Funeral Songs Research Articles

Linguistic and Literary (Artistic) Devises in the Composition, Performance and Aesthetics of Ogba Funeral Songs

Linguistic and Literary (Artistic) Devises in the Composition, Performance and Aesthetics of Ogba Funeral Songs

민요에 나타난 ‘존엄성’에 대한 인식체계

Respecting someone requires treating them with “dignity.” In other words, you should avoid treating them in a way that demeans, insults, or expresses contempt. This study investigated how people recognize and respond to dignity through folk songs: people enjoy folk songs based on the idea that dignity is lost when human rights are violated. Also, when communication with family members failed, they felt left out and did not receive favors; instead, when criticized and ridiculed, they felt a failure of dignity. Protecting dignity was so important to them that they showed how they would rather die through the poetic speakers of folk songs. They protested that their dignity was undermined by calling them folk songs and tried to resolve the issue by making it public.
 Next, we investigated their perceptions and attitudes toward the deceased. In folk songs, human dignity also applies to the dead, highlighting why the person died and why those were the cause must apologize. In particular, funeral songs include, “Who is the deceased?What kind of life did they live? Why did they die? What do they mean to those who remember them? What kind of words do we want to leave behind for them, and what do we want to say to them as they leave the world?”
 People who enjoyed folk songs also recognized the dignity of animals based on feelings of compassion. Meanwhile, the word “dignity” has always been associated with the word “human being,” and dignity has been recognized as “the essential value of human beings.” However, recently, dignity has been extended to non-human entities, expanding its meaning. Respect for others based on compassion attracts attention, as it is a value we need to live together in the future.
 Defending dignity is possible by realizing one’s rights and respecting the rights of others. It is emphasized that recognizing dignity based on mutual respect regardless of race, religion, gender, social status, region, or age, abandoning the instrumental perspective of non-human beings such as animals, plants, and artificial intelligence, and cooperating to respect them is needed.

Das Bild der tugendhaften Frau als Ehefrau und Mutter in ausgewählten lateinsprachigen Epithalamien und Epitaphien des 16. Jahrhunderts

A Virtuous Woman in the Renaissance In this article, I analyze selected texts of epithalamia and epitaphs, on the basis of which we can conclude that it is no accident that male poets paid so much attention to women in these two genres. This is so because in wedding songs they needed a virtuous wife, and in funeral songs they had to prove that they had found one. In both types of works, the catalogue and the laudatio of female virtues are very similar. The difference is visible in the description of appearance, which in epitaphs is of secondary importance, because the body disintegrates after death, unlike the immortal soul. In the sixth epitaph to Elżbieta Szydłowiecka, Piotr Rojzjusz emphasizes the grace and beauty of the deceased, but puts them between two other virtues: kindness and holiness. All virtue lay at rest in the grave with this beautiful woman. The funeral laudatio coincides with the laudatio in wedding songs. The woman was to be the model of a good wife, a mother, and a Christian. The topos of the good wife required of her: good birth, love for her husband, piety, decency, honesty, modesty, unconditional obedience to her husband, and lack of a quarrelsome disposition (the epitaphs lack pulchra and pecuniosa). The topos of a good mother, however, includes giving birth and raising children. A good mother had to be pious, modest, and caring for her family and children. In each of these roles, the description of virtues is strongly prescriptive. A woman becomes a being programmed by nature and patriarchal society to fulfill the role of an obedient daughter, a virtuous wife, a caring mother, and a good housewife.

An Ethno-folklore Symbol in Zeinolla Sanik’s Story “Shashtagy sharapat” (“The Power of Hair”)

