Myth of Romani Music in Prague ****************************************************************************************** * Zuzana Jurková ****************************************************************************************** Abstrakt In today’s Prague one can find a great variety of musical events and recordings labeled as music – from classical music with “Gypsy” themes to romano hip hop. For meaningful underst organization of it, the article uses both the basic ethnomusicological model of Alan P. Me Kay Kaufman Shelemay’s (2006) concept of soundscapes. With their help, four “musical world – are presented: the romantic image that non-Roma have of Roma; Romani coffee house bands; Romani bašaviben, that is, playing for their own entertainment, influenced by popular musi Romani hip hop. Each of these worlds – however they influence each other – is at the same coherent and thus it is easy to follow the connections among the original purpose of this the behavior of the musicians and the public, and musical sound. Klíčová slova myth, Gypsy – Romani music, soundscapes In the following text I discuss the myth of Romani music in Prague. For the majority of re association with the expression "myth" will probably be something unreal, opposing reality understand by "reality"), some sort of chimera, and thus, in connection with Romani music, non-Roma naively and erroneously imagine by the term "Romani music." It would be possible examples; a striking one from the last ethnomusicological conference: Speranta Radulescu s pieces of music by two famous non-Romani composers intended as explicit "representations" Ravel's Rhapsody Tzigane and the introductory section of Enescu'sImpressions, for the perc musicians. Neither one of them perceived them at all as "Gypsy" (RADULESCU 2009). This text, indeed, only partially deals with non-Romani concepts of Romani music. The intr thoughts are, however, different: they discuss the phenomenon of myth and music in general relationship, or more precisely, closeness. My basic concept of myth differs from that fol as a "chimera." It is much closer to the concepts of the classics of Mircea Eliade and, es Lévi-Strauss. As is clear from the following sentences, in this understanding, striking si almost a twin relation of the music and the Lévi-Strauss myth, arise. The first, basic, most striking and very surprising parallel in their relations is the rea that is, the notions about what myth and music actually are. In the introduction to his My Strauss does not deal too long with the definition or delimitation of myth (which, by the typical of the ethnomusicological approach to music). Basically it is concerned with the f of some sort of events, often of a sacral character, which approaches not only the horizon meaning of the world, but the author, without too much hesitation, also includes in his re tales, legends, and pseudo-historical traditions (1983:4). At any rate, the essence is cru - in my opinion - music) is, according to Lévi-Strauss, composed of concrete cultural mate properly analyzed, reveals the existence of laws (of the mind) operating at the deeper lev laws, elsewhere called the logic of sensory qualities or a code, have an absolute nature. the others, has neither been invented nor brought in from without. It is inherent in mytho where we simply discover its presence (p. 12). Furthermore, these laws become mutually con therefore simultaneously acceptable to several different subjects; the pattern of those co the character of an autonomous object, independent of any subject (p. 11). In contrast to ethnographers, who describe or trace motifs, Lévi-Strauss, equipped with hi conviction, has the ambition to contribute to better knowledge of objectified thought and (p. 13). In the whole second half of his extensive introduction - "Overture" - Lévi?Strauss devotes music, its concept and mainly the problem... of the fundamental causes of the initially su between music and myth (p. 15). ... Music, from his point of view,... operates according t One is physiological - that is, natural. The other grid is cultural: it consists of a scal sounds, of which the number and the intervals vary from one culture to another. The system provides music with an initial level of articulation, which is a function not of the relat the notes ... but of the hierarchical relations among them on the scale ... (p. 16). Particularly impressive is his poetic and many-layered expression of the famous ethnomusic postulate that "music is made by listeners": ... music and mythology bring man face to fac objects of which only the shadows are actualized, with conscious approximations (a musical cannot be more) of inevitably unconscious truths which follow from them...Thus the myth an work are like conductors ... whose audience became the silent performers. (pp. 17-18) On the author's clarification of the character of musical "grids," concretely their physio "objectivity," and also arguing for the use of musically-analytical methods common in west in the analysis of myths, his little knowledge of musically-ethnographic material of non-E is obvious, and also his imprisonment in the contemporary European myth of music, which wi later. Otherwise he would know that the bearers of information are not necessarily interva example, timbre, and formal analysis, at least of this type, which is used in an analysis Debussy's music is not relevant for the Saami joik or the singing of Brazilian Bororó Indi myth he begins his book). Not in vain is Lévi-Strauss considered to be a great ethnologist a great (ethno)musicologist despite his knowledge of musical theory and his evidently grea listening to music. Although Lévi-Strauss's instructions on the use of music for acquisition with "objectivize or "codes" and their mechanisms are useless (or at least have not been used successfully), concept is close to my way of thinking. In contrast to the majority of contemporary musico however, mostly do not think in such categories) and ethnomusicologists (for whom music is if not exclusively, a cultural product), I understand music, or, more precisely, its sound ethnomusicologists and other groups also attribute other aspects to it which will be discu a doublet. One of its faces is cultural - it is a system of (sound) symbols created and un a given culture. The existence of the second - hidden - face is pointed out by several fac most important is undoubtedly that music, mainly such an unnecessary thing, is a cultural as for myth, for music it is true that it has no obvious practical function... it is not d with a different kind of reality, which is endowed with a higher degree of objectivity tha whose injunctions it might therefore transmit to minds... (LÉVI-STRAUSS 1983:10). And is i something apparently unnecessary exists always and everywhere, and is thus a cultural univ proof of fulfillment of a very pressing (although meanwhile hidden) need? Another very striking parallel between myth and music is the transformation