Abstracts

StubickeToplice
Croatia

13-17 April, 2011

at the invitation of

Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku

Lujza Tari,
Institute for Musicology of HAS Budapest-Hungary
lujzat@zti.hu

Some effects of vocal and instrumental music on each other: identities and differences

In 2004 at the HSG of ICTM conference I tried to point out that from a historical aspect, the relation of vocal and instrumental music is a constant process and a complex system. In 2010 I published a study in detailed ("Vortragsweisen ungarischen dörflicher und städtischen Zigeunermusiker in historischen Tonaufnahmen. Allgemeine Bemerkungen, forschungsgeschichtliche Ausblicke." (Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 55. 1., 31-56. Budapest, Ed. Barna, G.). In the 26th ESEM conference (2010, Budapest-H) I continued the discussion of this topic. ("Vocal- and/or instrumental music? Remarks to performance style of village- and town gypsy musicians"). I focused on the musical dialect, the roles of functions and the 19th century. Only gypsy musicians, including urban gypsy musicians, were taken into consideration.

The question of the relation of vocal- and instrumental music is inexhaustible. Simplifying them, the song is less decorated, while instrumental music has more ornaments. ("It not easy to distinguish the simple sunge tune from the runs of the ‘furulya’/flute. But such comparisons help to explain the instrumental style of folk music." – wrote Kodály. "The instrumental songs are so ornamented by the good peasant musicians, and the decorations and changes of tempo are so improvised, that writing down the tunes takes a really long time."– observed Bartók) Among the different levels of the vocal-instrumental connections are
• the procedure of vocal songs turning instrumental or reverse
• modifying of the vocal melody played on an instrument (i.e. the bagpipe has no high seventh, the vocal tune goes beyond the range of the instrument.)
• question of vocal imitation of instrumental music – in the Hungarian tradition mostly bagpipe and violin imitation act.
While the echo is also in connection with the disappearance of the bagpipe itself, the effect of the violin in vocal performance style and the effect of the vocal music on violin in the West-Transylvanian Hungarian Folk Music is an old musical and a dialectal feature. The lecture highlights some effects of vocal and instrumental music on each other in Hungarian folk music.