World music, flamenco, klezmer and traditional folk music in Slovakia

Abstract

This contribution studies the authentic characteristics of ethnic music in contemporary world music played in Slovakia with respect to original, national, and universal features. It is unclear what, in actual fact, original ethnic music is, and to determine its authenticity requires tracking the chronology of changes in a retrospective look from the present to the past. The author evaluates the Central European adoption of Jewish, Andalusian, Arabic and Moorish music, as well as Slovak folk music, jazz, rock and pop. By comparing the melody, harmony, rhythmic patterns, modes, sound, and musicians' performances, she explores folk, jazz, rock, and pop music elements in selected compositions from the repertoires of the Slovak bands Los Remedios and Pressburger Klezmer Band, and the singer Zuzana Mogitova. Although the musicians claim to play authentic ethnic music, they could not resist multicultural influences. Renditions usually vary from imitation to quotations and paraphrases; in the studied excerpts, however, new structures have been formed by synthesis. The analysis of the Phrygian mode was quite problematic, because, due to the impacts of global music, this mode has ambivalent tendencies and could also be perceived as Hypoaeolian. The current combination of heterogeneous cultures suggests an eclectic stage in the development of world music.