of time, the s ordinary time and the establishment of one's own. Eliade's in illo tempore,during the sacr beginning, which primarily characterize myth, is actually applicable to music in the very only that the first note of a symphony - and, even more, the overture to an opera - create world with its own color space and language, but mainly with its own "life" tempo. This is the same way, if not more so, for techno sets and even for the most stupid and most commer its first note, first pulses create a new "first" beginning. After I pointed out the resemblance of such apparently different phenomena as myth and mus of their ability to transform time and mainly of their dual character - cultural and "eter approachable only by this cultural face) - I must still specify my understanding of these myth (which I am not dealing with here too deeply) I must add only that, apart from narrat have to do with important and further sustentative forming thought (thoughts). The second note has to do with the cultural face of music. In the western concept, we tend our understanding: music is for us a sound phenomenon. However, ethnomusicology in the las century tends more and more to the concept of music mainly as human activity. The basis of the triple model of Alan P. Merriam. In one of the most influential ethnomusicological books - Anthropology of Music (1964) - M a research model which shifts the understanding of music as an object toward the anthropol view. Music thus, according to him, is not primarily a sound object, but a culturally cond activity, and therefore, when researching music, it is necessary to take into consideratio analytical evaluation ... relevant aspects of social sciences and the humanities and a var of music - symbolic, esthetic, etc. (Merriam 1964:35). The most apparent analytical level itself. We are usually used to considering it as "music itself." However it is apparent th is dependent on a whole row of factors to which it is possible to give the overall term hu tension of the vocal cords, the vibrata of musicians' fingers on strings, and this again t of the audience, not excluding music critics. However neither is this second layer - human behavior in relation to music - coincidental. It is influenced by the most varied notions, concepts that are connected with music, more loosely, and can concern relations of emotions and music or evaluations of emotions genera concepts about the origin of music (and thus its values and meaning). At the very basis of the difference of various music expressions stands the question of ex music is, that is, the concept of the phenomenon of music. In our culture we are accustome from its sound component. The majority of western musicologists would define music approxi structure with esthetic information. Neither on that basis, however, do they agree with th of ethnomusicologists (whose viewpoint in the past decades has shifted toward human activi viewpoint of those outside of western civilization who think about music. That is to say, the esthetic is irrelevant to many of them. If music for Africans is often primarily "musi social activity (in which their concept approaches the concept of ethnomusicologists), whi has a sound shape, then it is not surprising that that sound shape is different every time for example, recreational (but also ritual) activities also proceed differently every time western culture introduced for that reality of variability the special term "improvisation to its exceptionality. However to use such a term is somehow quite irrelevant in the place question of one of the basic features of musical practice. And if for Australian Aborigines (like for some Amazon Indians) music is a certain way of into another type of being or a way of transformation in time, not only is the esthetic as but the resulting sound shape of that process of transformation, that is, the resulting "s one - could differ from performance to performance. There are numerous examples of the impact of the concept on the sound of music. That it is musical sound, like the activity around it, as a result of human concepts and thoughts abo particularly surprising. In a further part I will try to clarify how the western concept o formed in the past approximately two centuries and what kind of impact it has had on "musi II. The myth of music? In 1923, Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) composed his first string quartet, the "Kreutzer Sonata. originally (based on sketches of the composition worked on starting in 1909), he wrote the for violin and piano, eventually he wrote it for a classic quartet. This quartet of string viola and cello - was used by composers for more than one hundred years as a "diaristic" e it was possible to entrust the most intimate thoughts. Besides, the next Janáček string qu last compositions, was called "Intimate Letters" (originally "Love Letters") and it was th declaration of the old composer to his last love, Kamila Stösslová. Indeed, it is not poss a more appropriate interpreter for the most personal message: the homogenous instrumental evokes the impression of uninterrupted intimacy, string instruments capable of reacting to slightest impulse seem perfectly ideal for the expression of those most subtle emotions. J to this concept. He took over the classical instrumental combination and also the common f form. However, with individual parts he handled his way - not only in the field of tempo, musical language: his work with musical motifs, harmony and generally work with color?, an maximum of expression - each tone as if it expressed the most varied shades of joy or sadn resignation. As Milan Kundera (2004:26) writes precisely (and expressively): for Janáček o an expression, that is an emotion, has a right to exist. Janáček's string quartet, the "Kr was already the third link in the chain. The chain, which very clearly encompasses a chang music during the last century and a half. At its beginning, in 1803, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) the last classical composer wi forward toward romanticism, composed the "Kreutzer Sonata" for violin and piano. The compo for its technical demands; however, despite the fact that Beethoven's musical language was classicistically symmetrical like his predecessors, only rarely today would this sonata be emotional or even passionate. The second link of the chain is the eponymous novella by Leo Tolstoy (1829-1910). One of t here is passion, against which the narrator of the book argues for his life story, in whic first pretended, then let out like a genie from a bottle and nourished by music ruins live of the book, the main character, emotionally (understand erotically) aroused by Beethoven' during which she accompanies on the piano a friend with whom she begins an extra-marital r husband - similarly emotionally aroused - kills her. Tolstoy appears here like a prophet warning against the destructive effects of passion, he and strengthened by the