Projects / Programmes
Song reflections of intercultural coexistence
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.04.00 |
Humanities |
Ethnology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H400 |
Humanities |
Folklore |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
song tradition, identifications, transferred songs, bilinguality, musical praxes, ethnic conflicts, pluriculturality
Researchers (10)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The project “Song Reflections on Intercultural Coexistence” explores songs and music as a space for linguistic and identity encounter and raises the question of the ways in which language choices reveal, in the historical perspective and contemporary musical phenomena, the social, cultural or transcultural identifications of performers/musicians.
In the framework of the efforts of cultural nationalism, folkloristics was focused on the tradition, which was most easily presented as a national distinctive (Bohlman 2004, Leerssen 2006,). Song tradition and song creativity were meant as the basic evidence for the nation's culture, and intersections with the culture of other nations represented a threat to the proving of their own national identity. The construction of ethnic stereotypes was namely based on the homogenization of a particular culture and the exclusion of Others (Cohen G. 2003).
Bilingual songs, also referred to as macaronic, or songs that were transferred from one language to another, were a markedly disturbing element in the conceptualization of the canon of national culture. Songs from German, Italian, Hungarian and Croatian creativity became part of a Slovene folk song collection. Some bilingual songs and songs, labelled as foreign, were nevertheless preserved in the records (source: e.g. archive of the Institute of Ethnomusicology, the songbooks from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century), but they were not included in research, some were even lost from the archives.
The project will therefore reveal an important part of the song creativity and the overlooked song traditions, while at the same time it will draw attention to the intercultural and supranational significance of the tradition by addressing the context. In addition to dispelling the role of folklore, it will focus on those intersections between Slovene song creativity and the song creativity of neighbouring nations, which Slovene folkloristics in the search for national identity in the past has eluded. Multilingualism will be regarded as a cultural diversity, which in the interweaving of languages within one song recognizes the connection of two identities, and not necessarily their exclusion, that is, as an equal exchange of one language with another.
The contemporary phenomenon of bilingualism draws attention to the particularities of coexistence with the nations that border on Slovenia, at the same time it points to the new perception of identities or the role of identification. The study of contemporary processes that reveal music in the private and public space as an identity and communication factor is based on the assumption that music is not only a mediator of ethnic identity, but it is also a pragmatic tool, important in everyday life for survival and integration into cultural and social spaces (Hofman 2015) and is used as "transcultural capital" (Meinhof and Triandafylidou 2006) and at the same time also as a distinctive element.
On the one hand, the project team will critically evaluate the role of folkloristics in different periods in which different interactions with the neighbouring nations played different roles (the period of Austro-Hungarian, the time of the establishment of a common Yugoslav state, the period of socialism and the period after Slovenia's independence); at the same time the project team will evaluate the role of folkloristics in the discussion of composite national identities and it will try to disclose (possibly) methodological nationalism (Wimmer, Glick Schiller 2002) in folkloristics, while exploring modern bilingualism in music practices among Slovenes along the borders and revealing its transcultural significance: the project will determine which are the factors that influence the choice of language in the music presentation.
Significance for science
The planned project will complement folkloristics, which by its definition is connected with the presentations of the national one, with the possibility of exploring interethnic relations through bilingualism in songs and music, and through the passage of songs from one linguistic environment to another. It will treat multilingualism as a cultural diversity, which, with the help of individual songs, reveals the connection of two or more identities or their exclusion, while it will also consider the view of this bilingualism over time that will reveal intercultural contacts and the processes of national identification with the help of songs tradition. With this, it will explore an important part of the song creativity and overlooked song tradition, and it will draw attention to the intercultural and interethnic significance of the tradition by addressing the context. For the Slovene folkloristics, the project has additional significance in the fact that while redefining the role of folklore, it will reveal the tradition, which is represented by the intersection between Slovene song creativity and the song creativity of neighbouring nations.
Compared to the presentations of bilingualism in song creativity already carried out, complex research will be a novelty in several respects: the interweaving in song creativity will be recognized as a starting point for the interpretation of intercultural contacts and interethnic relations, as well as one of the most prominent conceptualizations of space and as a special expression of belonging to several identities. Presentation of these findings to the public will problematize a negative connotation that accompanied bilingual creativity or the passage of the song between linguistic communities, and at the same time, it will open the space for social dialogue by revalidating these interlacing in the past and by researching modernity. The confrontation between the research of composite national identities and folklore is thus a challenge not only in Slovenian humanities but also in international research.
The project will also provide important ethnomusicological findings: the contextual framework of the observed music practices will reveal the ways in which music and language interact with each other, and what is the meaning of music to express identity levels in multilingual spaces. The results of the ethnomusicological analysis will contribute to understanding the importance of music as a communication channel for the use of multiple languages within one social space.
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Significance for the country
The planned project will complement folkloristics, which by its definition is connected with the presentations of the national one, with the possibility of exploring interethnic relations through bilingualism in songs and music, and through the passage of songs from one linguistic environment to another. It will treat multilingualism as a cultural diversity, which, with the help of individual songs, reveals the connection of two or more identities or their exclusion, while it will also consider the view of this bilingualism over time that will reveal intercultural contacts and the processes of national identification with the help of songs tradition. With this, it will explore an important part of the song creativity and overlooked song tradition, and it will draw attention to the intercultural and interethnic significance of the tradition by addressing the context. For the Slovene folkloristics, the project has additional significance in the fact that while redefining the role of folklore, it will reveal the tradition, which is represented by the intersection between Slovene song creativity and the song creativity of neighbouring nations.
Compared to the presentations of bilingualism in song creativity already carried out, complex research will be a novelty in several respects: the interweaving in song creativity will be recognized as a starting point for the interpretation of intercultural contacts and interethnic relations, as well as one of the most prominent conceptualizations of space and as a special expression of belonging to several identities. Presentation of these findings to the public will problematize a negative connotation that accompanied bilingual creativity or the passage of the song between linguistic communities, and at the same time, it will open the space for social dialogue by revalidating these interlacing in the past and by researching modernity. The confrontation between the research of composite national identities and folklore is thus a challenge not only in Slovenian humanities but also in international research.
The project will also provide important ethnomusicological findings: the contextual framework of the observed music practices will reveal the ways in which music and language interact with each other, and what is the meaning of music to express identity levels in multilingual spaces. The results of the ethnomusicological analysis will contribute to understanding the importance of music as a communication channel for the use of multiple languages within one social space.
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Most important scientific results
Interim report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Interim report