The article scientifically and comprehensively analyzes the meaning of ethno-folklore concepts related to human hair, based on the story of the writer-ethnographer Z. Sanik “Shashtagy sharapat” (“The Power of Hair”). In the course of a comparative analysis of the author's scientific conclusions in the field of ethnography and folk concepts in a work of art, the author's own style in the use of ethnographic material was revealed in accordance with the characteristic patterns of each branch of science. In accordance with the Kazakh worldview, the essence of concepts, techniques, and rituals is considered in relation to the ethnographic data of the peoples of the world, and the peculiar features of the creative development of these concepts by the writer are determined. Along with the nature of ancient magical, ritual, and reverent ideas about hair in the genres of funeral songs, fairy tales, and stories, the relationship between artistic reality and the reality of life in the manifestation of nature, which is the basis for genuine scientific experiments, is revealed. Creating a story composition in the form of a dialogue between a teacher and a student is a kind of artistic method used by the author. Historical knowledge and modern understanding of the main idea of the story are supported by exhaustive examples of interconnection and artistic value. The interdisciplinary continuity of fiction in the writer's work with such fundamental sciences as history, ethnography, chemistry, archeology, and pedagogy was scientifically studied in a new way in the presentation on examples of the lives of historical figures, in addition to the power of one strand of hair in determining the main causes of life and death of a person, as well as the uniqueness of human nature, on examples from the lives of historical figures. The analysis also took into account the works of other writers who supported the traditional worldview. The article uses the methods of description, comparative research, analysis, and hermeneutics.

On Song Dictation and Their Texts in the Village of Shalanky (Transcarpathia)

The present paper examines a novel aspect of folk literacy within the ethnographical research, in particular to a separate genre of oral folk art, which is an organic component of modern Ukrainian and Hungarian cultures. The focus of the study is written sources from the village of Shalanky (Berehove District, Transcarpathia), as well as from some other areas of the former Hungarian historical region of Ugocsa. The collection entitled The Book for Funeral Ceremonies (Halottas alkalmakra készített és írott könyv) is presented in four copies, each containing songs for a funeral ceremony. The main occasions for recitative singing are, on the one hand, church events, divine services, and, on the other, funerals and commemorations. For the latter, there were prepared, in the Reformed communities, separate handwritten songbooks titled The Book-Collection of Funeral Songs, or The Book, Prepared and Written to Honour the dead. Currently, more than ten manuscripts have been collected in the studied region. Information about their use and purpose, the role in the life of a community can be obtained from narrations of informants. The oldest collection was compiled in the 1880s. The books contain only the texts that provide a decent burial of the dead. For burial, a cantor (singer) selects suitable songs by age, sex, ecclesiastical order of the deceased, etc. Most manuscripts have a similar structure; we can also find much in common in the subjects of song texts. In general, as already noted, the content of each manuscript is divided into ten sections, the songs are mainly grouped by age. Until recently, in the communities surveyed, there was a custom of so-called song dictation (recitative). Community members have different views on its decline. The older generation prefers recitative, while young people prefer rhythmic singing and new songs. However, the fact is that the song dictation was a characteristic sign of both the Reformed divine services and the Hungarian identity. It also had a moral content in relations between members of a community. Our duty is to show and preserve this custom!

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline

Reviewed by: Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Dimaline, Cherie Funeral Songs for Dying Girls. Tundra, 2023 [280p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780735265639 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780735265646 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 9-12 Winifred is quite literally surrounded by death. The sixteen-year-old girl lives in Winterson Cemetery with her cremator father, who seems half alive himself, still grieving the loss of his wife after Win’s mother died giving birth. Win spends much of her time wandering the cemetery grounds, which has recently led to a spate of rumors of a ghost at Winterson. That development could prevent the struggling crematory from closing but also means Win has to find a real ghost ASAP. She tries to invoke her mother’s spirit, but instead Phil, the ghost of a dead teen girl found at a nearby ravine, shows up. The two soon become close, and Win begins to contemplate what it might mean to live fully even when death is guaranteed. Winifred’s narration is startling in its honesty, even more so when she occasionally breaks the fourth wall, and the result is a deep intimacy that is warm but melancholy. Phil also narrates some chapters, and there’s a strong emphasis on the fact that these sad girls are not broken, nor is their sadness unreasonable; they are both loved deeply, but love is not always enough to clear the way to independence of danger and trauma. Descriptions of Phil’s initial arrival are imagistic and cinematic with clear nods to horror films (think The Ring), but Dimaline hones in on the quieter, more haunting elements, reminding readers that if there is a ghost, there is most certainly a death, a terrifying prospect for most people but perhaps more for a teen girl just realizing how vulnerable we all are. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Computer-assisted Analysis of Field Recordings: A Case Study of Georgian Funeral Songs