music. Too late. In 1889, there was no longer the strength that wo idea, maximally developed and supported by romanticism, about both sovereignty and the "sa emotion/passion - and also of their close connection to music. Even if we did not know anything about Janáček's such romantically empathetic relation to his operas Katya, Jenufa and Emilia, and even if we did not know the line from his corresp to his first string quartet ("I had in mind a poor woman, abused, beaten, beaten to death, writer Tolstoy wrote about her in his Kreutzer Sonata, from the first notes of the music - chord of the string instruments, and in general the entire Janáček language, full of dynam changes which is the very essence of emotion - clearly convey whose side he is on. Away wi discipline! Feeling/passion/emotion is everything. It is difficult to imagine something else: Janáček's personality as if it were the embodim of all the main romantic ideas: from the close connection to folk culture through maximall creative individualism and long-term social non-recognition to numerous emotional outburst the way, Janáček's Kreutzer Sonata was not the last in the above-mentioned chain; in 2000 Margriet de Moor wrote a romantic novel with the same title, referring to all of its "pred But why do I present Janáček and the whole chain leading to the rise of his first string q context of music and myth? (My own interest in Janáček's music is certainly not a sufficie set him apart in an essay about myth of music in an urban environment.) For two reasons. T is the assumption that music DEFINITELY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE a "language of feeling," but i anything else (as will be clear later in this text). Thus the connection of music and emot passion is one of those petrified ideas (often garbed in symbols) that are taken for grant Strauss (18). For example, all concert- or opera-house programs confirm its dominance. In support of the assertion concerning the possible diversity of musical concepts many exa available. From European tradition, think of the Gregorian chant, the modest music (and pe Joseph Haydn, Johann Sebastian Bach with his contemporary relevant approach to music prais of God (... as with all music, so in the basso continuo there should be nothing else but t last goal which is God's glory and recreation of thought. Where this is not respected, no arise, but only hellish noise, and bad fiddling will sound - J. S. Bach 1738 - viz. Michel and post-romantic ideas: the mathematical understanding of music of the serialists or the understanding of Ianis Xenakis. If we looked around beyond the border of western art music, we would find even more differ music as sound realization of the heavenly order, that is, of the universal order in China of transformation from one type of being to another among the above-mentioned Amazon India into the present memories of people or places among the Northern European Saami or as an o for reaching coveted "illumination" of thought - among many others. A second reason for the introduction of the Janáček example is the illustration of the com musical phenomenon according to the Merriam model. Music, at least classical, has in the p become an event which is excluded from the common, profane (in the romantic concept of the pragmatic) world, and it has reached the "higher" world of "sacred" emotions. This concept read in the sphere of human behavior relating to music, for example, of a festive environm music is performed, or from the clothing of the musicians and listeners. (Tailcoats or mor musicians during afternoon concerts sometimes strike the eye.) Another striking related ch is the sophistication of the musical language. The creation of a musical work is not commo to amateurs - it demands special training, just like the performing of the pieces these sp composers created. Extraordinariness, exclusion from normal life is expressed here, both w demands on the performer (who thus stands as a romantic hero outside of the majority socie special "unnatural" quality of musical sound (one is strongly aware of it when one unexpec singing: in a daily environment a surprising sound, unlike anything else). In the resulting musical sound - both, to a certain extent, contradictory tendencies - are concept of music: disciplined refinement on one hand, and declared - and, in the framework convention presented - emotionality on the other hand. Into these starting thoughts about the character of music in general and its form in Weste tradition specifically it is now possible to insert a picture of what is presented in Prag Romani/Gypsy music and dance. III. The myth of Romani music in Prague As Romani music, I label everything which, in Prague 2008 (I did my research from May to N called Romani/Gypsy/Gipsy music (song, dance). In other words, I am interested in what Pra Romani/Gypsy music to be or what they call it. An attempt at possible delimitation through style emitting from our preconceptions would necessarily founder, as we point out not only material, but also older experience of other authors. My point of departure was publicly a materials (cultural programs, flyers, Internet ads) announcing live performances. It is su that I was unaware of some performances, but I do not supposed that that happened too ofte resulting picture is too incomplete. The other field that interested me was available recordings, in whose title or genre categ word Romani/Gypsy/Gipsy. So what was performed as Gypsy/Romani music in Prague? 1. Regularly repeated performances a) Once a year - the last week in May - the World Romani Khamoro festival takes place in P one of the five category A metropolitan festivals, like, e.g., the Prague Spring. In 2008 anniversary took place May 25-31. Besides seven concerts (the premiere with two Czech grou Gypsy jazz, three concerts of traditional Romani music; in them there were 13 bands from e there were also a Music and Minorities international ethnomusicological conference, a Span workshop in the Zambra studio, four exhibitions and two film showings. b) Once a week - on Sundays - the popular Lesser Quarter music club Popocafépetl presents Nights, during which two rompop bands, Bengas and Gitans,alternate. c) Also once a week - on Thursdays - in the Zambra dance center in Vinohrady women from 21 meet and eagerly learn "Gypsy dancing." d) Every week from Wednesday to Sunday in the restaurant "U sedmi andělů" on Jilská Street there is a trio of Roma who play violin, cimbalom and double bass. Evenings are advertised Gipsy music. 