Folk Performance Research Articles

'An “authentic„ performance?: the cultural politics of “folk„ in Bengal and Bangladesh'

ABSTRACTKabigāna is a verse-duelling/song-theatre genre practiced in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh. Often deemed as obsolete and extinct – following from urban perceptions and the canons of literary history – the genre is found to grapple with the questions of ‘authenticity’ across its multiple spaces of performances- rural rituals, urban fairs/festivals, cinematic representations as well as packages for television and the new media. This article introduces the performance genre of Kabigāna by trying to understand its format and content as an entity that is separate from the umbrella term of ‘folk performances’. It contains two case studies of contemporary Kabigāna performances in rural West Bengal and Bangladesh to understand how performers themselves negotiate the complex idea of ‘authenticity’. Finally, it tries to address some key issues of the cultural politics of performances by bringing in a number of claimants for the genre and exploring if any of these claimants ‘own’ it ultimately. Following an ethnographic method of enquiry and analyses of documented performances, this article tries to bring out the nuances of the performance genre that has mostly been lost in literary canons and official archives. In this sense, the findings of the fieldwork presented in this article is an approach towards re-reading the archival texts, performances and institutional practices and politics in relation to each other.

КОНЦЕРТНО-ПРОСВЕТИТЕЛЬСКАЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ЭТНОГРАФИЧЕСКОЙ СЕКЦИИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО ИНСТИТУТА МУЗЫКАЛЬНОЙ НАУКИ (ГИМНА)

The article analyses the concert and educational activity of the Ethnographic Section of the State Institute of Musical Science. The author introduces previously unknown information on concert performance of musical folklore in the period of 1921-1931. The paper describes the forms of concert performance including the following ones: concerts of folk performers from rural areas, folklore festivals organized by students and researchers, meetings in memory of musical culture personalities, cooperation with professional concert ensembles.

ПРИЧИНКИ ДО БІОГРАФІЇ КЛИМЕНТА КВІТКИ : ТАК КОЛИ КЛИМЕНТ КВІТКА ПОБУВАВ У КУКАВЦІ?

The first part of the proposed papers covers the history of the ethnographic and folk music collection activity of ethnomusicologist Clyment Kvitka and dialectologist Olena Kurylo in 1921th–1923th. The second part, discussing the expedition in the vil- lage Kukavka, Vinnytsia region, will be published in the next edition of “Ethnomusic” In the initial phase of the collection activities, K. Kvitka used every opportunity to record folk songs. It could be at private places, at hotels, even in a prison or a concentration camp. The beginning of the joint collecting work of K. Kvitka and O. Kurylo dates back to 1921, where the main method was an intentional search of folk performers who originated from different parts of the Ukraine and settled in Kiev. Usually, the performers came from the far northern and western territories of Ukraine, which were to a great extent preserved ethnographically. Joint field collecting excursions were began by the scientifics in 1922. The field recordings were continued in the next three pretty large-scale expeditions in 1923. In the expeditionary sessions O. Kurylo recorded poetic texts and it allowed K. Kvitka to consentrate on writing down musical notes, in particular, to trace possible performing melodic “variations”, which was one of the most characteristic features of his transcriptions of that period. In return, dialectologist O. Kurylo professionally wrote folk songs poetic texts, noting semi-pho- nological fiatures. For the first time, scientists visited Kaniv district in the Kyiv region, where they studied the relict ritual of the harvest cycle – “leading of the «perehenia»”. Later they visited Poltava area and several times the Chernihiv area. Unfortunate- ly, the unique attempts at synchronous fixation of the musical-poetic folk performance have never been published. In the article the chronology of K. Kvitka’s folklore recordings is analyzed in details. Some unreliable data about time and place of the shorthand recordings are corrected. In particular, many sources mistakenly mention the ethnomusicologist’s records were made in the settlements he visited. In fact, these records were made from temporary or permanent migrants in Kyiv. All data are extensively analysed based on historical information from printed sources.

