World Music, Flamenco, Klezmer and Traditional Folk Music in Slovakia

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 Reme-dios and Preßburger Klezmer Band, and the singer Zuzana Mojžišová. 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.

es doubts about their authenticity. 10 The anthropological essence of folk music, which can be studied in comparative musicology using recorded music and compiled song books, ought not to be neglected either. If we speak of authenticity and change in folk music, "change," as a dialectical addition to authenticity, has, according to Philip Bohlmann,11 several forms, which is evident in the preserved recordings and songbooks.
Folk music is predominantly played by folk ensembles. If an ensemble's life has extended for decades, its musical material becomes an oral tradition handed down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, the environment in which the ensemble functions is fundamentally different from our ideas about the authentic folk milieu. In order to distinguish ensemble-performed folk music from its authentic version, Mantle Hood differentiates between "ingenuous music" and "cultivated music". 12 "Indigenous music" is another term which came into use at the end of the 20th century as an equivalent to "music of the first nation". 13 Notwithstanding, it is inaccurate with respect to Europe, as there is no colonization history and, hence, the context for the term "indigenous music" is absent. 14 This, consequently, entails a question as to what authentic European folk music is at present.
Authentic folk culture survives in relatively closed regions. However, international communications have inevitably led to a constant absorption of ingredients across diverse regions as well as from global culture. 15 Even some rather isolated Romani communities in Slovakia have been influenced by global pop music and absorbed its features in their own music cultures; or, alternatively, they imitate Rom-pop. 16 Moreover, folk artists nowadays cannot do without the supports of music industry and management, such as institutions, sponsorship, the media, and advertising. For instance, the success of Nebeská muzika 17 (18th position in World Music Chart Europe for their 2017 CD Zbojstory), an ensemble preserving the tradition of bowed string music from the Slovakian region of Terchová, has likewise depended on promotion through the Internet (Youtube) and participation in festivals abroad. Another example is Juraj Pecník's forty-piece Vrchársky Podpoliansky (Podpoľanie) Orchestra formed in 2005 of first violinists of various ensembles playing traditional music from the Podpoľanie region. Their 10 ATKINSON, David. Folk Songs in Print: Text and Tradition, Folk Music Journal, vol. 8, No. 4, 2004, p. 457 14 APPADURAI, Arjun. Putting Hierarchy in Its Place, Cultural Anthropology, Place and Voice in Anthropological Theory, vol. 3, No. 1, Feb. 1988, p. 38. performances are recorded in five-channel sound, and each concert has been followed by a DVD release. 18 Many primary schools of arts in Slovakia offer folk instrument courses (the pipe, the hornpipe, the fujara, the Heligonka, the zither, and the hammered dulcimer) specifically developed by their teachers. 19 For educational purposes, shortened children's fujaras have been produced since 1980. The hammered dulcimer can even be studied at the Bratislava Conservatory and the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. Although many of these trends may face criticism for not preserving folk culture authentically through oral tradition, their positive aspects should undoubtedly be valued, as several songs have vanished due to insufficient documentation and a gradual disappearance of traditional occasions. 20 Slovak regions with ethnic minorities that have preserved their cultural attributes represent a specific case. The Croat area near Bratislava 21 and the Hungarian microregion of Medveš are examples. 22 Authentic Slovak folk music has also survived, for instance, in the village of Zázrivá, whereas in Terchová, situated just 7 km away, it has lost its characteristic features because of popular influences. 23 Apart from ethnic music in relatively isolated villages, the Slovak world music scene is coming to the fore. Its bands' rankings in World Music Charts Europe since 2002 leave no doubt that they are in demand. In 2019, for instance, Slovak bands placed as follows: fourth was Hrdza for its Neskrotený CD; Zuzana Homolová Trio for their Keď vojačik narukoval CD in 16th; and Banda for its Telegrafy  After 1997, the appearance of flamenco, klezmer, and world music festivals in Central Europe (e.g., the Vienna Flamenco Festival, Ibérica in Prague and Brno, and the KlezMore Festivals in Bratislava and Vienna) led to wide reception of music with diverse ethnic elements. At the same time, however, the emergence of flamenco ensembles consisting of Central European artists raised doubts about their capability to play authentic Spanish flamenco well. 26 Analogous preconceptions had prevailed against white jazzmen until the birth of the "jazz manouche" phenomenon (i.e., gypsy jazz) in Europe. 27 The existence of the French jazz school and the fact that jazz could also have its own specificities in Italy and the UK have only been accepted in the new millennium. 28 Given that the Jewish diaspora in Bratislava was destroyed during the fascist regime and, later, by socialist ideology, it is equally questionable whether klezmer music revived in the late 1990s represented its authentic style from 60 years prior.
I conducted a survey 29 in which ten randomly selected contemporary world music artists expressed their views on authenticity and style imitation, as opposed to inventiveness and creativity. Nine of them agreed that it is more demanding to play, i.e., to imitate, music's authentic style than to compose and perform pieces inspired by folk motifs. They reasoned that learning folk songs from archived recordings and grasping their performance style including the facets of a particular region or location is harder than creating freely without being bound by authenticity. In contrast, nine musically educated listeners out of ten surveyed thought that it is more challenging to write folk-inspired music than to reproduce the authentic style.
The following passages examine three world music compositions from the production of Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Austrian, Peruvian, Serbian, Romani, and Jewish artists living in Slovakia. With their broad ethnic mix, these musicians will be referred to as Central Europeans. In analysing the works'melody, modality, rhythmic patterns and harmony, the objective was the exploration of authenticity and eclecticism in flamenco, klezmer, and Slovak folk music and comparisons of multicultural impacts on these genres.
I have selected "Los Sueños Inquietos" [Disturbing Dreams] from the repertoire of Los Remedios (a flamenco ensemble), 30 "Der Opsheyd" [Departure] by the Preßburger Klezmer Band, and "Piurko" [Quill], a song by Zuzana Mojžišová. 31 Attention has been paid to the instances of innovation, creativity, and new forms which, in terms of the authentic, national, and universal, are reflected as imitations, epigonism, paraphrasing, creating one's own musical configurations, hybrids, 32 Folklore, vol. 112, No. 445, Summer 1999, p. 245. the music with the assumption that apart from borrowed folk materials (to which the artist's approach has a significant bearing) it also contains jazz harmony, rock rhythmic patterns, and classical music forms (e.g., the ternary form).

