The Essence and Evolution of Song. By Vladimír Úlehla. Translated by Julia Ulehla; edited by Katherine Freeze and Richard K. Wolf.
Main Article Content
Abstract
Vladimír Úlehla (1888-1947) uses his expertise in the biological sciences to perform an in-depth and ecologically situated study of folk songs from his native Czechoslovakia. His posthumous magnum opus Živá Píseň (Living Song, 1949) chronicled the musical traditions of Strážnice, a small town at the western hem of the Carpathian Mountains at the Moravian-Slovakian border. Informed by four decades of ethnographic inquiry, transcription, and several music-analytical methods, in Chapter VI Úlehla considers the songs from Strážnice as living organisms, links them to their ecological environs, and isolates musical characteristics that he believes correspond to stages of their evolution. He discusses modulation, vocal style, ornamentation, melodic and poetic structure, and identifies a diverse array of musical modes—evidence that he uses to refute the prevailing assumption of the day that folk music was derivative of art music.
Citation: Úlehla, Vladimír. The Essence and Evolution of Song. Translated by Julia Ulehla; edited by Katherine Freeze and Richard K. Wolf. Ethnomusicology Translations, no.7. Bloomington, IN: Society for Ethnomusicology, 2018.
Originally published in Czech as “Nitro a vỳvoj písně.” In Żivá Píseň. Praha [Prague]: Fr. Borový, 2008[1949].
Downloads
Article Details
A copyright holder of an original article published in this series agrees to the following terms:
By submitting to Ethnomusicology Translations, the copyright holder grants to Ethnomusicology Translations the non-exclusive right to translate the submission into English.
By submitting to Ethnomusicology Translations, the copyright holder grants to Ethnomusicology Translations the non-exclusive right to distribute an English-language translation of the submission worldwide in electronic format, print format, and/or any other medium.
The copyright holder represents that the submission is an original work and that they possess the right to grant the rights contained in this agreement. The copyright holder also represents that the submission does not, to the best of their knowledge, infringe upon anyone’s copyright.
A translator who publishes with this series agree to the following terms:
The translator retains the copyright to his/her translation.
By submitting to Ethnomusicology Translations, the translator grants to Ethnomusicology Translations the non-exclusive right to reproduce, transform (as defined below), and/or distribute his/her submission worldwide in electronic format, print format, and/or any other medium.
The translator agrees that Ethnomusicology Translations may, without changing the content, transform the submission to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation.
The translator agrees that Ethnomusicology Translations may keep more than one copy of this submission for purposes of security, back-up, and preservation.
The translator represents that the submission is his/her original translation and that he/she has the right to grant the rights contained in this agreement. The translator also represents that his/her submission does not, to the best of his/her knowledge, infringe upon anyone’s copyright.
The translator may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of Ethnomusicology Translations’ published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in Ethnomusicology Translations.