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Theoretical Concepts in Ethnomusicology and Study of the Folklore Revival Movement: the Case of the Prague Ensemble Gaudeamus
Skořepová, Zita
This chapter discusses two theoretical concepts in ethnomusicology, their applicability to the study of the folklore movement and the potential of these concepts to widen research questions already posed, or to generate new questions. The methodology, based on oral history interviews, focuses on the individual perspective and refl ection of the participants’ activities in the past and present. How might then actors of the folklore movement be characterized as members of a specifi c cultural cohort based on their own narratives and answers to particular questions? The fi rst concept of cultural cohort comes from a book by the American ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino, Music as Social Life [2008]. Turino views different personal features, “habits”, as formative elements of a particular identity. People with similar confi gurations of these traits (thus similar identities) tend to join cultural cohorts and cultural formations. Another theoretical framework is provided by the concepts of superculture, subculture and interculture by Mark Slobin [2000]. On the one hand, the folklore movement offi cially acclaimed sources and inspirations from musical subcultures (urban people singing and dancing rural songs and dances), but, on the other hand, found its place at a supercultural music level. This concept can thus enrich our understanding of the dynamics between the superculture, subculture and interculture in the research of the folklore movement. Drawing on data concerning the Prague-based folklore ensemble Gaudeamus, the present paper outlines some preliminary fi ndings in accordance with these theoretical concepts.
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