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Apart from a few key works on dance structure, improvisation and Central European traditional dance, the breadth and depth of Martin’s work remains inaccessible to the English reading audience and little known in dance studies. One such unacknowledged area of significant contribution is his important work in applied ethnochoreology through key interventions in Hungarian presentational stage choreography and participatory social dance revival. In both spheres Martin made a significant contribution at key moments in their development. At least two fundamental concepts drawn from his theoretical work informed his activist interventions. First, that folk dancing needs to be conceptualized, and studied, as a process (táncfolyamat). Second, that this process cannot be excised from its complete contextualization in the lives and history of its practitioners if it is to be fully understood. This theorization of dance is relevant far beyond the village dance idiom that so absorbed him. It should be more widely known, acknowledged and, indeed, applied specifically within ethnochoreology as well as dance studies in general today. As work in the application of scholarly knowledge outside the walls of academia becomes ever more important in our field, it is worth remembering that this is not an activity without precedent. Martin’s theoretically informed interventions in both participatory and presentational dance practices in Hungary provide an excellent model for such work.
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Hungarian folk dance has strict structure, which plays an important role in its authenticity. Besides the connections of dance elements, it is important to consider quantitative features of a dance such as the frequency of dance elements and the frequency of connections. The number of occurrences of a dance element or several consecutive dance elements in a dance performance can be counted with a computer tool if the dance is notated and its notation is digitized. Labanatory has been developed in Hungary as a tool that is capable of searching for repeating patterns in Labanotation scores, that is to identify recurring movements. The paper shows the software in use: how the researcher can use this kind of tool in practice. It shows actual examples of detecting recurring notated movements with several kinds of searches (simple, compound, wildcard, symmetric, and augmented searches). It points out that searches have to be used in an iterative way during the analysis when creating ‘good’ queries from Labanotation symbols. Notation parts can be labeled in the program in any phase of the analysis and the researcher can revise the label markers offered as a result of a search. From the labeled dance parts, the user can make basic statistics on the analyzed dance performances. The examination of original dance texts is very important in dance education. It is beneficial if a student can access fieldwork-texts directly, not only through the teacher’s filter. The student can focus on dance elements in accordance with his own interest by creating his own queries and performing the related computer searches. He can detect dance elements of any length and examine any consecutive combinations of them. Evaluating search results can allow the student to interpret dance structures in new ways.
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In the article the aesthetical and art research of well known French postmodernist Roland Bart, which reflect, first of all, the early period of his creativity are described. Roland Bart during certain time was the head of the movement of "new criticism". Among R. Bart's aesthetical and art practices we will emphasize his interest to a wide range of the questions connected with a problem of art creativity which is both philosophical, and aesthetic, both art criticism, and ethical, and – it is clear – psychological. The position of the theorist is analyzed against his general theoretical installations and in the ratio with the main tendencies of development of the French aesthetics of the 50 – the 70 th years. It is worth to write, that Barthes's ideas and his approach to writing evolved over the course of his career, and critics often discuss his works in terms of four stages in his critical thinking. In the first stage of his career, Barthes, influenced by the ideas of Sartre and Karl Marx, demonstrates a strong interest in issues of language, its relationship to historical and social context, and its relationship to power. In these works he developed his notion of écriture, the aspect of discourse in which the author's social and historical context imbues his or her writings with unintended meanings that are revealed in structural analysis. In Mythologies Barthes analyzed aspects of contemporary French culture–for example, advertising, travel guides, and professional wrestling–to explore ways in which they support a bourgeois worldview. The next phase of Barthes's career, which also marked the high point of Structuralism in France, is a rigorously theoretical one and includes his famous 1964 essay "Eléments de sémiologie" (published in English as Elements of Semiology). Encompassing the ideas of Saussure, Roman Jakobson, and other noted linguists, Barthes theorized about the role of language versus that of speech. To Barthes, language is based on an abstract set of rules and conventions regulating verbal and written communication, whereas speech refers to individual instances of how that language is used. The third phase of Barthes's career, influenced by French theorists Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva, marks a shift in his thinking from Structuralism to Post-Structuralism in the 1970s. In such works as S/Z and The Pleasure of the Text, Barthes stresses the idea that literary texts contain multiple and shifting connotations, and are therefore open to a number of possible interpretations. He also distinguishes between "readerly" and "writerly" texts: the former refer to common areas of knowledge and accommodate traditional interpretation, while the latter are more open and invite the reader to fill in gaps and make intertextual connections in the process of reading. The final phase of Barthes's career, which includes his autobiography, Roland Barthes (1975; Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes), as well as A Lover's Discourse, Le chambre claire (1980; Camera Lucida), and Incidents (1987; Incidents), is a more personal one. In these works, Barthes writes about his diverse intellectual interests, from literature to travel, and photography, in a more meditative and introspective style.