Flamenco Performed by Central European Artists
The key issue in the Central European interpretation of this genre is the flamenco feel, i.e., the feel for the essence of flamenco melodic structures, presumably passed from generation to generation and, thus, intrinsic to the Spanish musician's subconsciousness.
"Los Sueños Inquietos", a composition in the ternary form, was written and arranged by Matúš "Gallito" Kohútek, the band's guitarist. It contains a melody built on the socalled Spanish scale in C (C, D flat, E, F, G, A flat, and B flat). However, three out of eight experts claimed that, rather than the Spanish Phrygian scale, a live performance of the piece had exhibited the use of the harmonic variant of the Hypoaeolian scale derived from F minor with C as its final tone, which can be ascribed to the fact that Los Remedios members are not natives of Andalusia, the cradle of flamenco, and they only learned it from recordings and by completing courses or several-month study stays in Andalusia. The fact that some of them lived in Spain for quite a long time may well be a migration and a progressive development of the "ethnoscapes" 34 in Europe.
The following excerpt demonstrates the Qué será de mi [What will happen to me] vocal passage, which paraphrases the tune of the flamenco folk song "Los sueños inquietos." With the view that the band, although representing both flamenco and world music, primarily utilizes and assimilates all the characteristics of the Andalusia region, this example suggests a combination of the Spanish scale with the Phrygian mode in C (C, D flat, E flat, F, G, A flat, B). However, for one leaning towards the stance that "Los Sueños Inquietos" illustrates a world music composition, the scale may be F Hypoaeolian in its harmonic and melodic variants. The harmony rests on the Andalusian cadence (descending chords in relationships of seconds, copying the notes of the Phrygian scale in C=Fmi, Eb7, Db7, C9-), with the chords' structure and harmonic progressions corresponding to jazz models.
Ex. 2 M. Kohútek: "Los Sueños Inquietos". Transcription and notation by Cyril Kubiš. World music is heterogeneous and adopts the attributes of diverse genres, including jazz, rock and pop. At this point, it is important to note that jazz and rock also employ modal improvisations. For instance, particularly heavy metal styles (such as black metal, death metal, and progressive metal) often work with the Phrygian mode, with which jazzmen are equally well acquainted, as they have been using it ever since modal jazz of the 1950s.
All this poses the question of whether the ambivalent views stem from their perceptions of the historical context. One may also wonder about the imperfectness of music theory, because its specialists apply different nomenclatures (e.g., Jewish, Spanish, Phrygian major, and Phrygian dominant scales) to the same phenomenon, as they are perplexed by the changing traditional notion and historical perceptions of the region itself with its "irregular shapes of the landscapes". 35 Besides, the term of mode blends with that of scale. Lola Fernández, for example, speaks of three possible versions of Phrygian mode 36 -Phrygian, Phrygian major, and Phrygian minor. She also refers to three ways of working with a melody structured around the major-scale variant of the Phrygian tetrachord with differing downward progressions of the scale (the tetrachord of the ascending and descending Phrygian scale is: C sharp, D, E, F sharp, E, D, C sharp; the tetrachord of the Phrygian major scale is: C sharp, D, E sharp, F sharp, E, D, C sharp; and the tetrachord of the Phrygian minor scale is: C sharp, D, E sharp, F sharp, E sharp, D, C sharp). 37 The next part of "Los Sueños Inquietos" shifts to the F Lydian mode (refer to Example 3, bar 1, Lydian fourth B), which evokes the Central Slovakian region, creates a contrast to the previous C Phrygian (Spanish) scale and ultimately reflects a regional change. In this context, it is worth mentioning that modal thinking is typical of Slovak regions but the Phrygian mode is unusual. The rhythmic pattern follows a 12/8 (Example 1) and 6/4 measures (Examples 2 and 3) and corresponds to the Spanish bulerías rhythm. In Example 3, the rhythm of duplets against triplets (bars 1, 3, 5 and 7) produces polyrhythm and is thus typical of flamenco.
Ex. 4 M. Kohútek: "Los Sueños Inquietos". Transcription and notation by Cyril Kubiš and Lukáš Kollár. Example 4 displays a chromatic elaboration of the "Usniže mi usni" motif which, in bar 2, shifts by a minor second in its repetition; the dominant seventh chords with an added thirteenth also move downward by seconds. Bars 6-7 modulate into the G minor harmonic scale; however, this transition is only an incidental result of the artists' creative thinking, rather than the regional influence of the Hungarian-Slovak border areas, where folk music uses minor-scale tunes.
In this section, the musicians are experimenting with the expressive tools of flamenco. By fusing the flamenco style with Slovak folk music and jazz harmony (particularly with the influences of bebop and Thelonious Monk), they create novel, exciting melodic and harmonic configurations. The bulerías rhythm is maintained, and the melody emphasizes chromaticisms, which can also be found in flamenco; nevertheless, the sophisticated harmonic structures on every third beat and the combination of the modes suggest an affiliation to jazz.

