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Journal of Ethnology 4/2011 is devoted to the theme Christmas and the present. In her study, Alena Křížová submits a clearly arranged development of the phenomenon Christmas tree and its decoration (Two centuries with “Christ’s Tree”). Marta Ulrychová and Šárka Ladýřová pay attention to the contemporary customary tradition relating to St. Lucy’s Day (Rounds on St. Lucy’s Day in the Bohemian Forest region); Ludmila Tarcalová presents the origin and development of so-called living Nativity Scenes in Moravia (Living Nativity Scene - a new phenomenon of the present). Other Studies and Materials column publishes the personal memories of Christmas in German families that were forcibly expelled from the Czech territory after the World War II (author Ulrike Zischka), the field material of the research on the Slovácko dance verbuňk spread outside the region of Slovácko (Moravian Slovakia) (author Jarmila Vrtalová) and the contribution of the use of clay in folk architecture (author Martin Novotný).
Transferring Tradition column presents the story of Nativity scene maker Siegfried Zabel, a German compulsorily transferred from Šluknov (author Eva Habel). Other regular columns pay attention to the reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals and shows, the reviews of new books and other branch activities.
The contribution speaks about the visual and aesthetical form of the Christmas tree from its beginnings until the early modern ages – from the 19th century until now in the Czech environment. It pays attention to the Christmas tree function within the burgher society, where it played a social and representative role and to its importance for the army, where it became a symbol and reminder of family. The species selection was conditioned upon the geographical and climatic conditions – besides traditional coniferous trees (fir, spruce, pine) even other evergreen trees (box tree, holly) occurred. Until the mid-19th century, the trees were decorated with various kinds of foods, delicacies and fruits (biscuits, gingerbread, dates, figs, apples) and small toys, too. Since the mid-19th century, the production of glass, cardboard and metal sheet Christmas ornaments began to develop in the Saxon towns. Fifty years later in came to the Czech Lands as well. Chocolate figures, available in Christmas selection boxes soon, were a new phenomenon of the same time. Christmas lighting created an important part of the tree decoration – first were used oil lamps, wax, grease or paraffin candles; since the 1930s, electric lights were sold. Even if the ornaments underwent fashion changes within the entire 20th century, the Christmas tree decoration is understood as a very traditional matter, which is not subject of actual trends, as results from a three-generation survey by questionnaire done with 183 respondents from the families of students of Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, and from the families of teachers of Agronomical Faculty, Mendel University in Brno.
The essay speaks about the rounds on 12 December – on the eve of St. Lucy’s Day. It is based on the field research running in three villages (Svatá Máří, Zdíkovec and Zálesí), which are located in the southern part of the Bohemian Forest region, District of Prachatice, between 2007 and 2011. Simultaneously, it summarizes the reports about the rounds from the 1980s, i.e. from the period when the participating women did not present this tradition intentionally. We also took into account the information published at the beginning of the 20th century in journal “Český lid“. Based on comparing the forms of rounds recorded in different time levels, the authors came to the hypothesis about a possible influence of Jesuit priest Vojtěch Chanovský (1581-1643) who was sent out to do missionary work in his native region and to improve the morals in spin evenings, inter alia. The presence of a Black Lucy who says the prayers and acts as a leading person, dominating over other White Lucys, and the accompanying song with a text of educational and moralistic character and a tune, which follows the song funds of the mentioned region, seem to be the typical features of the rounds in the entire area of the Bohemian Forests.
The depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in Bible has become an actual Christmas event for many villages and towns since the mid-1990s. In Moravia, one can find more forms among them especially the so-called Living Nativity Scene with performing parishioners representing the Holy Family stands out. The actors and the audience take part in the Christmas secret: the village is becoming Bethlehem temporarily and the people go together to the crib. For the authors, it is an occasion to create a play with songs and scenes. The origin and development of contemporary living nativity scenes was researched in the region of Moravian Slovakia – in the areas round Uherské radiště, Uherský Brod, and Strážnice, where the living nativity scenes in the open air have been performed since 1994. Questionnaires, video-records, and Internet reports have been completed with new forms of living nativity scenes in selected locations in Moravia: living nativity scenes in closed rooms, Christmas carolling at cribs, in churches, at Christmas trees and stage performances with Christmas habits. The study submits proofs of contemporary living character of Christmas plays in specific forms of the local culture.
