SUMMARIES
Interdisciplinarity in research on traditional dance in Poland – musicians, ethnomusicologists, and others doing choreological research.
Tomasz Nowak
Unlike other fields of art, specialized academic research on dance is relatively new. As a result, over the last two centuries, research on traditional dance has often been carried out by representatives of other disciplines: literary scholars, musicians, teachers, ethnographers, ethnomusicologists and others. This article has three objectives: 1) to determine how research interest in dance has developed in Poland over the last two hundred years, 2) to review the ways that various disciplines dealt with dance research over various historical periods, and 3) what place musicians and ethnomusicologists occupied in this research. The author also discusses how the participation of representatives of various fields influenced the nature and subject of the research. An important place in the text is occupied by a fragment trying to answer the question of who is engaged in ethnomusicological research today, including a review what dominant thematic areas of research today and how they relate to the research tradition. Finally, the author discusses points of overlap between ethnochoreology and ethnomusicology, trying to determine what particularly predisposes specialists in the field of traditional music to engage in research on traditional dance.
Keywords: traditional dance in Poland, ethnochoreological research, interdisciplinarity, musicians, ethnomusicologists
Preserving the elusive – acquisition and transmission of the dance heritage of selected national and ethnic groups in Krakow and the Małopolska region
Krzysztof Hliniak
By its very nature, dance is a highly elusive and difficult-to-describe part of both art and social life. It can seem an obvious and inherent part of humanity that has been there from the start. However, it was not until the final decades of the 20th century that dance was recognized as an important part of intangible cultural heritage. Since then, it has been included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The dance heritage of minority groups living in Poland appears to be a relatively underexplored area of study. This text presents a selection of research findings on the dance heritage of specific national and ethnic groups living in Kraków and the Małopolska Voivodeship. The research was carried out as part of a doctoral dissertation prepared at the Department of Comparative Civilization Studies at Jagiellonian University, under the supervision of Dr. hab. Tomasz Nowak (UW) and Dr. hab. Wojciech Klimczyk (UJ).
Based on interviews, the text outlines the issue of dance heritage acquisition. It focuses on the role, attitudes, and practices of respondents related to passing on dance heritage to future generations. Through this examination, the text seeks to amplify the voices of minority communities in the public space. According to most interviewees, the family home is the primary place for the transmission of dance heritage, even if actual dance does not take place there. They emphasized the importance of the family home in preserving heritage, and even postulated that family homes should be ensuring it is not lost. Some respondents also noted the supportive role of family homes in heritage acquisition fulfilled by providing an important setting for the initiation of the process. Respondents identified a number of important places and contexts for the transmission of heritage, including minority environments, peer groups, folklore groups, as well as various types of organizations and institutions that serve minority communities.
Keywords: intangible cultural heritage, Kraków, national and ethnic minorities, dance, folklore groups
Transmission of Kathak dance against the background of sociocultural changes
Katarzyna Skiba
The article focuses on the issue of changes regarding codification, analysis and notation of Kathak dance on the basis of the outcome of queries and field research conducted in dance schools in India, Great Britain and the United States in the period 2013-2016. To demonstrate the nature of these changes in a historical context, the paper also refers to art and literature considered as sources in the historical study of this dance. It also outlines the process of the formation of Kathak tradition, introducing various theories on its origins.
Classical Kathak dance emerged from now obsolete dance traditions and was appropriated by the Indian middle class in the first half of the 20th century. Though essentially a new genre of performing arts, Kathak selectively draws on supposedly ancient prototypes. Established in the 1950s, state Kathak dance academies undertook many initiatives to define its conventions and to standardize its training system. This was accompanied by attempts to develop textbooks and dance notation and to unify the nomenclature related to dance postures, movements, and gestures. Traditional methods of transmission of knowledge about Kathak are based on direct observation, imitation of the master, and long practice under his tutelage. These traditional methods have been challenged by new approaches, including capturing movement with technological devices, studying dance from video recordings, focusing on choreography, and the influx of various cultural practices from other countries.
Analyzing the content of selected kathak dance textbooks, the paper illustrates divergent tendencies in attempts to preserve and notate this dance, locating them in the broader context of postcolonial phenomena. Pointing to new ways of perpetuating the dance in India and the diaspora, the author points out to their role in generating further changes in this tradition.
Keywords: classical Indian dance, kathak, traditional dance preservation
Outline of historical issues in the works of the first three generations of Polish ethnomusicologists
Piotr Dahlig
The article presents historical methodology of three generations of Polish ethnomusicologists.