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Central place in the article occupies phenomenon of tonality and tonal semantics as a result of a long and gradual process of specific interchange in the sphere of expressive means in European music and painting of the 19– 20th centuries. The article contains examples from the history of European mu-sic and painting which represent different ways of correlation between colors and sounds and shows gradual deepening of their intercommunication. Sound and color – basic expressive means of music and painting – are things of great difference. Sound is comparatively more active. Historically it is a signal for us that warns, puts us on our guard, and compels to act. In subconscious perception of people music is always the art of action. Color has more static character. In spite of this difference a certain concealed tie exists between the two phenomena. This secret connection makes explorers find variants of their synthesis. Musical composition always has visual potential. In particular it finds its way in widespread manner to "decorate" description of music with terms and expressions from painting sphere. Contrary tendencies take place, too: certain specifically musical terms are at use in painting. And, at last, the third category exits which includes those terms and expressions which are equally useful both for mu-sic and painting. For the author’s opinion, tonality as an ambivalent term belongs to this third category. In the stream of European music and painting’s development we can watch different forms of sound and color connection. For example in 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–593) invented so called "color harpsichord". That was device maid for the purpose of optimum concordance of music and painting. Sounds of this "color harpsichord" corresponded to concrete color on the special color scale. In the age of Enlightenment a French monk Louis Bertrand Castel (1688–1757) invented similar device. His "color clavicorn" had been planned as an instrument with the help of which deaf people could feel music and "see" musical sound in color. But this invention could not provoke great enthusiasm because of its main defect: people considered that composition of the color scale was subject of individual business. The article shows how tonal semantics gradually formed. Important role in this long process have played baroque and romantic epochs. Thus, baroque epoch had its own tonal semantics. For ex-ample, D major and A major symbolized joy. J. S. Bach used them in his hymnal "Cum sancto spiritu", solemn "Et resurrexit", radiant "Sanctus". Tonality of the High mass, h minor associated with black color and had tragic character. E minor had been considered as "dark" tonality, too. In these tonalities were composed such parts of the High mass as "Kyrie eleison", "Qui tollis", "Crusifixus". However, baroque epoch gives several semantic variants of the same tonality. For example, h minor compositions, written for the flute-traverso, sounded softly and brilliantly. Differences in the interpretation de-pended of the instruments for which musical composition was written. Romantic epoch can be considered as the age when tonality was comprehended as a bearer of concrete semantics. The word "tonality" can be no more specifically musical term. It begins to acquire sense of color in painting. In romantic epoch comes also complete comprehending of color hearing as a really existing phenomenon. Next "explosion" of music and color alliance was musical impressionism which is practically echo of impressionism in painting. "Palette" of sounds and tonalities corresponded combinations of colors, actual for artists. In the course of time these synthetic tendencies only intensify. Retracing evolution of sound and color correlation, it’s necessary to pay attention on the next appropriateness: we can feel the tie between sound and color not in the process of their immediate perception, but only on the mediated level of impressions and moods. Processes of the same nature we can watch in the level of musical and paint image. The article also contains examples that include results non-musical explorations such as neurophysiologic and psychological experiments. Thus, considerable attention has been paid to the re-searches of tonal semantics made by Mykola Jukhnovsky who worked in the State pedagogical university in Vinnitsa and investigated peculiarities of physiologic influence of tonality on human organism. In general different interpretations of tonal semantics have been divided by the author in two groups – so called physiologic and associative conceptions. To the first group (physiologic) belong those which regard tonal semantics as absolute quantity. The second group considers constant sense of tonality as a product of subjective impression which depends of individual peculiarities of concrete person. Tonality has been considered in the article as a term which functions with equal intensiveness both in music and painting spheres and has similar meaning. The Author interprets phenomenon of tonality in music as an analogue of color in painting.