2. One-time performances a) In August the Theater without Balustrades reprised the musical Gypsies Go to Heaven. To the performance copies the famous Russian film from 1976 which, besides, can still be boug of the performance has been published with the songs of the show. Ida Kelarová is credited as the author of the musical arrangement; her band Romano Rat also accompanies the singers b) As part of the "Prague Autumn" classical music festival there were, on September 20 and concerts of the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra, also called A Hundred Gypsy Violins. Th been part of "Prague Autumn" every year since 2003. c) On October 18 the Strašnické Theater premiered a "dance-theater project/social specific "Gypsy Suite." In the performance are heard several songs by the late Romani singer Jan Áč performance was dedicated to him. d) On November 8, there took place in the Abaton club in Libeň the autumn part of the Sáza known musical festival (the main part of which was held in the summer). As the main perfor Romani rapper Gipsy.cz appeared here with a repertoire from his two latest CDs. Commonly available musical recordings: In the category of "Romani music" I found recordings of a favorite Slovak band Diabolské h violin of Berky-Mrenica: Gypsy Dance" and "Devil's violin: Greetings from Slovakia." The term "Gypsy" is connected with two performers of Dvořák and Bendl Gypsy songs and Gyps Janál, Magdalena Kožená), a Brno funky band Gulo čar CD entitledGipsy Goes to Hollywood, a different recordings of the French Gipsy Kings, the pop band Triny with its Gypsy Streams the above-mentioned rapperGipsy.cz, that is, Rýmy a blues, Romano hip hop and Reprezent, a Birelli, an exponent of Gypsy jazz. Labeled as "romano" are the CD Staré slzy, one of the latest CDs of Ida Kelarová and Roman of genres and performers of the "Most beautiful Gypsy songs/Jekhšukareder Romane giľa," an newest CD of the violinist Pavel Šporcl and Romano stilo. Besides the above-mentioned categories, but clearly presented as Romani music, are also th recordings of Věra Bílá and her group Kale (who, however, have not played together since 2 C'est comme ça, and also a CD entitled Dža by the Bengas band. Soundscapes At first glance it seems that the collected materials represent a whole continuum of possi approaches to the "Gypsy" topic. Despite this, I will dare to try to sort them out. As its I will use the contemporary concept of soundscapes of Kay Kaufman Shelemay. The resulting certain coherence, from the basic concepts, through human behavior and to the resulting mu At the same time, however, it is true that the basic feature of soundscapes, relating to t variability, is their mutual influence. The term soundscape is found in relevant literature with two basic meanings. The first is ecological, close to the idea and term landscape. The initial concept of its founder, the and theoretician Raymond Murray Schafer, is the perception of sounds (that is, any sounds necessarily meaningfully organized; meaningful organization is, however, considered to be assumption of music) in a certain place, including their meanings and relations. For the organization of data relating to Romani music in Prague, there is, however, anothe appropriate concept, the one of the Harvard ethnomusicologist Kay Kaufman Shelemay (2006). term soundscape in a more abstract and dynamic meaning and compares it to seascape, that i with its unpredictable changeability and multi-dimensionality. In addition she even inject element of change in time, which is lacking in Merriam: ...here we will more often compare a soundscape to a seascape, which provides a more flexi music's ability both to stay in place and to move in the world today, to absorb changes in performance styles, and to continue to accrue new layers of meanings. (p. XXXIV). In the material that I presented I see three soundscapes that have existed for some time a forming (at least in the Czech lands). I label it according to the original performer-list pair, however, determined the goal of the music performed - and it formed (besides other t features of musical language. Who for whom as key We can locate a soundscape most easily through an encounter with a specific musical perfor best tangible traces of soundscape in human behavior and musical sound are there. Here one about basic concepts.] To better understand a soundscape, we need to attend repeated event range of additional information about their sound, setting, and significance. (Kaufman She 1. Gadje for gadje about Roma Magdalena Kožená: Songs My Mother Taught Me Magdalena Kožená, today undoubtedly the most famous Czech opera and concert singer abroad, "personal" CD songs by composers from her native land. Near the beginning are three songs Dvořák cycle Gypsy Melodies, op. 55: "Songs My Mother Taught Me," "The Strings are Tuned" is Quiet All Around." On the recording can be heard, first, the mournful motif of the piano; then it is repeated by the highly cultivated voice of the famous singer (so unlike untrained or folk singing); the feelings of a Gypsy mother, song, music and dance, sadness, nature and freedom. It is a live performance during which this beautiful and always perfectly dressed woman leans on grand piano played by a man in a black jacket. The audience in the hall, dressed somewhat than the performers, listens quietly; someone has on his lap a program in which he can che (which is not always easy to understand). For the majority of the listeners the music undo some emotions, apart from the fact that the listeners are enthusiastic about the singer's at the end they applaud enthusiastically. This soundscape is undoubtedly the oldest of those discussed: Goethe (1749-1832) and Pushk had already written about what Gypsies experienced (more precisely, how non-Gypsies imagin experienced). The image of Gypsies/Roma ideally corresponded to the romantic values of the abandon - and frequent professional connection to music, which in the contemporary point o their status as "artists," strengthened this romantic image even more. It is not surprisin literary inspiration appealed so much to the romantic composers Carl Maria von Weber (1786 Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) to begin with - and in our times ending, e.g., with Sylvie Bodo and her composition Giľa Rome (1980). Besides, the famous Russian film Gypsies Go to Heave on the novel/stories, Makar Chudra(1892) by Maxim Gorky and his subsequent innumerable var of the long-lasting popularity of this romantic myth. The musical language of this soundscape is initially closely attached to mainstream musica not only do Antonín Dvořák in his songs or Giuseppe Verdi in his operas (Troubadour) not u idioms, but neither does Janáček in his later The Diary of One Who Disappeared (1916) in t of the Gypsy girl Zefka deviate from his musical speech. Specific musical language in conn Roma appears in the music of Franz Liszt (1811-1886): exotic intervals or scales with augm (since his time in musical theory denoted as "Gypsy major" and "Gypsy minor") evokes the r of some extraordinary thing, use of rubato rhythm which is not subjugated to regular meter handling with time. Liszt's relation to the music of the Roma was, however, exceptional, m his connection to Hungarian culture. In it Romani musicians had the exceptional position o guardians (musically expressed) of the national specificity. Besides this, Liszt could be close contact with the contemporary expansion of Hungarian "Gypsy bands," whose style of p minutely detailed in the first systematic book about the music of the Roma (Liszt 1859). Liszt's influence is important for this soundscape in one more sense: in his welcoming ope "foreign." Through him inspiration of the music of the Roma became more or less strong - f to the above-mentioned "Gypsies Go to Heaven," whose folk-like melodies later became folks among Roma. The essence of this soundscape nevertheless remains emotionally satisfying to listeners mo accustomed to the idioms of classical music. Therefore, for example, in Gypsy Suite, which to the memory of the Romani songster Jan Áču Slepčík, his music and singing are not suffic impression the directors had to supplement it with a romantic solo violin played, moreover shoes. 