It was a chat between the author and her Moravian friend about their childhood that gave rise to writing these Christmas impressions from “two Christmas worlds”. The parents of both ladies might have equipped their children for life with the same customs, habits, things, fashion, and style of life. In the first case, they continued being lived in Moravia; in the other case they were moved from the region of Cheb in western Bohemia to Bavaria. The behaviour of both ladies was nearly identical or similar in many day-to-day small and big behaviour models, in the “styles of surviving” after the war. The author discovered she could share more things with her Moravian friend than with those in Bavaria. It was the parents who reminded both ladies of Christmas before 1945; things, letters and photos continue in acting as reminders thereof. The author’s Christmas world began in Bohemia. Christmas influences the in-war-born children and the refugees´ or expatriates´ children in a special way. Their experiences, memories and tales listened to at Christmas and in the course of it will be kept in their minds for all their lives. They always carry two Christmas worlds with them. The one represents that narrated and the parents´ memories, the other one means own experiences in after-war Germany. Christmas “there at home in Bohemia” and Christmas in “their new homeland in Bavaria” – childhood days in the late 1940s and the 1950s modified the life style and the tradition brought from Bohemia into an interesting mixture this contribution wishes to talk about.
The study is focused on the presentation of results from the first stage of a field research aimed at the expansion of the men’s dance "Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk” in the village of Moravské Knínice in the Brno Region. It pays attention to the cultural and social development in the mentioned area from the mid-19th century until the presence. This development provided the conditions to take over some cultural features (folk costumes, folk songs and dances, dialect) that originally occurred solely in the territory of the ethnographic area of Moravian Slovakia (Slovácko). The verbuňk dance can be seen for almost twenty years in the village of Moravské Knínice, whereby its form has been undergoing changes whose course and value the author records. She describes also the changes in Feast tradition, dance sequence, and musical accompaniment at Feast dance parties from the early 20th century until now. The contribution mentions the role of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice as a guarantor of research, documentary, educational, popularizing, and promoting activities related to Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk as a cultural phenomenon. The mentioned research results are a starting point for the next suggested field research works and audio-visual documentation of the occurrence and expansion of Moravian-Slovakian verbuňk in the Brno Region, which will be implemented in the coming years.
The study speaks about clay buildings in the areas along the Morava River and in the central Danube basin. It explains some archaeological finds, searching for their ethnological analogies. The building techniques using clay are analyzed in a more thorough way while their genetic context is observed. The hitherto oldest discovered technique in clay wall construction in the researched region presents a wheel structure of an Eneolithic building with weave walls roughcast with a thick layer of pugging stuff on both sides. According to some authors, this concerns the original constructional solution from which the basic building techniques for unburned clay used in load-bearing masonry developed. The first one is the technique of so-called ramming whose origin might be in the wheel construction provided with two parallel “fences”. In accordance with this contention, we suppose the basis of the aforementioned way may consists in a clay mixture rammed into free space between a double-wall made from stones or palisade. Another construction is represented by building in layers that replaced the weave parts with clay material put on in layers, which - similarly to weave - had no supporting function. Moreover, the study describes constructions made from different types of so-called “války”. The last mentioned type of constructions describes the masonry with unburnt bricks, which are put dry on clay mortar – in contrast to the aforementioned building techniques working with wet material that dries in the masonry. The use of wet clay seems to be limiting - in the sense of technical possibilities. On the contrary, building use of bricks, i.e. exactly shaped construction materials, offers a higher number of options for the final use in a construction.
Journal of Ethnology 3/2011 is devoted to Czechoslovak legionnaires who fought in World War I. as volunteer corps of Czechs and Slovaks abroad. In his study, Ferdinand Vrábel explains the main data on this phenomenon (The Czechoslovak Legion Story), the contribution by Jan Rychlík (Legions and Legionnaires in Czech and Slovak Tradition and Historiography) includes the research work into this issue. In his essay, Dalibor Vácha sketches the theme from the standpoint of interdisciplinary positions, paying attention to concrete life stories of Czechoslovak legionnaires (In the Far East. A Probe into Everyday Life of Czechoslovak Legionnaires in Russia). Authors Jan Kincl, Svatopluk Valníček and Ferdinand Vrábel write about legionnaires´ fortunes based on personal diaries and correspondence (Legionnaires´ Memories, Memo Books and Diaries). The material part of the issue is completed by contribution Folk violin-maker Martin Kuča from Strážnice (1888-1967) by Jiří Höhn.