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Combining the book art with other contemporary forms of culture has led to the emergence of a synthetic version thereof – toy-books. A children’s play edition, lying at the intersection of art and social practices aimed at the youngest readers, remains so far out of view of most scientists. In the article there has been studied the potential of a toy-book as a multifunctional and universal tool of perception processes activation, which encourages reflection and development of a child. Also the processes of formation of the integration of the game book form and means of communication of the recipient with the book object has been explored. The heuristic of the toy-book functional features has been analyzed. The connection of a child’s perceiving channels with the components of a book have been considered as impact factors. It is emphasized that the occurrence of integration within the playing children’s book publishing is the unity realization of objectively existing connections between the components of toy-books, its material and structural basis, the structure of language and information-oriented game by the book incarnation experts. The relationship and interaction of the individual independent elements of the book and their functions, the ability to move them to a new quality with new goals and objectives contribute to the formation of the integration model of toy-books. Analysis of the integration of toy-book categories (integration product, integrational system, and integrational technology) from the perspective of heuristics revealed a universal component of the book form. It is proved that only in the presence of these categories a toy-book forms an integration model. Book-toy is a materialized product of the integration of different technologies, whose manufacturing process combines the various branches of production from the development of author’s ideas to the finished sample. As the product and result of the production integration, book-toy is a universal integrity with a variety of connections and dependencies between the components of the material structure of the book, which together form an ordered system of core components for the gaming books, such as information content, semanticity, interactivity, and aesthetics, giving the book informative, high-quality, functional and communicative performance. On the examples of a variety of structural forms of toy-books, it was shown that at every stage of its material existence, this publication and its components contain heuristic potential. As an integration system, the book compiles various knowledge areas, in particular, humanitarian, forming a polycentric artistic type of integration with a few dominant lines (literature, visual arts), which are organically enriched with elements of other substantial lines (education, music, arts and crafts, design) . Designed for the youngest recipient, the system best meets the physiological, mental and aesthetic needs of young readers, affecting the formation of their cultural, aesthetic and intellectual potential and contributing to the formation of the heuristic structure of personality. Took-toy is noted to be a prime example of the integration of different art kinds, such as: spatial (visual forms), time (literature, music) and synthetic (acting, computer animation, virtual reality). This type of integration in the form of a game book introduces the interactive art activity of a child in various forms (reading, listening, staging, artistic creativity, playing music, etc.). As integration technology toy-book is a means of implementation and effective learning of the game information which is implicit in the material structure of the book edition aimed at the young recipient. Play book integration technology is also a tool to improve the educational process for the introduction of specific knowledge and practical problems in the process of training, development, entertainment and socialization of young citizens of the society by strengthening all the sensing information channels of children by means of heuristic tools: functional and communicative characteristics of game book design, specificity of the information-sign language structure and interactivity of the inherent processes of perception. On examples of some children’s gaming publications, which are introduced in the construction of interactive features and add-ons with different functions and physical properties, there was shown the relationship of semantic teaching assignments books with the formation of psycho-physical, educational and practical features of children of different age groups. It is proved that toy-book as a model of integration is a holistic multifunctional informational and game educational complex with the highest form of interaction between all of its heuristic constituents (informational, structural, aesthetic, and semantic). This model of communication promotes overcoming the fragmentation and patchiness of knowledge of a child, helps mastering a complex of life values and contributes to formation of a system-holistic view of the world.
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During the last two decades Roma musical styles have gone through numerous changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The effects of these cannot be assessed merely through changing musical performances and products in themselves, they must also be seen through the ways the Roma shape their relationships with their broader social surroundings. In spite of this, music-making is often considered as marginal compared to the mainstream issues of Roma research, justified by oppositions such as the one between the ‘sunny side’ of cultural creativity and the ‘gloomy side’ of everyday life in Roma communities. This view can be supported by some of the academic accounts that depict Roma performers as ‘apolitical’ subjects who are closer to the members of the majority – in the role of service-providers – than to their own co-ethnics. This paper introduces a case that counters these assumptions. Based on the heritage of the Roma cultural movement in Hungary, Roma performers and their practices of music-making were placed in direct association with the struggles for recognition in post-socialism. Especially from the 2000s on, these musical and discursive resources were deployed by Roma performers in their project to create a music scene and a niche market in the subcultural landscape of Budapest. Through their participation in this market, Roma performers had been engaging with the micropolitics of recognition and social participation. The liminal space defined by musical events determined both the possibilities and the limits of the experiments in which Roma performers and their mixed Roma and non-Roma Hungarian audiences were involved. The paper discusses the development of this niche, including the content, the politics and the space of musical performance.
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The study examines the short-necked lute-type instrument held by a musical angel in one of the Gothic niches in the node of a 15th century gilded silver chalice made in Transylvania. It gives a brief survey of the history of the Hungarian kobza in the Middle Ages and later. It is thought that the modern kobza still in use among Moldavian Hungarians up to the end of the 20th century was born in the course of the 18th century, but in reality the instrument and its old name of Turkish origin can be identified only from the 1870s. The author has reached the conclusion that this short-necked lute-type instrument with a staved body was probably developed from an earlier, more primitive instrument hewn from a single block of wood (neck + body) and with a weaker resonance. And he discovers this instrument in the hands of the musical angel on the Nyári chalice. Hungarian and international researchers have long been aware that the name kobza was once used to describe a wide variety of instruments, mainly in Asia. However, in future it must also be taken into account that there are a number of instruments that, although they have different names, are essentially the same as the kobza in structure and proportions, or do not differ substantially. Evidence of this can be found in mediaeval portrayals from Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East. All data collection and comparative investigations in these regions can give new impetus to future Hungarian and international research on this short-necked lute.