2. Roma for gadje One hundred Gypsy violins Rudolfinum, September 20, 2008 at 4 p.m. Within the framework of the "Prague Autumn" classical music festival, in the Rudolfinum, t prestigious concert hall in Prague, three concerts of the Budapest Gypsy Symphonic Orchest One hundred Gypsy violins are taking place. As every year, all three are sold out in advan despite the fact that tickets in the orchestra cost about a thousand crowns. The audience is extraordinarily varied, starting from parents and grandparents with childr senior citizens. (There are only a few Roma in the auditorium.) With a ten-minute delay, which is not too common in classical music concerts, 100 musician two women - in white shirts, black pants or skirts and red or blue vests - arrive on stage become clear that the blue vests belong to the soloists - besides violinists, there are al player and one cimbalom player.) For the second half of the evening the players put on cla Except for nine clarinets, the orchestra contains only string instruments: six large Hunga and mainly violins, violas, cellos and double basses. On the program there are compositions, the majority of which can be heard in classical mus but most often as encores or as "light" concert numbers: Monti's Czardas, Sarasate's Gypsy [Zigeunerweisen], the Thunder and Lightning polka or The Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strau the Radetsky March by Johann Strauss, Sr., and Khachaturian's Saber Dance from the ballet second type of compositions are those written by contemporary composers specially for the (e.g., Gypsy Fire by Zoltán Horwath) which show the specific qualities of the orchestra, m instrumental virtuosity balancing on the edge of performability combined with proverbial ( feigned) temperament. Numerous members of the audience - those silent performers (of course not silent when stan enthusiastic ovations in the Rudolfinum) - confirm the constant attraction of the traditio in Hungarian and Slovak restaurants and coffee houses of the 19th century. Still today it find isolated groups with that original, chamber-like appearance in Prague. The context of 21st century, however, gives it a rather different character and meaning. Today Live Gipsy Music at 8 p.m. Restaurant U 7 andělů (Seven Angels), Jilská Street, Old Town, November 22, 2008 If you type "Live Gypsy music in Prague" into Google, they will not offer you on the top l page of the Romani festival Khamoro or some popular Romani group, but "Prague's Best Resta these fourteen restaurants, undoubtedly aimed primarily at foreign clientele, twelve of th music." My personal research, however, revealed that "live Gypsy music" (in any shape) is any of them. On the Internet advertisement for "Prague's Best Restaurants" the offer of li clearly part of their image. "Live Gypsy Music," however, is surely possible to track down in Prague. It is announced o English) on the door of the Seven Angels restaurant, which is in the most historic center a few yards from Old Town Square. It is hard to imagine a place with a greater concentrati tourists - and obviously the announcement is meant for them. The main room to the right of is evidently supposed to impress you in two ways: its antiquity (above the entrance the da emphasized, patinated painting, the whole place with historic [or historicized] furnishing (most of the little tables only for two - however, closely lined up so that the impression hardly convincing; large, richly decorated mirrors reflect the flames of candles; in compa little tables, strikingly large wine glasses...). To this correspond relatively high price food and mainly for drinks. Among the guests, we are the only Czechs. Couples in ordinary clothing prevail; a group of dining at the larger table. In a little alcove of the main room, at the entrance to the cl there are three musicians in dark suits and white shirts: a cimbalom player at a large Hun instrument; behind him a bass player; in front - nearest the guests - a violinist. He also (sparse and lukewarm) reactions of the guests. During one of the breaks I learn in an inte musicians that they are brothers from a musical family from the Slovak-Hungarian border. Their repertoire is very similar to the repertoire of the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestr March, the Blue Danube waltz, a melody from Carmen, and even among Gypsy bands of this typ Jewish Hava nagiľa... and, besides all this, jazz compositions and Suk's Song of Love. The soundscape around Gypsy coffee-house cimbalom bands (which sometimes play with a clari cousin - the tárogato as another melodic instrument) has a rather different character from The music in it is not art that communicates emotion, but a craft - a craft serving to giv of the coffee houses or restaurants a good time. For this purpose is connected an auditori repertoire. Listeners value Romani musicians for their perfect technique and then the mast craft (even if an adequate dose of emotion, mediated by Roma as their romanticized incarna expected). The Romani community traditionally valued its coffee-house musicians for their relatively high financial reward. In Prague at the beginning of the 21st century, this soundscape takes various shapes. List symphonic music are satisfied with a less demanding repertoire. The violin virtuoso and sh Šporcl spices up his performances (and discographies) with something unusual, that is, pla real "Gypsy cimbalom band"; their repertoire is easy to predict: Monti, Sarasate, Khachatu And it also accommodates tourists looking in Prague for "genuine, old-fashioned atmosphere perhaps in their imaginations the Austro-Hungarian coffee-house band can distantly corresp 3. Roma (not only) for themselves: rompop? Gipsy Nights: Bengas Popocafépetl Club, October 26, 2009 at 8 p.m. Popocafépetl on Újezd in the Lesser Quarter of Prague has several namesakes, but this is t have regular music programs: on Mondays, Havana Nights; on Fridays and Saturdays, Friday/S Fever; and on Sundays, Gipsy Nights. On these nights two rompop bands - Gitans and (the be Bengas alternate. The club occupies the whole basement