Mitologia artystyczna na kontrkulturowych ścieżkach: Roy Harper

<p>W artykule niniejszym przedstawiam polityczny wymiar muzyki popularnej w kontekście działań mitologizacji własnej twórczości przejawianych przez politycznie i społecznie zaangażowanych wykonawców z kręgu miejskiego folku i rocka, na przykładzie brytyjskiego artysty Roy’a Harpera</p><strong>Artistic Mythology on Counterculture Paths: Roy Harper</strong><p>SUMMARY</p><p>The article presents the political dimension of popular music in the context of actions meant to mythologize their own musical works by politically and socially engaged urban folk and rock performers, as exemplified by a British artist Roy Harper. The case of this performer shows that artistic mythology can be gradually constructed strictly according to the patterns taken from mythical narratives that function in all cultures in the world. It serves the specifically understood process of mythologizing the activities of an artist and the personality created by the performer. Harper’s biography is a contemporary version of the heroic myth transmitted to the public through the mass media and complemented with themes originating from folkloristic stories such as the magic fairy story. A myth like that is a certain pivot around which a mythological narrative is developed, consisting of diverse elements essential to a specific artist.</p>

Specificity of Performance Interpretation of Hennady Liashenko`s Quartet №1

The relevance of the investigation . For the first time in Ukrainian music studies, the partiture of a famous Ukrainian composer H. Liashenko is studied. In the case of the partiture, the peculiarities of interpretation of linguistic, figurative system, specifics of musical form are investigated. In the article, it is stated, that the main stylistics method of the quartet is a neo-folkloric performance tendency. The genre and stylistic features of the work have been studied by the method of integral musical and theoretical analysis, the figurative content of the quartet has been determined, the features of the formation and use of compositional means of expressiveness (intonational structure of the main elements of the form, methods of development of the thematic material) have been revealed. Complex interpretation analysis is used in studying the peculiarities of the use of quartet performing expressive means (articulation, strokes, vibration) in their interaction with compositional means. Various forms of vibrato in the quartet score have been studied, which deepens the notion of the characteristic of the timbre of string-bow instruments and contributes to the life-like colorful sound of the quartet ensemble. Conclusions . Different expedients of cantilena sound in Quartet №1, borrowings of folk performance manner coexist with specific and detailed timbral and dashed differentiation of quartet performance. Amid them there is vibrato technique as well, as it is an important mean of musical expression of a quartet performer. The practical implications of results of the given work are in the field of usage in the real quartet class, as well as in educative classes or workshops concerning with quartet methodology and performance history of bow instruments.

Kondobuleng Folk Theater : Representation of Socio-cultural Identity of Bugis-Makassar Coastal Communities

For the Bajo ethnic group in Teluk Bone, the folk theater named Kondobuleng is no longer known in its place of origin. However, this theater is found in Pangkajene and the Islands and is known as a dance. This theater is even well known as a folk theater performance in Paropo Village, Panakung Subdistrict, and Makassar City, because it is often performed by Sanggar Seni I Lolo Gading at various events and festivals. This study aims to describe and analyze the folk theater focusing on the representation of socio-cultural identity in the coastal communities of Bugis-Makassar in the performance of the folk theater Kondobuleng. Related to the focus of the study, the research background is Paropo Village of the Panakukang District, Makassar. This research used cultural approach with a qualitative analysis method. The results of the research show that the socio-cultural identity in Bugis-Makassar coastal society is represented in the Kondobuleng folk theater performed by Sanggar Seni I Lolo Gading Paropo through a system of sign language, scene, dialogue, character, costume, property, music, and song.

Singing Translators and Mobile Traditions: Cross-cultural Performances of Italian Folk Music in Contemporary Australia

Translators, as intercultural mediators, play various roles, among which as singers and performers. Striking examples of singing and performing translators can be found in multicultural Australia. They direct Italian Australian folk choirs and transform, enrich, and enhance the Italian folk repertoire and cultural traditions across continental borders and language barriers. By applying methodological approaches, at the crossroads between translation and performance, theorized by Maria Tymoczko (1995), Barbara Godard (2000), and Sandra Bermann (2014), we will demonstrate how cross-cultural and mobile folk performances and traditions are connecting communities in contemporary Australia.