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The initial point of this article is a content of the hymnal “Das Schlesische Provinzial-Gesangbuch” (Breslau, sine datu) by the Silesian Lutherans. The historical and poetological analysis presented here on the one hand try to answer the questions how the Silesian authors expressed their religiosity and how the image of God and Jesus Christ was presented by them; on the other hand, it has to point to the common theological motives that are consist in these songs. The presented analysis is accompanied by the belief that music has an fundamental significance to the Christian faith and practice, as it was pointed out also in the treaty "Lob der Musik" by Martin Luther.
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The review of: - „Kodály Zoltán és tanítványai. A hagyomány és a hagyományozódás vizsgálata két nemzedék életművében [Zoltán Kodály and His Students. A Study of Tradition and the Passing on of Tradition in the Oeuvres of Two Generations“ by Melinda Berlász; Budapest: Rózsavölgyi és Társa, 2007, 634 pp. - „Magyar népzenetörténet [Ungarische Volksmusikgeschichte]“ by Katalin Paksa; Budapest: Balassi Kiadó, 1999, 288 Seiten - „Religiöse Vereine in der römischen Antike: Untersuchungen zu Organisation, Ritual und Raumordnung“ by Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser and Alfred Schäfer; Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 13. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002, 310 pp. - „A népzene jegyében. Válogatott írások [Im Zeichen der Volksmusik. Ausgewählte Schriften]“ by István Almási; Kolozsvár: Az Európai Tanulmányok Alapítvány Kiadója, 2009, 333 Seiten. - „Dance Structures. Perspectives on the analysis of human movement“ by Adrienne L. Kaeppler and Elsie Ivanicich Dunin (eds): Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2007, 4+423 Seiten. - „Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities“ by Theresa Jill Buckland; Madison, Wisconsin USA: The University of Wisconsin Press: 2006, 245 Seiten.
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This paper, based on participant research amongst folk revivalists, interviews with cultural managers, and extensive archival research, discusses the táncház (dance house) folk revival movement as the actualization of interwar efforts of “folk national cultivation” in Hungary. By putting the dance house in relationship with interwar folk critiques, the paper illustrates both continuities and discontinuities between them, most notably in conceptualizations of the relationship between the ethical or political roles of such critiques and of the folk itself. The paper argues that folk critiques, now and then, can play an important role in state formation by reproducing the folk and acting to secure its citizenship. Nevertheless, how the folk is defined is historically determined, as is the kind of citizenship entailed. Since folk national cultivation is premised on the idea that Hungarianness is produced through engagement with the folk and its traditions, the historical approach of this paper problematizes this process.
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The paper aims to look at those community-organizing phenomena that provided alternatives to officially supported, mandatory youth activities and played a vital role in the everyday life of young people in socialist Hungary in the 1970s and 80s. The urban folk dance and music revival, the so-called táncház (dance house) movement, is highlighted. The authors argue that the dance house as a subculture with its concept of “authenticity” was able to create common identity with the intrinsic notion of oppositional stance. Parallels are drawn between sports, rock music, literature and the dance house. The process of disintegration and folkloristic discovery of traditional peasant culture in Hungary and in Transylvania, communist peasant policy, and the connections between cities and villages are discussed alongside the phenomena of revival and issues of identity.
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Within the past fifteen years, the klezmer (East European instrumental Jewish Music) music scene has included music of Transylvania (usually Kalotaszeg) that is stylistically specific to that region, even when the tunes played are considered Jewish. Popular groups such as Muzsikás and Di Naye Kapelye have circulated and popularized a limited standard repertoire, which has served partially to redefine what were formerly considered the elements of klezmer style. Motivations for the dissemination of this sub-trend are at the same time musical, commercial, academic and ideological. The needs of presenters and venues to vary their music programs has further aided in the dissemination of the sub-trend. The results have inspired some participants of klezmer music to observe what makes their music ethnically specific and to critically re-examine the tenets on which historical assumptions are made.
