Rosemary Statelova, Angela Rodel, Lozanka Peycheva, Ivanka Vlaeva and Venstislav Dimov (eds.): THE HUMAN WORLD AND MUSICAL DIVERSITY. ****************************************************************************************** * Zuzana Jurková ****************************************************************************************** Rosemary Statelova, Angela Rodel, Lozanka Peycheva, Ivanka Vlaeva and Venstislav Dimov (ed WORLD AND MUSICAL DIVERSITY. Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the “Music and Minorit in Varna, Bulgaria, 2006 ¨ In the proceedings of the fourth Music and Minorities Study Group (2006 in Varna, Bulgaria) there are 50 contributions (of the nearly 70 papers presented). In addition to pictorial and graphic figures), the publication includes a CD with 53 musical examples (mastered by Gerda Lechleitner, Phonogrammarchiv Wien). All four conference themes are represented: 1) “Hybridity as a Musical Concept” (introductory theoretical article, plus 18 case studies, among them the only two Czech papers); 2) “Minority-Minority Relations in Music and Dance” (The majority of the 14 contributions clearly show how unclear the determination of a minority is. Discussed are, e.g., two groups with a shared religion that is interpreted in different ways, groups on opposite sides of national or ideological borders, mutual relations of two or more groups that are defined some other way), etc.; 3) “Music Education of Minority Children” (the narrowest and most concrete theme, in which the authors, using 14 different examples, demonstrate how a community hands down what it considers basic for the preservation of its own identity; the absolute majority deal with children of national, ethnic or religious minorities); 4) “Race – Class – Gender” (a theme of stimulating contributions not focused on ethnically or religiously defined minorities. This shortest portion surprisingly (?) most clearly shows how music in an environment of asymmetric relations functions as a symbolic means for agents to present new self-representation. The astonishing discovery reveals, in the case of some delimitations, that it is possible to arrive at certain generalizations, while, in other cases, not at all. This compels one to repeated reflection about the appropriateness of those delimitations, thus, e.g., about the formulations of conference themes. (Reyes 1999 describes a very similar situation in the case of immigrants in the USA: only after recognizing the importance of the difference between voluntary and forced immigration did the research lead to meaningful conclusions.) In the case of research on minorities, on one hand, it is certainly true that a group of people identified as a minority appears to create an exceptional variety of expressions, including musical expressions, out of cultural configurations often burdened with conflict. For this reason, no matter how well thought out the topics for discussion may be, they almost always turn out to be somewhat too narrow or schematic to capture the rich varied musical and socio-cultural reality (p. 9). On the other hand, too broad a theme (as the first of them obviously is) or an otherwise inappropriate delimitation enables us to put together phenomena, situations and data which convince us of an exceptional variety of musical expressions, but do not allow for more general interpretation. The editors express the same thought: It is difficult to identify any regularities in these relationships... (p. 11). The proceedings contain all of the contributions that were submitted. This inclusiveness (here the editors call this a “democratic approach”) is one of the concomitant characteristics of the “Music and Minorities” Study Group. (Unsurprisingly – in regard to its democratic or, shall we say, socially solidary character – this group chose, among the many possible definitions of majority, the one which emphasizes an asymmetry of approach to power. “Minorities are groups of people distinguishable from the DOMINANT group for cultural, ethnic, social, religious, or economic reasons.”) The other side of this democratic/allinclusive coin is perhaps the obvious inequality of the articles: not only in the initial theories, methods, and terminologies, but also, e.g., in the non-unified way of quotations. Content: Introduction; HYBRIDITY: Elka Tschernokoshewa: Hybridity as a Musical Concept: Theses and Avenues of Research; Claire Levy: Performing Hybridity: On the Case of Karandila; Irene Markoff: The Case for Transgressive Musical Orientations in Contemporary Alevi Musical Expression: Purity Versus Hybridity in the Sacred/Secular Kontinuum; Ivanka Vlaeva: Hybridity in Turkish Recordings from the 1960s in Bulgaria; Ventsislav Dimov: On Some Early