Ethnographic museum in Zagreb Collection of traditional musical instruments

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1 Mr.sc. Željka Petrović Osmak, senior curator Ethnographic Museum Mažuranić Square, Zagreb Croatia Ethnographic museum in Zagreb Collection of traditional musical instruments The rise of ethnographic museums and a growing interest in folk culture...that was preserved in villages, and up to that time had been considered worthless... appeared after 1875, coinciding with the growth of industrialization and urbanization which led to rapid deterioration of villages and thus a lot of conscious effort was put in embedding the values of rural culture in the processes of creating national cultures (Maroević 1993). The specificity of ethnographic museums is in their practice to... bring in material culture devoid of any extraordinary artistic, historical or technological characteristics, simply as a testimony to life, hence opening up new and unexpected resources along with new methodological questions. (ibid.) The emergence of first ethnographic museums was preceded by the practice of collecting traditional folk items and compiling private collections by various collectors and folk art enthusiasts, and so today we have a significant number of collected ethnographic artefacts formed valuable part of the Ethnographic Museum collections, following its foundation in Apart from numerous private collections in its basis, the museum also accommodated some other collections transferred from various other museums which were suitable for the inventory of the Ethnographic Museum. The collection of musical instruments by Franjo Ksaver Kuhač The oldest item in the Collection of musical instruments is the bagpipe made in 1751 in Aljmaš, Slavonia. It entered the Museum as part of a private collection of musical instruments by Franjo Ksaver Kuhač 1 which holds a total of fifty-six items, collected between 1857 and 1886 and was entrusted for permanent storage to the Ethnographic Museum. The musical instruments that Kuhač collected carry 1 Kuhač, who is considered the founding father and one of the most versatile researchers of Croatian music, laid the foundations for the development of Croatian science about music, thus becoming one of the most prominent Croatian scientists of the second half of the 19 th century (Marošević, 2009: 237). He wrote Toward the History of Music of the South Slavs: Cultural-historical Study, wherein he thoroughly and expertly covered almost all the instruments from his private collection.

2 great importance, not only due to the fact that they are the oldest exhibits preserved up to date, some being over 250 years old, but because some of the items indicate the continuity of musical traditions in certain areas: for instance, the bordunske dvojnice (the bourdon double flute) with the finger holes arrangement 6:0, which points to the use of bordunsko dvoglasje (bourdon two-part playing). Bordunsko dvoglasje is a way of playing or singing in which one part produces a single constant monotonous (drone) tone and the other plays a melody within a small scale. Ethno-organologist Krešimir Galin brings to attention dvojnice from Žminj, Istria, since they prove the use of the thumb hole as early as 1882 (the arrangement for playing being 4:3), which cannot be found in the field any longer. Similarly, the trojke has also fallen out of use in Hrvatsko Zagorje, the orgljice or pan flute, the night watchmen s horn in Slavonia or the bučine from Slavonia. The dvostrune gusle (the two-stringed fiddle) from Slavonia and Syrmia are also priceless for reconstructing our popular tradition (Galin, 1984). Department of folk music ( ) Immediately after the establishment of the Museum, the Department of Folk Music was also founded, which continued operating from 1921 to At that time the Museum acquired the largest number of musical instruments and the greatest volume of the pertaining register was created. Božidar Širola 2 and Milovan Gavazzi 3 jointly produced a proposal on the development of the Department of Folk Music titled Musicological Activities of the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb from its Establishment until the End of 1929, whereby they laid the foundations for practising ethnomusicology and collecting the elements of musical culture in an institutionalised manner. This elaborate model of the development of ethnomusicological activities in the Ethnographic Museum included all the major parameters for collecting and analysing ethnomusicological materials, such as a phonographic workshop equipped with all the necessary devices for recording and scientific analysis of audio materials and also for phonographic recording of materials for occasional critical releases of folk chants, followed by the archives of phonographic recordings and the collection of folk instruments, a handbook and archives for manuscripts. According to this model the scope of activities of the Department extends to collecting and organising research results in the field of folk music, collecting and analysing traditional musical instruments as well as collecting materials for the glossary of musical terms (Širola and Gavazzi 1931a:3-4). The proposal Musicological Activities of the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb from its Establishment until the End of 1929 played an important role in the process of organising the 2 The first Croatian ethnomusicologist. 3 Ethnologist and the founding father of scientific ethnological work and ethnological studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.