Stopping with Photos (author Martin Šimša) focuses on the legionnaire theme as well. In Interview section, two ethnologists - Miroslav Válka (born 1951) and Miloš Melzer (born 1941), celebrating their anniversaries in this year, interview each other. Other regular columns include reports from conferences, exhibitions, festivals, and reviews of new books.
The essay provides a brief summarizing overview on the development and history of the Czechoslovak volunteer armed forces in the years of World War I., an introduction to the issue of the development and functioning of armed units that - fighting together with the Entente powers (Russia, France, Great Britain, and Italy) - contributed to the creation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. The author depicts the development of an idea to create resistant movement of Czechs and Slovaks, which led to the establishment of political centre of the Czech (later Czechoslovak) National Council with the seat in Paris and under the leadership of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, and Milan Rastislav Štefánik. He also devotes himself to the period beginning with creation of the first units fighting with the Entente powers until the time when the Czechoslovak Brigade fighting in the battle of Zborov (2 July 1917), the individual divisions in Russia, France, Italy and even the Czechoslovak Corps in revolutionary Russia were set up. The essay commemorates also the anabasis of Russian legions on their way from Ukraine through Siberia to Vladivostok and their return back home in 1920. The conclusion of the essay informs about the next fates of legionnaires at home, about the legionnaire organizations, the significance of legionnaire traditions for new Czechoslovak army, the participation of legionnaires in the second resistant movement (1938-1945), the communist persecution of legionnaires and the renewal and work of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires Community after 1989. It puts stress on the need to recall the history of legions in order to bring up young people to patriotism and to strengthen the national identity.
The history of the fight of Czechoslovak legionnaires in World War I for independent Czechoslovakia became a part of the new state “foundation story“ in Czechoslovakia. A legionnaire became a symbol of conscious Czechoslovak citizen who never hesitate to die in the struggle for Czechoslovak independence. For German and Hungarian minorities, however, the new legionnaire tradition was unacceptable. In inter-war Czechoslovakia there were severe discussions about the role of legions in the Russian Civil War. The legions took part in the Civil War on the side of the forces of “White Army”. Especially problematic was their indirect support of the white dictatorship of Admiral Alexander Kolčak in Siberia. The political left criticized legionnaires for their support of Kolčak while the political right - on the other hand - criticized them for the fact that they concluded an armistice with Bolsheviks at the end of the war. During the occupation by Nazi Germany (1939-1945) and during the period of Communist regime (1948-1989) the legionnaire tradition was considered politically dangerous for the existing system and suppressed. After 1989 some attempts to restore the tradition occurred. The question is, however, whether the tradition can survive even if the Czechoslovak state does not exists any more.
The essay focuses on Czechoslovak volunteer corps in Russia in the days after the end of World War I. The main aim of the text is to demonstrate the soldiers’ perception of the Russian Far East regions. The introductory part discusses the existing sources and topics connected with the topic of everyday life in the war. The main part of the text outlines several factors connected with the soldiers’ stay in the Russian Far East regions: the architecture, languages, and everyday life of local townsfolk or peasants (clothes, boarding, hygiene, festivities etc.) or the soldiers´ relationship with local women (including Japanese prostitutes in Vladivostok). It was businesspersons, rickshaws, acrobats and prostitutes, whom the Czechoslovak legionnaires used to meet, so those occupations are understood in the diaries and memories as to be typical for the corresponding region. Czechoslovaks also met a lot of Japanese soldiers whose regiments garrisoned in the Vladivostok and the Baikal regions. Some of the records show a great soldiers’ interest in foreign destinations, cultures, and customs. However, it is not to be omitted that there was a war raging all around the Czechoslovak distinctive soldiers-tourists for the entire time of their exploring the Far East.
The authors of the contribution focused on diaries and recollections of the Austrian-Hungarian troops members, captured at different fronts in World War I (in Serbia, Russia, and Italy), who later joined the Czechoslovak volunteer armed forces - the Czechoslovak legions. On an example of recorded memories of French legionnaire A. Šíma, Italian legionnaire V. Valníček and Russian legionnaire A. Šikura, the authors explain the circumstances at the time when World War I broke out, the moods and opinions of inhabitants, the mobilisation and leaving for the front, the baptism of fire at the fronts, the trials and horrors of war. Their diaries demonstrate clearly, how they as private soldiers and the civil inhabitants experienced the apocalyptic moments brought by the worldwide conflict to the proximity of the fronts and the rear, their everyday life and the importance of the memories of their relatives at home and of the rare correspondence with them. As immediate witnesses of significant political and military events from 1914-1918, when the future fate of Czechs and Slovaks and their common state - the Czechoslovak Republic - was decided, they provide a conclusive picture of those difficult times. Their records from war years, which were completed and even printed later, helped to keep the essential and even less essential experiences from that period in individual mind of their relatives and in collective mind of the nation. Frequently, they give also the historians, military historians, ethnologists and other experts very detailed and from other sources unknown information.