Sonic Evidence of Musical Hybridization: Observations on Commercial Gramophone Recordings from Bulgaria; Gergana Panova- Tekath: Dance as an Expression of Hybridity and Ethnocentrism; Bozena Muszkalska: Freilach, Jazz, and Chopin: The Klezmer Movement in Contemporary Poland; Veronika Seidlová: Music – Religiosity – Community: A Case Study of the Jewish Community in Prague; Zuzana Jurková: The Czech Rompop Scene: (Un?)surprising Continuity; Naila Ceribašić: Macedonian Music in Croatia: The Issues of Traditionality, Politics of Representation and Hybridity; Alma Bejtullahu: “Our Genuine Songs”: Perceptions of Musical Change; Aleksandra Markovic´: “Jugonostalgija Is the People’s Choice”: Interethnic Influences Between Slovene and South Slavic Music; Nino Tsitsishvili: Authenticity and Hybridity in Three Soundscapes of Georgian Musical. Culture in the Context of Political Change; Ayhan Erol: Change and Continuity in Alevi Musical Identity; Caroline Bithell: A Song of Many Colors: Musical Hybridity in Corsica; Lozanka Peycheva: The Hybridization of Local Music From Bulgaria: The Role of Gypsy Clarinetists; Judith R. Cohen: Music in the Lives of Judeus and Ciganos in a Portuguese Village: Two Adjacent and Separate Minorities; Gjermund Kolltveit: The Development of Musical Style and Identity Among the Romani People of Norway; Elena Shishkina: The Growth of Hybrid and Conglomerate Tendencies in the Povolgie Germans: Traditional Musical Culture at the Beginning of the Third Millennium; EDUCATION: Vesselka Toncheva: The Bulgarian School in Vienna and Its Role in the Formation of Bulgarian National Identity; Wolf Dietrich: The Musical Education of Arvanites Children in Central Greece; Petar Bagarić, Željka Petrović and Tihana Rubić: Dervishes in Croatia; Dorit Klebe: Transmission of Musical Traditions of the Alevi Ceremony: Musical Education of Young People Playing Baglama in Berlin; Hande Saglam: Music as a Cultural, Social and Religious Transmission Element among Alevis in Vienna, Austria; Rumiana Margaritova, Stephan Balastchev: The Early Saz Education of a Young Alevi (Bektashi) Performer from Bulgaria; Hilde Binford: Values and Culture Transmitted Through Music in the Old Order Amish Community; Gerda Lechleitner: Education, Tradition, and Rules – The Pillars of Immigrant Societies: Bukharian Jews in Vienna; Rosemary Statelova: The Musical Education of Children Through Traditional Songs and Dances in Sorbian Lusatia; Gencho Gaytandjiev: Roma Children in Bulgarian Schools: Have the Internal Obstacles Been Surmounted?; Smaragdi Boura: Seeking Our Own Roots: Musical Education of Greek Diasporic Youth in Germany; Yoshiko Okazaki: Negotiation Between Limitations and Possibilities in Cultural Transmissions among a Migrant Community; Akiko Takahashi: Teaching Materials Used During Music Lessonsat a Japanese Elementary School in Vienna; MINORITY–MINORITY: Pedro Roxo: The Influence of South Asian Cinema and Film Music in the Hindu-Gujarati Diaspora in Mozambique and in Portugal; Louise Wrazen: Beyond the Polish Tatras: Performing Pride, Identity, or Difference; Essica Marks: Two Cultural Minorities in Israel: The Jerusalem-Sephardi Musical Tradition and the Musical Culture of the Arab Minority in Israel; Dimitrina Kaufmann: Klezmer Musical Ideas in the Music of the Northern and Southern Balkans; Nikolai Kaufmann: Jewish Ethnic Music in My Choral Compositions; Filippo Bonini Baraldi: The Gypsies of Ceua?, Romania: An “Emotional Minority”?; Speranta Radulescu and Florin Iordan: A Minority in a Multi-Ethnic Context: The Jews of the Region of Botosani and Their Party Music; Marin Marian-Balasa: On the Social-Cultural Role of Music Among Minor Religions (Some Romanian Samples); Jakša Primorac: Suryoyo Music: Between Aramean and Assyrian Identity; Larry Francis Hilarian: The Significance of the Hadhrami Arab Contributionsand Influences on Melayu Music, Culture and Islamic Practices; Eckehard Pistrick: Emigration Songs – Interethnic and Multilingual Polyphony in Epirus; RACE– CLASS–GENDER: Ardian Ahmedaja: Çamçe: Dance and the Power Relationship Between Minorities and Majorities; Susan Motherway: Renegotiating Traveller Identity Through Folksong in Ireland; Yoshitaka Terada: Angry Drummers and Buraku Identity: The Ikari Taiko Group in Osaka, Japan; Ana Hofman: Singing Exclusion: Female Singers in the Musical Practices of Southeastern Serbia; Timke226 RE V I E W S het Teffera: Taboos and Exceptions Concerning Female Musicians in East Africa with a Special Focus on Ethiopia; Gisa Jähnichen: Child Musicians in Class–Race– Gender Conflicts; Adriana Helbig: Music, Migrations, and Transnational Articulations of Racialized Class Identities in Post- Orange Revolution Ukraine Zuzana Jurková [ URL "LM-202.html "]