Klezmer Performed by Central European Artists
The composition titled "Der Opsheyd" [Departure], 38 arranged by Samo Alexander, the double bass player of the Preßburger Klezmer Band, reworks a traditional folk song that connects with the 1492 expulsion of the Sephardi Jews from Spain, and whose lyrics depict a girl's farewell to her parents. Nevertheless, the text is not in Ladino but in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Jews, which obscures the song's dating. The melody is oriental and its origin can be analysed from several aspects: it is based on either the Spanish or Jewish scale in B (B, C, D sharp, E, F sharp, G, A) -with both referring to the same scale of different historical and geographical origins -or on the Hypoaeolian harmonic scale derived from E minor with B as its final tone. Anglo-American music theoreticians consider this sequence of tones a combination of the Phrygian and the Hypoaeolian harmonic scales and call it the B Phrygian dominant scale. At the same time, they emphasize that its employment in this composition represents a new and contemporary use of the Phrygian mode, as it also does in "Los Sueños Inquietos." This explanatory approach to musical phenomena through studying specific passages is a method of applied music theory. 39 Ex. 5 "Der Opsheyd", piece no.16 from the CD Preßburger Klezmer Band: Mit Libe... S láskou...Transcription and notation by Ľubica Zajacová Záborská and Lukáš Kollár.
When listening to "Der Opsheyd", we can identify its base as Hypoaeolian, although the performers themselves, searching for the authentic roots of Klezmer music, claim the use of the Jewish scale. The question arises whether a stronger feel for minor scales, rather than the authentic Jewish scale, is embedded in musicians' subconsciousness, as they have embraced the global music macroenvironment with its radio, television, and Internet. 40 I support the view that, if global experience infiltrates an authentic region, the mode is Phrygian dominant in either its ambivalent Phrygian or Hypoaeolian forms 41 .
Looking at the links of the Preßburger Klezmer Band members to the Bratislavabased Klezmer culture, some of them are of Jewish origin but do not always identify with the Orthodox religious or ethnic diaspora. The ensemble also includes musicians of non-Slovakian origin (e.g., Eddy Portella, a Peruvian percussionist, and Snežana Jović from Serbia) and eminent jazz players (i.e., Erik Rothenstein).
In Example 6, the drums' rhythmic pattern in 4/4 time accents the first and the fourth beat, and the first and the third in bar 2; the drum along with the tambourine in 2/4 metre creates polymetre, which elicits ethnic Middle-Eastern or Arabic music, especially when the tambourine and the Arabic gong are heard. By setting traditional Yiddish lyrics to klezmer melody and rhythms, "Der Opsheyd" falls somewhere between a paraphrase of the original folk melody and a newly created style.