The essay, which speaks about folk violin-makers, tries to create a certain model for the approach to that specific part of Czech music culture. Such a model is based on the thorough organological analysis of maintained instruments made by one of the producers. Martin Kuča from Strážnice, a farmer and wine-grower, who made his music instruments just for laughs, has been chosen as an example. Three of the safeguarded instruments made by him are a part of collections at the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice (violin, viola and baset/violoncello); the other instruments are owned by his family. Purity in workmanship of his string instruments and their carefully worked construction bear witness to quite high level of folk violin making in Moravia and hopefully refute deep-routed theses on imperfection of musical instruments made by folk producers. The instruments themselves as well as the condition of aids (moulds) and tools used by violin maker Martin Kuča show, inter alia, the carefully worked-out technological procedures.
Journal of Ethnology 2011/2 is focused on changes in the country in the late-20th century. Daniel Drápala pays his attention to the region of Moravian Záhoří (Cultural constants and innovation in life of the villages in the region of Moravian Záhoří within the period of country socialization), Slovakian ethnologist Oľga Danglová concentrates in a more common way on rural location as a symbolic space and on its identity (Country settlement as a space of identity. Selection of case studies in four Slovakian villages). Ingrid Pauknerová writes about the problematics of collectivization in the Czech countryside at the time of communist dictatorship (Phenomenon of agricultural cooperative movement and deformation of its idea in the course of collectivization on an example of the Southern-Bohemian village of Hrejkovice), Václav Michalička presents the research of changes in handmade leather production in the village of Metylovice (Leather belt phenomenon in Metylovice in the late-20th century).
Stopping with Photos with the title „Ethnological Documentation of the Revolutionary Changes in the Country” (by Helena Beránková) submits questionable output of photographer Vilém Hank (1910-1994) and completes herewith the theme of the entire current number, similar to Transferring Traditions column which includes the contribution Traditional Dance Opportunities in the Ethnogprahoc Area of Zemplín and Their Changes in the Late-20th Century (by Dana Kľučárová). Rewiev section includes The Remembrance of Horymír Sušil (1928-2010) in which its author Antonín Bařinka brings nearer the significant personality of folklore movement in Moravia. Interviews section presents ethnologist Josef Jančář, director emeritus of the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice. Regular section Personalia remembers the anniversary of the aforementioned ethnologist Josef Jančář (born 1931) and ethnologist Mirjam Moravcová (born 1931), ethnologist Lydia Petráňová (born 1941) and ethnologist Gabriela Kiliánová (born 1951); it presents also the contribution on not-reached jubilee of ethnologist Richard Jeřábek (1931-2006) and the obituary for musician and singer Luboš Holý (1930-2011). Other columns include contributions to discussion (theme: ethics in ethnology), reviews and reports.
The social processes caused by political development in Czechoslovakia after the World War II brought plenty of new initiatives in lives of individuals and smaller and bigger social groups. On the example of the Záhoří region, the author tries to point out the pervasion of elements based on the ethno-cultural tradition of the region with cultural innovations. The analysis of functions, content and form in selected phenomena as well as the monitoring of their lifetime in the course of the second half of the 20th century bring interesting knowledge in the role the selected phenomena played in local community. The traditional events based on annual cycle of habits and customs can include the Shrovetide obchůzka (going round the village) (so-called bear leading) that was maintained in its living form for the entire 20th century. The ceremonial parade of královničky (whitsuntide ritual “The Little Queens”) or the so-called Záhoří right have changed to the occasional or scenic forms. On the contrary, the so-called pre-Christmas parties enriched by the ideologically misapplied figure of Děda Mráz in the 1950s and 1960s, or the lampion parades organized on the occasion of liberation celebrations or the Great October Socialist Revolution ranked among innovations.