Three-voiced funeral songs from Svaneti in North-West Georgia (also referred to as Zär) are believed to represent one of Georgia’s oldest preserved forms of collective music-making. Throughout a Zär performance, the singers often jointly and intentionally drift upwards in pitch. Furthermore, the singers tend to use pitch slides at the beginning and end of sung notes. Musicological studies on tonal analysis or transcription have to account for such musical peculiarities, e.g., by compensating for pitch drifts or identifying stable note events (located between pitch slides). These tasks typically require labor-intensive annotation processes with manual corrections executed by experts with domain knowledge. For instance, in the context of a previous musicological study on pitch inventories (or pitch-class histograms) of Zär performances, ethnomusicologists tediously annotated fundamental frequency (F0) trajectories, stable note events, and pitch drifts for a set of 11 multitrack field recordings. In this article, we study how musicological studies on field recordings can benefit from interactive computational tools that support such annotation processes. As one contribution of this article, we compile a dataset from the previously annotated audio material, which we release under an open-source license for research purposes. As a second contribution, we introduce two computational tools for removing pitch slides and compensating pitch drifts in performances. Our tools were developed in close collaboration with ethnomusicologists and allow for incorporating domain knowledge (e.g., on singing styles or musically relevant harmonic intervals) in the different processing steps. In a case study using our Zär dataset, we evaluate our tools by reproducing the pitch inventories from the original musicological study and subsequently discuss the potential of computer-assisted approaches for interdisciplinary research.

A Literary/Linguistic Analysis of Funeral Songs and the Ogba Cosmology

Death is a natural phenomenon, and Ogba people revere their dead relatives and beloved ones with elaborate funeral rites, which include the performance of funeral songs. It is believed that if the necessary rites of passage are not performed for the deceased, the soul will continue to haunt the living. This paper focuses on the content, style and cosmology in twelve (12) Ogba funeral songs analysed. It establishes that Ogba funeral songs articulate the Ogba people’s worldview on death. The contents, styles and Ogba cosmology are enhanced in the songs through the elaborate employment of styles by the performer in the rendition of the songs which enhance beauty and raised emotions. The paper concludes that occasion and performance are the hallmark of Ogba funeral songs through which their renditions serve for the purgation of pent up emotions. The paper recommends that since the songs serve other purposes aside from being dirges, government agencies and cultural organizations should strive to collect and preserve the songs for posterity.

Igbo funeral songs: Exploring their major themes

Death, transition and other related terms are used by various human societies to communicate the ending of all formal functions and processes in the life of a living organism. When death occurs, it causes an emotional outburst which people express in forms of chants, recitations and dirges. In most parts of Africa, the death of an adult member of the society goes with the rendition of some songs in honour of the deceased and to contemplate on death as a natural phenomenon during the funeral. The Igbo of South Eastern Nigeria, through funeral, send off the deceased solemnly as she/he was welcomed at birth. The essence of this is captured in Igbo cosmic thought and in many funeral songs. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to identify some strands of meaning which most Igbo funeral songs convey and to also highlight their basic thematic constructs. The paper applied expository and analytical methods of research for data collection. It then observed that Igbo funeral songs have a clear identifiable purpose because in them are expressed different phases of grief and they serve valuable purposes in the various Igbo communities where they are rendered.

Речитатив як особливість реформатських похоронів на Закарпатті

The present paper examines a novel aspect of folk literacy within the ethnographical research, which is an important part of the culture. The central theme is the folk literacy and the song dictation. One of the main scenes of the dictation was the Sunday worship, and the other were the funerals and the vigilances. The study presents some manuscripts from Ugocsa, which were used at funerals. For the funeral occasions, direct manuscripts were made full of funeral songs, with the title Book made and written for the funeral occasions or Collection of funeral songs. We can find nowadays more than ten manuscripts in the region. The earliest are dates from the 1880s. These were written by cantors. The manuscripts are in quadruplicate, and contain only funeral songs. Cantors chose the song from this booklet according to the social position of the deceased. At funerals the cantors dictated only from these. All of the manuscripts have a similar structure. They divided them into ten sections. The songs in the sections built around different age groups. They refer to the cause of death, sometimes the rank of the dead or to the material status. Dictation has ended just a few years ago. The inhabitants of the villages think differently about the dictation. Most of them wanted to observe the custom, because it was part of our reformed hungarianness, and part of the reformed religion. The study parallels the views of the older and young generation. The strong adherence to traditions preserved the dictation for so long in the researched settlements. Until the community identify oneself with dictation, it also practiced this mode of singing. The custom of dictation was part of our Reformed Hungarianness, and it was part of living the Reformed religion. It also morally reflected the communityʼs relationship to each other. The custom is the part of our Hungarian roots, and it is our duty to protect and defend it.