3 Department of Folk Music, which followed in the footsteps of ethnographic paradigm and theoretical concept of recognizing national traits in the items found in peasants homes. Therefore, the proposal further sets forth one of the major aims of gathering musical instruments for the Collection which is preserving folk music treasure and passing it on intact to future generations (Širola and Gavazzi 1931a:1). The method of collecting At the first half of 20th century curators in Ethnographic Museum followed the scientific paradigms in Croatian ethnology and were expanding the Museum holdings accordingly. The concept of rural culture was taken as the national cultural, which has directly reflected upon the process of development of the collecting practice in the Ethnographic Museum from the moment of its establishment onwards. Until 1960s the method of collecting musical instruments revolved around recognizing the elements common to all Slavic countries, especially South Slavic ones consequently, instruments sharing common Slavic origin were gathered. Field research was carried out in the Balkan Peninsula as a whole, not exclusively in Croatia. The collection of musical instruments comprises items from several other countries Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Kosovo. However, the most significant volume comes from Croatia. From 1990 politic of collecting have changed and curators started to collect the examples that are only from Croatia. On the origin of the musical instruments The major feature of traditional musical instruments in Croatia is their comparative multitude and diversity although they occupy a relatively small territory (Ćaleta 2001: 423). This is the result of a high flow of various peoples and numerous cultures in the territory. This was the place where Mediterranean (Italian, Greek, Arabic) and Slavic cultures met, where a strong influence of the Ottoman Empire was felt. Another factor that affected the diversity of musical sphere of life was adopting musical instruments from the so-called more advanced civilizations and their subsequent, so to say, folkalization (making them part of the national culture) the instruments in question being the violin, the accordion, the guitar, the trumpet or the clarinet (Bezić et al. 1975: 6).

4 The musical instruments stored in the Ethnographic Museum are mostly the work of selftaught folk craftsmen or instrument builders. Craftsmen themselves used to play them or they used to build them for their friends, their family members or other villagers. They are made and ornamented using different methods and techniques and played in different ways, in various social and private contexts, provide evidence of richness of Croatian traditional musical heritage and the intertwining of various cultures in the whole of Croatia. Presenting musical instruments to the public collaboration with Center for traditional musical instruments After 1948 there was no single person which is ethnomusicologist or ethnoorganologist who was in charge for the Collection of musical instruments. Over the years, several exhibitions displaying the exhibits from the Collection of musical instruments have been held. As a public institution the Museum has frequently cooperated on different levels with general public, so musicians and people who work with traditional musical instruments came in Museum and tried to find the inspiration and to learn something about this issue. Among them one is Stjepan Večković who also develope collaboration with the museum educational sector and some ten years ago started to organize workshops for the children 4. Some bigger changes in Museum began in 2009 when started the collaboration with Center for traditional musical instruments and in Museum was organized one part of the bagpipe festival that Center was organizing from 2007, but on other locations. From 2009 until today every year one part of the bagpipe festival is organize in Museum and among the concerts for last two years in Museum are organized exhibitions, lectures and workshops. The bagpipe festival gave the Museum the opportunity to become some kind of the international platform where people interested in traditional musical heritage meet and exchange their knowledge and experience about playing and making traditional musical instruments. It also gave a Museum the opportunity to show the examples from our holdings, so in 2015 Ethnographic Museum and Center for traditional musical instruments organized the joint exhibition about how bagpipes were made at the end of the 19th and the beginning of 20th century and how are they made today in the workshop of Stjepan Večković, which gave the contemporary inside in making traditional musical instruments. This is the way how people can be more familiare with the traditional instruments and I think good example of the collaboration 4 But still there are less workshops that include traditional musical instruments from Croatia, and more that learn children how to play jembe or digeereedoo, because there is still much easier and cheaper to get 10 jembes then 10 bagpipes.