The contribution is based on field material collected in four Slovakian villages. It analyses the ways in which the inhabitants identify themselves with their own location as a specific space of their social being. Taking into account the wide spectrum of collective “human” identities anchored in different local spaces, it is aimed at those in whose content profile predominate the signs connected with the socioeconomic nature of a village. It focuses on phenomena that accentuated - in the positive and negative sense - the affiliation to a location based on employment and existence models of its inhabitants. The contribution states that the importance of a “community” and the endeavour for quality in social relations, which are based on trust and territorial vicinity, do not peter out in the country even in the situation of “modern life”. Moreover, the local events have maintained some of its uniting features despite the fact that they are strongly influenced and constructed by dynamic, opposing, and changing external forces disturbing the relations to local culture and countryside.
Agricultural cooperative movement was a phenomenon which belonged to the Czech countryside since the end of the 19th century and whose tradition was purposefully abused in the period of collectivization. The idea of cooperative movement took hold also in the Southern-Bohemian village of Hrejkovice where it more times got its concrete form in the course of the first half of the 20th century. On the contrary, the struggle of the authorities to establish a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) came up against stiff opposition after 1948. As documented by chronicle entries from the 1950s and confirmed by eyewitnesses´ testimonies, the most farmers insisted on traditional private farming and they did not consider changing their statements. Even the JZD foundation after seven long years full of convincing, which resulted in stiff economic pressure and a lot of sanctions against defiant farmers, did not ensure sufficient number of new members for the new cooperative. In all probability, however, it caused four local families to have been deported - three farmer’s and one miller’s families whose lands and buildings were then used by the cooperative for its activities. The problem with scarcity of members was solved by the next pressure wave in 1957 after which only some individuals ran their private farms in Hrejkovice. The JZD foundation did not change just the traditional way of agricultural production but also the lives of all village’s inhabitants; the surrounding countryside was changed significantly as well.
Metylovice used to be a village in which the leather handicraft prevailed since the 17th century, changing the location’s nature at all. The sudden and in fact unexpected decline of leather belt production and group of belt producers meant a great change in the appearance and structure of the village. Metylovice lost its regional exclusiveness and it blended with the nature of surrounding villages to a certain extent. Based on the extinct phenomenon of local leather belt production the process of the village community self-identification began gradually. It resulted in a strong relation to the past reality within a complicated process of forgetting and remembering in the course of the past fifty to sixty years. The specific extinct phenomenon of leather handicraft with whip production gained new qualities in the constructive process of collective memory strengthening. In the above case, the transformed ideal of leather-belts producing Metylovice plays a significant role in the development of strong local identification of the inhabitants with their village and its history.
Journal of Ethnology 1/2011 is devoted to musical instruments connected with folk music tradition. Jan Blahůšek pays his attention to iconographic proves within the wider musical and folkloristic context (Drawings and Paintings as an Iconographic Source for Folk Music Research in the Czech Lands), Jiří Höhn in his contribution outlines the terminological reflections (The Term „Folk Musical Instrument“ and the Function of Musical Instruments in the Field of Ethnocultural Traditions). Petr Ch. Kalina focuses on unique string chordophone (Big Fiddle in Folk Instrumentarium of Lusathian Sorbs) while young American ethno-musicologist Jesse A. Johnston writes about occurrence of cimbalom by Czech immigrants living in American Texas (“Unmelted”: Cimbalom and Assimilation of Czech Minority in Texas). Miroslava Sandtnerová publishes her view of changed use and functions of some musical instruments in small brass bands in Slovakia (On Contemporary Situation in Using the Instrumentarium of Small Brass Bands in Slovakia).
Transferring Tradition column includes the results of field research by Barbora Jarošová (The Past And Presence of Traditional Brass Instruments Production in Moravian Wallachia) and by Alena Schauerová and Magdalena Maňáková (Generation Changes in Children´s Game). Review Section remembers the anniversary of Josef Blau (1872-1960), who studied folk traditions and culture history of the Northern Bohemian Forest (author Marta Ulrychová), and.that of ethnochoreologist Zdenka Jelínková (1920-2005) and her relation to the ethnographic area of Malá Haná (author Věra Kovářů). Social Chronicle publishes the contributions devoted to anniversaries of Czech ethnologist Karel Pavlištík (born 1931), Slovakian ethnologists Peter Salner (born 1951) and Mikuláš Mušinka (born 1936), and the obituary for Slovakian ethnologist Ladislav Mlynka (1954-2010). Other regular columns include the information on conferences, festivals and reviews of new subject books.