Music and Lyric Characteristics of Popular Dutch Funeral Songs.

This study compared the characteristics of 150 songs (Dutch lyrics, N = 47, English lyrics, N = 103), popular at Dutch funerals, to an equal number of non-funeral songs. The variables explored included those linked with the music (valence, energy, danceability, acousticness, key, and tempo); and lyrics, namely: linguistics-related (first-person singular/plural, second-person pronouns; past, present, future tense; expressed emotion (positive, negative words, and the discrete emotional categories anger, anxiety, sadness); and category words (those relating to family, friends, death, religion). Funeral music was lower in valence, energy, and danceability and higher in acousticness than non-funeral music. Furthermore, English funeral music lyrics contained more second-person pronouns and were more future-focused than comparison songs. Funeral lyrics were not particularly negative, but English texts contained more words relating to sadness. In conclusion, funeral music differs in severable notable respects from general popular songs that may reflect the special purpose of this music.

Fujianese Provincial Brass Band Traditions of Chinese Immigrant Musicians in New York City: The Chinese Voices

This article focuses on the Chinese Voices Wind Orchestra. Fujianese brass band musicians immigrated to New York and changed Chinatown’s musical soundscape. The bands perform mainly inside or on the street outside of funeral parlors on Canal and Mulberry Streets. Their profession is mainly that of a funeral musician. They also travel to Philadelphia or Washington, D.C. for rites. They accompany families and decedents to cemeteries to play special repertoire. After the burial they perform songs of prosperity at receptions in restaurants. They maintain a wide repertoire of funeral songs and national marches. Funeral performances are a hidden music tradition performed at a sacred place for a sacred function, not intended for the public. Passers-by though observe bands performing outdoors when a coffin is brought to the hearse. There is a display of music and drama at this moment, for bands’ sounds transform the Downtown neighborhood into a Taoist aura. Bands came to perform adjacent to traditional Chinese instruments and at funerals as early as 1908, during the late Qing Dynasty influenced by the European imperial tradition. Today Chinese brass bands are transnational, and Fujianese bands bring the genre of a European brass band to New York in a Chinese interpretation of nationalism.

Mourning and Funeral Folk Songs in the Northern Part of the Transylvanian Plain

"Mourning and the farewell from the young, unmarried deceased are such occasional folk customs, which have survived only in the memory of the older generations. In the northern part of the Transylvanian Plain the traditional singing repertoire consists of mourning and funeral songs – besides the songs of the sitting, performed from the hymnals. The presented examples of mourning songs in general have a formal structure, their performance is individual, while the funeral songs are sung in groups, occasionally accompanied by musicians. Keywords: Funeral, mourning, Transylvanian Plain "

Funeral Hymns of Lithuanians and Vilnius Region Poles’: General Features and Trends of the Repertoire

