EN
Study of rituals can rarely do without the examination of music which constitutes an important non-verbal part of their structure. The process of rituals correlates with music which determines the rhythm of changes. The study is based on field research of the annual spring ritual cycles in Bohemia, Slovakia and Basel, Switzerland, which are compared. Music in rituals can be applied in two forms: as protocolar (becoming the identifi er of the ritual) or arbitrary. The processes of the Shrovetide rituals are interpreted according to Gennepov classifi cation of transitional rituals with the key feature of the liminal (threshold) phase; in the same way Victor Turner’s terms such as communitas and anti-structure are applied.