensembles often used this environment as a refuge that they could escape to from the grim reality of the political system and a meaningful way of realizing their alternative ideas that they were unable to realize in their professional life. The contribution explores this ambivalence through the memories of surviving actors of the folklore movement, therefore, the principal method used here is oral history, with the main focus on an individual human story – a little history in the context of big history.
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Radio Broadcasting as Role Model, Authority and Norm in Czech Musical Folklorism in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Vejvoda, Zdeněk
The presentation of Czech folk music in concerts and on stage from the 1950s to the 1990s is characterized by unprecedented dynamics, especially marked in the changing style of interpretation, now very different from the technologically imperfect recordings of Czech folk music made in authentic settings in the early 20th century. Much was done to the arrangement of folk songs and instrumental melodies, by amateurs as well as musicians with a professional training, who, it is important to note, maintained contact with the folklore movement in general, unlike in the pre-WWII times. Of crucial importance has been radio broadcasting and the exquisite works of leading composers affiliated with professional radio orchestras. In Bohemia, these personalities included Zdeněk Bláha, Zdeněk Lukáš, Jan Málek, Vladimír Baier, Jaroslav Krček and Josef Krček, to name but a few. In 1953, the regional studio of the Czechoslovak Radio saw the establishment of the Plzeň Folk Ensemble, recruiting players from the radio symphonic orchestra. The style of play of its prominent instrumentalists and the style of singing of a number of its solo members has, till the present day, been considered a role model for the interpretation of regional folklore.
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Politically Committed Songs: A Distinctive Product of the Czech Folk Revival Movement of the 1950s
Uhlíková, Lucie
The beginning of Communist totalitarian era in then Czechoslovakia brought with it political declarations of a new historical epoch and a new worldview, one whose rise was to be facilitated, among other ways, by a retooling of culture. Folklore was misused more than other areas because the folk revival movement was transformed into a strong propaganda tool. ‘New folk art’ in the spirit of socialist realism demanded new songs that would reline traditional forms with contemporary content, oftentimes with political or propaganda undertones. As is clear in contemporaneous folklore research, these propaganda ‘folksongs’ were composed primarily by members of politically active folk ensembles. Despite this, these were creative individuals closely tied to the live tradition, and their composition took place within that framework.
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