Original scientific paper
One-part Ojkanje-singing in the Historical Perspective
Grozdana Marošević
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper discusses the insufficiently researched one-part or unison mode of singing in Croatian traditional music. The predominance of two-part singing in most of the Croatian regions during the first half of the 20th century, and the preoccupation of ethnomusicologists with group singing produced a stereotype that people in Croatia traditionally inclined to part-singing. It can be seen in the example of ojkanje singing. Croatian 20th century ethnomusicological literature deals mainly with the two-part ojkanje of the Dalmatian hinterland. It is regarded as the prototype of this style of singing in Croatia, while forms of one-part ojkanje are considered as rare and less interesting phenomena, existing only when there is no more than one singer.
Analysis of historical data and musical notations contained in published and manuscript sources (from the 16th to the 19th century) shows that one-part music-making was well represented in the past and that it co-existed with two-part music practice, both in ojkanje and other music styles, in solo and group performances, and in vocal and instrumental practice. Although historical sources do not provide answers to all the questions and permit only hypotheses in response to many of them, they still considerably contribute to the understanding of a phenomenon in its entirety.
Keywords
one-part music; part-music; ojkanje-singing; historical perspective; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
23185
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2006.
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