Pictorial documentary sources on the traditional folk music have been collected in the territory of our country since the 19th century. This has been going on until today, especially thanks to the protection provided by academic, museum and other scientific or cultural institutions; therefore, a researcher can use the unique iconographic potential to study concrete problems. Yet nobody has paid attention to the iconographic sources with music and folklore themes in summary. In addition, the research done by the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice proves that it is extraordinary difficult to collect large source bases. The submitted study points out the most important iconographic sources of the Czech music folkloristics in a selective way, giving the scope for next treatment of the theme, which has to include mainly the rigorous and careful collection of iconographic material and its registration followed by its analysis and interpretation.
The essay pays attention to the issue of understanding the term “folk music instrument” within the context of Czech musicological and ethnomusicological literature and its relation to social changes in the territory of the Czech Republic in the 20th century. As a certain way out of non-uniformity of definitions, the author offers using a periphrastic term “musical instruments of folk culture”, or “musical instruments of ethnocultural traditions”. The term “folk”, whose meaning underwent wide changes in European context during the last two centuries, is excluded because it is also very difficult to relate it to the social situation in the secod half on the 20th century. Musical instruments used within the corresponding space, become the content of musical and instrumental culture relating to the changed society and maintained ethnocultural traditions (original, transformed and modern ones). The functional point of view becomes the main factor.
The study provides an ethnoorganological picture of big fiddle used by Lusathian Sorbs (Wends): a unique string chordophone from the folk music instrumentarium of the smallest Slavic nation. As to its construction, the instrument is a threestring bowed chordophone, belonging to the family of medieval fiddles. It is about 640 mm long, with a flat back board and a highly arched top board. The strings were tuned in d1–a1–e2. The big fiddle of Lusathian Sorbs was used exclusively in the Catholic region of the western Upper Lusatia, its oldest form dates back only to the 19th century The big fiddle repertoire was recorded mainly in the late 18th century Kral's Fiddle Songbook, and in the collections of Ludvik Kuba and Adolf Cerny from the 19th century. The study also comments on the folk revival of the instrument and highlights the role of musician Jurij Mencl: after his initiative, first copies of big fiddle were made and first revival ensembles were established, which further developed the big fiddle playing. In the early 19th century, the big fiddle had impact on the construction of another folk string instrument, called skřipky in Czech dialect, which was played predominantly in German speaking areas around the town of Jihlava (in the present day Czech Republic). There, the pioneering instrument maker was a German carpenter Johann Bernesch, who came to the region from the Upper Lusatia in the early 19th century.
Ethnomusicologists have often viewed music as a marker of cultural identity. Music may also have a more active role, however, in the hands of musicians, listeners, and dancers, to recreate, redefine, and fashion elements of new identities. This article explores this tension by introducing the cimbalom, an instrument familiar to many (at least in central Europe) in an unfamiliar setting. The article presents historical and archival research about the survival of the cimbalom and its use among Czech immigrants to Texas in the United States. Commonly described in Texas as a “dulcimer”, the instrument’s use in Texas is widely remarked upon in Texas museums and heritage documents, but it is not widely known outside the small Czech heritage communities Texas. A particular focus is placed on the heritage of the “Baca Band”, a longstanding family musical group that built and maintained the cimbalom in the town of Fayetteville, Texas. The article focuses on two main aspects of the instrument’s significance to Czech immigrants in Texas: the tension between the maintenance of cultural traditions and the creation of new ones, and the role of the instrument in the resurgence of ethnic awareness in the United States of the late twentieth century. In addition, the article contributes to research on old-time ethnic music, the history of recording of ethnic music in the United States, and the use of archival sources to investigate music in community life.
Despite the missing thorough attention paid to the establishment of brass bands in tradition of folk instruments in Slovakia, there is no question about their significant participation in forming this tradition. The ensemble appearance of brass instruments has undergone some changes during the last thirty years. Those changes concern both the tendencies to professionalize the brass bands, and the new procedures in arrangement and composer’s work for this genre. Apart from the predominant limitations in expressions, the harmonic and metric and rhythmical structure of brass bands have to be equal with, we are now witnesses of mixing the genres in their interpretation. It is not only the moment of dance and entertainment functions of small brass bands that comes to the fore; the demands made on the players are increasing because of the concert repertoire composed for solo instruments and the interpretation of popular dance music and film melodies. As said by many brass music fans - the contemporary advantage of this genre consists in its ability to play almost everything.