of an old house on the main Lesser Quarter street, ri elegant Thai restaurant. But, despite its attractive location, its interior resembles many music clubs: unplastered stone walls, bare wooden tables with the club logo. The main room (where prices are surprisingly low) and only a hint of a stage at the shorter wall; in an mixer. The next room is acoustically connected to the main room. On the other side of the the music sounds much weaker, there are two quieter, today almost empty rooms, marked as a A half hour before the beginning the main room is completely full. Most of the audience ar between 20 and 25 years old, often in hip hop sweatshirts with hoods, but also in shiny di addition to Czech, you can hear English and French (the club is a frequent destination of who are in Prague on an Erasmus exchange program). Shortly before the announced beginning Roma arrive and clamor to be seated in front of the stage. Bengas? (Devils) are playing this time with three guitars, one bass guitar, a keyboard and sets of percussion instruments. Although the group acknowledge various sources of inspirat musical language is relatively homogeneous: a dense fabric of guitar sound; above it solo in Romani, the refrains alternating with parallel part singing. There are short instrument and interludes, in which there may be virtuoso playing. Lucid phrasing, no great dynamic o The musical style of the group is undoubtedly influenced by the Gipsy Kings, with whom Ben 2004 during their Prague concert. After 8 p.m. not only are all the places taken (including a few newly brought in tables an bar), but people are also standing between the tables. During the music they sway to the r each composition they applaud or whistle favorably. Today Bengas are clearly the most popu rompop. This term originated in the 70s and refers to a fusion of traditional music that R and sang for themselves with elements of contemporary western popular music, specifically In the broad stream of rompop two main styles loom large. The first of them, reminiscent o expression of ethno-emancipating attitudes, consciously linked to their own local traditio its special characteristic musical elements with elements of international pop music (main of instrumental accompaniment, but also rhythm and its realization...). Pioneers of this s labeled as ethnic mainstream in Central Europe are the Hungarian Kalyi Jag. Much more popular both among the majority public and, chiefly, among Roma is the style tha does not use (at least to such a striking degree) local music idiom, but often lets itself other patterns, first and foremost, the enormously popular Spanish Gipsy Kings. In the Rom this style - both as recorded music and as music actively performed - has the classic func bašaviben, played and sung for their own entertainment, accompanying social gatherings, of to dance. In the past two decades, however, rompop has also often been discovered in the n environment: at concerts of world music, in "classical" music clubs such as Popocafépetl, also at high-level events. The spectrum of bands that have turned to it is very broad. One notable, however, is that if we compare the social background of the groups with their mus we come to a remarkable correlation. On one hand there are groups that formed as amateur, a family basis. They played first of all only for themselves and their closest surrounding this local level gradually rose, perhaps even to the international scene. They play mainly compositions, and their own musical language - although the musicians acknowledge various has features similar to those described above: a dominating distinctive melody, a "thick" accompaniment and perfectly "well crafted" mastered part singing, which is mainly made up melodic lines. This can be reminiscent of the sound realization of what Steward (2005) cal brotherhood of Roma. The first and most striking representative of this genre in our count style of Věra Bílá and her accompanying group Kale (Blacks) as well as of the East Bohemia Terne Čhave (Young Boys), and the Prague Bengas. A different type are the groups that arose, as it were, from the outside with dramaturgica intentions. Their members do not have any links other than musical ones, and musical produ not entertainment realized through music as with the preceding groups) are their raison d' different musical concept is - unsurprisingly - reflected in their musical language, which artistic, with complex sequences of playing with timbre, etc. The different point of depar clear in the composition of the repertoire, which contains mostly old Romani songs. In thi are both Ida Kellarová and her projects and mainly the group Triny (Three), behind whose r experienced producer Ivan Král. The rompop soundscape confirms to the attentive listener the realization that the basic co music represents for the musicians, is straightforwardly and clearly reflected in HOW the sounds - without regard to a uniform label. 4. Romano hip hop Get a Taste of Europe: performance of the group Gipsy.cz Wenceslas Square, March 6, 2009 One of the events accompanying the Czech presidency of the European Union was the three-da European Regions" Get a Taste of Europe, March 5-7, 2009. It took place at the so-called G is, the place where the main communication arteries meet: Wenceslas Square and Příkopy. On Příkopy you could see and hear folk music groups; a large stage on the lower part of Wence occupied by various genres of popular music. While the preceding band, the Greek hip hoppers SIFU Versus and DJ WAXWORK did not attract many Praguers or tourists, several hundred people gathered in front of the stage for the g not only homeless people (some of whom a bit drunk) and not only tourists: mainly Czechs, couple of dozen Roma. Into the effective colorful lighting first come the black-clothed Surmaj brothers (a guita electric double-bass player), the violinist Vojta "Béla" Lavička, and finally - with the e applause and whistling of the audience - the slight Radek Banga - "Gipsy" in a typical hip jacket with a hood trimmed with fur, a cap and wide pants. During his arrival you could he his first song - Romano hip hop. It has a striking and memorable melody with only a few wo hop in the house, šunen savore, Gipsy.cz in the house"); the musicians interpolate the wor syllables (hop, hop, chit, chip) in off-beat, as is frequent in the traditional music of V in the music of contemporary groups, e.g., Hungarian Kalyi Jag. The showy passages of the melody; they are also sometimes heard in the interlude. The refrain alternates with rapping, that is, quickly recited passages to the rhythm of mu accompaniment. "Come in the rhythm, whether you are a Rom or not. Dance savore! Piki piki pom! I want all to know that I am a Rom. That my band is Romani, dark, that it plays black hop, come with us, we don't care if you are a gadjo. But nobody is perfect, you f... idiot romano hip hop." The second stanza is in Romani; he concludes again in Czech. Gipsy