The earliest method of Helena Rogalska-Windakiewicz (1868–1956) is characterized as a symbiosis of linear and nonlinear time with elements of evolutionism that suggest the transformation of folk music consists in detaching it from the original socio-cultural context. The second general method represented by Adolf Chybiński (1880–1952) is situated within the perspective of historicism that includes the assumption that source studies serve historical reconstruction of the past, particularly regarding traditional Polish intangible cultural heritage. The third methodological preference, represented by the works of Łucjan Kamieński (1885–1964), concentrates on contemporary folk music practice and phonographic field research focused on cultural changes and creative components of traditional rural music making. Subsequent generations of Polish ethnomusicologists have adapted these attitudes in different proportions. Following Kamieński, Jadwiga (1909–1995) and Marian Sobieski (1908–1967) and Jan Stęszewski (1929–2016) adopted a pragmatic approach that prioritized field research. Following Chybiński, music theory and historical reconstruction were promoted by Anna Czekanowska (1929–2021; the interpretation of the Slavic heritage in Poland) and Ludwik Bielawski (b. 1929, theory of time in music).
Keywords: ethnomusicology, history of folk music, generations of ethnomusicologists
Old tradition on a new stage. Danube songs in contemporary circulation.
Agata Kusto
The custom of Dunajowanie was inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the second half of 2020. This contributed to increased interest in the custom and songs performed during caroling by the community itself. Subsequently, GOK Łukowa undertook to organize a review of the Dunajowanie, promoting both the Łukowa and the repertoire. This article explores the problems that emerge in researching this reconstructed tradition. The analysis was based on archival text and music records from The Lublin Open Air Village Museum concerning wishing carols, as well as audio and video materials from previous editions of the Danube Review and Old Wishing Carols from the Lublin Voivodeship „Lublin Region Dunajuje”.
Keywords: Polish folk carols, Lubelszczyzna Dunajuje, custom of dunajowanie, caroling with wishes new sources for ethnomusicology, list of intangible heritage in Poland
Ethnomusicology and the movement to revitalize traditional music in Ukraine and Poland: comparative observations
Iryna Klymenko
Since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, we have seen a growing interest in Ukrainian culture. During my long stay in Poland in 2022–2023, I found that there was a great interest in Ukrainian traditional songs, a desire to listen to them performed by Ukrainian ensembles, and to learn from Ukrainian singing instructors. Cooperation in the scientific field as well as methodological and financial assistance used to preserve archives of audiovisual recordings of folklore is also measurable. The roots of cooperation between Ukrainians and Poles lie partly in the elements of common song heritage identified in the ethnomusicological maps clearly visible in the folklore of ritual songs of Ukraine and the eastern regions of Poland. The maps are included in the atlas that is part of my monograph (Iryna Klymenko. Ritual Melodies of Ukrainians in the Context of the Slavic-Baltic Early Traditional Melody Array: Typology and Geography. Kyiv, 2022 [in Ukrainian]).
In this article, I will briefly compare the trends that distinguish contemporary Ukrainian-Polish contacts in academic ethnomusicology and focus on a specific perspective, namely the cultural movement of folklore revitalization, which makes only limited use of academic research.
Keywords: musical folklore, Ukrainians, Poles, ethnomusicology, revival movement
Audiovisual documents as a source for research on the perception of street music performance
Ewelina Grygier
The article was created as part of the project „Filmography as a source for research on the perception of the phenomenon of street music making”, implemented thanks to the „Muzyczny Ślad” grant from the National Institute of Music and Dance (NIMiT). The article presents very preliminary results of research in three Polish archival centers: The National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA), the Film Archive of the Film School in Łódź and the collections of the Center for Documentation and Program Collections of TVP S.A. The research was devoted to find different ways of presenting the phenomenon of street music in audiovisual sources. The following are the primary research questions:
- What is the performer’s place in film production: is he or she a primary or secondary character?
- Is music-making a background element? Is it only heard or perhaps only seen?
- What type of music is associated with the image of a street performer?
- What connotations are associated with the image of a street musician (way of presenting the performer, reception by the audience)?
- In which types and forms of audiovisual documents does this kind of music-making occur?
The collected materials are described and characterized, along with indications for further research work. In addition to references to archival sources, commercial films are also referenced, such as: Once, A Street Cat Named Bob, Baby Driver, and the first Polish Yiddish sound film Yidl Mitn Fidl („Yiddle With His Fiddle”). The text also mentions sources devoted to music that originated on the street, namely South African „kwela” („The Magic Garden”).
Keywords: Audiovisual Sources, Street music, busking, movie
#Karawitan #Dunia Maya – new technologies and the transmission of tradition on the example of Javanese gamelan and related performing arts
Dawid Martin
The Javanese term karawitan is used both to describe the practice of playing the gamelan and as the name for various forms of gamelan and vocal music based on the slendro and pelog scales. Meanwhile, the term dunia maya, derived from modern Bahasa Indonesia, refers to the digital world, which is increasingly entering various aspects of the lives of Indonesians.
Digital technologies, and above all the opportunities offered by social media, are increasingly being used by Javanese artists engaged in karawitan, not only to promote their own work and broadcast and archive their performances, but also as a platform for exchanging experiences and a tool for educating new adepts of this art. The aim of the article is to explore the influence of the digital revolution on the traditional musical culture of Java and to discuss ways of constructively using various types of internet services and applications in the process of transmitting traditions.
Keywords: Indonesia, Java, gamelan music, wayang theatre, transmission of tradition, online teaching, online performance, video streaming, mobile applications