The article discusses the key features and trends of the repertoire of Catholic funeral hymns, functioning in Lithuania in both Polish and Lithuanian; at the same time attempts are made to grasp the possible causes of mutual interactions and influences. In combining literary and ethnological approaches, field research data, historical sources, printed and manuscript hymns are analysed and interpreted, related scientific literature is examined. The conclusion is reached that the similarity and commonalities of the Lithuanian and Vilnius Region Poles’ folk piety funeral repertoire were, and still are, a result of similar cultural conditions. The basis of the old repertoire is primarily determined by trends, influences, and themes coming from Poland, while the areas of the modern repertoire’s influence are much broader: both general international trends and a broad mutual influence can be noted.In Lithuania’s villages and cities it is still common practice to invite a group of hymn-singers to a funeral wake and burial ceremony. Singing of funeral hymns is an old tradition, likely coming from the 17th c., from Poland, slowly covering also the territory of modern-day Lithuania and gradually settling down, gaining distinct regional features. However, we do not have any accounts as to whether a folk piety funeral repertoire existed in Lithuanian – it likely formed later.The texts of funeral songs can be divided into several groups according to their origin and function: some are adapted from church liturgies and are traditional church hymns, while others were created at different times by either anonymous local authors or well-known songwriters. Some hymns, for a long time, functioned as part of the liturgy of death and funerals, they established themselves in the practice of folk piety, while others became part of the funeral repertoire when they came into it from various thematically-fitting church calendar holidays or they were created by known or (more often) anonymous songwriters, then spreading among the people.The similarities of the repertoire of Lithuanian and Polish funeral songs are first of all a result of close cultural conditions. The texts of the oldest repertoire of funeral hymns were usually translated from Polish to Lithuanian, with the former taking root in the practices of folk piety much earlier. The melodies of hymns also mostly came from Poland; many are of liturgical origin, although over the centuries they grew into the local musical environment and gained a distinctive tone.The trends of the formation of the new hymns (from the beginning of 20th c. until now), on the one hand, are a continuation of the previous ones; however, on the other hand, local (Lithuanian) features, resulting from the faster and wider spread of information, become clearer, as well as various international influences. A certain group of hymns exists only in Lithuania, we can clearly see the influence of the Lithuanian environment on the poetry and melodics of Polish-language funeral hymns. This repertoire spreads only through writing down by hand the texts, while melodies are learned by ear; they are not published in any hymnals approved by the Church.

Ritual folk vocal art of Ukrainians of Northern Moldova: Transformation and Modification Processes

One of the most important tasks of modern Ukrainian ethnomusicology is fixation and study of traditional musical culture not only in our country but also abroad: in Ukrainian ethnographic lands aswell as in remote corners of other countries, where Ukrainians are compactly settled. Considerable scientific progress has already been made in this area.Today we have a number of scientific achievements on the materials of traditional music of Ukrainians in the north of Moldova. However, the problem of presenting a more detailed melotypological picture of traditional, in particular ceremonial and especially vocal creativity, that still exists in these areas in active or at least passive forms, remains relevant.Given this, most typical ritual melodies of Ukrainians of northern Moldova, recorded by O. Kharchyshyn and N. Pastukh during 2005-2009 in 41 villages and two cities of ten districts of the region and submitted to collection Folklore of Ukrainians in northern Moldova: songs and recitatives,arethe object of this research.Also considered is a number of melodies, which transcripts were provided for musical editing by the authors of this study, but were not included in the collection. Melotypes of folk vocal works, which serve the calendar and family-ritual genre cycles are subject of study. The main goal is to determine the modification and transformation processes in the analyzed melotypes, to identify what is common and different in comparison to the analogues of Ukrainian traditional music in general.Almost the entire genre spectrum of ceremonial folk vocal melodies inherent in Ukrainian traditional music culture has been recorded in Moldova: carols (kolyadka, shchedrivka), malanka, spring songs (haivkas), Kupala, baptismal, wedding, mourning and funeral songs. Ukrainians in Moldova have both child and adult folk music culture.The present state of life of folk vocal works of Ukrainians in the north of Moldova from the ethnomusicological point of view generally testifies to the typological commonality with the traditional folk music culture of the Ukrainian people. The unity of this culture is manifested even in common modification and transformation processes of typical musical-rhythmic forms and their components. Of course, there is a slight difference, as a result of assimilation transformations caused by foreign nation influences and, accordingly, the gradual loss of ethnic identity.Therefore, Ukrainians of Moldova were not only able to preserve the achievements of their nation in the development of traditional musical culture (often only in passive memory, however, and, of course, with minor elements of assimilative influence, which is manifested primarily in intonation melodic inversions and inter-ethnic community of melotypes), but also to multiply them through the assimilation and cultivation of foreign ethnic sacramental acquisitions. As a result, they were able to create their own unique multi-vector folk music style.

Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz K'Nyau by Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan

Reviewed by: Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz K'Nyau by Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan Gavin Douglas (bio) Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz K'Nyau. Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan ("Chi"). Translated by Benjamin Fairfield in consultation with Dr. Yuphaphann Hoonchamlon. Bloomington, IN: Society for Ethnomusicology, 2018. Ethnomusicology Translations, no. 8. [52 pp.], notes, bibliography. Originally published in Thai as เพลงต้องห้ามของปกาเกอะญอ. Bangkok: Santisiri Press, 2014. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/emt. Free download. "We are headed for disaster if the Pgaz K'Nyau people do not know tha plue or other songs for the deceased." Community elder Phati Johnni Odochao shares these fears in Chi Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan's insightful book Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz K'Nyau. The loss of tha funeral songs, he continues, may well lead to a loss of a sense of ourselves, our origins, or the true meaning of life. As he puts it, "We would have a life on earth that just floats by, not truly rooted in our own humanity" (48). Forbidden Songs of the Pgaz K'Nyau is a valuable addition to the Ethnomusicology Translations initiative of the Society for Ethnomusicology. In this book, musician and social activist Chi Suwichan Phattanaphraiwan contemplates the loss and (partial) revival of a song genre that is an important window into the indigenous cosmology, ecology, cultural knowledge, and identity of a Karen group in Northwest Thailand who call themselves Pgaz K'Nyau. Although there is a large volume of literature on the Karen—a stateless indigenous population straddling the Thai-Myanmar border tied together by a shared experience of lowland oppressive kingdoms and by shared cultural practices, folkloric history, religious practices, and written scripts—almost none of it is written by the Karen themselves. The Karen are diverse, with six million in Myanmar and one million in Thailand, and their coherence is challenged by different religious affiliations, political struggles with the lowland powers, and uneven engagements with modernity. Through Chi Suwichan's autoethnographic exploration of traditional song, we gain valuable insights into the changing lifeways and the struggle of the Pgaz K'Nyau to retain a sense of identity. Clearly translated by Benjamin Fairfield, this open-access publication contains sixteen short chapters that capture the historical context and the purpose of traditional funeral songs, or tha. Many of the chapters are narrative [End Page 139] stories that were first published in Thai on Chi's website in 2014 for a Thai readership. The "forbidden" subset of the tha oral tradition is a provocative theme that threads through the book. What songs are forbidden, by whom, and in what context is variable, as meanings change across religious systems, through memory loss, and with the adoption of modern lifestyles. The book begins with a history of traditional animist belief and music practice, traces the demise of traditional songs as villages convert to Baptist Christianity, and elaborates on the impact of lowland-driven modernization and of the marketdriven reconceptualization of the sacred forests in which the Pgaz K'Nyau live. A wide variety of tha are sung at funerals and guide the organization of the multiday ceremony. Seven-syllable, two-stanza couplets sung antiphonally with a leader (mo cho) comment on numerous aspects of Pgaz K'Nyau culture throughout the ceremony—from the specific merits of the deceased to general commentary on coexistence with the environment. The variety of tha types include an aid in guiding the dead to the afterlife (tha choekeplue) so that they do not lose their way; songs for the living to encourage separation (tha chawlaw) so that the living do not follow the dead; community affirmation songs (tha dawthaw) that highlight cooperation, songs giving participants an awareness that they are all of one community; youth courting songs (tha naw doe jaw); and many others. The performance of some tha, such as those guiding the deceased to the afterlife, are taboo and restricted by the community to the funeral ceremony. Performance of these songs for nonfuneral contexts may have adverse effects on the living. Even within the funeral context, vulnerable ears (for example, young children and pregnant women) are forbidden from participating to avoid living souls straying toward the afterlife. A very different type of prohibition came with the advent of...

Wisdom in Mournful Tunes: Exploring the Major Themes of Igbo Oral Funeral Songs

Death often engenders emotional outbursts in the form of chants, songs and recitations. In most parts of Africa, the death of an adult member of the society goes with the rendition of some peculiar songs in honour of the deceased and to contemplate on death as a natural phenomenon. Among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria, it is anathema to intone a funeral song at a moment or location where there is no bereavement. Such acts attract severe verbal sanctions because oral funeral songs are special performances rendered during burial and funeral ceremonies. This implies that they are not merely ordinary songs rendered for non-justifiable reasons but ones which have recognizable motives behind their rendition. The focus of this paper is to identify some strands of meaning which most Igbo oral funeral songs convey. It highlights their basic thematic constructs or the ‘artistic representations’ espoused in most of them. Applying Contextual Analysis as the conceptual theoretical framework, the paper analyzes the content of selected Igbo oral funeral songs and concludes that they have clear identifiable preoccupations because they express multifaceted shades of grief and serve valuable purposes in the various communities where they are rendered.

