Search

As a topic, folk music inclusion in the European school system dates to the 19th century. It has continued throughout the 20th century with the inclusion of other "nonclassical" genres such as popular and world music. In Greece, the inclusion of traditional instruments in the curriculum of public Music Secondary Schools occurred in 1988. This happened for the first time officially in a state educational institute. This fact led researchers to investigate how folk musicians of the past learned and transmitted their art. This article explores the teaching methods used by a 70-year-old santouri (Greek hammered dulcimer) player on a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. Although the musician mentioned above had learned his art through the traditional oral method of apprenticeship, he held a teaching position in an educational institute of formal music education, a very different context from the one he learned. The authors aim to investigate how the context of an organized music lesson may affect how a folk musician of the past generation tries to transmit his art to youngsters by teaching. Furthermore, the record of his teaching methods can be useful to younger teachers of Greek traditional instruments, but it can also contribute to the broader discussion of informal music learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches / İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Itobiad: Journal of the Human & Social Science Researches and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Against a located background - a focus that highlights the significance of place in the constitution of Gypsy identifications and runs counter to most of the assumptions shared by recent studies on Gypsies - the article tries to explore the tensions, ambiguities and contradictions generated by the involvement of the Gypsy musicians of Parakalamos, a village on the Greek-Albanian border, in issues concerning "tradition" and "authenticity". More specifically, the article considers how Gypsy music playing practices initially allowed Gypsy practitioners to be included in the nation-state project in a somewhat "dishevelled" form as local musicians; however, in the face of recent shifts in politics, culture and representation in Greece concerning multiculturalism and "cultural heritage", Gypsy musicians find themselves in the position of being recognised as "musical outsiders" that should by implication adhere to their distinct musical tradition. In this respect, although it has hardly been admitted, such a move runs counter to what constitutes the core of Gypsy musicianship: their locatedness. The article argues that within such "identitying" practices lurks an occlusion of the ways Parakalamos Gypsyness has been, and continues to be, dependent on place and music, and not on a separate, distinct and self contained Gypsy identity, thereby casting doubts on assumptions about what constitutes identity as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]