domina singing (in the refrains other musicians join in), but the whole stage: he moves easily, c and verbally and non-verbally communicates with the audience. Soon the first listeners beg rhythm, clap and join in the singing of the refrain... Most of the songs from the latest CDs (Romano hip hop and Reprezent) have a similar charac rapping with distinctive, but not trivial, melodies in the refrain or accompaniment, their less playful but more aggressive than in Romano hip hop) alternate languages: Czech prepon it their "Romani" is represented (which Romani scholars call the specific language of Gips somewhat oddly pronounced English. The fact that Gipsy.cz was chosen to be the Czech representatives is not especially surpri the previous year the Czech minister for human rights named Gipsy ambassador of the Europe European Year of Equal Opportunities and shortly after the Get a Taste of Europe festival made public the fact that it chose the group (in contrast with the usual approach whereby representative is voted by television viewers) to represent the Czech Republic in the inte Eurovision Song Contest. It seems as if Gipsy.cz and mainly Radek Banga, were chosen from the representatives of the Romani community. They are popular enough among the majority (a their song texts are criticized) and at the same time they can seem to be a suitable examp to follow. There is no doubt that the picture of the "good Rom everyone praises" comes primarily from Gipsy's musical style. From this point of view, the non-standard approach of Czech televis legitimate: none of the regularly chosen representatives of the previous years had advance semifinals. On the contrary, the official esteem of the CD Romano hip hop, along with a gr votes for Gipsy in the national European round in the past years, enabled Czech TV to pres original and popular group would be successful. The fact that they finally were not any mo than their predecessors in no way lessened the popularity of their style, which, however, in common with hip hop. Gipsy (this pseudonym has been used since their musical beginnings by the Kalo rikonos gro however, as a genuine hip hopper, more precisely a rapper (see below) in the group Syndrom recorded three CDs with them ( Syndrom Snopp - 1997, Syndrom separace - 2001 and Syndrom S They have the same basic features as the original hip hop of Afro-American ghettos of the of view was strong social and racial frustration for the expression of which aggressive re suitable than song (called rap - radical anarchistic poetry) to the rhythm of usually reco musical background arises most often with mixed music on a turntable, which is, along with grafitti, a moving and graphic element, considered the main components of hip hop. Somewha recorded rhythmic oral sounds, appeared. At the time of authentic hip hop, however, in Gipsy's music the tendency already appeared possible to ascribe both to his extraordinary ambition (also expressed verbally - both in in interviews) as well as to the long-past tendency of Romani musicians to manage easily w genre borders. In 1999 - that is, between two hip hop CDs - he recorded with the prestigio firm BMG the CD Ramonis, characterized as a "soul pop hip hop disk with a gentle breath of 2005 he then recorded in the style of R 'n' B the album Rýmy a blues (besides: with extrao texts, which is typical of rap rather than of R 'n' B). After them follow the two popular earlier: Romano hip hop and Reprezent. It was actually these - with their gentle criticism and acceptable originality - that earn popularity. At the same time, however, there was a void among authentic hip hoppers. Still, that tempting question remains: Is the image of the social situation of the Czech R Afro-American ghetto reflected in similar musical expression? A positive response seems ob far as some authors simply consider it as a given. The reality, though, is different. In c Slovakia, where the hip hop scene is dominated by the recognized Romani rapper Rytmus with Kontrafakt, in the Czech lands there is nobody similar. Nor in various types of contests o any outstanding Romani rapper talent? appeared - and those who do rap do it mainly in Czec At the same time one cannot disregard the large number of Romani children and young people who have taken up breakdancing and beatbox. When I once asked a certain breakdancer from R often he practiced, he answered: "We practice all the time - in school and afterwards, too confirm the omnipresence of both hip hop elements and, actually, they are from the sociall places. It seems, so to speak, that a certain part of the hip hop soundscape of the Americ found resonance in a similar environment in our country and fulfills a similar task, while has successfully joined the broad stream of popular music. Coda As is clear at first glance and hearing, the term "Romani music" can be found in today's P most varied (and sound) forms and in the most varied environments. For the most part it is those mythical qualities which are attributed to it - and to the Roma in general - by roma emotionality to passion, individuality or love of freedom, and also the basic connection o At the same time, however, as is also confirmed by ethomusicological research in other urb (REYES 1982) this label does not correspond to a clear-cut genre definition. The configura shapes of the above-mentioned qualities, and also of the expectations of the public, creat images - soundscapes. But it is basic that all - musicians and audience - and also those who are in other ways c rise and existence of these images, for instance the restaurateurs of "U 7 andělů" - are r concept. The phenomenon of Gypsy/Romani music is thus unravelably interwoven in our nets o consequences to which Clifford Geertz (1973) compares culture. Zuzana Jurková, PhD, studied ethnology and musicology at Charles University, Prague (PhD i 1984, in musicology 1997). She has conducted fieldwork among the Roma in the Czech and Slo and is curently conducting research on music in the urban area (Prague). She is head of th program at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University. See flap of the Czech version of Mythologica 2006. The hierarchical arrangement of both components seems probable: I presume that it is a que culturally specific expression of an absolute principle (or absolute principles). However, not able to argue concretely to the advantage of this hierarchicalness, I hold onto the va "doublet." Vast sound areas, mainly electrically generated sounds, so very different from common, "na and also a special, separate place and its visual accessories evoke another world with dif excellence. Lévi-Strauss deals with these problems in perhaps too poetic a way on pp. 15-16. It is understood, of course, that the camp of ethnomusicologists is not unified either. Br the wisdom of a Nestor of the discipline in one of his last texts presents concurrently bo Hood's musicological with emphasis on the sound phenomenon and Merriam's