OBREDNE, NABOŽNE IN MRLIŠKE PESMI V PREPLETU Z LJUDSKIM IZROČILOM <br>RITUAL, RELIGIOUS AND FUNERAL SONGS INTERWOVEN WITH THE FOLK TRADITION</br>

Članek izhaja iz raziskav pri skupnem madžarsko-slovenskem projektu in predstavlja spoznanja študij, še posebej v povezavi z osrednjo tematiko, tj. mrtvečimi pesmimi v Prekmurju in Porabju. Mrtveče pesmi in tudi nekatere druge obredne in nabožne pesmi so bile do nedavnega deležne manjše pozornosti folkloristov in etnomuzikologov, zato so predstavljena nekatera spoznanja, nastala pri projektnem delu in ob širšem premisleku o obrednih, nabožnih in mrliških pesmih ter njihovem prepletanju z ljudskim izročilom.***The paper is based on the research carried out in the framework of a joint Hungarian-Slovenian project and presents the research results, especially in relation to the central research topic – dirges in Prekmurje and the Rába Valley. Previously, dirges and some other ritual and religious songs received scant attention from folklorists and ethnomusicologists. The paper thus presents some findings achieved by the project work and some broader insights into the ritual, religious and funeral songs, and the way they are interwoven with folk tradition.

A multimodal analysis of conventional humorous structures on sensitive topics within rural communities in Romania

When it comes to humour, performing humorous structures means not only producing amusement, but also implies the ability of perceiving the comical, ludicrous or absurd in human life. In this paper, I consider humour as a way in which people in the rural community express themselves freely, without boundaries or constraints. Therefore, the interest of the present article is to identify and analyse sensitive humorous topics in Romanian rural communities. In conducting the study, the following steps were taken: I videotaped people from the Upper Valley of the river Mureș (selected with sociolinguistic criteria such as gender, age, occupation), I transcribed the audio-video records and I divided the data into thematic categories: jokes, traditional shouts and funeral songs or dirges with humorous structures. Starting from these methodological steps, I attempt to perform a multimodal analysis, which consists of analysing both the text and the audio-video record. In the first part of my research, the analysis of the text focuses on specific structures of conventional humour performed in jokes, traditional shouts and dirges by the main theories of humour: superiority, release and incongruity theories of humour. In analysing the audio-video stimuli, I dwell upon identifying the degree of influence of the psycho-sociolinguistic parameters (gender, occupation and context) on the performance of humour, concentrating on markers of humour such as intonation and visual cues. After analysing the humorous sensitive topics in Romanian rural communities through a multimodal perspective, my conclusion is that speakers combine linguistic and non-linguistic elements in order to make a text humorous.

MOTYWY BIBLIJNO-RELIGIJNE W PIEŚNIACH POGRZEBOWYCH Z ZESZYTÓW ŚPIEWACZYCH1 MIESZKAŃCÓW PARAFII SOKOŁY W POWIECIE WYSOKOMAZOWIECKIM (CZĘŚĆ 1)

W niniejszym opracowaniu podjęto się opisu pieśni pogrzebowych z zeszy- tów śpiewaczych mieszkańców gminy Sokoły – jako reprezentacji społeczno- ści tradycyjnej, oraz ich analizy językowej, która dotyczy: semantyki, nawiązań intertekstualnych (motywów, symboli, postaci oraz cytatów, aluzji, parafraz), występujących środków stylistycznych. Badania nad językiem pieśni pogrzebowych prowadzą do różnych wniosków. Nieodłącznym elementem pieśni pogrzebowych o proweniencji katolickiej jest symbolika biblijna i słownictwo religijne, odnoszące się do postaci świętych czy biblijnych, ale także pojęć kojarzonych ze sferą sacrum, takich jak: dusza, niebo, grzesznik, baranek itp.