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FIDDLE, DANCE AND DEVILS. ON THE DIABOLIC CHARACTER OF MUSIC

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Piotrowski R.

Etnografia Polska

2004

vol. 48

issue 1-2

149-159

The article is an outline of the study on negative valorization of magical musical instruments appearing in some folk tales. The starting point for the author's discussion became the tales with the motif of a magical fiddle. In the work by Julian Krzyzanowski (classification of motifs) these tales were classified as the type T 592. The tales tell about situations in which magical objects play an important role. Musical instruments are among these objects, the musical instruments which provoke expressive, dynamic behaviour of the listeners. Analogies can be found between the scenes in the narratives and those depicted on medieval illustrations showing diabolic interference into human life. They can also be compared with the texts describing witches' covens. In both representations motifs of music and instruments appear, as well as dance- acts disapproved by Church. Due to such context musical instruments acquire negative attributes and then become magical objects. This is reflected in magical tales with the motif of magical fiddle. The above mentioned relationship shouldn't be considered as the only origin of attributing magical significance to music and instruments. References to magical power of sound and instruments can be found in the texts coming from other parts of the world, which may prove the common origin of the cultural concepts of music and musical instruments. The author suggests another interpretation of the discussed tales as well. Interpretation of the contexts and the relationship between the musicians and the listeners. The spell results from the ambivalent attitude of the listeners to the forms of sonic and verbal expression accompanying the music itself, as well as appearing of the musical instruments in the context of the characters with negative valorization. Their magic is concealed in the expressiveness of the listeners, in their dynamic responses which are the explosion of their feelings. It is rather the instrument that has been, as it were, enchanted by the listeners. The relationship of the instrument, its owner and the listeners is that of metonymy.

A QUEST FOR THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE VOID, DARKNESS AND SILENCE

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Kolczynski J.

Etnografia Polska

2004

vol. 48

issue 1-2

131-148

The archaeological investigations at Dobrzeszowska Mountain. (Holy Cross Mountains area) have revealed some mysterious stone rings, being most probably the remnants of an ancient ritual site. It seems to be very characteristic that no traces of human visitors were found either inside the stone walls or outside them in their vicinity, besides but a few potsherds in the layer of cinders, covering the entrance to this enclosure, which may be dated for the 8th century AD (this chronology has been confirmed by radiocarbon analysis of the ashes). So this place appears to be almost ideally empty! Similar emptiness in the sacred place may be observed at other hill-top stone rings, built in last centuries of the 1st millenium in Poland, in particular at the nearby Lysa Gora (Bald Mountain), but also at others such as Sleza, Wiezyca, or Radunia. Rudolf Otto suggested that such an emptiness used to be frequently associated symbolically with silence and darkness. Therefore the author collects here some information, dispersed among different ethnohistorical and ethnographical sources, which could enhance the possible applicability of this symbolic pattern to at least some of the Slavonic sacred mountains. To this purpose the range of his studies has to cover not only the early medieval history of Slavian religion as well as ethnography of its later surviving remnants, but to include also the numerous analogies from other Indo-European cultures, especially the Germans and Celts, whose influence in Central and Eastern Europe proved to be really long lasting. Some important hints and analogies came also from the best documented areas of Graeco-Roman culture as well.

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2 Etnografia Polska

1 Kolczynski J.

1 Piotrowski R.

2 2004

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FIDDLE, DANCE AND DEVILS. ON THE DIABOLIC CHARACTER OF MUSIC

A QUEST FOR THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE VOID, DARKNESS AND SILENCE