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The intellectual and artistic culture of the Dual Monarchy was marked by a diversity and richness that was inseparable from the multi-ethnic and multilingual nature of the Habsburg territories. As attempts to integrate the variety of cultural products of the Monarchy into a coherent identity run the risk of oversimplification, the following article offers a discussion of the works of several individual authors, artists, composers, philosophers, and scientists, locating these works within often divergent intellectual and artistic trends the broad range of which may be the single most conspicuous feature of the cultural identity of the Habsburg Empire. It presents the legacy of the Dual Monarchy as one rich in diverse contributions to the cultures of Europe and the world.
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This paper discusses the relationship between locative games and music, using as reference the notions of sound space, acoustic space, and soundscape. The locative game genre reflects the opposite side considering the video game format: in this case, the action leaks from screens and consoles to the urban space with the use of locative media, turning the city into support for the actions of the players. Our hypothesis argues that by using music and other sound features (sounds, effects and so on), the locative game can create a resonant sensory environment caused by music and sound signals that are impregnated in the region. As a methodology, we analysed the locative game GPS Musical Crosswords Puzzle from these concepts – sound space, acoustic space, and soundscape – to show how they can be designed from the experience of locative games.
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This article describes a great composer, romance singer, drama and movie actor Alexander Vertinsky. The subject of the analysis is characteristics of the bard’s creative activity, as well as his life story — especially during the emigration period.Alexander Vertinsky was an artist popular among the Russian audience. His specific man-ner on the stage, gestures, stage image — Pierrot’s costume aroused interest and emotions among the spectators who were attending his performances in crowds. Forced by the political situation in his homeland Vertinsky decided to emigrate from it in the 20’s. It was the begin-ning of his 20 year long separation from the country that left the trail in composer’s creative activity and life. His fame outside the country, numerous concerts, international public and his acquaintance were never able to reduce the artist’s wrench after leaving the homeland.
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The present work focuses on literary inspirations and artistic value of song lyrics included in the twelve-volume anthology of Stanisław Moniuszko’s songs known as the Home Songbook. The composer, who was born in the Minsk gubernia during the period of Russian partition, maintained strong bond with the Eastern frontier of Poland. The research conducted by the author of this study shows that Moniuszko used the texts created by 97 poets including many artists coming from the Eastern part of Poland (e.g. A. Mickiewicz, J. Czeczot, S. Witwicki, W. Syrokomla, J. Prusinowski etc.); in the collection of 364 songs and duos only 40 lyrics were written by foreign authors. Moniuszko’s work, with all their richness and diversity, played an important part in the cultivation of national identity of the Poles living under the Tsar’s rule; the Belarussians claim that a great deal of his songs have their roots in Belarusian folk culture.
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In the article the author adheres to the concept of defining the Old Believers as a living tradition that preserved the ancient Russian church singing art. The modern state of liturgical singing practice in the community of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in Novosibirsk is considered. The particular qualities of the Old Believer service to the saints martyrs and confessors who suffered for their faith in the 17th century are analyzed. The author makes a conclusion about the uniqueness of the Old Believer culture, in which, despite inevitable modifications and updates, Old Russian liturgical singing continues to carry its true sacred meaning.
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In this article, it is shown how it is possible to reinterpret mythology in an opera so that it is directly or indirectly but causally linked with the plot of an opera. It is about what kind of identification it can be if we take into consideration catharsis or neo-catharsis with reference to plot differentiation between opera seria and opera buffa, explanation of individual characters in opera today, how we can perceive them and what they refer to. It was also necessary to try to connect the initial need to tackle mythology to explain the development of the opera which resulted in national operas/themes and symbolical use of rituals/ritual – related matters.
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Sound design in film, described as “sound editing viewed artistically or aesthetically in terms of the shaping of the sound track in a film” (Buhler 2009, 430), is by definition a creative process demanding from its producers a great deal of inventiveness and aural imagination. Surprisingly, if one assumes that creativity is the key to successful sound design, it seems that very few contemporary soundtracks can be called successful at all. The goal of this paper is to examine the art of sound production in Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby (2013) in terms of its creative use of sound. The analysis will focus on scenes from the movie in which sound does more to the overall impression and interpretation of the film than merely confirm the story that is told. Meanings of sound sequences in The Great Gatsby will be examined by in juxtaposition with selected plot elements. The sound in Luhrmann’s production is creative mostly because it serves unique and unexpected functions that make it different from what seems to be the usual cinematic practice. It correlates with images in an innovative way, plays with diegetic vs. non-diegetic distinction (which is applied in the score analysis), and creates certain sonic spaces through skillful editing. All these “subtle-but-meaningful cinemusical details” (Holbrook 2011, 252) allow for interpreting the film in contemporary contexts.
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