The Folk Genre: The Music of People Around the World - Essay Example

Chapter 5 Essay: Europe/Central and Southern Regions 1. Traditional musicians are most often heard to perform traditional folk music, using ethnic or traditional instruments. However, it is also not surprising that these same traditional musicians can also perform on stage using non-traditional instruments and modern genre. Krzysztof Trebunia-Tutka from Podhala was considered to be one of Poland’s most famous and talented traditional musicians, along with the rest of his family (Cooley 247). He came from a long line of traditional musicians, and it was mentioned that the respected musical heritage began from his great-grandfather down to his father, Wladyslaw Trebunia-Tutka. Krzysztof recognizes the need to preserve the traditional Podhala music since it is an important part of the identity of people from these isolated mountain groups, and also because the music is used in various festivals and other celebrations such as weddings. While he believes in tradition, he also emphasizes that just like cultures music must also attain a certain upgrade to cope up with the changing times, so that people can still reconnect to their roots while still accepting changes (250). However, Krzysztof emphasizes strongly that even if he creates new music based from Podhala traditional music and gets criticized for making the genre popularized he still maintains that he treats music with respect, and does not perform such changes for parody. In addition, to make sure that the next generation would appreciate and perform traditional music and continue its legacy, Krzysztof also teaches younger children how to play the traditional music. By inspiring children to appreciate and be proud of one aspect of their customs, Krzysztof is seen not just an ordinary traditional Podhala musician, but he is also living a true traditional musician’s life it in such a way that he takes the essence of keeping tradition alive and sharing the beauty to more people. Just like Krzysztof, people performing traditional music are not only seen as people who showcase customs and traditions to people, but they can also be seen as inheritors of tradition, as well as guardians that ensure its legacy goes on. 2. For some people from the Bosnian cultures, despite Ganga singing being seen as a part of traditional or folk living, it is still seen as an important part of their culture. This is because Ganga is not just about the music, but of strong family ties and bonds as well. For example, it was mentioned in the book that Ganga singers are often composed of a group of friends singing together starting at a very young age (Cooley 227). These friends may well grow up together and continue singing together until they get married. This means that just as they harmonize in singing their parts in a song together, their lives also become intertwined in ways as well. Also, because of having forged ties and have sung together for a very long time, even without musical cues the lead Ganga singer could just sing and the other two singers could pick up the notes and sing along in harmony, like instinct. This kind of singing reflects the importance of continuing tradition and forging relationships among some members of the Bosnian and Herzegovian cultures, and is still being done today as a way to show talents and tradition, as well as to do activities together as people with close relationships. 3. In a country that has been held captive for very long by a militarist and strict government, the popularity of Balkan Jazz (Balkanski Dzhaz) was just as important as having to express oneself (Cooley 257). For many Balkan Jazz musicians such as Ivo Papasov and Yuri Yunakow, the risks of getting jailed for performing jazz was a low price to pay in retaliation for expressing their own thoughts such as ideological and political freedom through improvisations. They did not entirely wrote off traditional music but instead they were able to incorporate it harmoniously since jazz and traditional Romani and Turkish music are genre that people can easily dance to through recognizable rhythm patterns such as short-short-long pulses found in ruchenitsa (256). For onlookers this might seem as just as ordinary and common as eating bread with various kinds of fillings, but for a group of people who were unable to express themselves fully while still maintaining their cultural identity, a successful incorporation of a foreign genre with traditional music is considered a form of independence from strict and rigid rules of order. In a way, this kind of music fusion represents ideals such as cultural assimilation while maintaining a national identity, and the concept of true freedom. While jazz itself is not bound to excessive improvisation of parts, it is also not tightly-controlled to the point of being predictable or similar in each performance, it has its own merits of the musicians having prior arrangements about the performance, which still is able to provide harmony despite the spontaneous nature of the genre, which is a stark contrast to the much more rigid and highly arranged and polished folk music that the government considers as the ideal and representational kind of music that embodies the country’s identity (Cooley 257). By refraining to abide by only a single group of rules, Balkan Jazz musicians expressed their aims of attaining freedom by breaking away from too much traditional themes and incorporating strong aspects of jazz into the mix. It is possible that due to the strong idealisms of freedom that jazz represents to people that the government banned this kind of music and made it a crime to play or perform it publicly, and oppressing those who perform it by sending musicians to jail for inappropriate conduct (259). But with the strong will of the people to maintain dignity and freedom, even if it was risky doing so, Balkan Jazz music was still able to pervade and emanate through various groups of people, and the combination of an upbeat as well as a socio-political background on the genre made it popular among many people even until today. 4. The Trebunia-Tutka family band blended muzika podhala with traditional reggae music by collaborating with the Twinkle Brothers, as exemplified by the track “Krzesany Po Dwa” which has strong elements of reggae drumbeats, as well as the traditional whistling and sounds of an ensemble of stringed instruments found in traditional Goralé or mountain music (Cooley 252). 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