Slovak Folk Music Performed by Central European Musicians
The singer Zuzana Mojžišová 42 has crafted the piece "Piurko" [Quill] using an authentic Slovak folk song of the Šariš region; its lyrics are also in the Šariš dialect.

Ej, nehodz chuopče do nás
Oh, don't come to us, young man vysoko piurko máš, because your quill is so tall, ej, u nás nízko dvirka polámieš si piurka. oh, our door is low, you will break your quill.
In the first measure of the drums' rhythmic pattern, the stressed quaver at the end of the second beat is very unusual for jazz, rock and pop music, but the accented third beat in the following bar is, on the other hand, typical of rock. The rhythm of the bass guitar resembles bossa nova. Notwithstanding, its combination with the drums and the typical rhythm of Slovak folk music, which in the violin part always accentuates the first tone of each beat, makes the bossa nova rhythmic basis different. This compounding of ethnic music and rock clearly results in a novel rhythmic structure. Mojžišová's throat singing coupled with the rhythmic section and the folk instruments 43 creates a unique rhythm and sound.

Conclusion
The Preßburger Klezmer Band, Los Remedios, and Zuzana Mojžišová exemplify convergent 44 processes and a creative approach 45 to modes, in which the musicians sometimes centralize the tonic and, at other times, the dominant. When centralizing the tonic in the Phrygian mode, these aspects manifest themselves ambiguously: as a minor third and minor second in an ascending melody, and a major third and minor second in a downward movement. This means that the displacement from their original regions has also meant a shift in the development of the modes. Consequently, the historical notion of an abstract modal scheme is no longer sufficient for music theory. Inspiration may come from divergent sources 46 -Spanish Andalusian, Jewish, Arabic-Moorish, Central European folk music, as well as jazz 47 , rock and pop. In the analysed music samples, jazz contributed through its elaborate harmony, flamenco with its characteristic rhythmic patterns, and rock music with its typically accented 3rd or 2nd and 4th beats. Flamenco, klezmer, and folk music all lent their specific modes and melodies. Neologisms appear in each composition, paving the way to synthesis, a higher level in world music development. At present, however, the bands'combinations of these heterogeneous inspirations suggest an eclectic stage in world music genre. Although many artists find it more difficult to imitate a particular style than to compose in it, they all have to face the challenge of learning the style. Remedios appropriates the achievements of another music culture. In revitalizing forgotten music, the Preßburger Klezmer Band has relearned klezmer music through imitation or paraphrazing. Zuzana Mojžišová has enkindled domestic folk music through the same process. Some parts of the analysed pieces have been inevitably composed as hybrids of original and new elements. At the same time, however, the musicians have created novel and unique structures. The current stage of Slovak popular music development thus resembles the 1930s, when hybrid fox-polka, czardas-fox and joyous fox appeared. Nevertheless, contemporary musicians have reached a much higher professional standard, with their indubitably better technical skills and greater artistic merit.