Ludowe pieśni religijne we współczesnym ruchu festiwalowym na przykładzie Konkursu Kapel i Śpiewaków Ludowych Regionów Nadwiślańskich „Powiślaki” w Maciejowicach

The article discusses the presence of religious folk songs at the last four editions of “Powiślaki” Festival in Maciejowice (Garwolin District, Mazovia Province). The Festival’s history and significance for the local culture are presented. Performers and their repertoire are described, and a source-based analysis of selected songs is carried out. The songs are discussed in terms of their function and genre, their musical elements are examined. The analysed religious folk songs have demonstrated the continuous transmission of the repertoire of distant provenance, as well as of a style deeply rooted in folk performance. A variety of repertoire, melodic versions and variants not documented before, as well as multi-stanza texts testify to a high artistic level of individual singers and vocal groups. “Powiślaki” in Maciejowice can be regarded as a festival which actively supports the oral and musical traditions of the region and which is a perfect example of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage.

Folk Performance as Transgression: The Great Dengaku of 1096

In 1096 a series of dengaku performances, consisting of boisterous music and dance that originated in rural rice-planting rites, erupted in the Heian capital. Courtier reactions varied: some predicted the downfall of the realm while others joined the festivities, but all agreed it was an extraordinary phenomenon. Scholars have often viewed the event as a popular movement that succeeded, or failed, in occupying elite spaces in the capital and changing the trajectory of performance history. This article instead argues that dengaku created charged spaces of transgression in which social identities and cultural forms were negotiated.

HABIB TANVIR: TUNING THE FOLK AND THE MODERN

Eminent playwright Habib Tanvir was one of the greatest stalwarts of the modern Indian stage who is known for blending folk theatre and poetry in his dramaturgy thus leaving an indelible mark on the minds of the common people. Folk music and the songs were the first major attractions which triggered his interest in folk performance traditions. The presence of live music, songs and dances thus formed the base his theatre. The present paper humbly attempts to trace the musical journey of Habib Tanvir’s theatrical world showing how songs are not mere ornamental addition but an intrinsic part of the narrative. Tanvir brilliantly fused folk melodies with his own lyrics, tunes and contemporary consciousness.

‘You can hear wholly only if you remove the waxes in your ears’: The Hararghe Oromo’s theory for establishing the intersubjective foundation of cognition

The article sets out to examine the way the Hararghe Oromo in Ethiopia use their mirriiysa culture to express and cultivate criticality, mindfulness, interpersonal sensitivity and emotional intelligence. The paper discusses the nature of the performance culture and analyses the social psychological meanings of a set of mirriiysa texts collected from a group of folk performers who participated also in the interpretation and analysis of the cultural, social and psychological meanings of the texts. For theory, the study drew on interpretivism. During data analysis, the horizontal and vertical planes of analysis interacted and reinforced each other. The act of removing earwax symbolizes a cultural dimension of intersubjectivity and interaffectivity. The analyses indicated that mirriiysa is a socio-cultural performance wherein listening, understanding and responding occur in socially meaningful and interactive contexts. To understand the communicative intent of a mirriiysa text, one should take broader perspectives and pay due attention to the non-linguistic elements that offer the performance holistic import. The paper highlights the implication of these and other findings for our understanding of the meanings of mirriiysa and other genre performances.

Marathi cinema: Notes towards a liminal history

Abstract Marathi cinema is a prominent regional film industry located in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur in western India. Since its early history, this film industry has evolved within a network of performance forms like the Marathi theatre, folk music and dance, and devotional singing (abhanga and kirtan), and the inter-exchange of personnel between these cultural formations. When the state of Maharashtra was constituted in 1960, this networked formation became even more prominent, and had to negotiate the rising competition from the more dominant Hindi cinema. Marathi cinema also had to contend with the patronage of Marathi audiences for other artistic forms like the theatre and folk performances. The attempt here is to theorize this state of in-betweenness through a spatial detailing and critical mapping of industrial tendencies, textual practices and regional entrenchment. The questions that informs this study are directed to understand regional cinema in India, and its manifestations over the decades of 1960 to 1980. Specifically, the article forwards some propositions to the ideas of: how can the history of Marathi cinema be situated against the dominant and collocative national Hindi cinema industry, with which it shares a common geography of filmmaking, exhibition and audiences? And how the concepts of social and cultural space can be extended to analyse some distinctive historical tendencies of the Marathi cinema? This analysis proposes a dialectics of space for a regional Marathi film practice, which is confirmed by a reading of films, anecdotal biographies, archival materials and trade journals.

