Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, 8, 1976
Bruno Nettl
Erich Stockmann, Barbara Krader
Oskar Elschek, Oskár Elschek
Abstract: English Summary. 1. The scholarly level of ethnomusicological research depends in large measure on the accomplishments in the methodology of classification and systematization of music. Classification of music itself is insufficient, however, and must be related to human behavior, to psychology and aesthetics. The I. F. M. C., understanding the significance of these problems, made possible the first international contacts for their discussion. Conferences in 1956 and 1964 resulted in the formation of this study group, which first met in Czechoslovakia, where a great deal of experience in this area of work had already been accumulated. 2. A number of immediate goals were established in the course of meetings taking place from 1965 to 1974 (in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Yugoslavia, and again in Czechoslovakia): study of systems in use; exchange of information on newly attempted methods; discussion of basic questions; examination of special problems such as incipit catalogs, classification of forms, treatment of large masses of data, examination of possibilities of unifying systems created for diverse styles and repertories; publication of results. The problems have not been solved, but they have been clarified. New methods, in particular, have emerged in the past decade, and have been subsumed in the work of the study group. 3. The various meetings of the Study Group were devoted to different problems. At the first, we attempted to gain an overview of the systems in use. Since their usefulness could only be tested by application to different repertories, this was the task of the second meetings. About 900 melodies from Eastern, Central, and Northern Europe were analyzed according to each system. Exchange and discussion of the resulting information occurred in the third and fourth sessions. The fifth meeting of the Group took up the problems of publication of folk songs, questions of authenticity of earlier transcriptions, and folk classifications of music. The sixth meeting was mainly concerned with the purpose and the historical development of analysis. 4. The present state of the field can be described in a number of separate statements. (1) There are now many systems available for analysis and classification. (2) Systematization has become more intensive in the Central European nations, in which this type of research has long been advanced, and in the last decade it has gained attention in other European nations as well. Unfortunately, a number of non-European nations, including the USA, do not have unified efforts for the classification of their own repertories. (3) We lack methods particularly suitable for non-European musics. (4) The current imbalance is substantially due to the absence of a single, unified system of analysis and classification for world music. (5) While there is no universal system available, there are a number of concepts and methodologies, in part extant in other disciplines, on which one may draw. The actual work of musical analysis, however, should not use abstract concepts as a point of departure, but should result from the characteristics of the material itself. 5. Many tasks remain; they must come from the current state of the art. The Study Group recommends certain procedures: (1) Published folk song collections should use precise systems of melodic ordering, facilitating the finding of melodies and types. (2) Large archives should be internally classified much more quickly, and the work completed within the next generation. (3) All collected materials should be made available for comparative research. A number of new approaches should be attempted, including the classification of tunes directly from recordings, without the intervention of transcription. The work of the Study Group will continue in order to solve the problems it has posed for itself more adequately and efficiently, for the accumulation of folk music in archives is still greatly outstripping the analysis and systematization of these materials.