5 between Museum and civil sector because in one way it opens the museum holdings to the people, builders and musicians, people that are very interested in traditional musical heritage, and on the other way people who work in Museum get the practical knowledge from the people that are outside. The second example of collaboration with civil sector and musicians is digitalization of musical instruments from the Museum. One part of this project is to record the sound of those musical instruments that are preserved well enough so that they can still produce a sound or even an entire melody, and the second is restauration of musical instruments. So in 2013 we have started to record melodies and sounds produced by aerophone musical instruments that are still well-preserved, which is aimed to protect and document a fragment of intangible cultural heritage. We do this project with local musicians as Stjepan Večković and Lana Moslavac. Still the bagpipes from museum holdings are in bad shape for playing so they need a restauration. The restauration of musical instruments is also in collaboration with local instrument makers. The vision of collaboration in the future Through the use of catalogues, exhibitions, workshops and lectures the Ethnographic Museum familiarises expert and non-expert public with a fragment of tangible and intangible traditional cultural heritage; it broadens their knowledge of terminology, technology and making of musical instruments, of performance techniques and musical capabilities, repertoire as well as history and distribution of musical instruments. By means of exhibitions and educational programme it could stimulate methodological and technological advance of revival of musical instruments among their builders and musicians, thus acting as a special link for contemporary builders of musical instruments, performers and researchers, and the persons whose works form part of the tangible and intangible musical heritage kept in the Museum. The collaboration with local musicians and instruments makers is needed, so this project of European bagpipe educational forum building EU methodology for preservation, playing and building of traditional bagpipe instruments is the first step in providing the long term collaboration between Ethnographic museum and local bagpipe players. Silent and unused musical instruments, which can no longer produce any sounds, can also supply plenty of useful information pertaining the artistic and technical skills of the very making of the instruments as well as numerous artistic illustriations and ornaments on the instruments themselves, which offer a considerable insight into the importance and use of a particular musical instrument within its primary context. If they are inadequately stored or preserved, musical instruments can irretrievably lose a piece of valuable information that they used to convey originally.

6 For example, an ornament as a whole or a part of it and even an entire fragment of a musical instrument can be lost, while artefacts made from biodegradable materials can be completely ruined. So the second step of this project is to collaborate with local bagpipe makers to preserve and restore the instruments that are in holdings of Ethnographic museum. Therefore, the museum is faced with multiple tasks: responsibility for the protection and preservation of musical instruments, disseminating information about them by means of exhibitions, workshops and scientific research. References: ĆALETA, Joško "Tradicijska glazbala". U: Hrvatska tradicijska kultura na razmeđu svjetova i epoha. Z. Vitez i A. Muraj, ur. Zagreb: Barbat: GALIN, Krešimir. 1984b. "Katalog izložbe 'Franjo Ksaver Kuhač život i djelo': Predgovor II.". U: Tragovima glazbene baštine: Franjo Ksaver Kuhač. U povodu 150. obljetnice rođenja. Zdravko Blažeković, ur. Zagreb: Muzički informativni centar KDZ: MAROEVIĆ, Ivo Uvod u muzeologiju. Zagreb: Zavod za informacijske studije. MAROŠEVIĆ, Grozdana "Folklorna glazba predmet etnomuzikologije: Koncepcije etnomuzikologije u Hrvatskoj u proteklom desetljeću". Arti musices 23: MAROŠEVIĆ, Grozdana "Prilog proučavanju putujućih glazbenika u Hrvatskoj". U: Glazba, ideje i društvo. Svečani zbornik za Ivana Supičića. S. Tuksar, ur. Zagreb: Hrvatsko muzikološko društvo: PETROVIĆ OSMAK, Željka "Katalog Zbirke glazbala" Zagreb: Etnografski muzej ŠIROLA, Božidar i Milovan GAVAZZI. 1931c. "Muzikološki rad Etnografskog muzeja u Zagrebu od osnutka do konca g " Narodna starina 10 (25): 3-20