anthropological: is , on one hand, the study of world musical cultures from the comparative perspective and it is an anthropological study of music. Nettl 2002: 3. I hope the ethnomusicological, not musicological character of this text is evident. Janáček uses some themes of the Beethoven sonata to work with them in his own distinct way living beings. In the fourth movement there is, for example, a passage which is markedly reminiscent of t Katya Kabanova, the solo aria of Katya and the chorus backstage. Quoted according to: Havlík 2000. I also agree, however, with Kundera's characterizing Janáček as an "antiromantic" - but in of Kundera, who understands romanticism as a false, "romantic" view of the world. In Czech I looked for the word cikánský/romský. In this text I am not going into an analysis of the use of the expressions "Gypsy/Romani"; however, that this is a promising research field. E.g. Reyes 1982. We will also discuss the Zambra studio in connection with Gypsy dance courses; flamenco co usually advertised in connection with Romani/Gypsy music. For details, viz www.khamoro.cz. For details, viz www. popocafepetl.cz. I have details about the Gypsy dance course at Zambra from my student Pavlina Holcová, who dancing lessons there, but is also carrying out research about Gypsy dance for her bachelo The premiere took place on April 15, 2004. After the first concert there appeared in Romano Džaniben an interview with the band leade violinist, Sándor Rigó-Buffó, viz Romano Džaniben, jevend 2003, pp. 208-211. Quoted from the invitation: To the question of what it means, the authors of the productio that it is a theatrical work which strikingly reflects a social theme, here the Romani que historiographic and comparative perspective)" I looked for recordings that would fulfill two requirements: 1) they can be bought immedia form 2) they can be bought at non-specialized CD shops. For details, including contemporary literature, viz Griger 2007. The orchestra, founded in 1985, was originally called the "100-strong Budapest Gypsy Orche www.pragueexperience.com/restaurants/highlights/restaurants_live_music.asp (12. 6. 2009). Viz booklet CD Pavel Šporcl + Romano Stilo I have already devoted a separate in-depth article to rompop - Jurková 2008. Viz www.bengas.net Katalin Kovalcsik (2003) uses synonymously Roma pop. HEMETEK 1998. Kovalcsik (2003) labels it ethnic music culture (s. 92 n.) In the year 1990, e.g., the rompop group Točkolotoč played at the benefit concert "SOS Rac by President Havel and at which Paul Simon performed; in the summer of 2006 Terne čhave pe garden concert organized by the Senate of the Czech Republic. http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/ > personalities > Bílá, Věra; official Web page: www.ve In the year 2005, however, Věra Bílá and Kale separated and today they sing alone. www.ternechave.net www.triny.cz Title of an article by Karel Veselý in A2 27/2008:13. The CD was awarded the Golden Disc for the sale of 10,000 copies. For suggestions relating to Gipsy, mainly his time with Syndrom Snopp, I am grateful to my Dočkal - viz Dočkal 2007. For example, in the song I can "In Prague and almost in all Bohemia I proved to many ones that I can be same and even better than millions!" CD Ya favourite CD Rom. Besides, this a entirely in English, has the obvious ambition of penetrating further than only Czech liste From them all, one recent example: "Do not categorize me anywhere; I did not lower myself. entirely new species in evolution." Lidové noviny 6. 12. 2009. http://skola.romea.cz/cz/index.php?id=hudba/28 (7. 10. 2009) The date is not mentioned on the CD; I took it from Dočkal. It is also confirmed in an Int the same year. It seems to me significant, besides, that on www.gipsy.cz (7. 13. 2009) none of their prec mentioned. Radostný more naively formulates it in an exemplary way (2008). Viz e.g., the Brno contest Street Sounds (www.street-sounds.cz) or the workshops mentioned in Ústí nad Labem (Dočkal 2007:83 - 84). Vydání: 11, 2009, 2 Zdroje Literature: Baumann, Max Peter. 1996. “The Reflection of the Roma in European Art Music.” The World of the Roma 1:95–138. Dočkal, Tomáš. 2007. “Romská hudba: Romové a hip-hopová kultura.” Diplomová práce, Husitsk fakulta UK. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Griger, Ján. 2007. “Acoustic Ecology – A Case Study of the Soundscape of Loreta Square in People 20: 83–97. Havlík, Jaromír. 2000. String Quartets Janáček/Novák (doprovodný text k CD). –raha: Suprap Hemetek, Ursula. 1998. “Roma, Sinti, Manusch, Calé.” In Die Musik in Geschichten und Gegen Finscher, L. (ed.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, pp. 443–457. Jurková, Zuzana. 2008. “The Czech Rompop Scene: (Un?)surprising Continuity.” In The Human Diversity. Statelova, R. – Rodel, A. – Pey¬cheva, L. – Vlaeva, I. – Dimov, V. (eds.). Sofi Musicology Studies, pp. 76–83. Kaufman Shelemay, Kay. 2006. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. New York – Norton. Kovalcsik, Katalin. 2003. “The Music of the Roms in Hungary,” In Romani Music at the Turn Praha: Slovo21, pp. 85–98. Kundera, Milan. 2004: Můj Janáček. Brno: Atlantis. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1983: Mythologica I: The Raw and the Cooked. Chicago: Univer¬sity of Liszt, Franz. 1859. Des Bohemiens et de leur musique en Hongrie. Paris: Librairie Nouvelle Merriam, Alan P. 1964: The Antropology of Music. Northwestern University Press. Michels, Ulrich. 2000. Encyklopedický atlas hudby. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny. Nettl, Bruno. 2002: Encounters in Ethnomusicology: A Memoir. Warren (MI): Harmo¬nie Park P Radostný, Lukáš. 2008. “Po stopách romského hip hopu.” A2 27:21. Radulescu, Speranta. 2009. “The Sonorous Image of the Gypsy in Post-Romantic Academic Musi Studies.” In Voices of the Weak: Music and Minorities. Jurková, Z. – Bidgood, L. (eds.) Pr Reyes, Adelaida. 1982. “Exploration in Urban Ethnomusicology: Hard Lessons from the Specta Ordinary,” Yearbook for Traditional Music. Stewart, Michael. 2005. Čas Cikánů. Olomouc: Barrister + Principal. Discography: Bengas: Dža. Amare Dromeha 2003. Věra Bílá + Kale: Rovava. BMG 2001. Věra Bílá + Kale: C´est comme ca. BMG 2005. Cikáni jdou do nebe. Divadlo Bez zábradlí 2004. Diabolské husle Berkyho-Mrenicu: Gypsy Dance. Monitor 1998. Diabolské husle: Pozdrav zo Slovenska. EMI 2002. Gipsy: Rýmy a Blues. Paranormalz. (Datum neuvedeno). Gipsy.cz: Romano hip hop. Indies 2006. Gipsy.cz: Reprezent. Indies 2008. Gipsy Kings: The Very Best of. SONY 2005. Gulo Čar: Gipsy Goes to Hollywood. SONY BMG 2006. Gypsy Melodies: Dvorák, Bendl, Novák, Brahms. Roman Janál + Karel Košárek. Supra¬phon 2005 Ida Kelarová + Romano Rat: Staré slzy. Indies 2002. Madgalena Kožená: Songs My Mother Taught Me. Deutsche Gramophon 2008. Nejkrásnější cikánské písničky. BMS 2007. Pavel Šporcl + Romano Stilo: Gipsy Way. Supraphon 2008. Triny: Gipsy Streams. Supraphon 2001. Zuzana Jurková [ URL "LM-202.html "]