Carol E. Robertson-DeCarbo
Scheherezade Q. Hassan
Abstract: English Summary. The Yezidi are a religious community composed of Arabs and Kurds distributed between Iraq--where the majority live--and the neighbouring countries. Great controversies surround their beliefs. This is due on one hand to the extremely secret character of their religious practices, which makes access to them difficult, and on the other hand to their dogmas, imperfectly known even by them. But it seems that the essential point of their religion, in the view of their Christian and Muslim neighbours, concerns their adoration of Satan, shaitan, represented by the peacock, tawus. It is because of this very idolatry that they are considered as dangerous heretics. Yezidi music is either Arab or Kurd, depending on the region. Indeed, the nature of musical material (modes, rythm), instruments, musical style as well as the secular functions of music is shared by the communities of the region. The Yezidi are different only in terms of the cultural context of the music; the music itself is not distinguished from that of neighboring cultures. In this article, the sacred aspect of life is approached through the study of the musical instruments, their use, their function in socio-religious life. Also, it discusses the important role played by the musician as the necessary mediator between the instrument and its social function. No musical instrument--as a type--is peculiar to the Yezidi. The most important instruments, which are seven in number, are used in the region on different social occasions. With the exception of the long necked lute, tanbur, these instruments are combined into three ensembles, each composed of two instruments. They are of two kinds: the sacred instruments include a wooden flute, shabbaba, and a big frame drum with discs, daff. These are mentioned in the sacred texts and are used in the most secret ceremonies. Secular contexts make use of the small frame drum with discs daff, as well, and of the clarinet, mitbadj, the oboe, zurna, the big circular two skinned drum, tabl and the long necked lute, tanbur. With the exception of the ensemble of the drum and the oboe tabl wa zurna, forbidden on sacred ground, the rest of the instruments may be played like the sacred ones during the same festivities and ceremonies such as the fixed calendric occasions (sacred pilgrimages, New-Year's, etc.), and the non-fixed rites such as birthdays, baptisms, marriage and death. Musicians are of two kinds in the Yezidi society: the specialist professional and the religious specialist. The former play on non-sacred instruments and offer their services to all the sects of the region for remuneration and food. The latter, called kawwals ("sayers"), are a hereditory caste. They form the lower stratum of the Yezidi religious hierarchy but yet enjoy a very important status since they are the only teachers of the community, transmitting tradition orally from generation to generation, singing it and playing on sacred instruments.
Abstract: English Summary. The Yezidi are a religious community composed of Arabs and Kurds distributed between Iraq--where the majority live--and the neighbouring countries. Great controversies surround their beliefs. This is due on one hand to the extremely secret character of their religious practices, which makes access to them difficult, and on the other hand to their dogmas, imperfectly known even by them. But it seems that the essential point of their religion, in the view of their Christian and Muslim neighbours, concerns their adoration of Satan, shaïtān, represented by the peacock, ṭāwūs. It is because of this very idolatry that they are considered as dangerous heretics. Yezidi music is either Arab or Kurd, depending on the region. Indeed, the nature of musical material (modes, rythm), instruments, musical style as well as the secular functions of music is shared by the communities of the region. The Yezidi are different only in terms of the cultural context of the music; the music itself is not distinguished from that of neighboring cultures. In this article, the sacred aspect of life is approached through the study of the musical instruments, their use, their function in socio-religious life. Also, it discusses the important role played by the musician as the necessary mediator between the instrument and its social function. No musical instrument--as a type--is peculiar to the Yezidi. The most important instruments, which are seven in number, are used in the region on different social occasions. With the exception of the long necked lute, tanbūr, these instruments are combined into three ensembles, each composed of two instruments. They are of two kinds: the sacred instruments include a wooden flute, shabbāba, and a big frame drum with discs, daff. These are mentioned in the sacred texts and are used in the most secret ceremonies. Secular contexts make use of the small frame drum with discs daff, as well, and of the clarinet, miṭbadj, the oboe, zurna, the big circular two skinned drum, ṭabl and the long necked lute, tanbur. With the exception of the ensemble of the drum and the oboe ṭabl wa zurna, forbidden on sacred ground, the rest of the instruments may be played like the sacred ones during the same festivities and ceremonies such as the fixed calendric occasions (sacred pilgrimages, New-Year's, etc.), and the non-fixed rites such as birthdays, baptisms, marriage and death. Musicians are of two kinds in the Yezidi society: the specialist professional and the religious specialist. The former play on non-sacred instruments and offer their services to all the sects of the region for remuneration and food. The latter, called ḳawwāls ("sayers"), are a hereditory caste. They form the lower stratum of the Yezidi religious hierarchy but yet enjoy a very important status since they are the only teachers of the community, transmitting tradition orally from generation to generation, singing it and playing on sacred instruments.
