1. It is a well-known phenomenon that the
folk art experiences a revival and starts its new
life in the works of composers. In the literature
on music we can find a plenty of examples when a
composer uses folklore motives. The original melody
is something used without alteration; or it may
be refined (by adding some harmonic colouring of
timbre); or this may be a completely new composition
bearing the folk melodica.
2. The interest to the folk song was most
notably demonstrated in the 19th century. During
the 20th century a multitude of styles and schools
was introduced and a new kind of relationship between
the folklore and the composer's art work emerged.The
last decades of the 20th century, referred to as
'the postmodernist age', produced a phenomenon called
ethnofuturism. This school is remarkable for having
blended the two opposite efforts: the aspiration
to retain the traditional folklore and to preserve
its environment is accompanied by a strong desire
to make use of the methods of avant-garde art and
thus to apply the fruit of the technological revolution
in art.
3. At the moment it is still hard to speak
of ethnofuturism in music, as the genre settings
must first be determined aesthetically, as well
as the doctrine. This may probably remain a task
for the nearest future. However, we can already
see some elements of ethnofuturism setting foot
in music and in musical performances (happenings,
musical actions, etc.). Attributes of ethnofuturism
can be noticed both in academic music and in the
mass music production.
4. In the town of Izhevsk, the demand for
the so-called techno-ethnic art was felt already
in the 1980's, after the art association Lodka
(The Boat) emerged. Exhibitions by the artists of
Lodka, often centred around a performance
or a particular action, were always accompanied
by traditional-sounding avant-garde music or by
singing their own songs. At the time, performances
of this kind, either in a room or in the open space,
were news. The Lodka people tried to expand the
entrenched boundaries of what is conceived as the
art; in their pursuit of new images, paints and
emotions they were searching in the traditional
lifestyle as well. Later, artists of other arts,
among them musicians, joined the association. When
the Izhevsk Club came to take the place of Lodka,
an opportunity appeared to produce the first vinyl
disk of authentic folklore in Udmurtia. The disk
(named Beserman Krez) reached the market in 1992.
During an expedition arranged by the Izhevsk Club,
two folklore groups were recorded in the Yukamensky
region of Udmurtia: in Shamardan village and in
Abashevo village. For the members, recording folklore
music was, in a way, another ethnofuturist experiment
in music: authentic live performance was combined
with the technique of sound recording generated
by technical progress.
These activities culminated in hosting the 2nd
International Conference on Ethnofuturism in Izhevsk
on 25 to 28 June 1998. The event was a powerful
impulse to comprehend the Finno-Ugrian cultural
heritage. Immediately after the conference an art
association Odomaa was founded with the participation
of actors, scientists, poets, writers, musicians
and others who were interested in ethnofuturist
art. Since 1998 to 2002, the association conducted
seven festivals. A mixture of exhibitions and theatre,
with visits to villages to have a touch with the
genuine folk art, those festivals included performances,
happenings and installations. This, too, can be
viewed as experimenting in ethnofuturism, as the
public was meant to fully participate in the action.
In 2001, three CD's with the genuine folk music
were produced under the common title The New Song
of the Ancient Land, containing guest songs from
the village Karamas Pelga (Kiyasovsky region, South
Udmurtia), the folklore of Russian old believers
from the village Karsovay (Balezinsky region), and
the folklore of Bessermens from the village Abashevo
(Yukamensky region). The project was carried out
by the Izhevsk based studio Kama Records. Beside
supporting the ethnofuturist trend, the studio is
experimenting with unique electronic music with
expanded range of sound coloured by folklore manner,
original timbre colouring, warm and sincere performance.
A similar kind of successful synthesis of electronic
futurist music with fragments of folk songs one
can find in the music played by the group Virgo
In Tacta; inexperienced in the local folk, the young
auditory of Izhevsk was listening very carefully
to their dance music and compositions. Against a
repeating rhythmical background, fragments of a
record of the guest song of the Mazitovs' family
(from the village Karamas-Pel'ga, Kiyasovsky region
of Udmurtia) came as sudden bursts. The composition
held the auditory under the constant tension, as
it was rather hard to predict when the next fragment
of the folk song would come.
5. What is it that makes a musical composition
ethnofuturistic? A mere quoting from a folk tune
or reiteration of its elements would hardly give
pabulum for reflection: whether or not is this ethnofuturism?
An important property of futuristic art is its
conceptual character. It must bear some message,
some aesthetic idea coded in music. Otherwise it
would be pure pop music similar to that played by
the Russian group Ivana Kupala. The ease of sound
and the entertainment manner of their compositions
seem to link this group rather to rock and pop music.
Futuristic art, on the other hand, is charged with
dramatism.
Indeed, this trend is not free from losses. It
has triggered the process of active transformation
of the genuine roots of folk art into other modern
forms.
«
back