The hasidic story and the Yiddish cabaret: folk performance as a barbaric disruption in S. Y. Agnon’s The Bridal Canopy

ABSTRACTFocusing on S.Y. Agnon’s novel The Bridal Canopy (Hakhansat kala), 1931, this article investigates an under-explored path in modern Jewish literature where folklore and popular culture serve as a radical disruption of European literary norms. Whereas modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures typically strove for what Dan Miron called “cultural normalcy,” struggling to mould Jewish materials (including language, modes and genres of writing, and ways of life) into European literary standards, Agnon’s first novel flaunts “Jewish otherness.” Agnon orchestrates a polyphony of Jewish performers, including the storyteller, the badkhn, the purim-shpiler and the popular Yiddish cabaret the Singers of Brod. Introducing the sensibilities of the Yiddish vernacular into the highbrow Hebrew book, improvised performance into the written text, simple rhyming into Agnon’s rich prose – all these disturbances add up to what might be called, following, Theodor W. Adorno’s term, a “barbaric” interference in the esteemed European genre.

Girls’ Carnival Morris Dancing and Contemporary Folk Dance Scholarship

Competitive, urban-centred and female-led, girls’ carnival morris dancing functions at a remove from the ‘traditional’ spaces of the English folk movement. However, it has a comparable history in north-western England where it retains great popularity. Perhaps this overlooked practice has the potential to unsettle dominant assumptions about contemporary folk performance in the United Kingdom.

A Traditional Communication of Bugis (Note 1) in the South Sulawesi of Indonesia through the Art Performance of Kecapi

Discussing about traditional communication, it is commonly connected to the tradition concept, which contains a meaning that the concept is a kind of the past finding, but it is commonly reputed as a normative thing by each part of the society. Based on the explanation, it can be concluded that the definition of traditional communication is commonly connected to the folk art performance as a traditional media that is owned by a certain society, as the result it can be identified and understood that a folk art performance is owned by that society and exist as a local wisdom for the society.Therefore, it can be cleared that discussing about traditional communication is cannot be separated with the traditional folk art performance as a media, a kind of art that is based on the folk story by using media that appears and develops in a certain society. The effort of source finding of this folk story is not only purposed to be performed in the form of art performance, but also it is further expected to carry out messages from the story. Therefore, in the review of traditional communication it is emphasized to the way of carrying the messages that are contained in an art performance as a media. Therefore, this review is not discussed about the art performance furtherly. It means that the performance can use a great and luxurious background, but also can be in a simple form.South Sulawesi as a former government of the Indonesian Archipelago (the government of Gowa-Tallo and other governments that had been exist in Indonesia) has various kinds of art performance of the traditional media which are still heired for generations, where the function of traditional media is not only as an entertaining public show, but also may be a guidance because of the role of art performance which is full of messages and senses.Therefore, people who will have an art performance are commonly have to prepare their physic, mental, and psychology, moreover in fact that they will face most of audiences and have an all night (Note 2) performance. So that, in the South Sulawasi, may be in other places, before playing the role as a persistent player in an art performance, the players are commonly practice hard their skill and ability. This ability is usually completed by a mysthical thinking through the magic words or Parimbolo (Bugis’ language). In order to learn the magic words, the players commonly meet the elders, but the magic words are not directly given, but rather have to pass some rituals within certain rules such as white cloth, a cock, or by preparing black sticky rice and black cock (Ajeip Padindang in Monoharto, 2003: ix-x).

Making Traditions: Girls’ Carnival Morris Dancing and Material Practice

Girls’ carnival morris dancing holds a curious status in the canon of English folk performance. On the one hand, this highly competitive team-formation dance operates at a fundamental remove from the conventional spaces and narratives of the two English folk revivals with which most morris dancing is associated (Wright 2017). More closely linked to the popular “town carnival movement” of the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries than to the contemporary folk scene, girls’ morris dancing is practised in sports halls and community centres, predominantly in the northwest of England and parts of North Wales, and is rarely seen in public. The dancers—almost exclusively girls and young women from working-class communities—compete as members of morris dancing troupes within regional and cross-regional carnival organizations. They do not straightforwardly identify as “folk” dancers.