Bonnie C. Wade
Jay Rahn
Ghizela Suliteanu, Ghizela Sulițeanu, Rodica Mirsescu
Abstract: English Summary. Regarding psychological implications in the structure of the improvisation process: Examples for Roumanian musical folklore. Taking into consideration some of the psychological implications in the structure of the improvisation process provides a broadening of the informative and methodological investigation and leads us towards a deeper understanding of all aspects of this phenomenon, its human element and its function. In the Roumanian folklore, improvisation appears characteristic not only for defining certain categories of folklore, but even more as a fundamental factor in the very process of creation by these folk. The following are pointed out as principal psychological elements: motivation, communication action, process of dynamical stereotype, temperament and personality, imagination, spontaneous and deliberate realization, collective and individual artistic conception. The important role of affect needs also to be considered in a number of areas: the place of affect in the function of folklore, real interrelationship between affective state and the improvisational process, psycho-social implications of affect and psycho-physiological implications of an affective nature appearing at the moment of improvisations. Given the definition of improvisation found in different dictionaries and lexicons, the concept appears in folk culture. It is not of ephemeral character only but represents a free handling of images emanating from a traditional functional stock of materials (i.e., a musical or verbal vocabulary), which include the possibility of change and reconsideration. Every repetition of a melody is different but can be recognized as belonging to its type.
Anna Czekanowska
Wolfgang Suppan, Eva Borneman
----------------, 130-131
Helen Creighton
Review Author[s]:
Maud Karpeles
----------------, 131-133
Klaus Wachsmann, Dieter Christensen, Hans-Peter Reinecke
Review Author[s]:
Mieczyslaw Kolinski
----------------, 133-136
Jaap Kunst, E. L. Heins
Review Author[s]:
Mantle Hood
----------------, 136-139
Constantin Brailoiu, Constantin Brăiloiu
Review Author[s]:
Boris Kremenliev
----------------, 139-141
Laurence Picken
Review Author[s]:
Kurt Reinhard
----------------, 141-142
Marcia Herndon, Roger Brunyate
Review Author[s]:
Charlotte J. Frisbie
----------------, 143-144
James Blades, Jeremy Montagu
Jeremy Montagu
Review Author[s]:
Caldwell Titcomb
----------------, 145
Olivera Mladenovic, Olivera Mladenović
Review Author[s]:
Barbara Krader
----------------, 145-146
Ivan Ivancan, Ivan Ivančan
Review Author[s]:
Barbara Krader
----------------, 146-151
Norma McLeod, Gerard Behague, Gerard Béhague, Portia K. Maultsby
Review Author[s]:
Jeremy Montagu
----------------, 151-155
Manfred Junius
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 155
George List
Review Author[s]:
Claudie Marcel-Dubois
----------------, 155-156
Mireille Guyot, Jurg Gasche, Jürg Gasche
Review Author[s]:
Claudie Marcel-Dubois
----------------, 156-157
Jacques Brunet
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 157-158
Jacques Brunet
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 158-159
Jacques Brunet
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 159-160
Review Author[s]:
Jacques Cheyronnaud
----------------, 160-161
Bernard Dupaigne
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 161
Bernard Dupaigne
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 161-162
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai, Hoang Mong Thuy, Hoâng Mông Thuy
Review Author[s]:
Andre-Marie Despringre, André-Marie Despringre
----------------, 162-163
Review Author[s]:
Jacques Cheyronnaud
----------------, 163-164
Jane Mink Rossen
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 164
Review Author[s]:
Maguy P. Andral
----------------, 164
David Green, Carol Dunlop-Hebert
Review Author[s]:
Maguy P. Andral
----------------, 165
Review Author[s]:
Claudie Marcel-Dubois
----------------, 165-166
Eric H. Davidson, Paul Newman, Lyn Davidson, Jane Rigg, Caleb E. Finch
Review Author[s]:
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai
----------------, 166
Review Author[s]:
Claudie Marcel-Dubois
----------------, 166-167
Tran Quang Hai, Trân Quang Hai, Hoang Mong Thuy, Hoâng Mông Thuy
Review Author[s]:
Pham Xuan Hong