Multipart singing

Η λαϊκή πολυφωνία είναι ένας όρος σχετικά νεώτερος στη λαογραφική και εθνομουσικολογική έρευνα στη χώρα μας. Στο παρόν άρθρο εστιάζουμε στη λαϊκή μουσική πολυφωνία, όπως αποτυπώνεται στις τραγουδιστικές πρακτικές του χωριού Κάτω Γαρούνας στην περιοχή της Μέσης Κέρκυρας. Υιοθετούμε μία ανθρωπολογική προσέγγιση στην εθνομουσικολογική έρευνα, καθώς αντιμετωπίζουμε το λαϊκό/παραδοσιακό τραγούδι ως μουσική πράξη και έκφραση της καθημερινής ζωής των κατοίκων του χωριού. Αυτή η βιωμένη μουσική πράξη αναδεικνύεται σε έκφραση της ανθρώπινης μουσικότητας. Θα επιχειρήσουμε να αναλύσουμε κάποια από τα χαρακτηριστικά της λαϊκής πολυφωνίας, όπως αυτή απαντάται στη Μέση Κέρκυρα. Θα εξετάσουμε επίσης πώς βιώνεται το τραγούδι στον «τόπο» και από τους ντόπιους σήμερα, μέσα από μία αναστοχαστική κριτική ερευνητική ματιά. Συνεκτιμώντας πτυχές της έρευνας για το ελληνικό δημοτικό τραγούδι, η έρευνα αυτή επιχειρεί να αναδείξει στοιχεία της επτανησιακής λαϊκής πολυφωνίας, όπως αυτή απαντάται στη μουσική έκφραση του Κάτω Γαρούνα.

Arti Musices, 42/2, 2011, 209-235.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, klapa singing has grown into a movement that has crossed its local and regional borders. Along with winning awards at the Festival of Dalmatian Klapas Omiš (Festival dalmatinskih klapa Omiš), the success criteria for klapas became also their media exposure, which partly influenced the raise of a new type – the modern klapa – which searches for new music sources and new ways of presentation and communication. Because of its collaboration with pop singers and reaching for elements of popular music genres such as rap, soul, rock, reggae, this type became popular among the widest audience.
Circumstances of that period indirectly influenced the founding and development of Dalmatian Song Evenings (Večeri dalmatinske pisme), a festival founded in 1999 in Kaštel Kambelovac, Dalmatia. Its first section is dedicated to klapa performances of Croatian (mostly Dalmatian) and foreign popular songs arrangements, but also of new compositions, quite atypical for the canonic klapa repertoire. In the second section, popular music (jazz, rock, bluese, etno, ča and island wave) performers present new readings of traditional klapa songs. 
In the first decade of this festival, klapas performed about 360 compositions and arrangements, which could be roughly divided in: arrangements of traditional chants (which prevailed in the beginning, when the content and name of the festival events had not been defined yet), new compositions, performed at New Compositions Evenings (Večeri novih skladbi), arrangements of foreign (performed at event Klapa Novelties / Klapske novitade) and domestic popular songs (performed at event Kaštela Style / Kaštelanski đir). Through the analysis of several examples, author of this article tried to reveal some of the new approaches found in modern klapa songs, used by composers and arrangers often with the price or tendency of neglecting the main characteristics of the traditional klapa repertoire.

Nella Sardegna centro-settentrionale il ballo veniva, e viene tuttora, accompagnato dal canto a tenore, una forma di polifonia di tradizione orale a quattro parti e quattro voci maschili. Tra le principali caratteristiche di questa pratica musicale troviamo: il testo espresso dalla sola voce solista (sa boghe) accompagnato dalle sillabe non-sense delle altre tre voci (su tenore), il timbro gutturale emesso dalle due voci più gravi (su bassu e sa contra) e il fatto che ogni paese conservi una propria tradizione che si distingue in base alla costituzione
del repertorio, ai timbri, all’organizzazione macrostrutturale, ai movimenti delle parti e all’impiego di determinate sillabe non-sense [Lutzu 2003]. A fronte di queste specificità locali sono presenti, in numerosi paesi, alcuni canti a ballo che colpiscono per la particolare relazione metrico-ritmica tra il solista (sa boghe) e il resto del coro (su tenore). Scopo di questo lavoro è quello di proporre un’analisi di tale relazione.

The symbolic representation of identity in traditional musical contexts is achieved through the activation of performers’ behaviour gathering in a group, by means of performative processes typical of ‘musicking’ (e.g. ‘know how to make music together’). Two case studies are presented to explore the power of emotional representation, by employing ‘heterophonic melodies of homophonic ideas’ (Cretan rizìtiko), or a traditional polyphonic language (Zakynthian arekies), respectively. In either case, performers show common psychological conditions through the search for a ‘collective resonance’.