Reviving tradition in disaster-affected communities: adaptation and continuity in the kagura of Ogatsu, Miyagi Prefecture

Questions of continuity and transmission, as well as relationship to the community, have long occupied an important part of folk performance scholarship. These topics take on a different urgency in disaster-affected communities, where preexisting socioeconomic issues become more pressing and endanger not only the continuity of folk practices but the communities themselves. The aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami has seen a surge of folk performance revivals in affected areas, hinting to the depth of the ties between local folk performance and community. Following an ethnographic approach, this paper explores the case of the community of Ogatsu (Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture) and its folk performance, the Ogatsu hōin kagura, as one expression of the revival process in an isolated, rural community extensively affected by the 2011 disaster. Putting in perspective the underlying dynamic of continuity and change that characterizes folk performances, the objective is to explore the nature and usage of the kagura and its relationship to the post-disaster community as it responds to changing circumstances.

ДО ПИТАННЯ РОЗВИТКУ НАРОДНОЇ МАНЕРИ СПІВУ В СУЧАСНІЙ КУЛЬТУРІ УКРАЇНИ

ДО ПИТАННЯ РОЗВИТКУ НАРОДНОЇ МАНЕРИ СПІВУ В СУЧАСНІЙ КУЛЬТУРІ УКРАЇНИ

A Cultural History of Theatre: A Desideratum

Theatre is predominantly a social form. Social history, which invites perspectives from “below,” stories of resistance, and awareness of how social organization stratifies, has had a profound effect on theatre studies since the 1970s. A wide scholarly purview on performative forms dates from the later nineteenth century, but social history changed awareness about historical contiguities of categories of community, amateur, and folk performance; tensions and exchanges among court, community, and professional performance constituencies; as well as greater respect for nonliterary traditions and unwritten forms of preservation and lineage. Social history, in short, prompted questions about who made theatre and how it mattered to the people who partook of it, including those who made it as well as others who consumed it, rather than more narrowly determining what constituted theatre (or drama) worthy of posterity. This approach—society as a group with common territory and interactions, enveloping each individual—could not be investigated as theatre history without a commensurate interest in culture. That is to say, not culture as the pinnacle of elites' achievements, but rather any social group's interpretation and use of common beliefs and values patterned by behavior and practices into religion, behavioral protocols, cuisine, and so on, including the arts. Wariness of a narrow elite construal of culture may be what keeps theatre historians from calling our field “cultural history,” for, though we embrace the ambit of social history, cultural history often comes in through the side door of sociological or anthropological theory. Cultural expressions are evident via how a society socializes, interacts, and adapts in ways that make the contours of the society legible to those within it, as well as differentiated from those who are outside it.

The Modernization of Isan Folk Performance (Morlum): A Change for Survival

Isan folk performance or Molum is about the folk singing performance narrated by the verse of song composing of words, rhyming with different styles of singing from the beginning of performance to the end of performance. This folk performance has been deep-rooted for many decades in the Northeast Thailand. However, it cannot maintain its traditional styles of performance as it used to be in the past. As for the postmodern era, it is necessary for the owner of Morlum band to adapt his or her performance up-to-date and being attractive to the audience. The question is what modernity in this age is incorporated into this folk performance and which factor is considered as the main factor causing this modernity happen. This paper aims to analyse the modernization of Isan folk performance in the Northeast Thailand. How Isan folk performance adapts itself to the postmodern era to maintain its cultural root will be studied. In this paper, the factors that force this folk performance into modernity will be described as well. The data used in this paper were collected from the four famous Isan folk performances (Morlum troupe) in Northeastern Thailand namely: Rattanasilapa Intathaiyaraj, Rabiab Watasilapa, Prathom Bantheongsilapa, Silapinphuthai. The observation and in-depth interviews of Morlum performers are the key qualitative methods employed in this study. And the modernization theory is proposed as a conceptual framework to analyse the social phenomenon and a new technology incorporated in this folk performance. The findings reveal that All Morlum bands in particular have developed their traditional folk performance into a modern style by incorporating a social phenomenon and new technology into their performances. It has been found that all three main parts of the particular folk performance namely: a luk thung performance, a comedy show and a lumruengtorklorn or 'storytelling' with special rhythmic and melodious music, are modernized in order to attract the audiences and to maintain their folk culture. The modernization incorporated into Isan folk performance can be analysed into many aspects such as the rhythmic and melodious music, the Isan folk songs, the storytelling, the modern stage of performance, the light and sounds, the new high technology of the performance and so on and so forth. The most important factor that forces this folk performance changing to modernization is the financial factor.